March 13, 2023

Researchers in Germany have discovered chemicals that are so deadly to fungi they named them after Keanu Reeves. The newly found antimicrobial compounds are said to eliminate villains just like John Wick. "Keanumycins" rolls off the tongue nicely.

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In today’s email:

The big idea: Chad Lawson talks about his music and method
Chart: Vinyl sales overtake CDs for the first time since the ’80s
Issues: It’s curtains for the BBC Singers, and people are outraged
Listen up: Chicken plays “America the Beautiful” on piano
Cartoon of the week
Around the web: trolley problems, the world's highest resolution painting, the price of eggs, plus more curious internet finds.

CLASSICAL CHARTS

THE BIG IDEA

Chad Lawson Credit: Apple Music

Chad Lawson Talks About His ‘Eureka Moment’

American pianist and composer Chad Lawson's many popular releases for piano have combined elements of classical music, jazz, and science.

Classically trained from the age of five, he attended Berklee, where he switched to jazz performance. He also began working as a studio and touring musician, and while he continued his music studies in stints, including later on at the Manhattan School of Music, his professional life took precedence. He formed his own Chad Lawson Trio, then later toured with Julio Inglesias’ band before recording his first solo album in 2009.

With his background, he lists a wide range of influences, including classical masters. “Certainly Chopin and Bach. Those are the two. Chopin has the vulnerable melody, whereas Bach has the technical skill.” Chad mentions reading Chopin’s biography, and realizing that he’d only performed live on rare occasions. Still, Chopin wrote that he found playing music to be soothing. “I find that to be the case as well,” he says.

The farther Chad gets in his own musical explorations, the more it reminds him of the fundamentals. “We have this transition of genre, but it all goes back to the root, to Bach.”

His 'The Chopin Variations reinterpreted the works of the Polish master. “I did the album in 2014 called The Chopin Variations,” he says. “You have this large audience that I call the Spotify generation. Maybe they have a piano in the house, but they don’t know how to turn it on. If I brought Chopin to this audience, how would I do it?” he asked himself.

He plays solo on one side of the release, adding two other musicians for the other half. He chose his collaborators, Judy Kang on violin and cellist Rubin Kodheli, because they were musicians who had played with a wide variety of artists from hip hop stars to classical performers.

In creating his Variations, he started with the idea of making it easy for that Spotify generation to enjoy. “I Xeroxed the sheet music,” he recalls. Then, he studied the melodic patterns carefully. “Would Chopin’s music still sound beautiful if it was very scaled down?” He pared down the music to its basic elements.

While it was well received by listeners, he was surprised at the industry reaction. “I thought I’d get a lot of pushback,” he says. “But it was quite the opposite.”

As he’d imagined, the music was reaching people who’d never listened to Chopin before. “I try to bring in an audience that isn’t familiar,” he explains. From his fan feedback, and with his introduction, many went on to search out and sample Chopin’s original compositions.

Along with classically-based material, including his Bach Interpreted: Piano Variations on Bach Chorales, he’s applied his reinterpretive style to a wide range of material. “It’s everything from Chopin to Billie Eilish,” he says.

The strategy seems to work to bring in audiences who’d never been to the traditional concert experience. “I’m a data nerd. I love stats,” he says. He reports that his biggest audience segment is the 18 to 34 demographic. He also noticed that his numbers would be high during the week, then plummet on Fridays, only to rise again by Saturday afternoons. He believes he’s figured out why. “It’s because they’re studying,” he says.

It’s true that recent stats, along with the popularity of classical music on TikTok, support the idea that students are tuning into classical music as just another in one of the many choices available, and that study time is a favourite for calming and soothing music choices. “We’re getting rid of this idea that you can’t listen to Adele and Chopin at the same time.”

In a generation who have grown up with iPads rather than pianos, he knew his approach to live performance would also have to diverge than the usual. “How do we marry the traditional with the touch screen?” he wondered. He could play a virtuosic passage of Rachmaninov, he points out, but it wouldn’t engage them. “I would impress everyone, but they’d never feel like they could do it themselves.”

Instead, he’d come on stage with an iPad, which instantly got their attention. “I was running the piano through the iPad,” he explains. He added melody, effects, looping. “What I was trying to do is create interest in the piano. I do recognize that I’m always trying to introduce things to new audiences.”

In 2020, Chad initiated the Calm It Down podcast, which has become hugely popular with its blend of soothing music and talk revolving around philosophy in simple life lessons.

“I’ve been doing transcendental meditation for quite some time,” he explains. “Just before pandemic, I’d been studying the marriage of music and mental health.” He read about how listening to music, even for short periods, can produce feel-good hormones. “Out of all the things that can elevate these hormones, music is the only passive one.”

With that knowledge, and the feedback from fans who told him his music had helped them through difficulties in their own lives, the podcast was launched. “It’s taken on a life of its own,” he says, noting its 3 million downloads.

The idea of using music for its therapeutic properties is one that has been gaining traction over the last couple of decades, with a growing body of research to back it up. “I think a lot of people are beginning to come to the point to recognize that,” he says.

“I joke that I chose the wrong career. I’m not a spotlight person. I hate the attention. But, I had a eureka moment,” he says. That moment came when a fan told him that she had been playing his music to her dying husband, and the tempo of his song matched her husband’s last breath. “I realized, it’s not about me.”

At that point, he realized that the interviews and taking up at least a little bit of the spotlight would be necessary to get what he wanted to do done. “I waited tables for 15 years, and I always say that it was the best training for music.” He recalls being attentive to the needs of his customers.

