A Teodor Currentzis concert at the Wiener Festwochen was canceled after the Ukrainian conductor Oksana Lyniv, also on the program, raised concerns about his ties to Russia.When the Wiener Festwochen, a prestigious festival that brings leading international artists to Vienna, announced this spring’s lineup, the backlash was swift and fierce.The festival had planned to make the Russian invasion of Ukraine a focus of its programming, juxtaposing an appearance by the Ukrainian conductor Oksana Lyniv with a concert by the maestro Teodor Currentzis, who has faced scrutiny over his connections to Russia. Critics, including Lyniv, had argued that the pairing was insensitive and ignored the suffering of Ukrainians.Now, after weeks of pressure, the festival has abandoned its plan, saying that it would cancel the appearance by Currentzis while moving forward with the one by Lyniv.“The decision was clear and there was no alternative,” Milo Rau, the festival’s artistic director, said in an interview on Tuesday. “This was the best solution from bad ones.”Since Russia invaded Ukraine, many cultural organizations have severed ties with close associates of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and the government there. Some institutions have been criticized for overreach after canceling performances by Russian artists with no known connections to the government. Others have grappled with how to handle artists who had less clear-cut allegiances.Currentzis, a Greek-born, Russian-trained maestro whose leadership of the Russian ensemble MusicAeterna turned him into one of the world’s most prominent conductors, has been at the center of the discussion because of his relationship with VTB Bank, a Russian state-owned institution that has been under sanctions by the United States and other countries. VTB Bank was the main sponsor of MusicAeterna. Currentzis has also drawn scrutiny for his association with Russian officials: In 2014, Putin awarded Currentzis citizenship by presidential decree.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

The pop superstar’s global outing spotlighting her decades of hits will begin in October in Europe. “My focus now is my health,” she wrote on social media.Madonna’s North American tour is officially postponed.Two weeks ago, the pop star’s new Celebration Tour — a greatest-hits outing announced to great media fanfare in January, which was set to open this week — was put on an undefined “pause” after the singer’s manager said she had been admitted to a hospital with “a serious bacterial infection.” Rampant concern and speculation ensued among fans and within the music business about Madonna’s well-being, as well as the fate of her world tour, which had the potential to be one of the year’s biggest events.On Monday, a message from Madonna on social media clarified that the entire North American leg of her tour — 41 shows, about half the total that had been announced for the full world outing — would be rescheduled, and that the tour would now open in Europe in October. Live Nation, which is producing the tour, asked fans to “hold onto their tickets as they will be valid for the new dates once announced.”“My focus now is my health and getting stronger and I assure you, I’ll be back with you as soon as I can!” Madonna, 64, wrote in her first statement since her manager’s post on June 28. She also posted a photo that appeared to show her in her home in Manhattan.“I’m on the road to recovery and incredibly grateful for all the blessings in my life,” she added.Ticket sales for Madonna’s tour opened with a splash; according to an announcement in March, more than 40 dates had already sold out by then. But a glance at further dates on Ticketmaster’s website shows a number of locations — Sacramento; Tulsa, Okla.; even Barclays Center in Brooklyn — where plenty of seats are available.Last week, Beyoncé canceled a date in Pittsburgh, and postponed two others, over what was announced as issues with “production logistics and scheduling.”Rescheduling a major tour, for any reason, can be a complex and expensive process these days, music executives say. That is because with the return of live music after its shutdown by the Covid-19 pandemic, large venues typically lock in their schedules many months in advance, with little wiggle room for changes. In its announcement about the Madonna tour, Live Nation said simply, “Rescheduled dates will be announced as soon as possible.” More

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Having invited followers into his home studio as he recorded vocals for his latest track, the Linkin Park founder offers to text an MP3 file of the demo to anyone interested to do collaboration with him.
Mar 21, 2020
AceShowbiz – Linkin Park rocker Mike Shinoda is giving fans in isolation the opportunity to collaborate with him on a new song.
The singer, who, like many other stars, is practising social distancing during the coronavirus chaos, invited followers into his home studio on Tuesday, March 17 by going live on Instagram as he recorded vocals for his latest track, “Open Door”.
After sharing his creative process, he offered to text an MP3 file of the demo to anyone interested in hearing the work-in-progress, and shared the lyrics to the song’s chorus online.
Shinoda then went one step further, by offering one lucky fan the chance to feature on the tune itself.
“I have an idea,” he posted. “I want another voice on the chorus of ‘Open Door.’ Maybe it can be one of yours? Get the song, sing it, post a link on Twitter with the hashtag #SingOpenDoor and if I love something I’ll let you know.”

He has since been inundated with verses from aspiring musicians, and has reposted a number of video clips online, while also encouraging others to get involved.

Mike Shinoda encouraged fans to keep posting #SingOpenDoor clips.
“Keep posting your #SingOpenDoor clips,” he tweeted on Wednesday. “There are so many good ones already!”

