Thursday, April 29, 2021

The Magic Eastern Ensemble Combines Traditional Chinese Instruments With Contemporary Pop Music |

The Magic Eastern Ensemble is performing at Aurora Theatre Saturday, May 1 in a concert called “ We Are The Young .” The concert will feature traditional Chinese instruments like the erhu, guzheng, and dizi, in a musical blend of new Chinese folk music, J-pop, and English and American pop music. The ensemble's Director Yao Lu and Aurora Theatre's Director of Education Renita James joined "City Lights" host Lois Reitzes to talk about what to expect from this unique performance and other upcoming highlights from Aurora.

"I think the traditional music instruments, it is already a sense of history. But I wanted to… make it not too difficult to attract the attention and recognition of the audience, who never knew about this type of instrument," said Lu. "We hope we will have more young audiences who will enjoy the music, as we play it."

Lu invited the Ensemble's lead ehru player Cindy Fang to join the conversation, who added, "[The erhu] is a two-stringed bow musical instrument, sometimes known in the Western world as a Chinese violin… It is also combined with traditional and contemporary music styles and arrangements, such as in pop, rock and jazz."

The performance will be an indoor concert, Saturday, May 1 at 8 p.m. Guests will be seated in pods, and all transactions and services conducted in touchless arrangements. Tickets can be purchased in advance at auroratheatre.com .

From Publisher: 90.1 FM WABE



Tibetan pop music group performs Tibetan-style song - CGTN

Tibetan pop music group ANU performed a Tibetan-style song "Fly" at the music festival celebrating the production of CGTN's upcoming documentary "Music Voyage." Take a listen!

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Tibetan pop music group sings to send blessings - CGTN

Tibetan pop music group ANU performed a Tibetan-style song, "1376," at the music festival celebrating the production of CGTN's coming musical road trip "Music Voyage." "1376" is a homonym for "may all your wishes come true" in Tibetan. Take a listen!

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Global showcase for Griffith pop music student – Griffith News

The former First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama , will showcase a song written by Griffith University popular music student Cat Gallagher as part of her annual College Sign Up Day campaign.

Penned for an online collaborative project between music students from the Queensland Conservatorium and Vanderbilt College in the US, the song will be featured on Mrs Obama’s social platforms to mark National College Signing Day on 1 May.

Mrs Obama launched the signing day celebrations in 2014 as part of her Better Make Room initiative to encourage students to pursue higher education.

Her social accounts have more than 80 million followers – giving the young songwriter a remarkable platform for her work.

A series of student performances will feature alongside world-famous acts like Conan O’Brien, The Weeknd and Kelly Rowland.

“This song is very close to my heart, so to be able to share it with the world is incredible.

“This is a massive opportunity for me to reach out to a global audience and expand my musical community.”

During COVID lockdowns last year, a number of Queensland Conservatorium popular music students collaborated with their peers across the globe, creating new music with singer-songwriters at the Vanderbilt College Blair School of Music in Nashville.

"Her Troubles, His Pain" was a joint effort between Cat and Cam Robinson, a human resources and organizational development major at Vanderbilt College. The track was mixed by fellow popular music student Liam Brimble .




Watch Opelika High's Vibe students play Journey's "Who's Crying Now" and other pop

The Opelika High School Vibe will be featured in the virtual concert series as part of the MIC CHECK 2021 event put on by Troy University on Friday and Saturday.

Students from the Opelika High School Vibe will perform covers and original songs at Troy University's MIC CHECK 2021 virtual concert event Friday and Saturday premiering at 7 p.m.

Opelika High School guitar instructor Patrick Bruce said about 15 students are currently in the Vibe, the high school's popular music performance group, that are able to practice and perform various music talents from vocals to guitar to drums.

"I think [my students] will be able to see other kids their age making music, and they'll know how much effort it takes to put something together like this," Bruce said. "And they'll get critiqued by professionals in the music industry, so they'll get some feedback on where they stand compared to them. Also, it's just fun."

"We used to go to Troy and hang out all day, play music and get critiqued by professionals," Bruce said. "This year, they came to Opelika high School about a month or so ago and we set up my room for recording and they videoed us."

Bruce said his students would be performing covers they picked to play like Journey's "Who's Crying Now" along with original songs like one written by Opelika High School senior Lorenzo Farrow. Overall, Bruce said the MIC CHECK gave his students a goal to strive for while getting the opportunity to receive constructive criticism from music professionals.

Deirdre Freeman walks the mile from her home, lugging a large, colorful painting and tote bag with her hammer and nails. Her destination is a telephone pole at a busy intersection, where she will hang her largest "heartwork" painting yet.

