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      Dolby Atmos Wants You to Listen Up. (And Down. And Sideways.)

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      True believers in the immersive audio format say it could restore a musical appreciation lost to a generation that has come up during the streaming era.After more than 30 years as a producer and engineer, Brad Wood wasn’t sure if he still had a future in music.Wood, a classically trained saxophonist, had gotten his start in Chicago’s early ’90s music scene, helming breakthrough albums for Liz Phair and Veruca Salt, and platinum records for Smashing Pumpkins and Placebo. In 2000, he moved to Southern California, where he thrived for a time — and then merely survived, as the downloading era sank recording budgets just as the brand of guitar rock he specialized in lost cultural relevancy.While many of his colleagues gave up, Wood kept going, working harder while earning less. “I probably got to the point where I was making the same rate as when I started,” he said.Then, in 2021, an emergent technology ushered Wood — and thousands of recording professionals like him — into an unexpected boom time.Over the past two years, Wood has been busy mixing old and new records in Dolby Atmos, an audio format that lets engineers create a listening experience more immersive than traditional stereo by placing sounds around and above the listener. Working for a variety of labels, Wood has done Atmos mixes for the Supremes, the Pogues, Jennifer Lopez, Modest Mouse, Gwen Stefani and Soul Asylum — some 300-plus tracks in total, the equivalent of two dozen albums.“The whole thing has been pretty unexpected and thrilling,” he said.For Dolby, the audio company that developed Atmos, and Apple Music — which has invested heavily in it — the technology could lead to the most dramatic shift in audio in 65 years.“The recording industry went from mono to stereo decades ago, and it didn’t move from there,” John Couling, senior vice president of Dolby Laboratories, said in a phone interview.There have been efforts to convince the public to adopt new advanced technologies in the years since, ‌including Quadraphonic sound in the ’70s ‌and 5.1 surround sound in the ’90s, but with little success. “We’ve changed formats, we’ve changed delivery methods, we’ve changed all sorts of things,” Couling said, “but it was still fundamentally the same sound. Atmos is a completely new experience.”Oliver Schusser, a vice president at Apple Music, said that his company, which has incentivized record labels to deliver catalog material in Atmos, sees it as way to bring sonic value back to music — something that’s been lost among a whole generation that has come up during the streaming era.“There was no appreciation of the art and work of sound engineers and mixing and mastering,” Schusser said over a video call this spring. “That really pained us. We wanted to fix that.”Today, all three major record labels and hundreds of independents are delivering tracks in Atmos. Apple Music, Amazon Music, Tidal and Qobuz are the among the 15 streaming services bringing Atmos to 160 countries and over 500 million listeners.“But mention the word ‘Atmos’ to anyone in the general public and they don’t know what the hell you’re talking about,” said the veteran engineer and producer Bob Clearmountain. One of the most respected and influential figures in the recording world, Clearmountain was initially dubious of Atmos’s staying power, but he has come to believe in its future.“Music has become background noise for most people. It’s something in your headphones while you’re out doing other stuff,” he said during a call last month. “When I was a teenager, I used to listen to an album three, four times through just sitting in front of my speakers, entranced.” That way of listening has disappeared, he said, but he’s hopeful that Atmos can bring it back, “if we’re able to get people to understand what it is and hear it the right way.”From the outside, it appears Atmos is entering a critical period that could determine whether it will kick off a sonic revolution or become just another tech lost to time.“The goal is to feel like you’re sitting amongst these musicians as they’re performing,” the producer Brad Wood said.Michael Tyrone Delaney for The New York TimesDOLBY ATMOS, INTRODUCED in 2012, was initially developed for movie theaters and the home theater market. Because it offers a wider palette than stereo, and differs from traditional 5.1 and 7.1 channel setups, Atmos allows engineers — typically mixing across a dozen or more speakers — to put sound sources in front, to the side, behind and even above the listener.“When you take sounds and you separate them from each other,” Couling said, “you will be able to hear those sounds independently much more clearly than if they are on top of each other. By creating space, we also create depth and clarity — and we found that’s what content creators really wanted.”For artists like Chic’s founder, Nile Rodgers, immersive audio is the closest thing to the musician’s experience. “When I’m making a record, I’m sitting in a room with the band,” Rodgers said during a video chat, “we’re playing and jamming and what happens is the sound is bathing us. That’s what music sounds like to me.”Listening to Dolby Atmos mixes in a professional recording studio can be a powerful experience. “It’s remarkably seductive,” said Clearmountain, who’s done Atmos projects for Bruce Springsteen, the Rolling Stones and others. “I’ve played Atmos tracks for so many people who say, ‘I can never listen to stereo again.’ People have been in tears, moved by what they were hearing. It has an incredible effect.”Opinions among recording professionals on any subject are rarely uniform, and there are some who have reservations about Atmos.Susan Rogers, a longtime engineer for Prince, left the music industry in the late ’90s to become a cognitive neuroscientist. Last fall, Dolby invited her to the company headquarters in San Francisco to listen to a new Atmos mix of Prince’s “When Doves Cry,” a track she originally worked on.“As both an engineer and as a psychoacoustician, I have mixed feelings about whether it’s an improvement,” Rogers said in a phone interview.She noted that there are evolutionary and biological reasons that sound sources coming from behind and above listeners can be unsettling or anxiety inducing. She also observed that music is a potent form of communication in large part because the consummatory phase happens entirely in the listener’s head. Having clearer and more sound sources can actually make it harder to know what to pay attention to.“That was what I noticed listening to ‘When Doves Cry’ in Atmos,” Rogers said. “It sounded amazing, but it was more difficult to assemble it into a unified whole in that private place I listen to music. I found it distracting.” Her “knee-jerk reaction was ‘do not want,’” she said. “But over time I may learn to like it.”APPLE MUSIC IS betting heavily that the public will, by and large, come to love Atmos. Although other companies, including Amazon, had flirted with the technology, in 2021 Apple decided to commit itself fully to Atmos, putting its own proprietary and branding spin on the tech, dubbing it “spatial” audio.Strategically, Atmos offers Apple Music a way to further distinguish itself from streaming competitors like Spotify — which has historically ignored high resolution or advanced audio options — and siphon market share from the industry’s dominant music service, YouTube.