The instantly recognizable gramophone trophy considered by many to be one of the music industry’s most coveted prizes did not spring from Zeus’s head fully-formed. In fact, it was created for the Recording Academy (then known as the Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, in the long-winded days before Twitter) by a Colorado artisan who’s […]
Women achieved greater numbers in orchestras when they auditioned behind a curtain and were selected blindly, chosen only by performance, noted actress Natalie Portman in an interview in the Nov. 28 Oscar Preview issue of Deadline.com’s Awardsline magazine. Exhorting entertainment’s decision-makers not to ignore gender bias, Portman cites a “great orchestra example that started a […]
Singer Joni Mitchell was feted with a 75th birthday celebration by friends and admirers including Seal, James Taylor and Tom Hanks, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion in Los Angeles Nov. 7. The festive JONI 75: A Birthday Celebration was reported on by Chris Willman of Variety. Diana Krall and Kris Kristofferson were among those performing. Friends including […]
Quartz and Scientific American report that researchers from Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, published a study that found that “death metal”fans who listened to bands that sing about things like “violently reshaping human facial tissue” reported feeling power, joy and peace. Titled “Who enjoys listening to violent music and why?” the study shares the findings […]
Fresh Air’s Terry Gross interviews Todd Purdum about his new book, Something Wonderful: Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Broadway Revolution. Before there was Rodgers& Hammerstein there was Rodgers & Hart. When a dissipated lyricist Lorenz Hart could no longer work, composer Richard Rodgers teamed with Oscar Hammerstein. Their first play, Oklahoma!, which opened on Broadway in 1943 and […]
Timed to their latest collaboration on BlacKkKlansman, Spike Lee’s go-to composer Terence Blanchard talks to VICE about everything from his childhood studying piano in New Orleans and his first partnership with Lee on 1991’s Jungle Fever to the director’s love of orchestral music to complete a score. In addition to music, the VICE’s Noel Ransome […]
Musicians have better “working memory” than even bilingual speakers, according to a study published in the journal Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences and reported in Pacific Standard magazine. “Given that decreased activity in this region has been linked with cognitive deterioration, this suggests ‘musical training and bilingualism might be protective factors against […]
Rolling Stone got the scoop on the soundtrack to the royal wedding of Prince Harry wed Meghan Markle. Producer Anna Barry “was handed a precious challenge,” Rolling Stone reports: “Craft an immaculate recording of the music from the Royal Wedding and have it up on streaming services as soon as possible – the label says […]
NPR’s in-depth profile of YouTube music chief Lyor Cohen as company parent Google switches to a new framework for recorded tunes is revealing of a man who has waged battle at many an industry front, and now finds himself facing further skirmish. The NPR article includes a video link to Cohen’s recent SXSW presentation. The […]
“How can the scrappy founders afford to get started? Can they avoid getting ripped off by the big record companies?” Those are the questions asked by The Washington Post theater critic Nelson Pressley in reviewing Soul: The Stax Musical. The Baltimore Center Stage production, which runs through June 10, was directed by erstwhile artistic director Kwame […]
