FEATURE
Hundreds of Artists Call on N.E.A. to Roll Back Trump’s Restrictions
New York Times: Michael Paulson
A letter signed by 463 playwrights, poets, dancers, visual artists and others pushes back against new grant requirements that bar the promotion of diversity or “gender ideology.”
RESEARCH AND OPINION
Why Is an Entire Age of American Opera Missing at the Met?
New York Times: Joshua Barone
A concert performance of “Vanessa” freshly argued for the vitality of a work that deserves to be staged but languishes with its midcentury peers.
Consider This: The Aphasia Choir
NPR: Erica Heilman and Noah Caldwell
There are at least two million people in America who have thoughts and ideas they can’t put into words. But music mostly originates in the undamaged hemisphere of the brain, and people with aphasia can often sing.
We have always used music to express our love – we can now use AI too
The Conversation: Hussein Boon
Suno’s Valentine’s Day Experience is a tool to create personalized love songs in response to a three-question prompt. Keenan Freyberg, one of Suno’s co-founders, noted that their generator is similar to a mixtape, a curated collection of songs that can reflect the compiler’s feelings and intentions.
From the Margins to the Mainstream: How the Synthesizer Conquered American Music
Literary Hub: David Hajdu
Ever since machines began to change the world, new mechanized or electronic ways of doing work and making art have redefined the methods that preceded them.
Arts Commentary: Art, Music, and the New Age of Anxiety
The Arts Fuse: Jonathan Blumhofer
However late the hour and however long the road ahead, the cause of standing for justice, knowledge, and freedom isn’t yet doomed. Along the way, let the arts comfort, inspire, instruct, and help lead. That’s what they’re here for.
High School Band Contests Turn Marching Into a Sport — and an Art
The New Yorker: Burkhard Bilger
Band kids today don’t just parade up and down the field playing fight songs. They flow across it in shifting tableaux, with elaborate themes and spandex-clad dancers.
NATIONAL
The Met Opera’s New Season: What We’re Excited to See
NY Times
The Times critics choose highlights from a lineup that includes six new productions and modern works by Mason Bates, Kaija Saariaho and Gabriela Lena Frank. The company will open the season in September with the New York City premiere of Mason Bates’s “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay,” an opera based on the 2000 novel of that name by Michael Chabon, which was first heard at Indiana University last fall.
Coming Soon to Trump’s Kennedy Center: A Celebration of Christ
NY Times: Javier C. Hernández and Michael Gold
Richard Grenell, the center’s new president, told a conservative gathering that the “big change” at the center would be a “huge celebration of the birth of Christ at Christmas.”
Confronted With Deficits, California and San Francisco Do Their Best for the Arts
Classical Voice: Janos Gereben
In Sacramento, the state’s Performing Arts Equitable Payroll Fund is set to launch this year with a $12.5 million budget, while funding to the California Arts Council (CAC) has continued with an annual reduction of “only” $5 million (instead of the proposed $10 million).
Stax Music Academy’s teen students mark 25th anniversary, Black History Month with concert
Associated Press: Adrian Sainz
The Memphis music studio where some of America’s most recognizable songs were recorded decades ago is now a museum. But next door, trumpets blare, drums boom, and singers craft the soulful sounds of Stax Records’ biggest hits.
Richmond Ballet returns to Virginia Museum of Fine Arts after 30 years after $5.3 million renovation
ABC News Richmond
Beginning on March 20, the Richmond Ballet will be relocating its repertory series, Moving Art, to the museum’s Leslie Cheek Theater after it has almost completed a $5.3 million renovation, according to a VMFA press release.
INTERNATIONAL
Paquita la del Barrio, Whose Songs Empowered Women, Dies at 77
New York Times: Jonathan Abrams
In unflinching ballads that spoke of the pain men can cause women, the Mexican singer often relied on what she learned in her own relationships.
Hindu devotional singing is having a moment
Associated Press: Richa Karmarkar
The winner of the 2025 Grammy Award for best new age, ambient or chant album — a category once dominated by Enya — was an album titled “Triveni,” meaning “the confluence of three rivers” in Sanskrit.
ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND MUSIC BUSINESS
New company beatBread launches Deal Comparison Tool for indie artists and labels
Music Business Worldwide: Murray Stassen
beatBread says it has paid advances to over 1,300 clients on six continents to date on existing catalogs as well as new and unreleased music. The platform’s funding amounts range from $1,000 to over $10 million.
‘Betrayed by the system’: Chappell Roan sparks debate over pay and healthcare in pop
The Guardian: Shaad D’Souza
The singer castigated record labels in her Grammys speech – but, as music industry insiders explain, issues around artist health and support run even deeper.
Golden State Warriors blend sports and music with new album from their groundbreaking record label
Associated Press: Jonathan Landrum Jr.
The Golden State Warriors are known for their electrifying plays and superstar Stephen Curry, but now the team is pioneering a fresh gameplan: blending sports and entertainment in a way no NBA franchise has before.
Pay to get playlisted? The accusations against Spotify’s Discovery Mode
The Guardian: Liz Pelly
Discovery Mode gets artists noticed in exchange for a 30% royalty reduction. A new book suggests that the platform is squeezing musicians and misleading listeners.
OFF THE BEATEN PATH
Needle drop! The world’s first sewing machine orchestra takes Munich
The Guardian: Aida Baghernejad
This weekend, a symphony of Singers (not that kind) will lead an experimental performance that stitches together feminism and fashion – and offers the audience free repairs.
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