“We wanted something where people would notice a difference immediately,” said Schusser, the Apple Music executive. “Maybe not 100 percent would love Atmos or spatial audio right away, but everyone would know this sounds different, and the hope is the majority would come to appreciate the upgrade.”Initially, Apple’s biggest challenge was that there was very little Atmos content available. In 2017, R.E.M.’s “Automatic for the People” became the first album mixed for Atmos, and over the next few years, several notable Atmos releases — from Elton John, Queen and the Beatles — showcased the format’s possibilities.To achieve its broader aims, Apple needed to make Atmos content both viable and plentiful. It began by partnering with Dolby to encourage recording studios to upgrade to the format. There are now some 800 officially recognized Dolby Atmos studios in over 40 countries, a 350 percent increase in just two years. (Dolby estimates there are two or three times that number of other studios capable of delivering music in Atmos.)Apple Music also drew up wish lists of artists, albums and tracks and presented them to record labels, along with funding and deadlines, to help quickly expand the library of titles available in Atmos. Over the past few years, this effort to refit 50 years of pop music has heralded a rush of work for engineers and mixers, who’ve suddenly found themselves doing volume business in the format.Wood, initially dismissive of learning to work in Atmos, said he changed his mind once he realized the inevitability of its rise. “It was clear that records I’d made were going to get mixed in Atmos,” he said, “and if I didn’t learn how to do it, somebody else would, and I’d be ceding that control.” Wood’s first Atmos mix was for Liz Phair’s “Soberish,” an album he’d originally produced. “And, also, I realized there would be a good payday in learning,” he added.While contemporary pop and hip-hop artists were quick to adopt the format for new releases, convincing veteran rock acts to enter the Atmos fray proved more of a challenge. “The first six months, those artists had a lot of questions,” Schusser said.Some groups, like the Doors, embraced the format, overhauling their entire catalog in Atmos all at once; others, like Fleetwood Mac, have proceeded more cautiously, doing one album at a time. More and more though, top legacy artists have been putting out Atmos mixes with increasing regularity, with recent releases including landmark albums like Pink Floyd’s‌ ‌“The Dark Side of the Moon‌‌” and ‌the Beach Boys’‌ ‌“Pet Sounds.”Given the sheer volume of Atmos catalog work and the still evolving understanding of the format, not all mixes are created equal.“The labels seem to be farming this stuff out and it isn’t always being done with the original artist or production team involved,” Clearmountain said. “I know that’s not always possible. But sometimes what comes back are just bad mixes — or strange mixes, anyway.”Wood — who has done mixes in consultation with the original artists as well as on his own — agrees. “In general, you have to try to put the tracks into a speaker array so it doesn’t sound too jarring or gimmicky,” he said. “The goal is to feel like you’re sitting amongst these musicians as they’re performing. Like all mixing, it’s subjective, and how you approach it really depends on the music itself.”For some artists, transforming old recordings into Atmos has been challenging. Chic recently had its first three albums mixed in the format. “The process took months and months to get right,” Rodgers said. “The team that was working on it, we gave them notes, we went into different rooms, did rough mixes to show them what we were talking about.”For others, the overhaul has been relatively painless and even eye-opening. This past spring, Alicia Keys had eight of her albums mixed for Atmos. In a video interview promoting her catalog overhaul, Keys said that engineers working on her albums “completely reimagined every note, every sound, every instrument, every voice. It sounds like you’ve never heard it before. I mean, I never even heard it like this before. It really is a new experience.”Strategically, Atmos offers Apple Music a way to further distinguish itself from streaming competitors like Spotify,Chad HagenONE OF THE reasons other highly touted surround sound technologies like 5.1 and 7.1 failed to catch on is because they required a specific speaker configuration. Dolby Atmos, however, is scalable and can adapt to a variety of setups.Given its success in the headphones market, Apple has emphasized playback on its AirPods and Beats Fit Pro devices, which all offer a version of the Atmos experience with dynamic head tracking (where the sound shifts along with a user’s movement) in the $200 to $500 range. A number of other manufacturers, including Audeze, RIG, Corsair and LG, also offer Atmos headphones and earbuds.The options for affordable home music systems, ones purpose-built for Atmos audio, have been limited. Amazon and Apple have long offered their own Atmos-enabled smart speakers, but neither really conveyed the full range of sound possible.In March, Sonos introduced a first of its kind sub-$500 speaker, the Era 300, which more successfully packages the Atmos experience into a single compact unit, equipped with a half-dozen drivers that direct sound left, right, forward and upward.The Grammy-winning mixing and mastering engineer Emily Lazar, who helped test and fine tune the Era 300, hopes it will be the start of tech companies bringing more viable Atmos options to market.“No one who’s listened to Atmos in a properly tuned, beautiful-sounding studio can deny what it offers,” she said. “How now can we deliver that in a smaller package so everybody can afford it and have that same kind of experience is going to be key moving forward.”If Atmos does ever achieve critical mass, it might come through automobiles. Most cars come equipped standard with a dozen-plus speakers, making them a natural environment for immersive audio. So far, a handful of major automakers including Mercedes-Benz and Volvo have introduced plans to put Atmos in their vehicles. It’s a market Dolby and Apple both say they are determined to expand further.“But those kind of tech changes don’t happen in a year or two — and that’s really what it’s been so far,” Schusser said. “There’s obviously more work to be done. But we’re all optimistic we’ll get there with Atmos.”In the meantime, recording pros like Wood will keep working and mixing, hoping the Atmos bump will last a little while longer.“I don’t know that I could have written a better chapter for this phase of my career,” he said. “If you told me three years ago, I was going to get paid my day rate to listen and work on some of the greatest recordings in history, I would’ve said, ‘Sign me up — that sounds amazing.’” More

