Category: music

“They’re moving us to a swamp, with no opportunity to grow our vision,” said Sami Scott, who helped organize a petition drive against the orchestra’s proposal. That petition has accumulated 300-plus signatures. – Sarasota Herald Tribune

While music directors usually stay silent about orchestras’ labor-management disputes, Muti said to the assembled media, “I am here with my musicians. … We try to get a better situation for their life, their pension, their work. Some people, they want to read my position with the musicians as against the board. This is not true. I would just like them to listen more carefully to the musicians, who represent one of the great orchestras of the world.” – Chicago Tribune

“About six months ahead of expiration of the current labor contract between the Philadelphia Orchestra Association and its players, the two sides have reached an agreement on a pact that keeps the peace for the next four years.” (Yannick, left, is very relieved.) – The Philadelphia Inquirer

“Music was really profitable for convents: it brought in money from the community, donating to hear mass on their behalf, while a great musical reputation brought in girls of higher status and wealth.” Cloistered life meant choirs sang together for many years, and while only aristocrats could hear the chapel choirs of royals and nobles, while anyone could listen to convent services — so the best nuns’ choirs became genuine tourist attractions. – Bachtrack

There’s a big difference between no-platforming and not promoting. I know that’s obvious, but it feels like this distinction isn’t stressed enough in debates about free speech. Spotify was right to remove Kelly from its featured playlists because that equals promotion. And it was right not to ban his songs altogether because that gets you into really dangerous territory: it turns the likes of Spotify into a moral arbiter and opens up a can of worms about who deserves to be banned next. – The Guardian

“Yotam Haber is an established composer and pianist, an assistant professor at the University of New Orleans, a former artistic director of New York’s MATA festival and winner of a Guggenheim fellowship and a Koussevitzky Foundation commission, among many other honors and awards. Since childhood, though, he has had another dream: to race sled dogs in Alaska. Last week, Haber’s dream came true” — but at quite a cost. – The Washington Post

The show that night was billed as the Thelonious Monk Trio. Monk, 35, was already a prolific composer and piano innovator, yet it would take a decade for his brilliance to be fully appreciated by mainstream America. The trio was rounded out by Charles Mingus, 31, on standup bass and the youngster Roy Haynes, a 28-year-old hotshot drummer everyone called “Snap Crackle.” – The New York Times

For the past two years, withdrawals from the endowment reached 9 percent: Shilvock said that trend cannot continue and deficits must be controlled: “To bring expenses into line with realistic revenues, we determined that expense budgets need to be reduced by $5M per year, and that we cannot affect our core mission: [presenting] compelling, inspiring opera at the highest level of excellence.” – San Francisco Classical Voice

It’s Brexit Week (or maybe it isn’t; find out as the week goes on), so here are some artists to help add music to politics: “We could call this explosion ‘woke’ folk – though there’s much more to this disparate collection of acts than a slogan. … They sing in recognisable voices, without varnish and sheen, delivering messages straight and sure about who we were, and who we are now.” – The Observer (UK)