Some news to start your week!
Philip Kennicott, art critic for The Washington Post, contributed to this month’s Opera News to discuss the ways in which topics of gender and race are handled – or not – in current opera productions. This comes after the Met ended the tradition of using blackface in Otello and recent conversations surrounding The Mikado and the depiction of Asian characters by white actors. Read Kennicott’s full piece here.
The Minnesota Orchestra Composers Institute concert took place on Friday, January 29th, featuring the work of seven rising composers, including Kirsten Broberg and Emily Cooley. Minnesota Public Radio spoke with several composers – listen online here. Learn more about the institute here.
We missed hearing about this concert before it happened – but be sure to read about the “Women Pioneers of American Music” concert presented by Dolce Suono Ensemble at the Curtis Institute. The concert included works by Beach, Bauer, Crawford Seeger, as well as Higdon, and Clearfield. Read more here.
NPR Music spoke with Vietnamese composer Vân-Ánh Võ about her new multimedia work which tells the story of refugees – both past and present. Listen below: