Author: Musicians Today Contributor

A Brooklyn artist is redefining honesty in hip-hop, one raw and unflinching song at a time. In an era where much of hip-hop is driven by image, trends, and viral moments, MixEZ is proving there is still an enormous audience for something far more powerful: authenticity. Born Jake Colongione, MixEZ has built a growing global following by refusing to hide behind personas or manufactured stories. Instead, he has become one of hip-hop’s most compelling voices by sharing the raw, often painful experiences that shaped his life. That honesty has earned his music more than five million streams across multiple platforms,…

Jeannette’s Voice Studio helps clients develop confident, healthy, and authentic voices through personalized performance coaching. The voice reveals more than just sound. It can expose fear, discipline, ambition, and the hope that a person is ready to be heard. Jeannette Papadakis has seen that moment in singers preparing for the stage, professionals facing the boardroom, sales agents preparing for a pitch, and performers stepping toward a microphone. At Jeannette’s Voice Studio, that moment is where the work begins. The studio was built on a belief: the voice is not only an instrument. It is a signature, an identity, and one…

The Vans Warped Tour opened its 2026 Long Beach weekend on Saturday, July 25, bringing a large, cross-generational lineup of punk, pop-punk, emo, hardcore, alternative rock and related styles to the Shoreline Waterfront in Southern California. The two-day event continues through Sunday, July 26, with festival programming scheduled from late morning into the evening. An official livestream is also giving music fans outside California an opportunity to follow selected performances online. The Long Beach lineup reflects Warped Tour’s long-standing role as a meeting point for established scene leaders and developing artists. The roster includes Jimmy Eat World, All Time Low,…

The producer whose classical roots reach back to Rachmaninoff on why value, not talent alone, builds careers. The room can change from song to song. One day, it may hold a first-time artist standing near a microphone, unsure whether the idea in their head can survive the pressure of being recorded. Another day, it may hold an established performer chasing the final detail that turns a strong track into something unforgettable. For Maks Gabriel, producer-composer, those moments carry the same responsibility: listen first, find the emotional center, then build around it with precision. That approach has become the quiet force…

Bach’s humorous piece, composed for teaching, inspires joyful, reflective, brain balancing music practice. The insightful ebook by Rozalina Gutman “Paradox of invisible dissonance in Fugue-Parody by J.S.Bach” explores Bach’s humor-based teaching approach, that can make music practice more enjoyable, while supporting analytically/emotionally balanced brain involvement and inspiring self-reflection of intangible aspects of the mind through music metaphors. More and more parents become aware of the research that links music education to balanced, whole-brain engagement that enables integrative cognition – crucial for optimal brain function. (For example, MRI studies, led by Dr. Schlaug demonstrated that those who began music studies before…

Oakland’s Mosswood Meltdown concludes its 2026 edition on Sunday, July 19, with Bikini Kill leading the final day of an expanded three-day celebration of punk and independent rock at Mosswood Park. The closing program also features The Return of Jackie and Judy, The Dead Milkmen, Frankie and the Witch Fingers, Frightwig and Las Nubes. Filmmaker John Waters is hosting the festival for the 12th year. The Sunday program follows a weekend built around artists from several generations of alternative music. Pavement headlined a separately ticketed pre-party on Friday, joined by Wednesday and Vivian Girls. Saturday’s main festival schedule was led…

Grammy-winning singer, songwriter, poet and actor Jill Scott brings her “To Whom This May Concern” world tour to Brooklyn on Thursday, July 16, beginning a three-show engagement at Kings Theatre. The New York performances are scheduled for July 16, 18 and 19, making the run one of the tour’s most concentrated stops in a single U.S. city. The concerts are also being presented as phone-free experiences, encouraging audiences to focus on the live performance. The Brooklyn opening is a major moment in Scott’s 2026 return to recording and touring. Her sixth studio album, “To Whom This May Concern,” arrived on…

Building every release around a human story, Koval’s latest single explores the quiet space where love and dreams gently blur into one another. When Praveen Koval began thinking about a birthday gift for his wife, Usha, he did not start with flowers, a card, or a familiar romantic gesture. He began with a question that felt simple at first, then quietly grew into something deeper. If love is the desire to remain close, what happens during the hours when two people fall asleep and drift into separate dreams? That question became “Goodnight My Love,” the latest single from songwriter, filmmaker,…

Award winning performer Mark Janicello brings ELVIS & ME to London’s West End with a deeply personal celebration of Elvis Presley’s enduring legacy. There are defining moments in every performer’s career when a role becomes something much larger than a performance. For American Renaissance Man Mark Janicello, Elvis Presley became exactly that. What began as an unexpected casting choice eventually developed into a lifelong artistic journey that now reaches its most personal expression through ELVIS & ME, an intimate concert arriving in London’s West End during the 2026 Camden Fringe. On Sunday, August 16, 2026, the anniversary of Elvis Presley’s…

As the creator economy evolves, IMU is building an entertainment platform that puts ownership, flexibility, and independent artists first. The entertainment industry has never offered creators more ways to share their work. Yet for many independent musicians, filmmakers, podcasters, and digital storytellers, reaching an audience still comes with difficult tradeoffs. Revenue sharing, restrictive agreements, fragmented distribution, and growing concerns about artificial intelligence have left many artists searching for a platform that values their work as much as they do. That changing landscape inspired the creation of IMU. Founded by Robb Nickels, Niall Cottrell, and James Adams, IMU is an independent…