Category: music

“Double-digit increases in income from ticket sales – which grew 19% to £44.2 million – and fundraising (a 10% lift to £26.5 million) accounted for more than half (56%) of all earnings. Funding of £29 million from Arts Council England saw its contribution to overall income decreasing 1% to 23% of the total.”

“They just got rid of the guys who have all the histories of thousands of artists in their heads. That’s like letting go the intent of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.”

“Soloists are capable of remembering a tremendous amount of information based on several, mostly inexplicable and un-researched, mnemonic applications. Concert pianists, for example, can perform a 45 minute piece with 30,000 individual notes, that have to be performed in an absolutely particular order, with rhythmical and dynamic variability, passionately creating an emotional and formal narrative, from memory, live on stage.”

Many small and mid-sized labels had protested Apple’s free trial. “Collectively, the protesting labels – which included Beggars Group, home to Adele and Britain’s largest indie – represented about a quarter of the global market. Not to have Swift’s album 1989 on Apple Music, when it launches at the end of the month, is one thing; to be missing tens of millions of songs from independent acts is a whole other matter.”

– a 32-year-old soprano from Belarus. The Audience Prize went to a 29-year-old Mongolian. Obscure? Not for long.

“Simone is striking posthumous gold as the inspiration for three films and a star-studded tribute album, and she was name-dropped in John Legend’s Oscar acceptance speech for best song. This flurry comes on the heels of a decade-long resurgence: two biographies, a poetry collection, several plays, and the sampling of her signature haunting contralto by hip-hop performers including Jay Z, the Roots and, most relentlessly, Kanye West. Fifty years after her prominence, Nina Simone is now reaching her peak.”

Kiril Petrenko “is best-known for his work in the opera pit; he spent five years at the helm of the Berlin Komische Oper, and has been general music director of the Bavarian State Opera since 2013.”

“Apple says it’s bowing to concerns raised by pop superstar Taylor Swift. The giant tech company now plans to pay royalties to artists and record labels during a free, three-month trial of its new streaming music service.”

“Hundreds of fluorescent light bulbs are hung in a gallery and parking garage, each one a physical representation of a single music note’s length and pitch. When a note is struck, its light, shadows, glows and reflections are rendered, creating a surprisingly life-like experience.”

“His goal is to bridge the gap between pop and classical music, recontextualize the classical repertoire, and provide an entree to classical music for pop fans — and to pop music for classical music lovers.”