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Brian Lauritzen

@brianlauritzen.bsky.social
1.3K followers 67 following 259 posts

3-8p weekdays on KUSC | nationally-syndicated host of LA Phil radio broadcasts | classical music enthusiast/advocate | opinions mine | he/him

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Brian Lauritzen @brianlauritzen.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
Also…accidentally omitting Tim Page from my name-checks earlier is nearly unforgivable.
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Brian Lauritzen @brianlauritzen.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
*talking
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Brian Lauritzen @brianlauritzen.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
We need the discourse. We need people taking about how all genres of music intersect with our lives. We need smart people with deep knowledge giving us their insight on the regular. We don’t need to know in excruciating detail how that particular LvB 5 went. Corporate media won’t ever understand.
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Brian Lauritzen @brianlauritzen.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
What is helpful…and what folks like Mark Swed, Alex Ross, AZ Madonna, Anne Midgette, and others did/do so well is contextualize a cultural moment. Their expertise is unquantifiable. Which is probably why corporate media views it as unsustainable.
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Brian Lauritzen @brianlauritzen.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
It’s long past time to have a serious conversation about the function/future of the Classical Music Critic™️ in this country. Reviews of concerts after concerts have happened are, pretty much, non-functional…other than to tell you: here was a thing that happened and here’s what I thought about it.
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Brian Lauritzen @brianlauritzen.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Chamber music that’s standard rep but also underrated: Britten SQ 1. So much of the love goes to 2 and 3, but 1 is awesome—especially that opening movement.
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Brian Lauritzen @brianlauritzen.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
“You know, the podium is a lot like a cockpit…” is about to be the new, “What kind of hair gel do you use?”
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Brian Lauritzen @brianlauritzen.bsky.social · 24/05/2026
I’m being told to expect an LA Phil MD announcement within the next couple of weeks. I have a name, but not strong enough confirmation to put it out there quite yet.
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Brian Lauritzen @brianlauritzen.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
Two women, both born in Hong Kong, are now the artistic leaders of the San Francisco Symphony and Chorus. Elim Chan, music director Jenny Wong, chorus director What a moment.
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Brian Lauritzen @brianlauritzen.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
ELIM CHAN!!!
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Brian Lauritzen @brianlauritzen.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
To be clear, Nemo LeBron still has his vile website (T.M.Z. Bach, or whatever it’s called), but for someone who tirelessly boasts about access to have access bring him down at the BBC is at least a juicy stanza of poetry.
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Brian Lauritzen @brianlauritzen.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
Yuja Wang getting Normal Leblech fired is not something I had on my 2026 bingo card, but I’m very much here for it.
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Brian Lauritzen @brianlauritzen.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
I know everyone in #classicalmusic had their hot takes about Tár back when it came out. I didn't really have a strong opinion so I kept quiet. However...it lives rent-free in my head that the creators thought any record company anywhere would greenlight an album of Mahler 5 + Elgar's Cello Concerto.
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Brian Lauritzen @brianlauritzen.bsky.social · 24/01/2026
God damn, America.
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Brian Lauritzen @brianlauritzen.bsky.social · 10/01/2026
I desperately want to write said takedown, but I’m not a critic and it’s truly not my place.
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Brian Lauritzen @brianlauritzen.bsky.social · 10/01/2026
I’m very certain I know who you’re referring to but definitely won’t name him here.
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Reposted by Brian Lauritzen
The New York Times @nytimes.com · 09/01/2026
Breaking News: The Washington National Opera is leaving the Kennedy Center after President Trump’s intervention upset artists and donors. The opera has performed there since 1971.
nyti.ms
Washington National Opera Is Leaving the Kennedy Center
The opera, which has performed at the arts center since 1971, was concerned by declines in attendance and donations during President Trump’s second term.
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Brian Lauritzen @brianlauritzen.bsky.social · 06/01/2026
New year; new project. A philosophical/emotional/narrative exploration of why we LOVE the music we love. There is, of course, not one correct answer to any of the questions I pose in these episodes. However, I do hope you will find this new series compelling. www.kusc.org/why-we-love-...
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Brian Lauritzen @brianlauritzen.bsky.social · 01/01/2026
Thanks, y’all! Had a blast putting them together. (Also had pizza for dinner tonight…)
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Brian Lauritzen @brianlauritzen.bsky.social · 12/12/2025
You can listen here: youtu.be/g-vCauX4lYI?...
youtu.be
Twelve Days Of Christmas
YouTube video by Béla Fleck - Topic
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Brian Lauritzen @brianlauritzen.bsky.social · 11/12/2025
Béla Fleck and the Flecktones for me. 12 days, 12 different key + time signatures
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Brian Lauritzen @brianlauritzen.bsky.social · 10/12/2025
annual reminder
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Brian Lauritzen @brianlauritzen.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
It’s a song about a guy who creeps around in public parks befriending kids and, once he gains their trust, leads them into a busy intersection in defiance of law enforcement because, as he explains to the kids, he’s dying anyway. Frosty the Snowman is chaotic evil.
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Brian Lauritzen @brianlauritzen.bsky.social · 02/11/2025
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Brian Lauritzen @brianlauritzen.bsky.social · 08/09/2025
That thing where your Sunday at home concludes with you and your 14-month-old searching for your belly buttons, turning light switches on and off, and putting underwear on your head. #WeekendWarrior
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Brian Lauritzen @brianlauritzen.bsky.social · 06/09/2025
Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum Doctor Atomic Doctor Granvil Doctor Miracle “Doctor” Despina The Doctor in Wozzeck…okay, maybe not
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Brian Lauritzen @brianlauritzen.bsky.social · 30/08/2025
