Category: music

“The statistics offer an eloquent answer. In the 2014-2015 season, only 1.8 percent of the music performed by the top 22 American orchestras was by women, according to the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. For the coming season of 2019-2020, the Institute for Composer Diversity at the State University of New York has surveyed 40 American orchestras and seen a slightly better number of 6.5 percent — perhaps reflecting a degree of consciousness-raising in the past few years, as well as a larger pool of orchestras. Orchestras, obviously, are only one part of the classical music world, but these statistics reflect an ongoing underrepresentation of women in the field that increasingly, but slowly, some are trying to correct.” – Washington Post

As one fan puts it, he’s the “ghost of Lester Young.” The irony is that he’s not that well known outside the jazz world. Nevertheless, he has hundreds of fans in social media, particularly on YouTube. He’s the saxman’s saxman, particularly for aficionados of Bebop. Moreover, he’s playing somewhere most nights; at the Seahorse in Sausalito; in the city, at Bird and Beckett in Glen Park, or the Deluxe in the Haight; or the Backroom in Berkeley, or the Sound Room in Oakland. 

The year was 1966. “It seemed full of promise. Houston, the vibrant, growing city that had become the center of manned spaceflight and medicine, and André Previn, the wunderkind Oscar winner who toiled in the world of jazz and classical music.” Then came the drop in ticket sales, and the disastrous tour. – Houston Chronicle

Unbelievably, the run of Sonja Frisell’s grand, gaudy, beloved (and reviled for its length) Aida is coming to an end this week as the Met updates Aida to be sleeker and, yes, shorter. Zachary Woolfe of The New York Times is going to miss the old one: “I love the ridiculous too-much-ness of that moment, with extras circling back into the parade again and again in different costumes, trying to convince us that this really is a cast of thousands. I love the flickering torchlight emanating from the chamber where the priests judge Radamès. I love the starlit Nile Scene, and I love the smoky temple rituals.” – The New York Times

Jackson died in deep debt, but his estate is worried about the new HBO film that gives voice to two men who have long accused him (and who had also, at other times, given statements defending him) of molesting them when they were boys. And the estate isn’t taking the threat lightly. – The New York Times

The singer, perhaps most famous for being married to (and now famous for his alleged abuse of) Mandy Moore, or for re-creating a Taylor Swift album, faced requests for refunds from so many fans that his UK and Ireland tour got canceled, but only after those requests were initially denied. – Variety

Well, it’s really called “spalling” — chipping and splintering by the brick, concrete or other materials on the exterior of the handsome theater, the US’s oldest opera house, now owned by the Philadelphia Orchestra and the venue (these days) for touring musicals, the Pennsylvania Ballet, and Opera Philadelphia. Peter Dobrin explains why it’s happening and what’s being done. – The Philadelphia Inquirer

Last year, the headache for this world music festival was that performers were either denied UK visas or found the process of trying to get them too tortuous to deal with. This year, organizers say, in addition to that problem, artists are afraid they’ll get to the EU but won’t be allowed to cross the Channel. – The Guardian

Netflix is not in the business of selling individual movies to many different customers. Instead, it’s in the business of selling many different movies to individual customers—in bundles. Bundled subscriptions allow Netflix to practice a different kind of price discrimination from the movie studios. The company doesn’t have to figure out how much a consumer values any individual movie on the service. The bundle does that for them—very profitably. – Harvard Business Review

Once she understood the training that goes into distinguishing such voices, she began to fully appreciate the difference in acting styles from what the audience might expect in a non-musical. Opera’s bend towards high drama can only be conveyed through vocal ability, which deprioritizes Turner’s acting preference of a more natural technique. – The Observer