FEATURE: BATTLE HYMNS
From Founders To Today, Protest Music Is American Music
OPB: Claudia Meza
From “Yankee Doodle” being sung back in defiance at the British soldiers who originally wrote it to ridicule the American Revolution, to the spirituals sung in fields, unifying and fortifying the voices of a people denied their own native languages, people who had been brought to a strange land to survive an insurmountable weight of violence: Protest music is American music.
RESEARCH AND OPINION
Reflections on Segregation and Representation in Choral Music
New Music Box: Fahad Siadat
Choral music has unique diversity issues that are more subtle than those in the instrumental world.
Farewell to the Duke
Stacks Reader: Ralph J. Gleason Rolling Stone July 4, 1974
Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington composed approximately 3000 original works, many of them portraits of leading black artists, members of his own orchestra, friends and lovers and many others, and tonal histories of black people in America.
My Journey to Writing an Opera About Police Violence
The New York Times: Tazewell Thompson
Tazewell Thompson’s libretto for “Blue” tells the story of a black family struck by tragedy.
Stravinsky & Jazz: Yes, Even Classical Music Is Influenced by Black American Forms
Sound Fly: Filippo Faustini
In the past century, many composers started purposely looking, with great curiosity, to the music of other world cultures for clear and direct influence on their own compositional toolboxes, from the Gamelan traditions of Indonesia to the polyrhythmic complexities of West Africa and early forms of American jazz.
Wind Instrument Aerosol in Covid Era – COVID-19 and horns, trumpets, trombones, euphoniums, tubas, recorders, flutes, oboes, clarinets, saxophones and bassoons
U Iowa: Henry Hoffman
It is vitally important to be clear about the current uncertainties in COVID-19 risk assessment for the wind instrumentalist.
World spends to protect culture from economic ruin
The Guardian
From Italy to Madagascar, funding is in place to try to preserve the arts sector by supporting actors, musicians and other cultural workers.
Arts and Culture Planning 2020 Comeback
TRG Arts
A study across three countries reveals optimism for an autumn return to performances in primary performance spaces after shutdowns caused by the global COVID-19 pandemic. Nearly Two-Thirds Of U.S. Arts Groups Surveyed Expect To Resume Performances By End Of 2020 (Brits Aren’t So Optimistic)
The future of the arts: ‘The classical music world has been transfigured’
The Guardian: Fionna Maddocks
A discussion with performers, conductors and composers who long for the return of communal music-making.
So You Want to Be a Socially Distanced Orchestra
The New York Times
Here is music that could safely be played by a reduced symphonic ensemble.
Why Satie? Why now? How one composer embodies our time of loneliness and angst
Los Angeles Times: Mark Swed
Safe at home this spring has not necessarily meant sane at home. One antidote is a mega-dose of Erik Satie.
NATIONAL
American Pianists Association Awards $50,000 To All Five 2021 Finalists
The Violin Channel
The American Pianists Association will award each of the five 2021 American Pianist Awards finalists a cash prize of US $50,000 – to aid with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bassist Xavier Foley, 25 – Avery Fisher Career Grant Recipient
The Violin Channel
25-year-old African-American double bassist Xavier Foley is quickly building an international reputation as an emerging young concert artist of outstanding potential.
Miró Quartet to perform complete Beethoven String Quartets in twelve livestreamed concerts
The Strad
The Texas-based quartet will present their series from 16 July to 8 August.
New Boutique Artist Management Agency Launched Today in New York
The Violin Channel
New York-based artist manager Martin Wittenberg has today launched Wittenberg Artists – with its inaugural roster to include violinist, VC Artist Stella Chen.
Hit Hard By COVID Cutbacks, The Dallas Opera’s Still A Big Deal – On Facebook
Art and Seek
In a recent week, the Met put up 21 posts on Facebook, many of them live-streamed, fully staged operas. They’re very expensive productions to stage, and expensive to stream. That week, the Met received around 150,000 total engagements. ‘Engagements’ means people who viewed, commented on or shared the posts.
SF Ballet announces details of 2021 season with hope and a bit of uncertainty
Datebook: Joshua Kosman
San Francisco Ballet To Go Ahead With 2021 Winter Season, And Maybe Even 2020 ‘Nutcracker’
No ‘Nutcracker’ This Year, New York City Ballet Says
NY Times: Julia Jacobs
City Ballet is canceling its fall season as well as its five-week run of “George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker,” a major source of funding for the company.
Houston Symphony Orchestra Has Today Laid Off 21 Staff Members
The Violin Channel
The Houston Symphony has announced the layoff of 21 full-time and part-time staff members – due to the ongoing economic effects of the Coronavirus pandemic.
Pittsburgh Symphony Announces New Section Violinist
The Violin Channel
The Pittsburgh Symphony has announced the appointment of South Korean violinist Yeokyung Kim to the ensemble’s violin section.
Carnegie Hall cancels rest of 2020 performances
The Strad
The New York venue has cancelled all performances until 7 January 2021.
INTERNATIONAL
Music From the Death Camps: Alive and Being Readied for a New Home
NY Times: Milton Esterow
With the help of the Italian government, and others, a musician is working to build a home for an archive of works composed in Nazi concentration camps.
Immersive theatre and drive-in gigs lead way for return of UK performing arts
The Guardian: Lanre Bakare
Physical distancing rules prompt companies to find innovative ways for the show to go on
England’s Birmingham Opera Announces New Music Director
The Violin Channel
The Birmingham Opera Company has announced the appointment of American conductor Alpesh Chauhan as its new Music Director.
Hong Kong Philharmonic Extends Music Director Jaap van Zweden To 2024
The Violin Channel
The Hong Kong Philharmonic has announced the contract extension of Music Director Jaap van Zweden – through until 2024.
Prizes Awarded at Armenia’s 2020 Online Khachaturian Violin Competition
The Violin Channel
19-year-old VC Young Artist Diana Adamyan has been awarded 1st prize at the 2020 Khachaturian International Violin Competition.
The Orchestre de Paris names its next Music Director
Gramophone
Klaus Mäkelä to succeed Daniel Harding.
Concert restrictions eased in Bavaria and Saxony
The Strad
Jan Vogler’s Moritzburg Festival is among events to go ahead, with all performances in the open air.
Czech Philharmonic to perform in open-air concert for audience of 500
The Strad
The orchestra will perform in the grounds of Sychrov Castle, just outside Prague, under music director Semyon Bychkov on 24 June.
Beethoven rides high in German classical charts
The Strad
Works by the composer claim four out of the five top spots, including number one.
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Kentucky philanthropist launches ambitious arts hub and ‘incubator’ in the Appalachian mountains
The Art Newspaper: Hilarie M. Sheets
Entrepreneur and contemporary art collector Brook Smith plans to turn former coal-mining region into a “cultural destination”
A Musician Finds It Takes Some Pluck To Teach Harp Online
WBUR
In the isolation of the pandemic, many people are picking up musical instruments. There’s time for it.
OFF THE BEATEN TRAIL
Twelve-Tone TV Commercial [CLASSICAL LOL]
The Violin Channel
Produced by Robert Conrad, the founder of the WCLV Classical Radio in Cleveland in 1977, introducing the 187 all-time greatest hits from the beloved Twelve-tone masterpieces.
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