Category: music

In Budapest, Deaf and other hard of hearing adults and children use touch to experience Beethoven’s Fifth. One of them said, “Here, when the string instruments all sound, that gives a very good vibration. It is not a coincidence that he wrote this kind of music.” – Reuters

Nowhere else in North America can you find two symphony orchestras (as opposed to chamber orchestras) with touring schedules and substantial discographies led by conductors of international repute. Both enjoy government and corporate support. And if they attract different audiences, this dynamic can be taken as complementary rather than adversarial. – Montreal Gazette

“When grief loosens its hold, you return to the world you once knew, only to find it transformed by the thing that is missing; when, at the end of the Goldberg Variations, Bach repeats the aria with which it began, it is utterly transfigured. It is like the river in which one can never step foot twice, and Bach seems to say: ‘You’ve never heard this thing you think you know so well’.” – Van

Musicologist Doug Shadle introduces his new blog/newsletter by suggesting that both the professional concert ecosystem and conservatory education can’t modernize, as everyone seems to think they should, because of “nineteenth-century elitism designed to exclude and punish rather than help students thrive. These values are so pervasive that we often can’t see them for what they are.” – The Classical Alternative

A native of Syracuse, New York, and graduate of Marquette University, Kot worked for the Quad City Times in Davenport, Iowa, before joining the Tribune as a copy editor in 1980. Ten years later he was promoted to music critic and quickly established his reputation as a trusted and insightful writer on popular music across many genres. – Robert Feder

In proposed changes, the classical station will lose its FM frequency, all its presenters, interviews and live programmes. Playout of recordings will only continue as a fully automated playlist on a digital stream and AM frequencies. Under the plans, New Zealand will have no longer have a live-presented radio station dedicated to classical music. – ClassicFM

“One of the big things that we’re trying to do this season,“ Chief Executive Chad Smith said, “is really advance this idea that Gustavo has been initiating for so long, which is to shift the musical center of gravity for our art form further west and further south. We come from an art form which historically was European and largely male. How do we, over time, change that?“ – Los Angeles Times