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      Max Morath, Pianist Who Staged a One-Man Ragtime Revival, Dies at 96

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      A student of both music and history, he entertained audiences in the 1960s and beyond while educating them about a genre whose heyday had ended decades earlier.Max Morath, who stepped out of the 1890s only a lifetime late, and with syncopated piano rhythms and social commentary helped revive the ragtime age on educational television programs, in concert halls and in nightclubs for nearly a half-century, died on Monday at a care facility near his home in Duluth, Minn. He was 96.His wife, Diane Fay Skomars, confirmed the death.Having learned the rudiments of music from his mother, who played a tinkling piano in movie theaters for silent films, Mr. Morath — after false career starts as a radio announcer, newscaster and actor — found his calling in a fascination with ragtime, the uniquely syncopated, “ragged” style whose heyday spanned two decades, roughly from 1897 to 1917.A college-educated student of both music and history, Mr. Morath fell in love with ragtime’s dreamlike, bittersweet sounds. He researched the styles and repertoires of its era. He combed libraries, studied piano rolls and old sheet music, consulted historical societies, read antique magazines and talked to folks old enough to recall the work of the ragtime greats and the milestones of their age.What emerged was a new form of entertainment that combined showmanship with scholarly commentaries on ragtime itself, on its players and fans, and on the etiquette and tastes of a long-vanished age when horses pulled streetcars and women’s suffrage was still just a dream of the future.In a straw boater and sleeve garters, pounding an old upright with a cigar clenched in his teeth, Mr. Morath played Scott Joplin’s “Maple Leaf Rag,” Jelly Roll Morton’s “Tiger Rag” and Eubie Blake’s “Charleston Rag.” In those moments he might have been a vaudeville copycat trading on nostalgia. But his mood grew serious — and strangely more engaging — when he paused to tell audiences what they were hearing.“Ragtime is the folk music of the city,” he would explain. “It represents 25 years of a music that’s been overlooked.“Classic ragtime isn’t the honky-tonk music you hear today. That’s just a popular misconception. Nobody has paid the classic ragtime much attention, because of the attitude that folk music had to come from the hills. We were looking in the wrong direction.”Mr. Morath made ragtime come alive again. In the 1890s, he said, people heard it in vaudeville houses or just walking around town. There were newfangled inventions: player pianos, phonographs and nickelodeons. Middle-class homes had upright pianos. Sheet music was booming. Tin Pan Alley, the Manhattan home of the songwriters who dominated popular music, was flourishing.After a few years in clubs and on radio and television in the West and in his native Colorado, Mr. Morath broke through in 1960 at KRMA-TV, Denver’s educational TV station. He wrote and produced “The Ragtime Era,” a series of 12 half-hour shows on the music and history of ragtime and the blues, as well as the origins of musical comedy and Tin Pan Alley, for the 60-station National Educational Television network, the predecessor of PBS.Reviewing that series for The New York Times, Jack Gould wrote: “In an uncommon mixture of earthiness, emphasized by his chewing of a big cigar and wearing of loud vests, and erudition, reflected in his knowledgeable commentary on music and the social forces that influence its expression, he presides over a wonderful rag piano and lets go.”The series was bought by commercial stations, greatly expanding Mr. Morath’s audience. He was soon juggling recording dates, college gigs (some 50 a year), and concert and club bookings. He also crafted another NET series, “The Turn of the Century” (1962): 15 installments that related ragtime music to its social, economic and political period, using lantern slides, photographs and other props.Mr. Morath in 1969. “Ragtime is the folk music of the city,” he said. “It represents 25 years of a music that’s been overlooked.”via Colorado Music ExperienceWith its wider focus — on life in America from 1890 to the 1920s — “The Turn of the Century” was a runaway success. In addition to being seen in syndication on commercial television, it became a one-man theatrical show. Mr. Morath presented it at the Blue Angel and the Village Vanguard in New York, brought it to the Off Broadway Jan Hus Playhouse in 1969 and then toured nationally for many years.“In a two-hour jaunty excursion, Morath gives us a look at the 30-year period that spanned the time of McGuffey’s Reader, women’s suffrage, the grizzly bear dance, Prohibition, legal marijuana and Teddy Roosevelt,” The Washington Post said when Mr. Morath opened at Ford’s Theater in 1970. “It was a time of sweeping changes in the moral climate of our nation, and Morath uses popular music, chiefly ragtime, as the centrifugal force for sorting out the different phases.”As the ragtime revival surged into the 1970s, it was given momentum by the musicologist Joshua Rifkin, who recorded much of Scott Joplin’s work for the Nonesuch label in 1971, and by the success of George Roy Hill’s Oscar-winning film “The Sting” (1973), starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford as con artists, which featured Joplin’s “The Entertainer” on the soundtrack.Mr. Morath appeared on “The Bell Telephone Hour,” “Kraft Music Hall,” “Today,” “The Tonight Show” and Arthur Godfrey’s radio and television programs. A series of Morath productions — “The Ragtime Years,” “Living the Ragtime Life,” “The Ragtime Man,” “Ragtime Revisited,” and “Ragtime and Again” — opened Off Broadway and were followed by national tours.“I must have played in 5,000 different places, and many of them were not all that classy,” Mr. Morath said in 2019 in an interview for this obituary. “Mostly they were saloons, and it wasn’t all ragtime either. Some of them were piano bars. When you work a piano bar, you’d better know 1,500 tunes. You’re playing requests. It was Gershwin. Cole Porter. Rodgers and Hart.”Mr. Morath continued touring until he retired in 2007. By then, he had long been known as “Mr. Ragtime,” the unofficial keeper of America’s ragtime legacy.Asked for a favorite memory from his life in music, he reached back to his childhood.“Actually,” he said after a moment’s thought, “it was when I was 7 and I heard my mother play something Joplin wrote, called ‘The Original Rag.’ It was published in Kansas City, and somehow my mother got ahold of it. We had a piano bench full of good stuff, mostly show tunes. But ‘Original Rag’ was my favorite.”Max Edward Morath was born in Colorado Springs on Oct. 1, 1926, the younger of two sons of Frederic Morath, a real estate broker, and Gladys (Ramsell) Morath. When Max was 4, his parents divorced. His mother became society editor of The Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph, and his father went to Europe, remarried and spent his days climbing in the Alps and the Pyrenees.Max and his brother, Frederic, attended local public schools. He was active in choir and theater at Colorado Springs High School and, in his senior year, got a job as a radio announcer with KVOR (the call letters stand for Voice of the Rockies). After he graduated in 1944, he paid his way through Colorado College as a pianist and newscaster for the station. He majored in English and earned a bachelor’s degree in 1948.In 1953, he married Norma Loy Tackitt. They had three children before divorcing in 1992. He married Ms. Skomars, an author and photographer, in 1993.In addition to his wife, Mr. Morath is survived by two daughters, Kathryn Morath and Christy Mainthow; a son, Frederic; a stepdaughter, Monette Fay Magrath; five grandchildren; and a great-grandson. His brother died in 2009.In a recording career that began in 1955, Mr. Morath made more than 30 albums, mostly of unaccompanied piano solos, for Epic, RCA Victor, Vanguard and other labels. His original compositions were recorded by the pianist and composer Aaron Robinson and released in 2015 as “Max Morath: The Complete Ragtime Works for Piano.”Mr. Morath wrote an illustrated memoir, “The Road to Ragtime” (1999), and “I Love You Truly: A Biographical Novel Based on the Life of Carrie Jacobs-Bond” (2008), about the first woman to establish a music publishing firm in America. She had been the subject of a paper Mr. Morath wrote for his master’s degree, which he earned at Columbia University in 1996.In 2016, Mr. Morath was inducted into the Colorado Music Hall of Fame, along with the bandleaders Paul Whiteman and Glenn Miller. “It made me feel really great,” he said. “Of course, they’re both Colorado boys. I felt I was in very good company.”Daniel E. Slotnik contributed reporting. More

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      For Riccardo Muti, a Grand Sort-of-Finale in Chicago

