Perhaps in elementary school (or somewhere else along the line) you may have had a little experience with the recorder.  Yours was no doubt plastic, a small, cheap wind instrument that you may have had a hard time getting a decent sound from.

The recorder, in fact, has a dignified history in music.  Many composers--especially during the Renaissance and Baroque periods--wrote for the recorder as a solo instrument.  It was a predecessor to the flute (referred to after its invention as the transverse flute as it was held and played horizontally as opposed to the position in which the recorder was played), and still heard today on occasion.

Enter Lucie Horsch.  She is Dutch, 17 years old, and has just released a recording on Decca as soloist in Vivaldi's recorder concertos.

The Guardian has more here.

(from a press release)

American Composers Orchestra (ACO) announces a new co-commission in cooperation with the record label BIS, for Symphonic B A C H Variations for Piano and Orchestra, a piano concerto by composer and conductor José Serebrier. The ACO commission is made possible by a special grant from long-time ACO board member Paul Underwood. The Swedish label BIS will undertake the recording with pianist Yevgeny Sudbin, exclusive BIS artist, with an orchestra to be announced.

BIS previously commissioned José Serebrier's Flute Concerto with Tango, which they recorded with soloist Sharon Bezaly and the Australian Chamber Orchestra. American Composers Orchestra gave the US premiere in 2012. José Serebrier has received commissions from the Harvard Musical Association, National Endowment for the Arts, the Joffrey Ballet and many others. His works have been recorded by Leopold Stokowski, Sir John Eliot Gardiner and others.

Paul Underwood, the supporter of this major new work, is a well-known figure on the new music scene. In addition to dozens of commissions and world premieres that he has underwritten, he has for many years been the lead supporter of ACO's annual Underwood New Music Readings, a program that provides career-building opportunities to emerging composers from around the country. The Readings have become a rite-of-passage for a generation of aspiring composers. The 2017 Underwood New Music Readings will be held June 21-23 in New York City. Though a performance of Serebrier's new concerto has not yet been scheduled, ACO's 2016-17 season includes the world premiere performances of two other Underwood commissions: David Hertzberg's Symphony on March 24 at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, and Carols Simon's Portrait of a Queen on May 23 at Symphony Space.

After a few difficult years, the Nashville Symphony seems to have turned the corner.  Public radio station WPLN has a report that you can access here.

The Board Chair and four of five members of the executive committee are abruptly out at the Toronto Symphony.  No one is really commenting on what is happening behind the scenes, but the Globe and Mail has a report here.

Camerata Nordica is a small orchestra of 15-20 members that perform across Sweden and other parts of the world--until now, evidently.  Reports have surfaced that the orchestra is being shut down.  Concerts have been cancelled and the director and principal cellist have resigned.

Confused players issued this statement (via Slipped Disc):

Wednesday, December 14th, 2016
To the Board and Administration of Camerata Nordica,
As members of Camerata Nordica it is simply impossible to imagine what could possibly have sparked your actions of the past week. At this moment we musicians are watching our orchestra crumble around us without a single comment from any of you on the meeting that took place last week or what precipitated the actions of which we have yet to be officially informed. As it stands now, this locally loved, nationally celebrated and internationally acclaimed ensemble is being blown up by a board and administration who show no respect towards its musicians who have devoted themselves to this ensemble through years of service, performing incredible productions and making internationally celebrated recordings.
On December 5th our February and March productions were cancelled without warning or justification. For the musicians who give their lives and careers to this orchestra this is a blatant violation of trust and creates an unworkable environment that no musician can be part of. As of today we have yet to be officially informed of the cancellation of these tours, and no justification or compensation has been offered. This gross negligence of management and communication is simply incomprehensible. A lack of management ability is not a reason to cancel productions and to do so without officially informing the musicians and without any dialogue whatsoever is indefensible.
On December 9th, Terje Tønnesen, our beloved artistic director and the visionary behind many of our most spectacular productions and acclaimed recordings resigned from his position. Shortly thereafter, Per Nyström, our principal cellist, the administrator responsible for our players, and the source of many if not all our great musicians and leaders over the last years, likewise resigned from his duties at Camerata Nordica. It must be clearly understood by the board and administration that these two individuals have been the driving force and the only reason for the success and acclaim of Camerata Nordica in the past decades.
To think that this orchestra can exist without either Terje or Per is to completely and fundamentally misunderstand what this orchestra is and how it evolved to be what it was until this week. The complete disappearance of the board and administration and their refusal to justify their actions or react to the resignation of their most important assets is impossible for any of us to understand.
We sincerely hope that these unwarranted decisions will be reversed immediately and that we can resume the hopeful path that has been years in the making.
- See more at: http://slippedisc.com/2016/12/suspended-musicians-appeal-to-silent-board/#sthash.8pl53D03.dpuf

Classical station WQXR in New York has just released its annual list of the most significant events in classical music for the year 2016.

You can check out their list here.

A new study by the Imperial College of London and the Royal College of Music indicate that listening to rock music such as AC/DC can be hazardous to your performance while playing board games--and perhaps other activities as well.

The study, published in the Medical Journal of Australia, involved a test of hand-eye coordination, and found that those listening to rock music performed worse than those listening to Mozart.  Speculation is that the weaker performance is due to auditory stress.

You can read about the study here.

In 2006, Peter Gelb commissioned Osvaldo Golijov to compose a new opera for the Metropolitan Opera.  The composer has never been able to produce the completed work, so the commission has evidently been cancelled.  The company will instead move up production of a new opera by Nico Muhly.

The New York Times has the story here.