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      5 Breakout Artists at the Salzburg Festival

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      The Salzburg Festival is synonymous with excellence and fame. But it’s also a place where artists on the cusp of stardom can shine.The Salzburg Festival has, since its founding more than 100 years ago, been known as a gathering place for the world’s finest musicians.That’s still true: During a visit there earlier this month, I heard Grigory Sokolov play Bach with unfussy authority; Jordi Savall lead his period orchestra in magisterial accounts of Beethoven’s final two symphonies; Igor Levit muscle through another Beethoven symphony, the bacchic Seventh, with just a piano.But Salzburg is also a proving ground for artists on the cusp on stardom. The soprano Asmik Grigorian, for example, was busy but hardly world famous until she gave a career-making performance as Salome there in 2018.This year, there were breakthroughs to be found throughout Salzburg’s theaters. If you looked past the top billing, past the Cecilia Bartolis and Teodor Currentzises, they were even at some of the most high-profile events this summer. Here are five of them.Lukas SternathThe pianist Lukas Sternath performing with the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, under the conductor Adam Fischer.Marco Borrelli/Salzburg FestivalIn a bit of scheduling serendipity, Levit’s recital took place during the same weekend that the Austrian pianist Lukas Sternath, his former student, was debuting with the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg. It was touching to see Levit in the balcony of the Mozarteum’s ornate Grosser Saal, looking down as Sternath eloquently performed Mozart’s Piano Concerto in D minor (K. 466) under the baton of Adam Fischer.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

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      This Is My Voice One Year on T

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      A transgender music critic explores the change in their singing voice after taking testosterone.When I started taking testosterone last year, I was eager for the effects it would have on my speaking voice. I imagined talking in a voice that was low, smooth, soothing. But my high singing voice felt somehow sacrosanct. I didn’t really want it to change.Maybe that’s because growing up listening to opera I was always drawn to the sound of countertenors — the highest of male voice types — like Anthony Roth Costanzo and Klaus Nomi. In that ethereal, almost genderless sound, I recognized myself.What is it about the voice that carries such emotional weight? Such potential for self-recognition? The word “voice” is so tied up with identity as to be nearly synonymous with it. My writing has a voice. The cello, my primary instrument, is sometimes described as closest to the human voice.All voices evolve over the course of a lifetime. Boys’ voices drop during puberty. Opera singers have noticed how their voices change during and after pregnancy. And menopause brings hormonal changes that can lower voices. Our voices can even fluctuate in pitch over the course of a day, depending on whom we’re speaking to, whether that’s a child or a friend.When I started taking testosterone as part of my transition, I wondered not just how my voice would change, but also what that shift would mean. Would I be the same person with a different voice?I’m a cellist-turned-critic but I’ve always sung for pleasure. It wasn’t until two years ago, though, at 26, that I started voice lessons with a countertenor. I was already thinking about taking testosterone, but before that I wanted to experience my voice, as it was, at its full potential.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

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      Harold Meltzer, Composer of Impossible-to-Pigeonhole Works, Dies at 58

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      His music, which was performed by many prominent ensembles, mixed melodic themes and rich textures with the sharp-edged angularity of modernism.Harold Meltzer, a composer who set aside a career as a lawyer to create a highly regarded body of energetic, colorful chamber, vocal and orchestral scores that mixed accessibly melodic themes and rich ensemble textures with the sharp-edged angularity of modernism, died on Aug. 12 in Manhattan. He was 58.Hilary Meltzer, his wife, said that his death, in a hospital, was caused by respiratory failure, a complication of a variety of medical problems he had withstood since having a stroke in 2019.Mr. Meltzer, who was also a director (first with David Amato, later with Sara Laimon) of Sequitur, a new-music ensemble, cut an imposing figure at contemporary music concerts in the 1990s and 2000s.Bespectacled, with wavy hair, he invariably entertained friends during intermissions with wry observations about the music world in general, or the events of the day. Even after his stroke, when he began using a wheelchair, he was determined to maintain something approximating his earlier level of activity, and after only two months of therapy, he appeared as the narrator for his theater work “Sindbad,” a humorous 2005 setting of a Donald Barthelme story that was one of his most frequently performed works.His music was impossible to pigeonhole, mainly because each work was his response to a different set of challenges. In “Virginal” (2002), for harpsichord and 15 other instruments, he wanted to pay tribute to William Byrd, John Bull and other Elizabethan composers whose works were included in the “Fitzwilliam Virginal Book,” a collection of English Renaissance keyboard pieces. To avoid creating a pastiche, he did not quote from any of their music, focusing instead on the structures and processes (repeating figuration., for example) that made their music distinct.If there was one element that connected many of Mr. Meltzer’s works, it was an imaginative use of tone color. Metalli Studio, via the Civitella Ranieri FoundationWe 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

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      ‘The Interview’: Jelly Roll Cannot Believe How His Life Turned Out

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      We’ve all had the experience of being in a bad emotional place and, in response, putting on a song. We know that song isn’t going to fix the problem, whatever it may be, or even change the feeling. But the music we turn to when we’re struggling can be like a hand on our shoulder. For a legion of Americans today, the music that does that is by Jelly Roll.Listen to the Conversation With Jelly RollFrom jail and addiction to music stardom — the singer tells David Marchese he’s living a “modern American fairy tale.”Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Amazon | iHeart | NYT Audio AppJelly’s real name is Jason DeFord, and he’s from Antioch, Tenn. He’s 39-years-old, burly (though he’s trying to lose weight), with a face covered in tattoos. In a sign of the breadth of his audience, he has been able to score on the country, rock and pop charts with hit singles like “Need a Favor” and albums like 2023’s “Whitsitt Chapel.” His southern-rock and hip-hop-inflected country songs are almost all about clawing toward some semblance of stability, which is an experience that informs a lot of his music, because it’s one he knows well. Jelly was in and out of prison starting as a teenager and into his mid-20s. He has dealt with personal loss and substance-abuse issues — both his own and that of his teenage daughter’s mother. He has also dealt with the professional despair of a long run to nowhere as an aspiring rapper. But that’s before he switched to singing and, beginning in 2021, started to hit it big.The musician — one half of a down-home power couple with his wife, Bunnie Xo, who hosts the popular Dumb Blonde podcast — will set off on a cross-country headlining arena tour later this month. He also has a new, highly-anticipated album, “Beautifully Broken,” scheduled for release this fall. He is, by any measure, a star — and still figuring out just what that means.Can you share some of the things that fans come up and tell you? I’ve heard it all, Bubba. I’ve heard everything from “Your music was played at my daughter’s funeral; she had an accidental overdose” to “Your song helped me get through rehab; I listened to ‘Save Me’ on repeat for 30 days straight.” Or “It was our morning song before we did our gratitude list.” Yeah, everything from funerals to hospitals to recovery centers. I’ve heard the good stories, too: “I got sober.” It’s crazy, the range of emotions.Is it ever hard for you to be the recipient of that? Nah, I feel honored that I have a purpose. I spent so much of my life being counterproductive to society that to be in a place where I’m able to help people has completely changed my mentality. More

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      Book Review: ‘The Instrumentalist,’ by Harriet Constable

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      In her debut novel, “ The Instrumentalist,” Harriet Constable paints a vivid and nuanced portrait of the groundbreaking 18th-century violinist and conductor Anna Maria della Pietà.THE INSTRUMENTALIST, by Harriet ConstableThough plenty of talented women have performed and composed music in Europe over the last several centuries, few are enshrined in the classical canon. Why have their names and works disappeared from history?There are many explanations. Women were rarely allowed to perform in public; they lacked the kind of alone time, free of child care and housework, that enabled men to pursue their craft wholeheartedly; they had limited musical options, since women were prohibited from playing certain instruments, like the cello (lascivious) and the flute (unflattering); and in some cases, they were denied adequate recognition for their musical contributions, labeled “muses” to male artists rather than being credited as collaborators.In her debut novel, “The Instrumentalist,” Harriet Constable offers her own answers to this question through a complex and vivid portrait of Anna Maria della Pietà, an 18th-century Venetian violinist and conductor, and a favorite pupil of the composer Antonio Vivaldi.Born in Venice in 1696, della Pietà was handed over as an infant to the Ospedale della Pietà, an orphanage where girls were given a home and an education, including in music. There, she met Vivaldi, who led the Pietà’s widely celebrated orchestra, the figlie di coro. Centuries before major orchestras began hiring women, the orphans of the figlie di coro earned incomes, acquired jewels and commanded the adoration of kings and queens. Even among these stars, della Pietà shone, and eventually, she became the master of music at the orphanage.Beyond these details, little is known about della Pietà’s life. Though she was a renowned musician during her time, she was eventually forgotten. With “The Instrumentalist,” Constable fills in the gaps, giving this remarkable figure the kind of nuanced origin story that has rarely been afforded by history to female artists.The book opens with della Pietà as baby Anna Maria, and right away Constable sets up the first glimmers of her relentless character. In a harrowing scene, her teenage mother, a sex worker lost in a daze of postpartum anguish, attempts to drown herself and her child. The baby, Constable writes, “is a raging firestorm of a thing, and she cannot hold it back.” Anna Maria’s fervor causes her mother to change course and drop the baby off at an orphanage instead of killing her.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

