The Presidential Candidates’ Silence About the Arts

Neither Donald Trump nor Hillary Clinton has mentioned arts funding during the campaign season. (Gage Skidmore/Evan El-Amin)

The four leading presidential candidates (Democrat Hillary Clinton, Libertarian Gary Johnson, Green Party Jill Stein and Republican Donald J. Trump) have said almost nothing about the arts in their public discourse and campaign communications. Equally concerning, I think, is that no major journalist seems to have asked about the arts during a presidential campaign that has lasted more than a year. more

We Asked Parents: How Do You Get Your Kids to Practice?

What's the best way to encourage your child to practice her or his instrument? (Kim Nowacki/WQXR)

Back-to-school time also means back to music class and/or private lessons for a lot of students, so we asked parents for some tried and true tips for getting kids to practice their instrument. We also asked what doesn't work. Parents from New York to California chimed in, many with children practicing piano, cello or violin. Here is what worked, and what didn't, for them and their aspiring musicians: Read more here

Wadada Leo Smith Receives Hammer Museum’s 2016 Mohn Award for Career Achievement

Composer and trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith has received the Hammer Museum’s 2016 Mohn Award for Career Achievement “honoring brilliance and resilience.” The $25,000 Award was announced by the museum on August 16 and presented in conjunction with the exhibitionMade in L.A. 2016: a, the, through, only, organized by Hammer curator Adam Moshayedi and Hamza Walker, director of education and associate curator, Renaissance Society.

“The jury wants to acknowledge Wadada Leo Smith’s outstanding achievements as a musician, his influential work as a teacher and a mentor for younger artists in Los Angeles, and the decades-long expansion of an inventive, complex and layered system of notation simultaneously interrogating the pictoral and the performative,” stated Juse Luis Blondet, curator, Special Initiatives, Los Angeles County Museum of Art. More

Broadway Scam Centers Around Soprano Kathleen Battle

Soprano Kathleen Battle was the subject of a fake Broadway production used to steal $165.000 from investors. (Courtesy of CAMI)

Kathleen Battle is preparing a long-awaited return to the Metropolitan Opera this November, but a fraudulent Broadway project has her in the headlines right now. The soprano’s name is at the center of a scam that reports are comparing to another Broadway production, The Producers. Talent agent Roland Scahill raised approximately $165,000 for a one-woman show about the falling out between Battle and the Metropolitan Opera. Scahill had told his investors that he secured the rights for the story from Battle and claimed that Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o was on board to portray the beleaguered singer.  more

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Watch: ICE Members Compete in 'Stupid Musician Tricks'

International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) (Armen Elliott)

While athletes in Rio were jumping, running and swimming higher and faster than the rest of humankind, another Olympics-style competition was taking place on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. On Aug. 17th, musicians from the International Contemporary Ensemble strove to find out who among them possessed superlative skills. Called "Stupid Musician Tricks," or "the biggest dork fest imaginable" according to some of ICE's members,  the competition featured three categories: More

How to Make Music Out of 57 Individual Themes

Earlier this year, Grant Woolard, a California-based cartoonist, musician, and producer, mashed-up 57 well-known classical music themes by 33 composers. Instead of a cacophony, he created a beautifully tailored 6-minute work that has been watched by nearly 3 million people. In the Q&A below, Woolard gives us a behind-the-scenes look at his process, as well as a insight about his next project.  More

Met Opera will be unavailable Saturday July 30th, beginning at 6pm ET

Please note that the Met Opera website will undergo scheduled maintenance next Saturday July 30th, beginning at 6pm ET. Met Opera on Demand will not be accessible during the maintenance period, which could last up to 24 hours. We apologize for any inconvenience and thank you for understanding.