Classical music – The News Desk

Glass Animals return this summer with a new album, each song exploring a ‘different side of love’

5Apr

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Glass Animals return this summer with a new album, each song exploring a ‘different side of love’

NEW YORK -- Glass Animals' latest album was born thanks to a massive storm, a house on a cliff and an existential crisis. What emerged from that? A 10-track collection exploring love.The indie-pop band's frontman, songwriter and producer Dave Bayley found himself in an Airbnb house high on stilts below Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles, alone, sick with fever and wondering about Glass Animals' place in the universe.Then came a powerful storm: Trees tumbling down the hill, roads flooded and his rented house perched precariously. “My existential crisis went to the next level,” Bayley says, laughing.But in the dazed calm that followed, Bayley saw people emerge from the storm and embrace — families, couples, friends, neighbors. “I felt like I was sitting in space in this house, looking down on ...

Conductors Had One Job. Now They Have Three or Four

2Apr

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Conductors Had One Job. Now They Have Three or Four

“I love my three orchestras,” the twenty-eight-year-old Finnish conductor Klaus Mäkelä said the other day on WQXR, during a broadcast from Carnegie Hall. Mäkelä was leading an all-Stravinsky concert with the Orchestre de Paris, of which he has been the music director since 2021. The other orchestras in question are the Oslo Philharmonic, which he has led since 2020, and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, where he holds the title of Artistic Partner. In 2027, Mäkelä will become the chief conductor of the Concertgebouw, which would appear on any shortlist of the world’s finest ensembles. No conductor in modern history, not even the lavishly hyped Gustavo Dudamel, has ever risen so quickly to the peak of the profession.And now there are four. The Chicago Symphony, arguably the supreme exempl...

Hit-Boy enters Grammys with producer nod while helping father navigate music industry after prison

29Dec

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Hit-Boy enters Grammys with producer nod while helping father navigate music industry after prison

LOS ANGELES -- When Hit-Boy walks the Grammy red carpet, he expects to proudly strut into the Feb. 4 awards ceremony with his father beside him for the first time. For three decades, Hit-Boy’s dad was in-and-out of prison, with his recent stint lasting nine years until his release several months ago. With his father’s newfound freedom, the super producer — who has worked with music heavyweights from Jay-Z, Nas and Kanye West — is focused on strengthening their father-son bond while navigating the music industry together.Hit-Boy has the Grammys and a producer of the year, non-classical nomination in his sights. He's had three songs involving Brent Faiyaz, Blxst and The Alchemist. He also produced three Nas albums, including “King’s Disease III,” which is up for best rap album; one with Mus...

“Maestro” Honors the Chaotic Charisma of Leonard Bernstein

17Dec

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“Maestro” Honors the Chaotic Charisma of Leonard Bernstein

In 1955, Leonard Bernstein explored the art of conducting on an episode of the CBS show “Omnibus.” After leading a studio orchestra through the opening bars of Brahms’s First Symphony, Bernstein walks away from the podium and turns to the camera, leaving the orchestra to continue playing behind him. “Well, you see, they don’t need me,” he says, with an ironic smile. “They do perfectly well by themselves.” According to Bernstein’s script, which can be viewed at the Library of Congress’s online archive, the musicians were supposed to have devolved into dissonant chaos. On the broadcast, though, they carry on creditably for another twelve bars. This is a more plausible outcome: with signals from the concertmaster, an ensemble can navigate standard repertory on its own, as the conductorless O...

Final goodbye: Recalling influential people who died in 2023

4Dec

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Final goodbye: Recalling influential people who died in 2023

From a hot dog vendor to head of the formidable mercenary army Wagner Group, his rise through Russian society could easily be described as meteoric. But it all came to a sudden end when the plane carrying him and others mysteriously exploded.The Aug. 23 death of Yevgeny Prigozhin put an exclamation point on what had already been an eventful year for the brutal mercenary leader. His Wagner troops brought Russia a rare victory in its grinding war in Ukraine, successfully capturing the city of Bakhmut. But internal friction with Russian military leaders later burst into the open, with Prigozhin briefly mounting an armed rebellion — the most severe challenge yet to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s rule.The rebellion was called off and a deal was struck after less than 24 hours. However, jus...

