FEATURE: AIMING FOR NEW BEGINNING IN 2021
The Fall of Autumn: Live Performance Producers Are Giving Up on 2020
NY Times: Michael Paulson, Joshua Barone, Ben Sisario and Zachary Woolfe
Even as reopened barbershops, beaches and bookstores herald the resumption of economic life across America, concert promoters, theater presenters, orchestras and dance companies are ripping up their 2020 calendars and hoping 2021 will mark a new beginning.
RESEARCH AND OPINION
Mark, My Words: Brexit will kill Britain’s reputation as the world’s music mecca
NME: Mark Beaumont
The British government recently announced that acts wishing to play in the UK post-Brexit must not only pay for visas for each member at around £240 a pop, but also prove they have savings of around £1000 before they’re allowed in.
‘Just four notes’: ‘Taps’ helps listeners remember the meaning of Memorial Day
The Republic: Julie McClure
While many people might think it is a simple piece of music, it’s weight and poignancy has spoken to the trumpet players who perform it. Eddie Ludema, an IU alumus and student of John Rommel is interviewed in this article.
Emotional Concerts in the Void
New Yorker: Alex Ross
They document, with the oblique power that the arts possess, an extraordinary human phase in history. Their mere existence is bracing, and at times they achieve startling power.
Four Composers Speak on Surviving Crises
21CM: Lara Pellegrinelli
Sarah Kirkland Snider, John Corigliano, Vijay Iyer, Tania León
What will change when concerts and festivals return? Everything
The San Diego Union-Tribune
Reduced seating capacities, temperature checks, face masks and social distancing, on stage and off. It won’t be the same old song and dance
Study shows ‘no increased risk to orchestral musicians’ from concerts
The Strad
The experiment, commissioned by the Vienna Philharmonic, examined the movement of musicians’ breath while performing.
In COVID-19 pandemic, choral music may be too risky for a very long while.
The Philadelphia Inquirer: Peter Dobrin
One in six Americans over age 18 sings in a chorus, according to Chorus America, and if any of them were looking for a glimmer of good news in a recent webinar assembled by that advocacy group and others, their hopes were likely dashed.
Coronavirus Might Kill The Music Industry. Maybe It Needed To Die
Esquire Magazine: William Ralston
Venues, festivals and musicians face a precarious future, but could Covid-19 be a catalyst for reform in an industry that seriously undervalues its artists?
Pondering The Future of The Arts – If They Have One
Art & Seek: Jerome Weeks
A new study from SMU projects a loss of $6.8 billion to the U.S. economy – from the devastating effects of the pandemic on American museums, theaters, music ensembles and dance companies.
Australia’s arts festivals have been cut off from the world. It’s an opportunity to take stock
The Guardian: Walter Marsh
As the sector reels from border and venue closures, festivals have a chance – and perhaps a duty – to champion local work
Copyright bots and classical musicians are fighting online. The bots are winning.
The Washington Post: Michael Andor Brodeur
These systems aren’t just disrupting the relationships between classical organizations and their audiences; they’re also impacting individual musicians trying to stay musically present — and financially afloat — during the crisis.
The Unexpected Solace in Learning to Play Piano
NY Times: Christoph Niemann
Enjoy this wonderful illustrated story of reconnecting to the piano and learning classical music.
NATIONAL
A Philip Glass Score Was Lost. 50 Years Later, Here It Is.
NY Times: Joshua Barone
“Music in Eight Parts” has finally been reconstructed and recorded.
How a Pianist Salvaged His Lost Carnegie Hall Debut
NY Times: Joshua Barone
Once the coronavirus pandemic canceled concerts around the world, Timo Andres decided to reconstruct his recital as a series of YouTube videos.
What does the coronavirus sound like? Classical music composers answer with strings … and screams
The Philadelphia Inquirer: David Patrick Stearns
The keep-your-spirits-up message that circulated early on in the classical music community has given way to something darker, no doubt coming from the mounting uncertainty whether institutions that once fostered artistic work will survive at all.
Beth Morrison: 21st-Century Opera’s Midwife
SF Classical Voice: Victoria Looseleaf
The Wall Street Journal dubbed her a “modern-day Diaghilev,” while Opera News’ Henry Stewart wrote that, “more than any other figure in the opera industry, Beth Morrison has helped propel the art form into the 21st century.”
INTERNATIONAL
Igor Levit’s Twitter Concerts Became an Artistic Lifesaver
The Guardian: Fiona Maddocks
When Europe went into lockdown against Covid-19 in mid-March, Levit embarked on a series of 52 consecutive evening recitals on Twitter from his Berlin home. They became a global internet sensation.
Muti to conduct classical music’s return to Italian stage
Associated Press: Colleen Barry
Riccardo Muti will conduct a youth orchestra in an open-air concert launching the annual Ravenna Festival next month in what organizers billed Friday as Italy’s first live classical music performance since its strict lockdown to stop the spread of coronavirus.
A German Audience Comes Out of Lockdown for Schubert and Mahler
NY Times: Jack Ewing
Concertgoers were required to wear face coverings to the theater, though they were allowed to remove them once seated. The theater recorded everyone’s name and address, so they could be contacted later in case someone turned out to be infected.
Finally, a Stage for Female Composers From Iran
NY Times: Ryan Ebright
The founders of the Iranian Female Composers Association focus on programming, commissioning and mentorship.
Mory Kante, Million-Selling African Singer and Bandleader, Dies at 70
NY Times: Jon Pareles
Incorporating electric instruments and elements of Western pop, he gave many Western listeners an accessible introduction to African music.
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Live music is merging with video games – and giving us a glimpse of the future
GQ Magazine: Sam White
As the technology matures, artists will likely push for more creativity within their in-game concerts in order to ramp up hype for future outings.
OFF THE BEATEN TRAIL
Coronavirus: The Bolivian orchestra stranded in a German castle
BBC: Oliver Barnes
As the musicians, some of whom are as young as 17, touched down in Germany on 10 March for their tour, news broke that Berlin had become the seventh German region to impose a ban on gatherings of 1,000 people or more in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
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