Jeanine Tesori and Tazewell Thompson’s Blue is about a black police officer whose son is shot by a white colleague. Jazz trumpeter/composer Terence Blanchard and librettist Kasi Lemmons have adapted New York Times columnist Charles Blow’s memoir, Fire Shut Up in My Bones. And The Central Park Five has a text by Richard Wesley and a score by Anthony Davis, arguably the dean of America’s black composers. And those are just the pieces premiering this summer. – The New York Times
Category: music
Baltimore Symphony Management Cancels All Summer Concerts; Lockout Begins June 17
The musicians have been playing without a contract since mid-January, and the main issue in negotiations has been whether to shorten the orchestra’s annual season to 40 weeks from 52, which management says there is not enough money to maintain. CEO Peter Kjome has now made that decision unilaterally, and, after the subscription concert on June 16, will not pay musicians again until September. – The Baltimore Sun
Is iTunes Headed For The Retirement Home?
iTunes had a good run, there’s no denying it. But it’s time for the world to move on. If Apple actually moves forward with its rumored iTunes plans, life could be significantly easier for those who have suffered with the tedious, poorly optimized app for years. – Mashable
Playwright Lynn Nottage Has Written An Opera For The Met And Lincoln Center
The two-time Pulitzer winner (for Ruined and Sweat) adapted her 2004 play Intimate Apparel into a chamber opera with a score by Ricky Ian Gordon (The Grapes of Wrath). The piece, part of the joint commissioning project by the Metropolitan Opera and Lincoln Center Theater launched in 2006, will premiere late next February on the smaller of LCT’s two stages. – The New York Times
Disgraced Conductor Daniele Gatti Gets Second Big Post In Italy, At Abbado’s Orchestra Mozart
The 57-year-old Gatti, fired from Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra last year for sexual misconduct, has been named chief conductor of the Bologna-based chamber orchestra founded by Claudio Abbado in 2004. Last December, he was appointed music director of Rome’s opera house, and earlier this month he was hired to conduct a brand-new orchestra in Milan called LaFil. – The Violin Channel
How Many Artists Does It Take To Write A Hit Song? (Apparently More Than It Used To)
According to research by Music Week, it took an average of 5.34 people to write last year’s Top 100 biggest singles. That’s up from 4.84 in 2017, and 4.53 the year before. So what’s going on? – BBC
How The New Orleans Jazz Market Survived A Scandal And Rose Again
“Most organizations probably would have went under and failed,” the drummer Adonis Rose, a charter member of the orchestra who took over as artistic director after the scandal broke, said in an interview last month. “Thankfully, we did not.” – The New York Times
For The First Time, Meredith Monk Allows Another Director To Stage Her Work
Says Yuval Sharon, who’s directing a revival of ATLAS for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, “It’s a big deal to me, and it’s a very big deal to Meredith. It’s a huge risk on one hand, but I feel it’s coming at a really important moment. The transference of her ideas is central to who she is and how she works.” – San Francisco Classical Voice
Gerard Schwarz Named Music Director Of Palm Beach Symphony
The 71-year-old conductor, formerly music director of the Seattle Symphony, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, and the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center, will take over in Palm Beach this fall. He has also accepted a faculty appointment at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music. – South Florida Sun Sentinel
The Rehabilitation Of Antonio Salieri (Modestly)
“Two centuries of calumny have created sympathy for the musical devil: I found Salieri’s grave festooned with bouquets. These were evidence that the man and his music are enjoying a modest comeback.” – The New Yorker