FEATURE
Is AI Ruining Music?
TED: Dustin Ballard
What makes music “real” — is it the instruments, the voice, the creator’s intention or something else entirely? Dustin Ballard, the creative force behind the viral channel “There I Ruined It,” explores the weird, wonderful and sometimes unsettling ways AI is reshaping music. With fiddle solos and AI-powered mashups of your favorite songs, he invites us to ask: Are new tools fostering creativity, or just making noise?
AI-Generated Music for Everyone
The Wallstreet Journal: Belle Lin
Startup ElevenLabs said it has launched a new service called Eleven Music that lets individuals and businesses generate their own music with its artificial intelligence model.
RESEARCH AND OPINION
As Younger Listeners Turn To Podcasts, They’re Tuning Out AM/FM Radio. That’s Bad News For Legacy Media
Billboard: Glenn Peoples
Among listeners aged 13 to 34, spoken word audio now accounts for as much listening time as AM/FM radio — a dramatic shift from a decade ago.
As queer male representation in ballet soars, queer female representation stays firmly on the ground
Gramilano: Lily Hyde
Ballet has long served as a haven for queer people. From composers such as Pyotr Tchaikovsky to choreographers like Frederick Ashton and Jerome Robbins, impresarios like Sergei Diaghilev, and, of course, dancers like Vaslav Nijinsky and Rudolf Nureyev, the art form would not exist as it does today without its queer contributors.
Gullah Geechee elders work to preserve sacred songs passed down by enslaved ancestors
AP: Luis Andres Henao
The show highlighted Gullah contributions during the American Revolution, including rice farming and indigo dying expertise. At the theater entrance, vendors offered Gullah rice dishes and demonstrated how to weave sweetgrass into baskets.
The Record Label That Reset My Expectations for Classical Music
New York Times: David Weininger
For 40 years, ECM New Series has been a product of its founder’s vision and an indispensable part of the recording landscape.
The Musician Bringing the Bagpipes Into the Avant-Garde
The New Yorker: Elena Saavedra Buckley
“There’s a lot of references in folklore to, when you play the pipes, people ‘missing their days’ because they’ve been off playing pipes with the fairies,” she said. “You think twenty minutes have gone past, but it’s been a year.” It’s a neat, psychedelic metaphor for a musician’s quest to lure tradition into the present.
For the Love of Gil Evans
Downbeat: Ted Panken
“I love this music, I love Gil and his family, and I love the place that fate or whatever has positioned me in his life and legacy. I’m very proud of what I’ve done and continue to do with Gil’s music. I also love being able to write my own music. But it’s hard for me to sit at home and think about me all day long. It’s not fun. Ultimately, I love being in a collaborative setting.”
Lesley Mok & Phillip Golub Listen with an Ear for Form
Downbeat: Stephanie Jones
Over the next three years, Mok and Golub honed a duo sound that would become Dream Brigade. Its elements would shift and renew, giving way to their self-titled March release on Infrequent Seams. What they uncovered through these explorations, among many discoveries and surprises, was an ability to expand their individual instincts, together.
NATIONAL
Brooklyn Rider Still Has More to Say With the String Quartet
NY Times: Joshua Barone
The group is celebrating its 20th-anniversary season with a series of concerts that look back, one player says, “with a lot of forward motion.”
Lidiya Yankovskaya, formerly of Chicago Opera Theater, joins growing list of classical musicians leaving U.S.
WBEZ Chicago: Hannah Edgar
Yankovskaya says cultural institutions abroad are supported by a robust public funding apparatus — a starker contrast than ever to the U.S., where the Trump administration is moving to curtail federal investments in the arts.
The New Artist Director of Brookyln Symphony Orchestra from Mexico, Felipe Tristan
OperaWire: David Salazar
“Brooklyn is a place of ideas, creativity, community, and all around one of the hippest places on earth,” Tristan noted per an official press release. “I want the BSO to reflect that, to be a space where we celebrate the classical canon but also innovate and experiment, and where we help redefine what a symphony orchestra is today. Together, we will aim to elevate the level of the orchestra to make it a reference point in the U.S. and an ambassador for Brooklyn’s artistic energy worldwide.”
