Around The Classical Internet: April 22, 2011

This week in classical news:

• It's sad but true, the "Fabulous Philadelphians" have filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. The board of the Philadelphia Orchestra voted for the measure last Saturday despite some observers questioning why.
• Is the Philly bankruptcy a sign of what's to come? Greg Sandow thinks it is a "tipping point," and there's no better time to rally around the music. Meanwhile, Anne Midgette of the Washington Post ponders the state of classical music.
• After 79 years, the New Mexico symphony is calling it quits. Apparently, Wednesday's decision took some symphony musicians by surprise.
• Pulitzer Prizes were handed out this week. The Chinese-American composer Zhou Long won for his opera Madame White Snake, a fairytale story that blends Eastern and Western traditions. Hear an excerpt — it's good.
• There was modernism, then minimalism. Are we ready for a new movement in classical music? How about the new synthesists?
• Your brain on music: What makes music expressive, why does it provoke emotions? Some scientists, including Daniel Levitin, think they have the answers.
• What kind of music hasn't Yo-Yo Ma embraced? It was only a matter of time before he hooked up with jookin dancer Lil Buck.
• Opera has always courted technology, but as our high-tech age speeds ahead at a blinding pace, will opera have the chance to catch up? Some composers and directors are trying their best.
• Wagner is famous for really long operas. But critic Alex Ross believes you can learn a lot from dissecting a ten-bar passage from the 15-hour Ring Cycle.
• The Metropolitan Opera in Japan: The company, once worried about health issues, has decided to proceed with its Japanese tour, with stops in Tokyo and Nagoya. Closer to home, the Met has announced its free opera in Central Park series.
• Currently singing in the Met's production of Verdi's Il Trovatore (coming up Apr. 30 in HD in movie theaters), the excellent soprano Sondra Radvanovsky gets a profile in the New York Times.
• Jonas Kaufmann and Kiri Te Kanawa were among the recipients of this year's Opera News Awards at New York's Plaza Hotel.
• Boccelli and Barolo: As it turns out, the Italian superstar not only sings sweetly, but also runs his own vineyard.
• Met director James Levine and Chicago Symphony Orchestra conductor Riccardo Muti have suffered much-publicized physical ailments lately. The L.A. Times' James C. Taylor assesses the maestros on the mend.
• What's Philip Glass up to these days? Yes, he's still writing a lot of music, but he's also launching his own arts festival in Carmel Valley, Calif.
• How should we fund classical music: superrich private donors or crowd sourcing? The Guardian's Tom Service has a few thoughts.
• Gustav Holst is often thought of as a one-hit wonder, thanks to his orchestral tour de force The Planets. But a new documentary on the English composer shows there was much more to the man than that.
• Composer James MacMillan talks about his new Piano Concerto based on the rosary.