oh this is a bit that has legs, particularly this year. prom king and queen etc.

i for one am celebrating Dowland 400. Here’s an essay about his life and afterlife for the New York Times

www.nytimes.com/2026/04/21/a...

have i got an article for you (in like 40 mins)

please

lol

pahaha

if every attempt to move the needle—even slightly—has to contend with the potential combined forces of lebrecht, the times, the spectator and the daily mail, you can see why people might be quite happy to continue the status quo

hahaha hello brian! hope you are recovering well x

more on this, as the lebrechts and the pollards of the world pile in. this is all over FIVE students on a one-year funded foundation course. get a grip!

and bravo for them for actually dealing with the larger issue, not mentioned in the Times reporting—the percentage of privately educated people at RAM is 60%! (Report published in 2024)
www.suttontrust.com/wp-content/u...

good on the first bit, obvs not on the second. feel we are seeing the post 2010 class coming into the industry now, or not... so these questions even more important

well yes

The Times harping on at length about how we don't value music education for all anymore, then the moment an organisation actually puts its neck out and makes a big change, it's OH BUT WHAT ABOUT OUR POOR PRIVATELY EDUCATED ELITES

anyway, bravo to RAM for rolling their sleeves up

Private school pupils banned from conservatoire course The Royal Academy of Music’s ‘widening participation’ programme has stirred up discord with its application requirements

a crazy framing in the times here

this is a wider access foundation year for talented kids who didn't have the opportunities as their privately educated peers, and who have been let down by the systemic downgrading of music education for state schools...

www.thetimes.com/uk/education...

💙🖤

Asked Aretha Franklin which wildlife charities she supports. She said RSPB ETC.

Have a good weekend folks

Migrants are making false domestic abuse allegations to stay in the UK, BBC investigation finds In the third part of an undercover investigation, the BBC reveals how rules aimed at protecting abuse victims are being exploited.

It’s genuinely staggering how little substance there is to today’s instalment of the BBC’s attempt to create a national crisis out of a few unproven allegations of immigration fraud 1/

this is one of the many dynamics shaping the new world of classical content

van-magazine.com/mag/classica...

on social media platforms like instagram (which is abundant amongst so-called music critics doing short form) and also extends to lack of disclosure on tracks promoted by programs like discovery mode. whatever form they take, advertisements should be labeled! (2/2)

I read the geese piece in wired & what I have to contribute is that undisclosed advertising campaigns, in addition to probably being literally illegal (like FMC points out in my LRT), are extremely harmful to media integrity. this includes not just paid UGC campaigns but unlabeled spon-con (1/2)

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Umm...What is going on here?

This is a search ad from Associated Newspapers - the owners of the i and Daily Mail

Basic income for arts scheme ‘causing segregation’ and open to abuse, officials told One artist says housemate is availing of the scheme even though they do ‘not appear to be actively engaged in any creative practice’

new worst housemate just dropped

www.irishtimes.com/culture/art/...

Legal advisers help migrants pose as gay to get asylum, undercover BBC investigation finds The BBC exposes a shadow industry charging migrants thousands of pounds to help them cheat the asylum system.

Disgusting reporting by BBC using a tiny number of cases to suggest widespread abuse of a system which routinely denies LGBTQIA+ individuals asylum and forces them back into environments of persecution. This article massively distorts the reality of the situation. 1/
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

meta? Method.

I think I remember a dude dying in part 1 of dream of Gerontius, which is about as meta as it gets

This whole thread is amazing

Not to be outdone, Mears is back with his first public interview since he ripped down a Palestinian flag unfurled on-stage by a performer.

Here he is having a go at composers and librettists who are mates?

Solidarity When It Suits Oliver Mears, Director of The Royal Opera, tried and failed to take down a Palestine flag on stage. Then came the distraction tactics, and the hypocrisy.

From last summer van-magazine.com/mag/oliver-m...

Cheers Timmy! Chalamet comments boosted ticket sales, says Royal Opera boss As the Royal Ballet and Opera announces its new season, its chief executive Alex Beard talks about £425 tickets, working with Anna Netrebko and the problem with understudies

From Richard M's interview with Alex Beard — some good rebuttals to fair criticism, some... less good

www.thetimes.com/culture/clas...