"The camaraderie they have, and the family we have as a group, is a good thing," Bruce said. "They look forward to coming to school, and doing something like this gave them a goal and something to shoot for."

Among the music professionals to provide feedback and teach lessons to the students performing is Michael Wilk, the keyboardist for the band Steppenwolf who has collaborated on musical projects with members of Fleetwood Mac and Three Dog Night.

From Publisher: OANow.com



Billboard Awards: 16 nods for Weeknd, 6 for Morgan Wallen | Music | dailyprogress.com

The Weeknd was snubbed by the Grammys but he's the leading nominee at the 2021 Billboard Music Awards.

Country singer Morgan Wallen wasn't allowed to compete at this month's Academy of Country Music Awards because the singer was caught on camera using a racial slur earlier this year, but he's one of the top nominees at the 2021 Billboard Awards.

NEW YORK — The Weeknd was snubbed by the Grammys, but he's the leading nominee at the 2021 Billboard Music Awards, where rappers Pop Smoke and Juice WRLD earned multiple posthumous nominations, including top artist, and disgraced country singer Morgan Wallen is a six-time nominee.

The Weeknd earned 16 nominations, including top male artist, top R&B artist, top Billboard 200 album for "After Hours" and top Hot 100 song for "Blinding Lights," the No. 1 song of last year. DaBaby — thanks to his own hit "Rockstar" and his guest appearance on Jack Harlow's "What's Poppin" — is second with 11 bids, and he will battle himself in categories like top rap song, top streaming song and top collaboration.

Others battling The Weeknd, Pop Smoke and Juice WRLD for top album include Lil Baby's "My Turn" and Swift's "folklore," which last month won the star her third album of the year Grammy.

Morgan Wallen wasn't allowed to compete at this month's Academy of Country Music Awards because the singer was caught on camera using a racial slur earlier this year, but he's one of the top nominees at the Billboard Awards. His six nominations include top song sales artist, top country artist and top country album for "Dangerous: The Double Album," which is currently No. 3 on the pop charts and continues to sell extremely well despite Wallen's crisis moment. He's even a double nominee in top country song, competing with the hits "Chasin' You" and "More Than My Hometown."

Wallen is a contender because the Billboard nominees are based on album and digital sales, streaming, radio airplay and social engagement, and they "are not chosen by a voting committee or membership organization," dick clark productions said.

The producers said though Wallen is a multiple nominee, they won't allow him to participate in the show.

From Publisher: The Daily Progress



Advanced BTS: California university to host scholarly online conference focusing on Korean boy

An ARMY plans to assemble on Saturday, May 1, and Sunday, May 2 – one that carries no weapons, requires no minimum enlistment period and marches to a decidedly pop-music beat.

California State University, Northridge will host an online conference about all things BTS, the megapopular Korean boy band, this weekend.

Fans, who call themselves "ARMY" or Adorable Representative M.C. for Youth, will turn out in droves for the conference with more than 900 attendees expected, according to event organizer Professor Frances Gateward.

BTS, an acronym for Bangtan Sonyeondan or Bulletproof Boy Scouts, debuted in 2013 and consists of seven members. While primarily gaining fame in Korea and other parts of Asia early on in their career, BTS garnered a worldwide following, performing in places ranging from the Rose Bowl in Pasadena to King Fadh International Stadium in Riyadah, Saudi Arabia. The group has won dozens of awards and was the top-grossing touring group of 2019 according to Billboard, earning $196 million from Nov. 1, 2018 to Oct. 31, 2019.

Despite their worldwide popularity, there are many people who still consider the group just an average boy band, but fans of BTS aren't of the same opinion.

"People are surprised to find out that the median age of a BTS fan is 30 to 40," Gateward said. "It's not 12-year-old girls."

Other groups play socially conscious music and perform charity work as well, but BTS has gained fans at a rate unlike many other groups in the world. The band has more than 30 million followers on Twitter, and sold out one performance at the Rose Bowl in 90 minutes.

"They present the image of accessibility," said Analisa Venolia, a member of the ARMY who plans on attending the conference. "They interact with fans in a way that I'm not used to seeing from a lot of American artists so that makes them really unique and you feel like you get to know the members."

Venolia pointed to Weverse, a Korean social media app designed to facilitate interactions between fans and their favorite artists, as one way in which the band connects with its ARMY. Each member of the group has their own Weverse account, so fans can interact with them more individually than as a group. Members of the ARMY begin to get a sense of their individual personas further outside the context of the band than seen on more mainstream apps like Twitter and Instagram.