Yup. Yesterday was horrible.
latimes.com
L.A. classical station KUSC slashes staff after federal funding cuts to public radio
The USC-owned station, known as Classical California, lost $1.1 million that was previously allocated by the Corp. for Public Broadcasting.
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Brian Lauritzen @brianlauritzen.bsky.social · 13/08/2025
I’m sorry what now???
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Brian Lauritzen @brianlauritzen.bsky.social · 12/08/2025
i see your "on stage naked" anxiety dream and raise you "at the podium realizing you brought the wrong eulogy and don't know anything about the actual dead guy"
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Brian Lauritzen @brianlauritzen.bsky.social · 07/08/2025
Y’all. Neither Itzhak Perlman nor Yo-Yo Ma is in the hospital. Can we stop with the fake AI content sharing, please?
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Brian Lauritzen @brianlauritzen.bsky.social · 18/07/2025
when you discover a secret headphone jack in the studio that revolutionizes the ergonomics of your daily workflow and also the united states senate votes to eliminate your federal funding
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Brian Lauritzen @brianlauritzen.bsky.social · 21/06/2025
RIP Charles Burrell, WWII Veteran and the first Black musician to sign a contract with an American orchestra, who passed away this week at the age of 104. www.cpr.org/2025/06/17/c...
cpr.org
Classical bass legend Charlie Burrell dies at 104
The “Jackie Robinson of classical music” and former Denver Symphony Orchestra bassist called Colorado home for much of his life.
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Brian Lauritzen @brianlauritzen.bsky.social · 12/06/2025
One of the darkest days for Public Media.
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Brian Lauritzen @brianlauritzen.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
Call your representatives in Congress and tell them to kill this bill, not the news and music.
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Brian Lauritzen @brianlauritzen.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
Radio is still the #1 consumed medium in the United States. It is the medium which has the greatest reach and has the easiest entry point. It is a medium which doesn't discriminate based on race, income, or gender. The time to fight for it is now.
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Brian Lauritzen @brianlauritzen.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
It's incumbent upon those of us with the resources, reach, donor capacity, audience advocates, to ACT NOW. We owe it to our Public Radio/TV siblings to fight for them.
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Brian Lauritzen @brianlauritzen.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
Most, if not all, of these stations would be lost. Elect a racist president; reap racist results. KUSC, KCRW, and KPCC (LAist) will be fine. Most of the Public Radio stations in the United States will not. The entire industry, therefore, is in existential crisis.
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Brian Lauritzen @brianlauritzen.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
Additionally, CPB funding cuts would disproportionately affect Native and African American stations. The average dependence on CPB funding for Native American Public Media stations is 53%. The average dependence on CPB funding for stations in the African-American Public Radio Consortium is 26%.
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Brian Lauritzen @brianlauritzen.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
Some Public Radio stations rely on CPB funding for more than 90% of their operating budget. Understandably, these are the stations in the most rural areas of our country--ie. the places where the potential for on-air fundraising is maximally minimal.
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Brian Lauritzen @brianlauritzen.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
However, we are the outliers. The average Public Radio station receives 14.5% of its budget from CPB funding. (The figures for Public TV are even higher.) If Public Radio stations which relied on CPB funding for more than 10% of their budget lost that revenue, 34% of them would cease operations.
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Brian Lauritzen @brianlauritzen.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
We can weather this storm.
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Brian Lauritzen @brianlauritzen.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
The bill proposes eliminating $1.1 billion in CPB funding. For stations in large markets, like mine, that's not an existential threat. With the proposed cuts, KUSC stands to lose approximately 5.6% of our budget. The figures are similar for our Public Radio compatriots, KCRW and KPCC (LAist).
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Brian Lauritzen @brianlauritzen.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
🧵 Everything you've heard until now is just conjecture. But now that the White House has officially delivered its recission bill to Congress, we now have clarity with regard to funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
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Brian Lauritzen @brianlauritzen.bsky.social · 14/05/2025
I mean………..😬😬😬
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Brian Lauritzen @brianlauritzen.bsky.social · 12/05/2025
Thank you. Always. #InternationalNursesDay
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Brian Lauritzen @brianlauritzen.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
I suppose it shouldn’t surprise us that a guy who would write a 20-page letter to a woman spelling out how their marriage was gonna work would also be the same guy who wrote massive symphonies, all of which are at least an hour long. Can't imagine what it must've felt like to be Mahlersplained to.
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Brian Lauritzen @brianlauritzen.bsky.social · 30/04/2025
The musicians of the SF Symphony have upheld their end of the bargain—making great music, night after night. Who exactly is in charge of being a responsible steward of their art? Management. It is so sad to see such an incredible and important arts organization so poorly run. And yet, here we are.
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Brian Lauritzen @brianlauritzen.bsky.social · 30/04/2025
I am deeply weary of hearing management speak about the need for workers to “acknowledge the seriousness of the financial circumstances confronting our institution.” That’s literally YOUR job, manager dude. www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...
sfchronicle.com
Tensions flare at Michael Tilson Thomas tribute as S.F. Symphony musicians protest contract cuts
San Francisco Symphony musicians handed out leaflets at MTT’s 80th birthday concert, accusing leadership of jeopardizing its artistic legacy.
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Brian Lauritzen @brianlauritzen.bsky.social · 28/04/2025
Thank you, MTT. 💙
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Brian Lauritzen @brianlauritzen.bsky.social · 22/04/2025
Happy #EarthDay! Here’s Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony in emojis: 🎶🚶🌳🌿🌾🌼😃🏞🕊☺️🎉👏👯👯👯😄☁️🤔🌩😬⛈💨😳🌦🌤☀️🐏😎👍🌈🎶
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