June 26, 2023

Stockton Rush, the Canadian founder of the company that owned the submersible craft that went missing on its way to view the Titanic wreckage, was quoted as saying safety was “pure waste.” Rush was aboard the submersible when it is speculated that it suffered a "catastrophic implosion."

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In today's email:

The big idea: Lizzo donates to amplify diversity in classical music
The scoop: Twitter faces $250 M lawsuit over music copyright infringement
The report: Could prescribing music make medications work better?
Tweet of the week
Around the web: A museum of imaginary musical instruments, a searchable website of Canadian documents, a sliding tile puzzle, plus more curious internet finds.

CLASSICAL CHARTS

THE BIG IDEA

Lizzo Donates to Amplify Diversity in Classical Music

Pop star and classical flutist Lizzo has recently donated $50,000 to the Sphinx Organization, a group dedicated to amplifying the voices of Black and Latinx artists in the classical music world.

What’s behind the donation?

It’s all part of Lizzo's Fourth Annual Juneteenth Giveback, which supports grassroots Black organizations.

Lizzo also launched the Sasha Be Flooting scholarship with a $50,000 donation aimed at supporting Black music students at her alma mater at the University of Houston.

The funding comes in the wake of the League of American Orchestra's 2023 report, which paints a very real picture of underrepresentation by people of colour in orchestras in the US.

Image via League of American Orchestras’ 2023 Diversity in the Orchestra Field report

Current stats? About 21 percent of orchestras employ people of colour — up from 14 percent in 2014. And as for Black representation? A mere 0.6 percent increase over the last decade, from 1.8 percent in 2014 to 2.4 percent in 2023.

Image via League of American Orchestras’ 2023 Diversity in the Orchestra Field report

In contrast, diversity on the conductor's podium has seen remarkable growth, with the number nearly doubling from 16.2 percent in 2014 to 31.7 percent in 2023. An example is Jonathon Heyward, the Baltimore Symphony's new music director, who happens to be the first person of colour to take on that role in the orchestra's 106-year history.

What’s next: Sphinx is set to "ignite new opportunities and transform lives". With almost 150 Black and brown musicians placed in orchestras in their 25-year history, and several programs in place supporting diverse musicians and arts administrators, Sphinx is already making an impact.

TOUR DE HEADLINES

Riccardo Muti (Photo courtesy of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra)

Muti Earns Lifetime Emeritus Status at CSO — Riccardo Muti has been named the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's (CSO) music director emeritus for life, starting next season. | The Independent

Canadian Opera Wins MCANA Best New Opera — "R.U.R. A Torrent of Light, a Canadian opera by Nicole Lizée and Nicolas Billon, has been awarded the 2023 MCANA Best New Opera title, a first for Canadian work. The opera, based on Karel Čapek's sci-fi play about robots and featuring a feminist interpretation, premiered at OCAD University, winning in six out of seven categories at the Dora Awards. | Ludwig van Toronto

Tulsa Opera Cancels 2023-24 Productions — Tulsa Opera has cancelled its 2023-24 season due to financial struggles, including a significant drop in revenue and a decrease in subscribers. General Director Ken McConnell resigned, with Aaron Beck appointed as Interim General Director, while future company directions will be announced soon. | OperaWire

Bang on a Can co-founder Robert Black has Died — Double Bass player Robert Black from Bang on a Can AllStars has died aged 67. | The Strad

Tamara Wilson drops out of Cleveland Orchestra performances of Puccini’s ‘Girl of the Golden West’ — Emily Magee will replace Tamara Wilson as Minnie in the Cleveland Orchestra's upcoming production of Puccini's "Girl of the Golden West" due to Wilson's undisclosed withdrawal. | The Plain Dealer

THE SCOOP

Twitter Faces $250M Lawsuit Over Music Copyright Infringement

Several major music publishers have launched a collective lawsuit against Twitter to the tune of $250M USD.

What's going on: In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs, members of the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) trade group, allege that the social media giant recently purchased by Elon Musk does not take appropriate steps to stop copyright infringement — what the complaint calls “willful copyright infringement” — nor does it pay to license music rights the way Facebook, Instagram and other platforms do.

Digging deeper: In the complaint filed by Concord, Universal, Sony, EMI and a total of 17 industry giants in the Middle District of Tennessee, Nashville Division, the plaintiffs write:

“Twitter knows perfectly well that neither it nor users of the Twitter platform have secured licenses for the rampant use of music being made on its platform as complained of herein. Nonetheless, in connection with its highly interactive platform, Twitter consistently and knowingly hosts and streams infringing copies of musical compositions. […] Twitter also routinely continues to provide specific known repeat infringers with use of the Twitter platform, which they use for more infringement.”

The complaint further alleges that the level of copyright infringement is “no accident”, and notes that “Twitter profits handsomely” from its practices.

