West Virginia Symphony Names Lawrence Loh Music Director

“The new conductor comes to the WVSO from Pennsylvania (he and his family live in New York), where he serves as the music director of the Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic. He’s also the music director of Symphoria, founded by former members of the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra, and is the artistic director and principal conductor for the Syracuse Opera.”

Baltimore Book Festival Cancels Rachel Dolezal Appearance After Protests

“A top priority of the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts is to listen to our constituents, and after hearing from a cross-section of opinions on having Rachel Dolezal participate in this year’s festival, we had to consider how her appearance may affect both the audience and the other extraordinary authors we have planned for the Baltimore Book Festival. For that reason, we believe it would be appropriate to remove Ms. Dolezal from the festival line up.”

How The Right Sound Effect Can Transform A Movie Scene

“This video from The Royal Ocean Film Society makes a compelling case that sound is every bit as important as picture in cinema. … ‘Storytelling With Sound’ lays out some of the ways audio makes films better, and includes an interview with one of the masters: Ben Burtt, the brilliant sound designer behind the Star Wars saga who gave us R2-D2. He’s also the voice of Wall-E.”

How On Earth Do You Notate A Meredith Monk Piece And Teach It To A New Group Of Musicians? She And They Are Figuring That Out

“In the 1970s and ’80s, when current classics like Dolmen Music were new, they weren’t written down, at least not in a form even close to complete. Ms. Monk and her group were too busy singing them – living them, you could say – to sit and score them. It’s only in the past 15 years or so that Ms. Monk has turned some of her attention to preserving the pieces that she wants to survive her.”

Report From Mongolia: What Has The Philadelphia Orchestra Gotten Itself Into?

“Coming in for a landing at Genghis Khan Airport this week, a group of Philadelphia Orchestra musicians will be literally dropped into a parallel world where familiarity feels eerie and the exotic is oddly reassuring.” David Patrick Stearns sets the scene for us in Ulaanbaatar, where a reduced group of the Fabulous Philadelphians is giving performances and workshops this week.