The release breathe came out of the pandemic. “It took a global pandemic to really force us to stop.” With so much emotion coming from the forced time out, he created music that was written to help with unloading all of that baggage. “As horrible as it was, I think in some retrospect, I hope people find the importance of self-reflection.”

He album breathe was released on the Decca label in 2022. His latest EP, drift, takes five tracks from breathe and reworks them with a view to helping his listeners fall asleep. “I scaled it down,” he explains.

“That’s the biggest question I get — can you please show me how to fall asleep?”

The tracks begin at 80bpm and gradually slow down by 10bpm, ending up at 40bpm, or about the sleeping heart rate. It’s an approach he’s based on reading scientific research. “Because I’m a nerd,” he adds. “Progressively, as you listen to the album, you gradually slow down. I just want you to drift to sleep.”

THE LATEST

Apple’s standalone app for classical music is launching this month. Apple Music Classical will be released on March 28, 2023, as part of Apple Music subscription plans. It will offer over five million tracks and thousands of exclusive albums in high-resolution lossless audio quality and spatial audio, as well as written content like composer biographies, key works descriptions, and curated playlists. It is available for pre-order now and will be automatically downloaded on launch day. | Engadget

The Royal Opera House has been accused of whitewashing despite having a diverse cast. An open letter signed by over 200 people, including opera singers, criticized the organization for failing to provide adequate opportunities for BAME performers and highlighted the under-representation of black, Asian, and minority ethnic singers in lead roles. | The Telegraph

Daniel Barenboim has cancelled a piano concert in Monaco for health reasons. The concert was scheduled for Sunday, March 12, and no further details about Barenboim's health have been released. We wish him a full recovery. | ABC

CHART

Vinyl Sales Overtake CDs for the First Time Since the '80s

After years of being a niche form of music consumption, vinyl records have officially overtaken CD sales.

The historic finding comes from a report released by RIAA last week.

What’s behind the surge?

The resurgence has been attributed to a number of factors, including their ability to provide listeners with a unique and immersive listening experience, as well as their novelty factor. With vinyl record players becoming increasingly affordable and accessible, fans are turning to them in increasing numbers.

Why it matters

Retailers have also felt the benefits of this renewed interest in vinyl, with independent music stores seeing an unprecedented increase in sales. “We used to be lucky if we sold one or two albums a week," said Emmett Ashford, manager at Ohio-based CD and Records store. "But now it’s not uncommon for us to sell up to 10 or 20 albums on any given day."

Digital streaming services have also played a part in driving interest in vinyl records. Many people are using these services as a way to discover new artists and genres of music that they can then explore further by purchasing physical copies of the music on vinyl records.

What this means

Even with Vinyl's newfound popularity, experts are unsure whether it will remain popular for long enough for it to be considered a long-term replacement for CDs. For now, though, it seems that the growing number of devoted vinyl fans will ensure its continued success.

ISSUES

The BBC Singers, 2023. Photo courtesy of the BBC.

It’s Curtains For The BBC Singers

Simon Webb, the head of orchestras and choirs at the BBC, has announced the closure of the BBC Singers.

What happened?

This decision comes as part of a wider plan to implement changes to the BBC's classical music strategy, including redundancies across the BBC Concert Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, and BBC Symphony Orchestra.

What’s behind it?

The BBC plans to invest in a wider pool of choral groups from across the UK and establish a new nationwide choral development program to continue providing a choral offering after the BBC Singers are disbanded. With the money saved through these redundancies, the BBC aims to double its funding for music education and launch a major new 'education offer' in autumn.

How are people reacting?...

…Not well.

The Musicians' Union has released a statement saying it is in urgent talks with the BBC to save jobs following the corporation's proposals. A petition has also been launched to prevent the closure of the choir.

Key takeaways

Alongside the compulsory redundancy of the 20 BBC Singers, voluntary redundancies will be offered to the other orchestras to reduce their salary base by 20%.
The BBC Concert and Symphony Orchestras will share a director.
The BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus will move to a new home in the East Bank in London's Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in 2025.
The BBC Philharmonic will continue to be based in Salford.

LISTEN UP

Chicken Plays “America the Beautiful” On Piano Because, Why Not?

The internet has done it again.

We'd like to introduce you to Jokgu the chicken. He's a Brahma chicken who can play the piano better than most. But with all the turmoil surrounding the Silicon Valley Bank run over the weekend, we could all use a video of a patriotic fowl pecking out “America the Beautiful” on the piano to cheer us up.

Jokgu is one of two chickens that make up The Flockstars, a band of chickens. They are trained to play music by a similar reward system used to train dogs, which, in this case, involves a lot of chicken treats.

These musical chickens must be doing something right because their Facebook Page has way more than ours does. Chickens folks. Chickens…

AROUND THE WEB

📅 On this day: Violin Concerto in E Minor, Op. 64 by Felix Mendelssohn premieres in 1845.

🧠 Cure boredom: Someone made a page that makes you solve increasingly absurd trolley problems.

🎨 Amazing: This 717 gigapixel resolution artwork is the highest ever seen. (Pro tip: Zoom in)

🥚 Usefull: There is a site that tracks the price of eggs at every US Walmart. The most expensive cost 3.4X more than the cheapest.

☄️ Neat: Launch an asteroid at Earth and see the effects.

CARTOON OF THE WEEK

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Today's email was brought to you by Anya "I ❤️ Vinyl " Wassenberg and Michael "won't miss CDs" Vincent.

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