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      The concert had ended, and Riccardo Muti, the music director of the Chicago Symphony, was walking out of Orchestra Hall when he saw a banner in the lobby and stopped in his tracks.“Muti Conducts the Grand Finale of the 2022-23 Season,” it read. This was in May, with just a month of programs to go — culminating in performances of Beethoven’s mighty “Missa Solemnis,” June 23-25, which will mark the end of Muti’s 13-year directorship.So when Muti, 81, began railing about the banner to his tiny entourage, it seemed like he must be joking: There could hardly be a grander finale to his acclaimed tenure. But it quickly became obvious that his anger was real.“I told them not to write ‘grand finale,’” he said, grimacing. “It’s a finale? And then I’m back in September?”The next morning, the offending banner was gone. His frustration was mostly silly, of course. The orchestra was just being factual in ginning up a little excitement at a climactic moment in the six-decade career of one of the most eminent figures in classical music.But Muti had a point. Since his successor has not yet been named, he will be continuing as a kind of shadow music director next season, and possibly longer. Leaving — yet not entirely leaving — on a high note, with the adoration of Chicago’s musicians and audiences, he has been sensitive that his farewell will seem like a grand anticlimax when he returns, just three months from now, for the fall opening concerts and a trip to Carnegie Hall.“‘He’s here again,’ they will say,” Muti speculated in an interview. “‘He’s back!’ It’s too much.”“I don’t blame him,” said Helen Zell, the former chair of the orchestra’s board, who endowed Muti’s music director position. “Just as courting him was a big, long process, the exit is just as challenging.”Between the complicated beginning and ending, though, Muti’s time in Chicago has been widely reckoned an enormous success. His performances of a broad swath of repertoire — his signature Italian operas in concert, Beethoven symphonies, world premieres, rarities of the past, Mozart, Schubert, Bruckner, Florence Price, Philip Glass — have been pristine yet intense, powerful yet graceful.Muti, who was born in Naples and raised in Puglia, is European to the core. Here, he conducts in 2021 at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, where he was music director for 20 years./EPA, via ShutterstockMuti leading the Vienna Philharmonic on New Year’s Day 2021; he will conduct the orchestra on the 200th anniversary of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony next spring./EPA, via Shutterstock“He took the great Chicago Symphony Orchestra and made it even greater,” Jeff Alexander, the orchestra’s president, said. “The sound now is really spectacular — in a more mellifluous, mellow, lyrical way.”His departure is about more than inevitable turnover at an important ensemble, said Pierre Audi, the stage director and impresario. It’s a milestone as the generation of leaders born before the end of World War II passes — and, with it, the old-school conception of the commanding, protecting maestro.“Muti will leave Chicago, and that’s it,” Audi said. “It’s the beginning of the end.”Muti was born, as he loves to tell people, in Naples and raised in Puglia. His longest-held position was nearly 20 years at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, and his most lasting affiliation has been with the Vienna Philharmonic, which names no chief conductor. (He will lead that orchestra on the 200th anniversary of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony next spring.) He is European to the core.Yet perhaps his most triumphant stints have been with two American ensembles: Chicago and, through the 1980s, the Philadelphia Orchestra. When he arrived in Philadelphia, he was an upstart in his 30s, taking over after four decades of Eugene Ormandy.Ormandy had built an ensemble that was thick and lush, particularly in its famous strings, and he bathed every work in a uniform butteriness: The composer served the sound. Muti aimed to reverse that dynamic, creating distinct styles for Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Tchaikovsky — adding a flexibility that took the group, as the violinist Barbara Govatos said, “from the Cadillac of orchestras to the Ferrari.”He surprised the still-enamored musicians when he left in the early 1990s, partly because of the difficulty balancing his work with La Scala and partly because plans for a new hall in Philadelphia were stagnating. As he focused on Milan, Muti said he had no interest in another music director position in America, with all the attendant extramusical responsibilities.The New York Philharmonic nevertheless thought — twice — that it was on the verge of hiring him. Chicago ended up luckier after Daniel Barenboim announced in 2004 that he was leaving. Watching Muti conduct in Paris early the next year, Deborah Rutter, then president in Chicago, told a colleague, “If we can do it, this is the one it should be.”“There is a sort of electrical current to the energy he brings to his music-making,” Rutter said recently. “And that sort of hyper-focused energy is something I would describe as being very Chicago-like.”Muti’s relationship with La Scala was foundering, but he hadn’t appeared with the Chicago Symphony since the 1970s. He and Rutter agreed he would come in 2006, but he canceled, which was crushing. She lured him back with dates the next fall, along with a European tour.“I was too tired to travel, to start a new adventure,” Muti said. “But when I came back here, immediately it was something that happened between me and the orchestra.”Perhaps Muti’s most triumphant stints have been with two American ensembles: Chicago and, through the 1980s, the Philadelphia Orchestra. Lelli & MasottiThe critic Andrew Patner, describing those 2007 performances, wrote, “By the second date, the Italian maestro almost seemed like an old friend.” After the tour, Muti received a box of handwritten letters from the players, a personal touch that helped seal the deal.“There was an ecstatic reception he had when he was in Chicago, from the press and the public,” said Zarin Mehta, then the president of the New York Philharmonic. “He was treated with total respect in New York, but not with the ecstatic admiration he gets in Chicago.”Barenboim had relaxed the ensemble’s sound from the muscular, stentorian days of Georg Solti, but it still had a resolute Germanic style. Under Muti, the orchestra has still been able to produce, say, a Beethoven’s Fifth of blistering force, but he generally wanted something more Italianate.“I found a great orchestra,” he said, “but not balanced. Everyone was speaking about the brass. The strings were a little too — not harsh, but hard. No perfume. And the woodwinds, they had good players, but no one spoke about the woodwinds. And there is another thing: I needed them to sing.”The diet he prescribed was heavy on Schubert and, of course, opera, particularly his beloved Verdi, prepared with unsparing attention to detail. “Otello,” in 2011, was ferociously dramatic; “Macbeth” (2013), a brooding march. “Falstaff” (2016) was witty, more delicate than slapstick; “Aida” (2019), coolly elegant; “Un Ballo in Maschera” (2022), meticulously sumptuous.“The relentless thing he will not back down on is the refinement — of line, of attack, of phrasing,” said James Smelser, a hornist. “He doesn’t make mistakes. There’s always clarity, preparedness, consistency.”Muti has proved enthusiastic about performing in the community, including events at juvenile detention facilities. He embraced a fellowship program seeking to increase the racial diversity of the players’ ranks. And after years of resisting, he even began to drop some of his complaints about appearing at endless donor events.There were troubles. In 2019, a musicians’ strike lasted nearly seven weeks; in an unusual move for a music director, Muti publicly sided with the players, and appeared with them on the picket line. During the pandemic, he agreed to stay on an extra year, but the pause in performances — which meant a pause in appearances by potential candidates — stalled the search for his successor.Since relations between him and the orchestra are far warmer than they were with Barenboim at the end of his tenure — when Bernard Haitink and Pierre Boulez agreed to take on responsibilities in the interregnum, before Muti was hired — it makes sense for him to help fill the coming gap.“I’ve worked in a few other places,” said Alexander, the orchestra’s president, “where it’s much more common that the music director disappears, or they come back once every three or five years. Early in our discussions with Maestro Muti about the end of his term, we said we wanted to keep seeing him for a number of weeks each season, which I think he was happy to hear.”But while Muti will finish the musician hiring and tenure processes he has started, it’s not yet clear who will oversee new auditions. He seems intent on maintaining some flexibility, partly in case he should want to scale back his commitment after his successor is announced: He said that he has told the orchestra’s administration — who knows how much in jest? — “If you choose somebody that really I don’t like, then I don’t know if I come back.”It takes little prompting for Muti to bemoan a host of cultural problems. “Today,” he said, bags heavy and dark under his eyes, “I think we are all lost.”Evan Jenkins for The New York TimesHis replacement is the least of it. It takes little prompting for Muti to bemoan a host of cultural problems: the decline in music education, players and conductors too lazy to properly prepare or respect the letter of the score, what he views as the increasing distance between classical music and mainstream society.“Today,” he said, bags heavy and dark under his eyes, “I think we are all lost.”But his melancholy melts away when he’s on the podium, particularly in rehearsals that he leads with a kind of merry rigor, laughter snapping into a crisp downbeat. There was an endearing, oddball quality to the program he led near the end of May, telescoping between the intimate and the grand.A Mozart divertimento was followed by William Kraft’s raucous Timpani Concerto No. 1. After intermission came one of Respighi’s lively and tender “Ancient Airs and Dances” suites, before his “Pines of Rome,” a Muti party piece that also closed his first concert as music director — in front of some 25,000 people in Millennium Park.When you think of “Pines,” you usually think of bombast. But the loudness comes very near the end; much of the piece is actually quite subtle, and the way to make the finale really potent is to handle the earlier stuff with atmospheric transparency.Muti now stretches those earlier passages into a hazily dreamlike, almost out of time quality, building only slowly to triumph. In the first performance, a Thursday evening, the pianist treated a diaphanous cadenza with too much flamboyance; Muti, visibly displeased on the podium, took him aside later, and the following afternoon, the passage was properly light and watery. Any exaggeration turns this piece into kitsch; even the brassy conclusion, under Muti’s baton, is shockingly elegant and clear.“At the end of ‘Pines of Rome,’” Smelser, the hornist, said, “most conductors are flailing around. The sheer volume, it’s out of control. But he’s never out of control, and he doesn’t want us to be out of control.”“The orchestra knows exactly what I want,” Muti said. “Many times, I don’t even conduct — or it seems that I don’t conduct. It’s been 13 years of wonderful musical experiences, and friendly. In 13 years, I haven’t had a second of fight with them. It’s been always like this.” More

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      Top Grammy Categories Are Returning to 8 Nominees, From 10

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      The event is also moving two competitions into its “general” field, adding three awards, and setting a new threshold for collaborators in album of the year.Two years ago, the Grammy Awards abruptly increased the number of nominees permitted in its top categories, going to 10 slots on the ballot, from eight. Now, it is going back.The Recording Academy, the organization behind the Grammys, said on Friday that the number of nominees would once again be set at eight in the four top categories — album, record and song of the year, and best new artist — for the 66th annual awards, scheduled to be presented in early 2024.Among other tweaks to the awards rules is the addition of two categories to the all-genre “general” field: producer of the year, nonclassical, and songwriter of the year, nonclassical, a new prize introduced at the most recent ceremony, in February. This change — the first addition to the general field since 1959 — would allow all the academy’s voting members to cast votes in those categories.The move to 10 nominees, decided by the board just one day before nominations were announced in 2021, made the always-surprising Grammy process even more unpredictable. Some voters complained privately that broadening the field lowered the mandate for winners too far, allowing — theoretically, at least — one artist to prevail with little more than 10 percent of the vote.Harvey Mason Jr., the chief executive of the academy, said in an interview this week that the organization had not heard any such complaints, but he acknowledged that similar questions were on the minds of board members when they voted last month to change the rules.“Does the vote get split? Is 10 too many? Does it minimize the nomination?” Mason said. “All these conversations were happening in trying to find what is the best number.”At the Grammy ceremony in February, Harry Styles won album of the year for “Harry’s House,” beating out releases by Beyoncé, Adele, Kendrick Lamar and Bad Bunny.The change announced Friday is the third of its kind in five years. In 2018, the academy increased the ballot from five to eight; three years later, it went from eight to 10.In another shift, the Grammys are setting a new eligibility threshold for collaborators on album of the year. In recent years, the Grammys have required that contributors like songwriters, engineers and guest performers appear on at least 33 percent of an album’s playing time, but for the 2022 awards, that bar was reduced to zero — a change that in some cases resulted in more than 100 names appearing in the nomination.That threshold has now been raised to 20 percent, which should cull many songwriters and other contributors who appear on just one or two tracks on a typical album.Among other changes, the academy is introducing three awards for next year: best African music performance, best pop dance recording and best alternative jazz album.Those additions bring the total for the 66th ceremony to 94 categories, a number that has been growing rapidly. As recently as three years ago, the Grammys had 84.In another change that raised some eyebrows in the music industry, the Grammys shifted the eligibility period for the 2024 awards twice recently, first announcing an 11-month window and then adding two weeks two it, resulting in an unusual eligibility period of 11 and a half months, covering Oct. 1, 2022, to Sept. 15, 2023. More

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      Live Nation and Other Ticket Giants Promise Transparency on Fees

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      Live Nation and SeatGeek said they would show customers the full cost of concerts, after the White House’s complaints that “junk fees” for tickets and hotel stays can mislead consumers.Under pressure from the Biden administration, some of the biggest companies that handle ticketing for concerts and other live events announced on Thursday that they will make it easier for consumers to see the full price of tickets they want to buy, including the fees that can often add more than 30 percent to the total cost of an order.Live Nation, the world’s largest concert company, said it would begin introducing “all-in pricing” — showing consumers the full price up front — at the venues it controls, which include more than 200 amphitheaters, clubs and other spaces in the United States. Ticketmaster, which is owned by Live Nation, said it would make this tool available to other venues and promoters as well. Those changes are expected beginning in September.SeatGeek, a major vendor for reselling tickets that also works for major venues and sports teams like the Dallas Cowboys, said it too would begin introducing a feature that would reveal to consumers the full price of a ticket.Those changes come as the Biden administration has stepped up its pressure on the entertainment and travel industries to rein in what it calls “junk fees.” Before beginning a round table at the White House with executives from Live Nation, SeatGeek, Airbnb and other companies on Thursday, President Biden framed the crackdown on surcharges as a way to appeal to the working class — a major theme of his re-election campaign.“These hidden charges that companies sneak into your bill make you pay more without you really knowing it initially,” Mr. Biden said. “Junk fees are not a matter for the wealthy very much but they’re a matter for working folks like the homes I grew up in.”As Mr. Biden spoke, a screen showed an example of a “service charge” of $12.99. But for the most in-demand concerts, those fees can be many times higher. For one Drake concert, for example, a screenshot ricocheted around social media in March showing that for two tickets costing $544, three surcharges — service fee, facility charge and order fee — added another $541, nearly doubling the total cost.Ticketing, and questions of competition and consumer fairness in the entertainment industry, became hot-button issues in Washington after a botched presale in November for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour. Ticketmaster’s system was overrun with bots, and many fans reported that tickets they had selected disappeared from their online shopping charts.At a Senate Judiciary hearing in January, Live Nation came under harsh, bipartisan attack, with senators openly calling the company a monopoly. The Justice Department has separately been investigating Live Nation for potential violations of the consent decree that was a condition of the company’s merger with Ticketmaster in 2010; among the terms in that agreement were that Live Nation cannot threaten venues with retaliation for not using Ticketmaster as their official ticket vendor.But the extent to which the most recent promises by Live Nation and SeatGeek would substantially change the ticket market are unclear. The concert industry is complex, with pricing and fees controlled by various parties that have little incentive to reduce their take — especially with live music rebounding after its near-disappearance during the Covid-19 pandemic, and ticket sales now reaching record highs.The changes by Live Nation and SeatGeek do not lower prices or include any commitment to reduce surcharges, which are often set by venues; those companies are simply promising to disclose fees as part of a ticket’s total cost.After Mr. Biden’s State of the Union address in February — at which he said, “We can stop service fees on tickets to concerts and sporting events and make companies disclose all the fees upfront” — Live Nation proposed federal legislation that, among other things, would mandate all-in pricing.Without all competitors held to the same standard, many executives in the ticketing world say, those that comply voluntarily would be put at a competitive disadvantage, since other venues and ticketing services could lure customers by advertising lower prices, only to reveal surcharges once a customer completes a transaction.Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat of Connecticut who is a sponsor of a bill called the Junk Fee Prevention Act, offered a mixed review of Live Nation’s pledge of transparency.“Live Nation-Ticketmaster’s announcement is a step in the right direction,” Mr. Blumenthal said in a statement, “but no substitute for legislation to provide consumers with transparency and prevent companies from imposing ridiculous junk fees.”Still, Mr. Biden said that all the companies he had gathered for the round table were “voluntarily committed to ‘all-in’ upfront pricing,” and he called it a victory.“This is a win for consumers in my view,” Mr. Biden said, “and proof that our crackdown on junk fees has real momentum.” More

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      Five Places to Visit in Oahu, Hawaii, With Singer Jack Johnson

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      Born and raised in Oahu’s North Shore, the singer-songwriter Jack Johnson can still remember a time when going surfing in Waikiki on the other side of the island was a bit of a trip. “When I was a kid back in the ’70s, that drive seemed extra long. It was mostly dirt roads to get there,” Mr. Johnson said during a video chat from his farm on the island.He also remembers hearing about a local chef, Ed Kinney, who supported and promoted local agriculture. “In Hawaii we have a problem where 90 percent of our food is shipped in. Ed was one of the first chefs, 20 years ago, who was really talking about how important it was to buy local ingredients. Not only for the local economy but also just so that when people are eating out, they’re tasting food that was grown in Hawaii.”The musician Jack Johnson at Kokua Learning Farm, part of a foundation he started with his wife, Kim. Michelle Mishina Kunz for The New York TimesA pro surfer before becoming a platinum-selling musical artist, Mr. Johnson is, with his wife Kim, an active environmentalist. In 2003 they founded Kokua Hawaii Foundation, which supports environmental education in Hawaii’s schools and communities. Over the years they have helped establish school gardens, launched recycling drive programs and encouraged the elimination of single-use plastics, and most recently, acquired a farm where school children visit for hands-on learning about the environment.A garden bed of mint, and nasturtium and cassava plants grow at Kokua Learning Farm, which is part of the foundation started by Mr. Johnson and his wife, Kim.Michelle Mishina Kunz for The New York TimesThe partially restored wetlands at Kokua Learning Farm, which uses sustainable agricultural practices.Michelle Mishina Kunz for The New York TimesMr. Johnson’s latest album, “In Between Dub,” released this month, is a collection of some of the musician’s favorite songs from his 20-year career, reimagined as dub remixes by some of reggae’s biggest names.Here are five of his favorite places to visit in Oahu.1. Waikiki BeachA surfer at Waikiki Beach, which Mr. Johnson says is “about the best place in the world to learn how to surf.” Gabriella Angotti-Jones for The New York Times“It can be pretty crowded, so it might seem like a funny place to recommend somebody to go, but it’s about the best place in the world to learn how to surf. Everybody at every level can get in the water and have fun at Waikiki,” said Mr. Johnson. “There are these beach boys who rent surfboards all along the beach. A lot of them grew up in the water and they’re the most competent people to teach you how to surf,” he added. Even if learning to hang ten is not part of the plan, Waikiki is a great place to watch the sun set while skilled surfers do their thing.2. Hungry Ear RecordsAn employee sorts records at Hungry Ear, one of Hawaii’s oldest record stores. Mr. Johnson says he often shops for albums when he’s on tour, in part because they are easy to carry home. Michelle Mishina Kunz for The New York Times“It’s been around and moved locations over the years since I was a kid, but it’s where I bought my very first CDs,” Mr. Johnson said. “It’s kind of curated in the sense that the people who are working there are music fans, and when you come in and ask questions, they’re really friendly and show you around.” The store has what Mr. Johnson calls “an amazing collection” of vintage Hawaiian music on vinyl, making it “probably the best place in the world” for anybody curious about Hawaiian music, traditional or contemporary. “ I have a big record collection thanks to Hungry Ear,” said Mr. Johnson, who also likes to shop for records when he’s on tour. “I find that records are a good thing to buy when you’re traveling because they’re flat, so you can put them between your clothes and they don’t add too much space.Mr. Johnson especially likes Hungry Ear for its extensive collection of vintage Hawaiian music.Michelle Mishina Kunz for The New York TimesForty-fives get their own storage space at the shop.Michelle Mishina Kunz for The New York Times3. Mud Hen WaterMud Hen Water, run by the chef Ed Kenney, sources its ingredients from local farmers and fishermen. Michelle Mishina Kunz for The New York Times“Mud Hen Water is my favorite restaurant in Hawaii. Ed Kenney is the chef and he’s amazing. He’s the host on a PBS show called “Family Ingredients,” and it’s made here in Hawaii. The food is great and it’s done by somebody who was born and raised in Hawaii, who has a real grasp of Hawaiian traditions.” A favorite dish to try? “I would say anything on the menu with kalo, which is taro root and one of the most traditional staples in Hawaii cuisine.”The menu at Mud Hen Water takes its inspiration from traditional Hawaiian cooking.Michelle Mishina Kunz for The New York TimesInside Mud Hen Water, the restaurant manager Valentina Williams greets some regular customers.Michelle Mishina Kunz for The New York Times4. Honolulu Theater for YouthA production of “Peter Pop Pan” at the Honolulu Theater for Youth, which Mr. Johnson says is “very Hawaii-centric” in its storytelling. Michelle Mishina Kunz for The New York Times“Somebody got us some tickets as a gift when our kids were probably around five years old. And we’ve taken our kids to pretty much every production they’ve ever put on because it’s just amazing,” said Mr. Johnson, who called the theater’s storytelling “very Hawaii-centric.”“It’s a lot of traditional myths and stories about people like Eddie Aikau or Duke Kahanamoku,” Mr. Johnson said, referring to two legendary Hawaiian surfers. “They tell stories that you would only be able to hear or see if you’re here. I would highly recommend going if you’re traveling with kids.”5. Waimea ValleyA bridge over a stream at the Waimea Valley botanical garden, which Mr. Johnson likes for its deep roots in Hawaiian history and traditions.Michelle Mishina Kunz for The New York TimesNeglected for decades, Waimea Valley is now a nonprofit botanical garden and preservation area that offers workshops on Hawaiian history and culture, as well as performances and educational demonstrations. “It’s a beautiful valley and, I would say, a very sacred place,” Mr. Johnson said, referring to Waimea’s deep roots in Hawaiian history and traditions, including the remains of sacred sites, houses and shrines — some believed to have been constructed around 1470 A.D. “There’s a nice waterfall at the back of the valley and there’s a long trail that’s accessible for everyone,” he said, referring to the nearly mile-long paved path that winds across the valley to Wailele Falls. Along the trail, are magnificent examples of “native plants and tropical plants from around the world,” as well as interpretive signs that provide insight into the flora, fauna and history of the valley.Visitors take a selfie in front of Wailele Falls, which can be reached by a mile-long path.Michelle Mishina Kunz for The New York TimesThe botanical garden at Waimea Valley, where visitors can learn about the islands’ native plants.Michelle Mishina Kunz for The New York TimesFollow New York Times Travel on Instagram and sign up for our weekly Travel Dispatch newsletter to get expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation. Dreaming up a future getaway or just armchair traveling? Check out our 52 Places to Go in 2023. More

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      Meet Joni Mitchell’s Joni Jam Crew

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      A cast of musicians, led by Brandi Carlile, joined the 79-year-old singer and songwriter onstage at the Gorge in Washington on Saturday.Allison Russell: clarinetist, singer and lyricist. Bethany Mollenkof for The New York TimesDear listeners,Consider this a postcard from Wenatchee, a small city nestled in the hills of central Washington. Out here, the blue highway signs that usually serve as mile markers instead display the types of apple trees you’re driving by: Fuji, Gala, Honeycrisp. I made an eager pilgrimage to this corner of the world over the weekend (along with a bunch of other Joni Mitchell fans) to see Mitchell headline the Gorge Amphitheater at her first ticketed concert in more than 20 years.To call the show miraculous does not feel like hyperbole. In the review I wrote sleep-deprived in the middle of the night, I likened it to seeing a bird in the wild that you thought had gone extinct. Days later, I can’t think of any other way to describe it.After Mitchell’s near fatal brain aneurysm in 2015, I doubted we’d ever hear her sing again at all, let alone hit some of those rich, resonant notes in songs like “Amelia,” “The Circle Game” and “Carey” on Saturday night. Those videos of her surprise appearance at last year’s Newport Folk Festival were certainly something. But the so-called Joni Jam at the Gorge was proof that she’s spent the last year — on the brink of turning 80, no less — working hard to strengthen her voice. It was inspiring to behold.Like the Newport set, the Joni Jam was communal by nature, spearheaded by Mitchell’s friend Brandi Carlile and designed to have the feel of the musical gatherings Mitchell frequently hosts in her living room. That made the show feel relatively egoless: Though there were some headline-worthy names present, there were no dramatic, please-welcome-to-the-stage entrances or bowed departures. Everyone was onstage the whole time, either jamming, singing or listening intently.The different performers onstage spoke to the diversity of Mitchell’s influence: Annie Lennox, Allison Russell, Wendy and Lisa from Prince’s Revolution. Since I still can’t get the concert off my mind, I thought I’d celebrate that spirit of musical community by offering a kind of who’s who of the Joni Jam. Some names you’ll probably recognize, others you might not — all the more reason to give them a listen. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go find some fresh apples before leaving town.Listen along on Spotify as you read.1. Annie Lennox: “No More ‘I Love You’s’”Earlier this year, when Mitchell received the Library of Congress’s prestigious Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, the great Annie Lennox gave a performance of “Both Sides Now” that brought something entirely new out of that song. Seriously, just watch it. The dramatic finger-pointing! On Saturday night, Lennox honored Mitchell with a synthy, atmospheric cover of “Ladies of the Canyon,” similar to the version she recorded for a 2007 Mitchell tribute album. Lennox has long been a great, fluid interpreter of other people’s material: For the longest time, I didn’t even know that “No More ‘I Love You’s,’” the leadoff track from her 1995 album “Medusa,” was a cover. But it is, and Lennox lifted a wonderful 1986 song by the Lover Speaks out of semi-obscurity with this passionate rendition. As ever, she has taste. (Listen on YouTube)2. Allison Russell: “The Returner”Onstage, when she accompanied her for a rendition of “Young at Heart,” Mitchell called the Americana artist Allison Russell “the most beautiful clarinet player ever.” But she’s a heck of a singer and lyricist, too, as this uplifting title track from her upcoming second album “The Returner” attests. (Listen on YouTube)3. Sarah McLachlan: “Sweet Surrender”Just a very underrated single from Sarah McLachlan’s multiplatinum “Surfacing.” Put some respect on Sarah McLachlan’s name! (Listen on YouTube)4. Blake Mills: “Skeleton Is Walking”Mitchell’s Gorge performance of “Amelia,” from her singular 1976 album “Hejira,” was a highlight for me — not only for the lushness of her vocals, but because of the musician and producer Blake Mills’s faithful accompaniment, on Mitchell’s own guitar. There’s a precise kind of spaciousness to the guitar phrasings on “Hejira,” and Mills did an excellent job recreating them. You can hear more of his nimble guitar work on the ambling, psychedelic solo he noodles over the back half of “Skeleton Is Walking,” from his forthcoming solo album, “Jelly Road.” (Listen on YouTube)5. Lucius: “Go Home”Although they dress onstage like fraternal twins, Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig are not even sisters. Judging by their tight, soulful harmonies, though, you’d almost swear they were. The duo are prolific backing vocalists, and in their Joni Jam appearances they’ve nailed that almost Andrews Sisters-esque harmony that Mitchell often employed on her folkier albums. They let loose with something a little rawer here on a standout track from the 2014 Lucius album “Wildewoman.” (Listen on YouTube)6. Brandi Carlile: “The Story”“Joni hasn’t always felt the appreciation that exists amongst humanity for her,” Carlile said in a CBS News interview right after the Newport performance. “But I wanted her to feel that.” Carlile’s friendship and support have been crucial to Mitchell’s return — onstage, she clearly knows how to make Mitchell feel relaxed and at home (sometimes literally: the Gorge set evoked Mitchell’s living room). Let’s raise a glass (or bottle) of pinot grigio to Carlile, or just let her classic 2007 hit “The Story” rip. (Listen on YouTube)7. Prince and the Revolution: “Purple Rain”Speaking of stories, Wendy Melvoin told a great one at the Joni Jam: Apparently Mitchell came to a Prince concert on the “Purple Rain” tour, and Prince wanted to invite her onstage to sing the title track. But she told Prince she didn’t know the words! (Imagine.) It’s easy, he told her: it’s just “Purple rain, purple rain, purple rain.” I may never hear this song again without picturing this exchange. (Listen on YouTube)No regrets, coyote,LindsayThe Amplifier PlaylistListen on Spotify. We update this playlist with each new newsletter.“A Who’s Who of the Joni Jam” track listTrack 1: Annie Lennox, “No More ‘I Love You’s’”Track 2: Allison Russell, “The Returner”Track 3: Sarah McLachlan, “Sweet Surrender”Track 4: Blake Mills, “Skeleton Is Walking”Track 5: Lucius, “Go Home”Track 6: Brandi Carlile, “The Story”Track 7: Prince and the Revolution, “Purple Rain”Bonus TracksAfter I wrote about my earliest favorite songs in Friday’s newsletter, a bunch of you wrote in to share your own stories. I appreciated every single one of them, but I admit that this one may have been my favorite:“Our son, who is a couple years younger than you, used to like to sing the chorus of ‘Loser’ by Beck at the top of his lungs in public places like grocery stores when he was 3. We got a lot of strange, disapproving looks.” More

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      George Winston, Pianist With a Soothing ‘New Age’ Sound, Dies at 74

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      His top-selling records for the Windham Hill label helped define a genre that took off in the 1970s, but his interests also included Hawaiian guitar and the Doors.George Winston, who during decades when pop and rock dominated the musical landscape became a best-selling musician by playing soothing piano instrumentals in a style that was often described as new age but that he liked to call “rural folk piano,” died on Sunday in Williamsport, Pa. He was 74.His publicist, Jesse Cutler, said the cause was cancer. Mr. Winston, who lived in the Bay Area, had dealt with several cancers for years while continuing to record and perform; he credited a 2013 bone marrow transplant with extending his life. He was staying in Williamsport near where his tour manager lives, Mr. Cutler said.Mr. Winston released his first album, “Ballads and Blues,” in 1972, but it was “Autumn,” released in 1980 on the fledgling Windham Hill label, based in Palo Alto, Calif., that propelled his career. It consisted of seven solo piano compositions that were, like most of his music, inspired by nature. They bore simple titles — “Sea,” “Moon,” “Woods” — and hit a sweet spot for many listeners. Sales soared into the hundreds of thousands.“By attuning his emotions to the serenity, order and power of nature rather than to the violently frenetic tones of our contemporary cityscape,” Lee Underwood wrote in a review in DownBeat, “Winston provides us with a perfect aural and psychological antidote to the urban madness.”Mr. Winston continued the calendar theme with two 1982 albums, “December” and “Winter Into Spring,” and again with a 1991 release, “Summer.” His 1994 record, “Forest,” won a Grammy Award for best new age album — a category that was relatively new at the time — and he was nominated four other times.The calendar theme that Mr. Winston established with the album “Autumn” in 1980 was continued in 1982 with “December” and “Winter Into Spring.”Those nominations were evidence of the range of his musical interests. Two — for “Plains” (1999) and “Montana: A Love Story” (2004) — were for best new age album, but he was also nominated for best recording for children for “The Velveteen Rabbit” (1984; Meryl Streep provided the narration) and for best pop instrumental album for “Night Divides the Day: The Music of the Doors” (2002).Mr. Winston recorded two albums of the music of Vince Guaraldi, the jazz pianist best known for composing music for animated “Peanuts” television specials. In 2012, he released “George Winston: Harmonica Solos,” and in 1983 he created his own label, Dancing Cat Records, to record practitioners of Hawaiian slack-key guitar, a genre he particularly admired.He never cared much for efforts by critics and others to pigeonhole his music or his musical interests.“I think putting a label on music is the most useless endeavor,” he told United Press International in 1984, “except for putting a name on religion.”George Otis Winston III was born on Feb. 11, 1949, in Hart, Mich., near Lake Michigan, to George and Mary (Bohannon) Winston. His father was a geologist, and his mother was an executive secretary.He grew up in Mississippi, Florida and Montana. He said that his years in Montana were instrumental in instilling the profound appreciation of nature and the changing seasons that later inspired his music. Even after he left the state to live in other places, including on the West Coast, he would return occasionally to be re-energized.“I am very grateful for having spent a lot of time growing up in this beautiful state,” he wrote in “Montana Song,” a 1989 essay posted on his website, “and I can say that the modest, workable level I have managed to get to, both musically and spiritually, would not have been possible without the inspirations and feelings I get from Montana now, and from my memories of growing up there.”Mr. Winston took piano lessons as a child but didn’t stick with it. Hearing the Doors’ debut album in 1967 reawakened his musical interest.“When I heard the first song on Side One, ‘Break On Through (to the Other Side),’ to me it was the greatest piece of music I’d ever heard,” he said in a 2004 interview.The playing of the Doors’ organist, Ray Manzarek, inspired him to take up the organ, which he played alongside fellow students at Stetson University in Florida in a group called the Tapioca Ballroom Band. But in 1971 he became enthralled by recordings of Fats Waller from the 1920s and ’30s and decided that piano was his future.He was mostly self-taught, although he studied for a time with James Casale, a jazz pianist in Miami.“He got me straight on chords, music theory, the basics,” Mr. Winston told The Charleston Daily Mail of West Virginia in 2005.Mr. Winston in 2004. Critics sometimes found his playing unsophisticated or repetitive, but he sold millions of albums and drew enthusiastic audiences wherever he played. Reed Saxon/Associated PressMr. Winston, who is survived by a sister, said he was also influenced by the music of two New Orleans pianists, Professor Longhair and James Booker. All of his influences merged into the style he called rural folk piano, a term he came up with to encompass music that, as he said on his website, “is melodic and not complicated in its approach, like folk guitar picking and folk songs, and has a rural sensibility.”Critics sometimes found his piano work to be unsophisticated or repetitive, but he sold millions of albums and drew enthusiastic audiences wherever he played. His concerts generally included a charitable component, benefiting food banks or other causes.Mr. Winston knew his music wasn’t for everyone, and he was self-deprecating about that.“One person’s punk rock is another person’s singing ‘Om’ or playing harp,” he told The Santa Cruz Sentinel of California in 1982. “It’s all valid — everybody’s got their own path. I wouldn’t want to sit around and listen to me all day.”Jay Gabler, writing on the website Your Classical in 2013, summed up Mr. Winston’s appeal and skill.“Love him or hate him,” he wrote, “George Winston is the kind of artist who demonstrates what fertile ground there is to be trod in the vast open spaces among musical genres.” More