Back in 2020, in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, American arts organizations hustled to send out proclamations about diversity, equity, and inclusion. In the musical world, pressure had been building for some time to program more living, nonmale, and nonwhite composers. In 2016, for example, volunteers at the State University of New York at […]

▶ Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube 5. Martina McBride: “Independence Day” Like Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.,” Martina McBride’s 1993 song has often been misunderstood and misplaced as a patriotic anthem. It was written from the perspective of a daughter whose mother suffered at the hands of an abusive husband before ultimately finding […]

In 2021, Marlene Brüggen, a concert planner in Germany, was listening to an episode of the podcast “Herrengedeck” and heard about a pop music festival with gender parity woven into its programming. The next day, she looked at her own festival’s planning chart, with some 200 concerts. Women were seriously underrepresented. “We hadn’t paid attention […]

Paul Sperry, a tenor who championed little-known American art song and spiky contemporary works, and who was praised for his incisive performances of the classics, died on June 13 in Manhattan. He was 90. His death, in a hospital, was caused by heart failure, his son Ethan said. In a discipline where his peers tended […]

Gypsy, Roma and Traveller History Month was established in Britain in 2008 as a way of challenging stereotypes and prejudice, and raising awareness of the diverse heritage and rich contributions of these ethnic minority groups to society. Throughout June, Gypsies, Roma, Travellers and allies celebrate and educate others about the history, languages and cultures of […]

His 2020 lament “$20 Bill” was covered by scores of artists and, a fellow musician said, might well be destined for the folk music canon. Source link

For a night at the symphony, there was a lot of tension in the air. As concertgoers filed in to Davies Symphony Hall earlier this month, they were greeted by players from the San Francisco Symphony passing out bright yellow fliers accusing management of having “no clear artistic vision.” Then, shortly before the performance began, […]

Jeremy Tepper, who over a long and varied career as a journalist, singer, label owner and radio producer championed the anarchic, high-energy music that straddled the lines separating country, rock, punk and plain old Americana, died on June 14 in Queens. He was 60. His wife, the musician Laura Cantrell, said the cause of death, […]

Universal Music Group announced a partnership with an AI music tech startup called SoundLabs on Tuesday, with the largest music company in the world set to use the deal to offer AI voice model tech to its roster in the coming months. UMG’s artists and record producers will be able to use SoundLabs’ upcoming feature […]

Hewing to character, the Thompson matriarch kept things light during the interview, regardless of topic. “I just can’t take things too seriously, unless they truly, truly are,” she said. “People are riddled with angst about not very much, I find.” She maintains an equally philosophical attitude toward her dysphonia. “When you have something like this, […]

The Classical Music Institute (CMI) has announced the formation of a new performance-focused subgroup that will serve as the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts’ resident orchestra.  The Orchestra San Antonio (TOSA) is comprised of a core group of 60 CMI musicians. About 10 of those core members reside in San Antonio and regularly teach […]

It’s 2024, and Huey Lewis is having a moment. Just let that sink in. Lewis was an unexpected highlight of the recent Netflix documentary “The Greatest Night in Pop,” about the star-studded 1985 session where “We Are the World” was recorded. An everyman rocker, Lewis was amazed (and still is) that he was rubbing elbows […]

“Noise” is a fuzzy word—a noisy one, in the statistical sense. Its meanings run the gamut from the negative to the positive, from the overpowering to the mysterious, from anarchy to sublimity. The negative seems to lie at the root: etymologists trace the word to “nuisance” and “nausea.” Noise is what drives us mad; it […]

Taylor Swift was already the most ubiquitous pop star in the galaxy, her presence dominating the music charts, the concert calendar, the Super Bowl, the Grammys. Then it came time for her to promote a new album. In the days leading up to the release of “The Tortured Poets Department” on Friday, Swift became all […]

The excited media coverage last week of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s choice for a new music director treated 28-year-old Finnish conductor Klaus Mäkelä like the second coming of Gustavo Dudamel. In a recent streaming documentary about Mäkelä, French director Bruno Monsaingeon calls him already the greatest conductor of the 21st century. Monsaingeon should know. His […]

Mister Cee, a disc jockey who was an integral figure in New York City’s booming 1990s hip-hop scene and an early champion of the Notorious B.I.G., has died. He was 57. His death was confirmed on Wednesday by Skip Dillard, the brand manager at WXBK 94.7 The Block NYC, where Mister Cee had a show. […]

Flow, or being “in the zone,” is a state of amped-up creativity, enhanced productivity and blissful consciousness that, some psychologists believe, is also the secret to happiness. It’s considered the brain’s fast track to success in business, the arts or any other field. But in order to achieve flow, a person must first develop a […]

Indigo Girls have been going strong for over 40 years now, and maybe the key to their resilience is that they never were cool. Often, they got it worse: Even at their commercial peak in the 1980s and ’90s, Amy Ray and Emily Saliers were routinely mocked for being too earnest, too poetic, too folky, […]