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When the Newspaper Fires the Last Music Critic
The last week has brought tremendous loss for arts in America - the potential loss of a home for the performing arts, the loss of voices for the arts - and a terrible realization that these things can happen in an instant.
Last Sunday came the news that the Kennedy Center may be shut down for two years, displacing the National Symphony Orchestra and raising a great many concerns. Time will tell if the Kennedy Center and its resident orchestra will bounce back from the boycotts, the plummeting ticket sales and now the potential years-long shuttering and demolition of the facility. No tangible plans have been presented for its restoration; only for its imminent dismantling.
Then there is the matter of the collective voices dismissed, when the Washington Post cut a third of its entire workforce and laid off some 300 journalists on Wednesday. I have a feeling this is a true and significant death knell for the traditional newspaper.
But importantly for those of us in classical music: this is a significant stage in the erosion of coverage for arts and music.
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The Week in Reviews, Op. 535: Augustin Hadelich, Randall Goosby, María Dueñas
In an effort to promote the coverage of live violin performance, Violinist.com each week presents links to reviews of notable concerts and recitals around the world. Click on the highlighted links to read the entire reviews.
Augustin Hadelich and pianist Orion Weiss performed in recital at Boston Symphony Orchestra’s "E Pluribus Unum" Festival at MIT’s Thomas Tull Concert Hall.
- Boston Musical Intelligencer: "Having been together performing American music, which Hadelich lamentably reports is little known in Europe and elsewhere, the twinlike artists grandly represented the motto, 'out of one, many,' (sic) proposed by our founding fathers in 1776. Music and celebration have been twins since time immemorial, and encountering the very best of the best vividly brought home a sense of attachment to country, especially during these pronounced times of unrest."
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Could Closing the Kennedy Center Sink the National Symphony Orchestra?
On Sunday night U.S. President Donald Trump took to social media to announce a proposal to close the newly renamed Trump Kennedy Center for two years, starting on July 4, 2026 (Independence Day in the U.S.), to begin construction on a new entertainment complex in its place. The proposal is subject to board approval, according to the same post.
The two-year shuttering of the Kennedy Center would most certainly have implications for the National Symphony Orchestra, a Kennedy Center "artistic affiliate" which rehearses and performs at the venue for most of its year-round season, during which it gives about 180 concerts. The Kennedy Center also contributes some $10 million a year to the NSO’s $42 million budget, under its affiliate agreement that has been in place since 1986, according to the New York Times.
The Kennedy Center, which underwent a major expansion and renovation in 2019, has been embroiled in controversy since Trump took over as chairman of its board in February 2025, ousting Democratic board members, purging much of its professional staff and canceling certain already-scheduled events for political reasons. In December, Trump-appointed members of the board voted to rename the center the "The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts," or the "Trump Kennedy Center." Keep reading...
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2026 Classical Grammys: Repeat Wins for Yo-Yo Ma; LA Phil & Gabriel Ortiz
It was a year for repeat wins, when it came to the classical Grammys, which were awarded at separate ceremony at the Peacock Theater before the televised 68th Grammy Awards Sunday night at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
Cellist Yo-Yo Ma won his 20th Grammy (his 32nd nomination) in the category of Best Classical Instrumental Solo, for his recording of the Shostakovich Cello Concertos with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Andris Nelsons.
And echoing last year, a three of the eight Classical Music Grammys went to an album recorded by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel of works by Mexican composer Gabriela Ortiz, whose work garnered three Grammys in 2025. This year her opera "Yanga" won the Grammys for Best Choral Performance and Best Classical Compendium; while her cello concerto "Dzonot" from the same album won Best Contemporary Classical Composition.
Performed by Gustavo Dudamel the Los Angeles Philharmonic as well as Grant Gershon and the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Yanga is an opera about Gaspar Yanga, the African-born leader of a band of formerly enslaved people who successfully resisted recapture by the Spanish in the early 17th century. (Listen here.)
"I’m deeply proud to have this recording be recognized with a Grammy Award," Dudamel said. "Yanga powerfully symbolizes the strength and resilience of those who fight for freedom, and offers a reminder of the enduring struggle against oppression that continues to this day. This is music that resonates with the rhythms of culture, nature, and humanity.
Ortiz's cello concerto Dzonot was written for and performed by cellist Alisa Weilerstein and appears on the same recording as "Yanga." (Listen here.) The concerto was written for and performed by cellist Alisa Weilerstein.
Here are all the Classical Grammys awarded Sunday. (Find the Grammy awards in all categories here.)
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