R&B singer Kiana Ledé is taking back control of her music and her life

28Nov

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R&B singer Kiana Ledé is taking back control of her music and her life

NEW YORK -- Kiana Ledé is one of R&B’s brightest rising stars but that doesn’t mean she always embraces the compliment.“I kind of have mixed feelings about it because it gets me in my head about me needing to do more or me being more invested in my craft, or I just don’t have the right (industry) politics surrounding me,” said Ledé, who’s launching the international leg of her “Grudges” tour Tuesday starting in Auckland, New Zealand. “(But) it also makes me feel great because they’re clearly appreciating me and understanding that I do this for healing purposes and that the music is just good.”It’s a pivotal moment in the career of the 26-year-old songstress whose upcoming tour stops include London, Paris, Sydney and Berlin. Ledé, who wrapped up her 21-date North American tour in Octob...

Billy Porter hits the dance floor on his fifth album with the goal of ‘trying to heal people’

15Nov

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Billy Porter hits the dance floor on his fifth album with the goal of ‘trying to heal people’

NEW YORK -- NEW YORK (AP) — Billy Porter is strutting off in an entirely new sonic direction on his fifth album. The Broadway, runway and TV star has pivoted to dance music. “I’m a new artist. There’s a transformation that has happened,” the Tony-, Emmy- and Grammy-winner tells The Associated Press. “I've been offered a real second chance.”“Black Mona Lisa” sees Porter embrace club, house and old-school disco over 12 tracks, creating a warm, welcoming space that showcases his voice and redemption story. “It’s been fun. It’s been a healing. It’s been beyond anything that I could have dreamed,” he says. “I’m trying to bring some positivity into the world. I’m trying to heal people.”The songs veer from the dance anthem “Broke a Sweat,” to the soulful “Stranger Things,” the four-on-the-floor ...

‘A noisy rock ‘n’ roll’: How growing interest in Formula One is felt across the music world

15Nov

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‘A noisy rock ‘n’ roll’: How growing interest in Formula One is felt across the music world

LOS ANGELES -- Beyond the engineering, the athleticism, the speed, the luxury — fans love the sound of Formula One.The fierce rhythms of a V6 turbocharged hybrid engine; the sticky staccato of a rushed downshift; sexy, loud zooms. There’s a real musical appreciation for the elite motorsport. Engines are described using RPMs, the same way vinyl records are.It is no wonder that F1 has long been an enthusiasm of musicians and music fans for decades — the Beatles ’ George Harrison wrote “Faster” about the series, what he called “a noisy rock ‘n’ roll”; the same spirit that inspired a Mario Andretti namecheck in A Tribe Called Quest’s “Award Tour.” But in the last few years, an accelerating interest in F1, particularly among young Americans, has made its influence on the music world — and vice...

American Ballet Theater returns to China after a decade as US-China ties show signs of improving

2Nov

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American Ballet Theater returns to China after a decade as US-China ties show signs of improving

SHANGHAI, China -- America's national ballet company returned to China on Thursday for the first time in a decade in the latest sign that the strained U.S.-China relations are beginning to improve.The American Ballet Theater’s 85 dancers prepared for opening night at the Shanghai Grand Theater, where they were to perform “Classic Old and New,” a ballet encompassing contemporary moves as well as classical choreography, according to Susan Jaffe, the group’s artistic director.The tour marks a revival of cultural exchanges between China and the United States. The Asian nation will also host a series of performances starting next week of the Philadelphia Orchestra members, marking the 50th anniversary of the orchestra’s historic visit to China in 1973.After four nights of performing in Shangha...

Music Review: Taemin is back with another sultry K-pop EP, his fourth mini album ‘Guilty’

30Oct

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Music Review: Taemin is back with another sultry K-pop EP, his fourth mini album ‘Guilty’

The prince of sultry K-pop is back! The gothic, fall season is here and the prolific Taemin returns with some appropriately atmospheric music on a new EP titled “Guilty." It is his first release since completing his mandatory military enlistment in the South Korean army in April 2023.Taemin cut his teeth in the spotlight by starting out in boy band SHINee but has emerged as a strong solo artist in the last nine years, with four previously released full-length albums under his belt. “Guilty” marks his fourth mini album — and proves that it only takes Taemin six tracks to realize a robust comeback. Dramatic, mysterious, sometimes unsettling but always dreamy, “Guilty” is an offer one can’t refuse.It would be inaccurate to say he’s back and better than ever, because he was never not excellen...