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      A Virtuoso Cellist’s Painstaking Path From Long Covid Back to the Stage

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      For over three years, long Covid has presented Joshua Roman with health challenges — and has indelibly shaped the music he makes.Since he began playing cello at 3, Joshua Roman’s talent has taken him from his hometown of Mustang, Okla., to concert halls all over the world.He was the youngest principal cellist of the Seattle Symphony, at 22, and has been a soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and many other orchestras. His daily routine often included 10 hours of playing, along with a six-mile run.Then, on Jan. 9, 2021, in Jacksonville, Fla., the morning after performing Prokofiev’s Symphony-Concerto, a piece he loves for its “giant sections of flashy, virtuosic excitement,” everything changed. He woke up and found he couldn’t smell his toothpaste. Later that day, he tested positive for Covid.He was only 37 years old, but he felt extreme fatigue, as if “wearing a coat of weighted down metal inside my body.” It would be a month before he had enough energy to fly home to Manhattan. He was so weak that he got stuck on a staircase landing, crying until he managed to crawl up the rest of the steps.Eventually, most excruciating of all, he lost the stamina to play his cello for nearly three months.“I just let it sit literally collecting dust.”Mr. Roman described his fatigue as like “wearing a coat of weighted down metal inside my body.”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

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      Maurice Williams, Whose ‘Stay’ Was a Hit for Him and Others, Dies at 86

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      A chart topper in 1960 for him and his doo-wop group the Zodiacs, it inspired several notable cover versions and was heard in the 1987 film “Dirty Dancing.”Maurice Williams, the singer and songwriter whose 1960 single “Stay,” recorded with his doo-wop group the Zodiacs, shot to No. 1 and became a cover-song staple for a long line of musical acts, including the Four Seasons, the Hollies and Jackson Browne, died on Aug. 6 in Charlotte, N.C. He was 86.His death, in a hospital, was confirmed by Ron Henderson, a former member of the Zodiacs.Mr. Williams owed a considerable career debt to a girl he dated when he was 15. She provided the inspiration for his two biggest hits: “Little Darlin’,” recorded when his group was called the Gladiolas, which hit No. 41 on the Billboard pop chart in 1957; and “Stay,” which briefly topped the chart in 1960.Mr. Williams recalled the origins of “Stay,” his only chart-topping single, in a 2018 video interview. “This young lady I was going with, she was over to my house, and this particular night, her brother was supposed to pick her up at 10,” he said. “So he came, and I said, ‘Well, you can stay a little longer.’ And she said, ‘No, I gotta go.’”The next morning he woke up and wove that and other snippets from their conversation — “Now, your daddy don’t mind/And your mommy don’t mind” — into song form, building to its indelible signature line, which, seven years later, the Zodiacs’ Henry Gaston would render in a celestial falsetto: “Oh, won’t you stay, just a little bit longer.”Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs’ recording of the song stood out not only for its infectious hooks but also for its eye-blink length — slightly over 90 seconds.“We wanted to make it short so it would get more airplay,” Mr. Williams said. And, he added, “It worked.”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

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      Missouri Woman Charged in Scheme to Defraud Presleys and Sell Graceland

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      A woman named Lisa Jeanine Findley was arrested and accused of a brazen effort to foreclose on Elvis Presley’s home in Memphis.Federal authorities arrested a Missouri woman on Friday and accused her of orchestrating a brazen effort to shake down the Presley family by threatening to fraudulently foreclose on Graceland, Elvis’s home in Memphis, which is now a popular tourist attraction.The authorities said that they had arrested Lisa Jeanine Findley, 53, of Kimberling City, Mo., on charges of mail fraud and aggravated identity theft.“The defendant orchestrated a scheme to conduct a fraudulent sale of Graceland, falsely claiming that Elvis Presley’s daughter had pledged the historic landmark as collateral for a loan that she failed to repay before her death,” said Nicole M. Argentieri, the principal deputy assistant attorney general at the Justice Department.The arrest was made on the anniversary of the death of Elvis Presley, who was found unresponsive at Graceland on Aug. 16, 1977, and pronounced dead soon after at a hospital in Memphis. He was 42.If convicted, Ms. Findley faces a mandatory minimum of two years in prison for aggravated identity theft and a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for mail fraud. A spokesman for the Justice Department said Friday afternoon that she had been detained and was in the custody of the U.S. Marshals pending extradition to Memphis.Exactly who was behind the threat to sell Graceland, a popular and lucrative tourist attraction that draws 600,000 visitors a year, had been a mystery.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