Constantine Orbelian on the New York City Opera, Dmitri Hvorostovsky & Future Albums
OperaWire: Francisco Salazar
In 2024, the New York City Opera named Constantine Orbelian the Executive Director of the company while still continuing as the Music Director. The company has gone through a series of challenges since it reopened in 2016 and has not had a linear season.
Damien Geter named Music Director of Portland Opera
pizzicato
45-year-old American Damien Geter, composer-in-residence at the Richmond Symphony, has been named Music director of Oregon’s Portland Opera. Geter had already been serving as the artistic advisor and interim music director.
“Frictionless Patron Screening” Is Coming to SF War Memorial Opera House and Davies Symphony Hall
San Francisco Classical Voice: Janos Gereben
The San Francisco War Memorial & Performing Arts Center (WMPAC), the organization that runs the theaters and concert halls in San Francisco’s Civic Center, will add a new screening technology to check for weapons upon entering the War Memorial Opera House and Davies Symphony Hall. The invisible technology system provided by Evolv Express is set to be implemented this September.
INTERNATIONAL
UK’s Royal Ballet and Opera withdraws Tosca production in Tel Aviv
The Guardian: Nadia Khomami
The signatories highlighted the RBO’s recent hiring out of its production of Turandot to the Israeli Opera. “The decision cannot be viewed as neutral,” they said. “It is a deliberate alignment, materially and symbolically, with a government currently engaged in crimes against humanity.
British opera company pulls performance in Israel after staff backlash
CNN World: Christian Edwards
The Royal Ballet and Opera (RBO), one of Britain’s most prestigious arts institutions, has canceled its planned production of “Tosca” in Israel after a widespread staff backlash.
Salzburg Festival Names Christian Blex Winner of the 2025 Herbert von Karajan Young Conductors Award
OperaWire: Afton Markay
Christian Blex has won the 2025 Herbert von Karajan Young Conductors Award at the Salzburg Festival. The international jury, chaired by Manfred Honeck, selected Blex to take home the 15,000 € prize. Blex will also be conducting a Festival concert with the ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna. This concert will be recorded and released on CD as part of the series Salzburg Festival Documents.
ENTREPRENEURSHIP & BUSINESS
How data-driven tools are changing the way artists and labels finance their businesses
Music Ally in collaboration with beatBread
The recently released Deal Comparison Tool allows users to weigh offers from distributors, major labels, and finance companies side-by-side — revealing how deals are likely to play out across multiple performance scenarios.
The Music Business Is Splitting in Two. Here’s Why Songwriters Are Reinventing Their Role
MIDiA: Tatiana Cirisano
A growing number are realizing that they will never earn meaningful income from streaming, nor is it a particularly fruitful place to build and connect with fans. Yet rather than continuing to complain that the system does not work for them, they are building new ones – often in the form of business models that do not rely on royalties, such as YouTube channels and merch brands.
Rauw Alejandro’s Choreographer Suing ‘Fortnite’ Over Allegedly Stealing His Dance
Vice: Stephen Andrew Galiher
Over the years, Fortnite has found itself in hot water for adding in-character dances that bear striking similarity to ones created by professional dancers, and it’s happening yet again. Felix Burgos is suing the video game over alleged theft of a dance he choreographed for Puerto Rican singer Rauw Alejandro’s 2024 song “Touching The Sky.”
Sony Music sues Napster over $9.2M in alleged unpaid royalties, up to $37.5M in copyright claims
Music Business Worldwide: Mandy Dalugdud
Sony Music Entertainment has sued Napster alleging that the streaming service owes more than $9.2 million in unpaid royalties and licensing fees, while seeking damages of as much as $37.5 million for copyright infringement.
OFF THE BEATEN TRAIL
Frank Sinatra’s 1960s Collabs With Count Basie & Duke Ellington To Be Reissued
Billboard: Paul Grein
Frank Sinatra had his biggest hit single of the 1960s with “Somethin’ Stupid,” a light pop duet with his daughter Nancy Sinatra that topped the Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks in 1967. But he also recorded full-length albums in that era with two certified jazz legends — Count Basie and Duke Ellington.
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