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vanmusicmag.bsky.social
VAN Magazine
@vanmusicmag.bsky.social
2.6K followers 340 following 370 posts
Independent online classical music magazine published weekly in English and German. Strong personalities welcome. www.van-magazine.com
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VAN Magazine @vanmusicmag.bsky.social · 8d
Pivoting to work where erasure and disappearance becomes enduring form, Jordan Silversmith details the upcoming deluxe reissue of William Basinski’s "Disintegration Loops". featuring decaying tape loops as a counterexample of immortalizing music via digitalization. van-magazine.com/mag/the-disa...
The Disappearing Monument
It is easy to believe in the permanence of sound. Now every recording can be streamed and repeated on demand without degradation; files replicate flawlessly; loops repeat without wear; digital archive...
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vanmusicmag.bsky.social
VAN Magazine @vanmusicmag.bsky.social · 8d
Butros Nicola writes about the capacity of song to bridge time and space among displaced South Sudanese refugees, and the ability to preserve the emotional and spiritual architecture that would otherwise be erased. This story was published in collaboration with Egab.
van-magazine.com/mag/south-su...
A House of Mud and Hope
The rain poured through the mud-brick walls of her father’s house in Nyaweng county, Jonglei State of South Sudan, soaking the earthen floor where Nyibol Thon held her newborn daughter. As water dripp...
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vanmusicmag.bsky.social
VAN Magazine @vanmusicmag.bsky.social · 14d
Lastly, William Dougherty Interviews Georg Friedrich Haas about America’s descent into authoritarianism, his piece for 50 pianos tuned 2 cents apart from each other, “11,000 Strings”, and what he has planned next.

van-magazine.com/mag/georg-fr...
The Question Mark in the System
I’ve known Georg Friedrich Haas for many years, first as a teacher and later as a friend and mentor, and his music has been a constant source of inspiration. Ahead of the North American premiere of hi...
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vanmusicmag.bsky.social
VAN Magazine @vanmusicmag.bsky.social · 14d
On a lighter and more lesbian note, Sydney Minor searches for Sappho in classical music, and more specifically, overt lesbian desire that remains unobscured.

van-magazine.com/mag/sappho-s...
Thin Fire
Not long ago, I read Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own. One line stayed with me: “Then I may tell you that the very next words I read were these—‘Chloe liked Olivia. . .’ Do not start. Do not blush...
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vanmusicmag.bsky.social
VAN Magazine @vanmusicmag.bsky.social · 14d
Hartmut Welscher and Merle Krafeld cover SWR Symphonieorchester’s decision to bring on François-Xavier Roth as chief conductor amidst allegations of sexual-harassment (which Roth denies), leading to a fraught reception after Roth’s premier concert with the orchestra.
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A Stale Start
Since last week, the conclusion has come to seem inescapable: By sticking with its new chief conductor François-Xavier Roth despite allegations of sexual harassment surfacing against him last year, th...
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vanmusicmag.bsky.social
VAN Magazine @vanmusicmag.bsky.social · 14d
Jeff Brown kicks things off this week with an interview with Ilan Volkov, discussing his recent arrest at an anti-war protest near the Gazan border, his hopes to capture the momentum from his recent viral post-proms speech, and him refusing to work to work in Israel.
van-magazine.com/mag/ilan-vol...
Crossing the Line
On September 11, the Israeli conductor Ilan Volkov gave an emotional speech following a concert with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra at Royal Albert Hall in London, decrying the carnage inflicted ...
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kate wagner @katewagner.wehwalt.net · 22d
@vanmusicmag.bsky.social has given me permission to be frothingly horny on main about two dead tenors van-magazine.com/mag/best-int...
Two Siegmunds, Two Wälses
After writing 9,000 words on the “Ring” cycle, I thought that maybe I’d finally be done thinking about it. For a while, I was. Then, after what would be a two-month break in my obsession, I decided to...
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vanmusicmag.bsky.social
VAN Magazine @vanmusicmag.bsky.social · 22d
Lastly, Tim Lutton makes a case for ambient music; tracking the insidious ways Wellness Culture™ and algorithmic music discovery have appropriated the genre for ✨healing✨, and arguing for its capacity to hold tension and offer alternative modes of listening: van-magazine.com/mag/unwind-a...
Unwind, Unwound
Taken to orchestral concerts as a child, I was restless. The complexity and vast architectures of a typical Romantic symphony made me think of the music as some fractal maze, wholly illegible in its e...
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vanmusicmag.bsky.social
VAN Magazine @vanmusicmag.bsky.social · 22d
Then, Kate Wagner (katewagner.wehwalt.net) is back with more on the Wagner's "Ring" writing about the singing this time, exploring the various renditions of the cries of "Wälse!" in a Heldentenor sing-off, amongst other musings. van-magazine.com/mag/best-int...
Two Siegmunds, Two Wälses
After writing 9,000 words on the “Ring” cycle, I thought that maybe I’d finally be done thinking about it. For a while, I was. Then, after what would be a two-month break in my obsession, I decided to...
van-magazine.com
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vanmusicmag.bsky.social
VAN Magazine @vanmusicmag.bsky.social · 22d
This week in VAN 💌