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AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyJohn Fletcher, a.k.a. Ecstasy of the Group Whodini, Dies at 56He was, the executive who signed Whodini said, “truly one of the first rap stars” and a sex symbol “when they were very scarce in the early days of rap.”Jalil Hutchins, left, and John Fletcher, a.k.a. Ecstasy, of the foundational hip-hop group Whodini in 1984. “I can’t sing,” Mr. Fletcher once said. “But I heard somebody rap one day and I said to myself, ‘I can do that.’”Credit…Paul Natkin/Getty ImagesDec. 26, 2020, 5:56 p.m. ETJohn Fletcher, who as Ecstasy of the foundational hip-hop group Whodini was the engine for some of the genre’s first pop successes, wearing a flamboyant Zorroesque hat all the while, died on Wednesday. He was 56.Jonnelle Fletcher, his daughter, confirmed the death in a statement but did not specify the cause or say where he died. In the mid-1980s, Whodini — made up initially of Mr. Fletcher and Jalil Hutchins, who were later joined by the D.J. Grandmaster Dee (born Drew Carter) — released a string of essential hits, including “Friends,” “Freaks Come Out at Night” and “One Love.” Whodini presented as street-savvy sophisticates with a pop ear, and Mr. Fletcher was the group’s outsize character and most vivid rapper.“I can’t sing,” he told The Los Angeles Times in 1987. “But I heard somebody rap one day and I said to myself, ‘I can do that.’ I rap in pitch. I try to be unique. I have my own style.”John Fletcher was born on June 7, 1964, and grew up in the Wyckoff Gardens projects in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn. He first worked with Mr. Hutchins, who was from nearby Gowanus, when Mr. Hutchins was trying to record a theme song for the newly influential radio D.J. Mr. Magic.Mr. Fletcher in performance in 2017. His flat-brimmed leather hats became his signature look.Credit…Leon Bennett/Getty ImagesThat collaboration received significant local attention, and Mr. Fletcher and Mr. Hutchins were soon signed by Jive Records, which named them Whodini. They quickly recorded “Magic’s Wand,” produced by Thomas Dolby, and “The Haunted House of Rock,” a Halloween song.“Ecstasy was truly one of the first rap stars,” Barry Weiss, the executive who signed them, wrote on Instagram. “Not just a brilliant voice and wordsmith but a ladies’ man and sex symbol when they were very scarce in the early days of rap. Whodini helped usher in a female audience to what had been a traditional male art form.”Most of the group’s earliest material was recorded in London when Mr. Fletcher was fresh out of high school. Its 1983 self-titled debut album was produced by Conny Plank, who had also produced the bands Kraftwerk and Neu! Whodini also toured Europe before finding true success back in the United States.“We didn’t go to university and get a college degree, but that was our education, just seeing the world,” Mr. Fletcher said in a 2018 interview with the YouTube channel HipHop40.For its follow-up album, “Escape” (1984), Whodini began working with the producer Larry Smith, who amplified its sound and gave it a bit of appealing scuff. (Mr. Smith was also responsible for Run-DMC’s breakout albums.) “Escape” contained the songs that would become Whodini’s seminal hits, notably “Friends” and “Five Minutes of Funk” (released as flip sides on the same 12-inch single) and “Freaks Come Out at Night.”“Friends,” a skeptical storytelling song about deceit, was a smash in its own right and had a robust afterlife as sample material, most notably on Nas and Lauryn Hill’s “If I Ruled the World (Imagine That).”“Five Minutes of Funk” — which would become even more widely known as the theme music for the long-running hip-hop video show “Video Music Box” — deployed a clever countdown motif woven through the lyrics. “In creating that song,” Mr. Fletcher told HipHop40, “we pictured it blaring from the windows in the projects as we walked through it on a summer’s day.”As hip-hop was beginning to gain global notice, Whodini was consistently near the center of the action. The group was managed by the rising impresario Russell Simmons and appeared on the inaugural Fresh Fest tour, hip-hop’s first arena package.But as Run-DMC was taking hip-hop to edgier territory, Whodini remained committed to smoothness. “We were the rap group that kind of bridged the gap between the bands and the rappers,” Mr. Fletcher told HipHop40, adding that he and Mr. Hutchins were mindful that hip-hop was still struggling to gain acceptance among radio programmers, and wrote songs accordingly: “We wanted to curse, but we couldn’t curse.”Mr. Fletcher was also a key innovator in introducing melody to rapping. “Ecstasy was the lead vocalist on most Whodini songs because anything that we could play he could rap right to it in key,” Mr. Hutchins said in an interview with the hip-hop website The Foundation.“Escape” went platinum, and Whodini’s next two albums, “Back in Black” (1986) and “Open Sesame” (1987), both went gold. On “One Love” (from “Back in Black”), which had streaks of the sound that was to soon coalesce as new jack swing, Mr. Fletcher was reflective, almost somber:The words ‘love’ and ‘like’ both have four lettersBut they’re two different things altogether‘Cause I’ve liked many ladies in my dayBut just like the wind they’ve all blown awayHavelock Nelson and Michael A. Gonzales, in their book “Bring the Noise: A Guide to Rap Music and Hip-Hop Culture” (1991), described Whodini as “a beautifully kept building in the middle of Brooklyn’s ghetto heaven, personable characters floating gently through a turbulent sea of hard-core attitude and crush-groove madness.”In no small part that was because of the group’s style. Whodini dressed with flair: leather jackets, sometimes with no shirt; flowing pants or short shorts; loafers. And most crucially, Mr. Fletcher’s flat-brimmed leather hats, which became his signature look, inspired by a wool gaucho he saw in a shop on Myrtle Avenue in Brooklyn that he had remade in leather. Before long, he had several.“He had them in red; had them in white; two in black, one with an African headpiece on it,” Mr. Hutchins said in a 2013 interview with the Alabama website AL.com. “He had different ones, but the original one was his favorite.”Whodini was also one of the first hip-hop groups to use dancers in their stage shows. A young Jermaine Dupri got one of his earliest breaks as a dancer for the group. He later repaid the favor, signing Whodini to his label, So So Def, on which it released its final album, “Six,” in 1996. Whodini continued to perform frequently into the 2000s.Information on Mr. Fletcher’s survivors in addition to his daughter was not immediately available.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More