Category: music

It’s the same one that makes Kendrick Lamar’s soundtrack for Black Panther less than ideal, but it’s even more glaring for a film inspired by the geography and culture of Kenya and other East African countries. “What’s … notable, though, is what the album lacks—namely, even a single song from an East African artist.”- The Atlantic

The patients in the trial were either given the drug midazolam or played the song Weightless by UK band Marconi Union for three minutes, while having an anaesthetic to numb a region of the body. – BBC

Anne Midgette: “I often talk about the way the classical-music world tends to conflate institutions with the art form. When an orchestra closes, it’s seen as an assault on Beethoven and Brahms. By contrast, when a restaurant closes or a car company goes bankrupt, people may bitterly bemoan it, but they don’t see it as a threat to food, nor do they think that cars are endangered.” – Washington Post

Ambient is often as haunting and uncanny as it is gorgeous. But the idea of music that eschews gestural rhetoric—there are no statements, no returns, no developments—is still highly experimental, avant-garde territory in the current state of the classical tradition. – Van

Luisi, music director of the Zurich Opera House and former principal conductor of the Metropolitan Opera, only took up the post (one created for him) at the Tuscan music festival-cum-opera house in April of last year. He’s leaving, one year into a five-year contract term, as a result of one of the political power struggles that seem to afflict Italian cultural institutions regularly. – Musical America

“Zohra, a 35-member orchestra, performed at a concert on July 13 at the Pohoda Festival in the [Slovakian] town of Trencin … Four members went missing from their hotel on July 14, police said.” – Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Christopher Mattaliano, who was hired as general director in 2003, will instead become an artistic consultant for the opera company, starting with the upcoming 2019-20 season. Effective immediately, Sue Dixon, Portland Opera’s current director of external affairs, will step in as interim general director. – Portland Mercury

“The audit, conducted by SC&H Group and dated July 15, … suggests that the arts group is in such grave financial straits that neither the legislated cash infusion from the state nor the reduced expense of a shortened season might be enough to save it.” – The Baltimore Sun

City officials in West Palm Beach, Florida have been playing an endless loop of the songs “Baby Shark” and “Raining Tacos” to drive away a group of homeless people who’d been camping on the patio of a banquet hall. “The city has previously attempted to use classical music to deter drug dealers, but the unit powering the speakers was smashed.” – The Guardian

Basically – burnout. The need to be on all the time. It’s not just performances, it’s the living life in public on social media, creating a persona and constantly interacting with a public you hope you have. – BBC