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From Publisher: The Mercury News



Girl in red on new album and how her gen of pop are tired of "meaningless lyrics" | Girlfriend

When you think of the artists whose songs are on your go-to moody indie-pop playlists aptly titled music to soundtrack me screaming in the woods , and the ones featured in the dream-pop meets queer teen memes about serotonin and therapy in the many indie-pop Facebook groups, you can't not think of the 22-year-old Norweigan artist girl in red.

The singer-songwriter rose to fame in recent years with homemade bedroom pop songs about queer romance, unrequited love, and mental health, and is back at it again with her 2021 feature album if i could make it go quiet .

In the lead up to her new album, which she says "sheds light on the darkest parts of [her] mind" and "lets everyone in," Girlfriend spoke to the incredible, showstopping, never-the-same artist about her last 12 months, why artists her generation are so confessional, and how she's become the role model she always wanted to be.

Growing up in Horten, a small seaside town in Norway with only 26,000 people, girl in red, real name Marie Ulven, was born to be a star.

Surrounded by nobody like her and with no real LGBTQIA+ representation as a kid, she, like many rural queer Aussie teens, turned to YouTube personalities and the internet to be inspired and find a community.

But now, she *is* the queer voice that people younger than her turn to. Back in World War II, queer men would use the term "friend of Dorothy" as a euphemism for being gay to allow themselves to freely find each other and exist in an age of queer oppression. Girl in red's name carries a similar legacy: now, teens on TikTok jokingly ask, "do you listen to girl in red?" as a way to tell if someone identifies as queer.

"It's so rare… I'm just thinking about anyone who's ever gonna use it or have used it. I'm like, 'good for you! You go.'"

And, really, it isn't hard to see how she became a signifier for queer teen identity and young first love when you look at her music.

But, at the beginning of 2020, something changed. As the world began to tackle a global health crisis, Marie was dealing with a "health anxiety" of her own. The Serotonin singer was diagnosed with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD).

From Publisher: Girlfriend



Top Hollywood talent agency to represent ‘pop music superstar’ JJ Lin | The

The Hollywood Reporter in an “exclusive” report says the "Chinese Pop Music Superstar JJ Lin" has signed with United Talent Agency (UTA), one of the biggest in Hollywood.

UTA announced that it signed Lin with an Instagram post on Wednesday (Apr 28), noting that his music has reached more than 121 billion streams all over the globe via online platforms, and that he has also received nearly 400 music awards all over Asia.

"His debut album, Music Voyager, won him the award for 'Best New Artist' at the Golden Melody Awards.

“He has completed four world tours and more than 130 shows, with 66 shows from his recent Sanctuary World Tour selling out within 10 minutes of release," UTA's post read.

The post also mentioned the international artists the superstar has collaborated with, including Hans Zimmer, Jason Mraz, Ayumi Hamasaki, Steve Aoki and Jackson Wang.

On his English album, Like You Do, Lin sings a ballad with UK singer Anne-Marie called "Bedroom." Take a listen here .

The Hollywood Reporter in its report on Apr 27 said Lin has been named one of Forbes Asia's 100 Digital Stars and appeared as a guest on The Voice in China.

He is also active in gaming, having launched the professional esports team Team Still Moving under Gunfire (Team SMG) in Southeast Asia and China.

The singer also posted about his new representation, writing “Happy to be part of the UTA family! @unitedtalent" on Instagram .

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International Jazz Day 2021: How to celebrate in Phoenix and beyond

"They had 7,000 people out there at about 8 o'clock in the morning," he says. "A phenomenal sight."

A year later, Jones — a music educator, who plays saxophone and keyboards — organized the Valley's first International Jazz Day, held at Cityscape.

It's Jones' hope that a day set aside to recognize the genre could help elevate its profile and attract new audiences in an era where its mainstream popularity has been eclipsed by hip-hop, R&B and rock.

"Jazz was an art form created here in America that's been exported all around the world," he says. "And now 1% to 2% of music sales are jazz."

As Blaise Lantana, a Valley musician who serves as both music director and on-air personality at KJZZ-FM, sees it, anything that recognizes jazz in the 21st Century is a step in the right direction.

Jones and his International Jazz Day AZ Foundation will present a Scottsdale Jazz Day Festival at the Hotel Valley Ho while the Nash in downtown Phoenix hosts an outdoor show by the Max Beckman Quartet.

International Jazz Day was launched in 2011 by Herbie Hancock, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz.

"Herbie realized that in America jazz is being swept under the carpet unless you're an aficionado, you're an educator or you're in school playing this music," Jones says.

"So he went to Tom Carter, the executive director at the Thelonious Monk Institute, and they said, 'We have to do something. This genre is not getting any publicity. It's losing ground.'"

From Publisher: The Arizona Republic



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