Why it matters: Twitter is alone among the major social media platforms in its stance. YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Snapchat have all entered into agreements with music publishers and other rights holders’ organizations so that the creators of music used on those platforms are compensated.

In their documentation, the plaintiffs catalogue close to 1,700 infringed works on Twitter and ask for up to $150,000 USD statutory damages for each of the infringed works. The list, however, is only meant to be an illustration of the problem and not an exhaustive one. The plan is to update the list on an ongoing basis as the case proceeds, so presumably, the requested damages will go up as well.

Zoom out: Back in March, Musk went on the offensive against what he termed “overzealous” rights holders who were “weaponizing” DMCA (the American Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998).

While the dispute was going on via Tweets, a professional photographer was embroiled in a dispute with a Twitter user who’d posted one of his video’s without permission. The dispute ended with the photographer’s account suspended — not that of the re-poster.

In 2021, when Musk himself was critiqued for altering memes and cutting out the creator’s names, the New York Times reported that he had claimed, “no one should be credited with anything ever.”

A ruling on the case could have a major impact on how Twitter is used.

It will be interesting to see how the lawsuit unfolds.

REPORT

Original image by Elisa Riva (CC0C/Pixabay)

Could Prescribing Music Make Medications Work Better?

When your doctor prescribes medication as treatment, should they also be prescribing a piece of music to listen to as you take it? Researchers at the University of Alberta are involved in a scientific study that may just have that effect.

Music affects the body as well as the mind, as we know from previous research, and music’s therapeutic effects, such as relaxation and stress management, are already used in practice. Music and drug therapy may be the next step.

How Could Music Affect The Way Prescriptions Work?

Exposure to music, whether that involves listening, playing, or learning to play, affects the body physically in many ways. There is a growing body of recent research that is delving into the mechanisms at play.

An often-cited pilot study published in Frontiers in Psychology in 2013 was one of the first to attempt to document the relationship between listening to music and steroid hormones.

The seminal study documented the effects of listening to specific types of music on testosterone, estradiol, and cortisol. They found listening to any type of music significantly decreased cortisol levels, for example, (the so-called stress hormone), and variations in how testosterone levels differed between male and female test subjects.

Previous studies have demonstrated that music adds to what is called brain plasticity or neuroplasticity, which is essentially the way the brain changes in response to its environment. Brain plasticity is conducive to learning and memory. The 2013 study went on to make another connection, the one between plasticity and musical ability itself.

The reactions to hormone levels were more pronounced in test subjects who had demonstrated musical ability, possibly the result of increased neuroplasticity.

Previous research has also revealed that exposure to music can also affect neurotransmitters, the body’s chemical messengers, and cytokines, a type of protein that play a key role in regulating the cells of the immune system, as well as blood cells.

With the accumulated data, it’s not such a stretch to consider how music would affect the way the body absorbs various medications.

The Study

It’s an avenue, though, that few have previously considered for study. Tony Kiang, BScPharm, ACPR, RPh, Ph.D., and Assistant Professor, Faculty of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences, is leading the project.

“It was very interesting that few had made the connections between music and drug metabolism effects,” he comments in a UofA release.

The study is operating with the hypothesis that specific types of music will affect those proteins and enzymes responsible for metabolizing drugs in the body. Kiang and the research team will test that theory with music of different tempos, rhythms, and genres, including original music composed to isolate specific elements for study.

For the human test subjects, it will be a fairly simple process: listen to music, have a blood test.

“There are certain endogenous markers in the blood which represent specific metabolism pathways,” explains Kiang. “We can use those to measure differences in metabolism for the patient being exposed to the music.”

They will look to hone their findings in order to make specific recommendations that can be customized for each individual’s situation.

“For example, classical music might be beneficial for surgical patients overall, but some patients may respond better to one composer versus another,” Kiang adds.

While prescription drug use is common, the ways and mechanisms in which those drugs affect the body are not fully understood. The study has the potential to advance that field of knowledge and produce more effective therapies.

So many people already credit music with saving their lives; the study may point the way to yet another way it can help us heal.

QUIZ

On which instrument is a Nocturne usually played?

Violin
Piano
Harp
Classical Guitar

Scroll down for the answer…

AROUND THE WEB

📅 On this day: Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 9 premieres on this day in 1912.

🔨 Useful: Searchable website of 300,000+ Canadian government documents previously kept secret but uncovered by freedom of information requests.

👀 Cure boredom: Can you solve the sliding tile puzzle with a good time? Be prepared for a challenge!

🔉 Interesting: The Museum of the Imaginary Musical Instruments is the website you’ve been waiting for all your life.

🦦 Aww: This Otter-mom is having a moment with her pup.

TWEET OF THE WEEK

QUIZ ANSWER

B: Piano

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