Hartmut Welscher writes about the broader German classical music scene’s selective outrage and selective empathy in the wake of Lahav Shani and the Munich Philharmonic being disinvited from a performance at the Flanders Festival:

van-magazine.com/mag/lavah-sh...
Selective Empathy
When it comes to the Middle East, people regress into totalitarian positions and tribal logics with sobering speed. Where do you stand? Are you “pro-Israel” or “pro-Palestine”? Do you say “genocide,” ...
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vanmusicmag.bsky.social
VAN Magazine @vanmusicmag.bsky.social · 29d
Lastly, Alan Gilbert reminisces on his time as mentee under the late Christoph von Dohnányi while at the Cleveland Orchestra.

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The Paternal Presence
The last time I saw Christoph von Dohnányi was at a lovely dinner at his apartment in Munich this last June. We were celebrating a positive health report his wife Barbara had just received and the moo...
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vanmusicmag.bsky.social
VAN Magazine @vanmusicmag.bsky.social · 29d
Then, Kyle Bijan Rosen speaks with the Spanish poet Ramón Andrés on the connections between music, myth, history, and prehistory. Insights into art, writing, and new (by way of the very very old) perspectives on hearing abound. Also the word "otorhinolaryngologist".

van-magazine.com/mag/ramon-an...
The Transcriber
Donde menos se piensa, salta la liebre—where you least expect it, the hare leaps. Sancho Panza’s proverb from the Second Part of Don Quijote conveys the suddenness with which insight can arrive. The h...
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vanmusicmag.bsky.social
VAN Magazine @vanmusicmag.bsky.social · 29d
New in VAN this week:

Maddie Lay and Andrew Raynes review Vache Baroque’s production of André Campra’s 1699 opera-ballet "Le Carnaval de Venise", and determine just how baroque this vache really is. Baroque opera? In MY circus tent? It’s more likely than you think.

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Fluid and Amorphous
A new autumn brings with it a new season from Vache Baroque, les nouveaux enfants terribles of Baroque opera. This year’s offering is André Campra’s 1699 opera-ballet “Le Carnaval de Venise,” which re...
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vanmusicmag.bsky.social
VAN Magazine @vanmusicmag.bsky.social · Sep 4
Then, Jeff Brown takes a hard look at corporate influencer marketing and the ethics of disclosure, or the alleged lack thereof. An independent account focused on street interviews with classical music icons, or a covert marketing tool for a major label?
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Low Note
In a video on the social media page High Note, an account launched on July 29 featuring “street interviews with classical music icons,” the tenor Freddie De Tommaso stands outside a pub drinking a Gui...
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vanmusicmag.bsky.social
VAN Magazine @vanmusicmag.bsky.social · Sep 4
Mary Rice reports on one of the oldest elephants in the room, with the elephant in this case being the pay disparity between choristers and instrumentalists and the room being…well, most opera houses and symphonies.
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The Other Wage Gap
It is a truth universally if quietly acknowledged that a singer in possession of work will be paid less than the orchestral instrumentalists with whom they perform.  To continue reading, subscribe now...
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vanmusicmag.bsky.social
VAN Magazine @vanmusicmag.bsky.social · Sep 4
Are you hungry for some investigative reporting? Well we're here to sate your desire with two new reports this week:
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vanmusicmag.bsky.social
VAN Magazine @vanmusicmag.bsky.social · Aug 29
If Santa Fe's production offers a salve to our irony-poisoned cynicism, Bayreuth's next “Ring” cycle plunges us back down into nihilistic depths as they announce AI will “play a role on stage.” Read Kevin Ng's (kevinng.bsky.social‬) investigation here: https://van-magazine.com/mag/bayreuth-ai-ring/
Machine in the Gods
When Richard Wagner’s Festspielhaus opened in Bayreuth in 1876, it boasted the latest in theater technology. From its covered orchestra pit to its state-of-the-art lighting and stage machinery, the th...
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vanmusicmag.bsky.social
VAN Magazine @vanmusicmag.bsky.social · Aug 29
Hi Dolls! VAN is back with two new posts for all you Wagner Heads out there:

Kate Wagner (@katewagner.wehwalt.net) reviews a production of Melly Still’s “Die Walküre” at Santa Fe Opera, which was worth overcoming cynicism and risking acute desert hypoxia to see: van-magazine.com/mag/die-walk...
A Life Told in Gestures
It is rare for there to be new developments in “Ring” cycle staging without dipping into the trashy, cynical, or ironic; in other words, without making the saga’s characters worse than they already ar...
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Reposted by VAN Magazine
katewagner.wehwalt.net
kate wagner @katewagner.wehwalt.net · Aug 28
saw die Walküre in the desert and wrote a review of it for @vanmusicmag.bsky.social
van-magazine.com/mag/die-walk...
A Life Told in Gestures
It is rare for there to be new developments in “Ring” cycle staging without dipping into the trashy, cynical, or ironic; in other words, without making the saga’s characters worse than they already ar...
van-magazine.com
3 8 67
Reposted by VAN Magazine
kevinng.bsky.social
Kevin Ng @kevinng.bsky.social · Aug 28
My thoughts on Bayreuth’s upcomingAI Ring Cycle, for @vanmusicmag.bsky.social

van-magazine.com/mag/bayreuth...
Machine in the Gods
When Richard Wagner’s Festspielhaus opened in Bayreuth in 1876, it boasted the latest in theater technology. From its covered orchestra pit to its state-of-the-art lighting and stage machinery, the th...
van-magazine.com
2 4 8
Reposted by VAN Magazine
maratingeldeev.bsky.social
marat ingeldeev @maratingeldeev.bsky.social · Aug 21
My Darmstadt 25 review is in @vanmusicmag.bsky.social. 'Situations' are audience agency, censorship, David Tudor, distracted listening, Hannes Seidl, healing sounds, hybrid formats, immediacy, instagrammable art, Maryanne Amacher, neoliberalism, spatial arrangements van-magazine.com/mag/darmstad...
Situations for Distracted Listening
Every time cultural organizers huddle to pick a festival theme, their brainstorming heat surely counts as a modest contribution to global warming. In today’s attention economy—where information is ove...
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vanmusicmag.bsky.social
VAN Magazine @vanmusicmag.bsky.social · Aug 21
Then, lovers of Big Bells will rejoice in reading Benjamin Poore’s profile of Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Forever Bells, tracking their symbolism and use in works ranging from Berlioz to Mahler to Shostakovich. Ding! Dong!

van-magazine.com/mag/forever-...
They Toll For Thee
Bells call people to pray, to mourn, to marry. They pass them news of war, peace, fire, and flood. On a sweltering August afternoon in London, they summoned me to the Royal Albert Hall. That night’s p...
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vanmusicmag.bsky.social
VAN Magazine @vanmusicmag.bsky.social · Aug 21
VAN is back with 2 new essays:

Marat Ingeldeev covers Darmstadt 2025, including rumblings over censorship of a piece with pro-Palestine slogans, navigating issues on trendy marketing, and the potential successes and pitfalls of multi-sensory performance situations.

van-magazine.com/mag/darmstad...
Situations for Distracted Listening
Every time cultural organizers huddle to pick a festival theme, their brainstorming heat surely counts as a modest contribution to global warming. In today’s attention economy—where information is ove...
van-magazine.com
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vanmusicmag.bsky.social
VAN Magazine @vanmusicmag.bsky.social · Jul 31
Today's note from our editors—more roundups coming over the next fortnight, but in the meantime, enjoy the break 🏖️
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vanmusicmag.bsky.social
VAN Magazine @vanmusicmag.bsky.social · Jul 31
Then, Matt Hanson discusses the roots of Turkey's orchestral music culture, and wonders about the country's contemporary challenges

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A Feast of Symbols
Lighting up mid-conversation, Murat Erginol sat at a coffee shop in the breezy, open-air halls of Atatürk Culture Center, Istanbul’s premier performing arts complex. Erginol, wispily bearded and quick...
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