> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://helpdesk.rhapsody.la/updates/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://helpdesk.rhapsody.la/updates/readme.md). # Rhapsody X (July 2026) It reinvents hiring and seating in Mission Control — with **Rush Call** mass-hiring, a visual **Stage Map builder**, a faster **Compact view**, and a redesigned **Musician Insights** dashboard — and adds a brand-new **Rhapsody Library**, **AI access** to your data through MCP, and our first additional language, **French**. {% hint style="info" %} Some features in this release are available on request. If you don't see them yet, contact your Rhapsody admin or support to enable them. {% endhint %} ### 🔔 Rush Call — mass hiring for open chairs A new way to fill a lot of empty chairs fast: offer them all at once and let musicians claim a seat on a first-come, first-served basis.
A Rush call out to the Violin I section in Mission Control

A Rush call out to Violin I — a golden frame marks the seats on offer; claimed seats turn green as musicians accept.

* **First-come, first-served offers:** send one open call to many musicians and let them race to claim the open chairs. * **Two-step wizard with rule-driven "Who's next":** Rhapsody suggests who to include and automatically excludes musicians who shouldn't be asked. * **Section-scoped calls:** send one call per section, with seats that can differ by schedule and work session. * **Watch the race live:** seats update in real time as musicians accept — a golden frame and a shaking cowbell mark the chairs currently out to call. * **Schedules that follow the race:** the offer shows every date the seats cover; as seats get claimed, each musician's answer page narrows to the dates still up for grabs, and winners receive their exact dates in the confirmation email. * **Live email preview & drafts:** compose in the familiar Notifier style with a live preview, save drafts, and edit before you send. * **Winners land on Accepted:** anyone who claims a seat goes straight onto the Accepted stage. ### 🎭 Stage Map builder Lay out exactly where everyone sits on stage — a brand-new visual editor that turns your seating into a shareable, print-ready stage plot.
The Stage Map builder with an auto-arranged orchestra, colored by section

Auto-arranged orchestral seating, colored by section, with stage props, mics, speakers and a legend.

* **Auto-arrange:** one click lays the whole ensemble out in tidy orchestral wedges by family — no overlapping seats — then drag anyone to fine-tune. * **Color by Section or Status:** flip the entire map between section colors and hiring status; the legend doubles as a quick filter. * **Every seat labeled:** each musician shows their initials, seat number and instrument, colored to match their section. * **Build the whole stage:** drop in a grand piano, drum set, microphones, speakers and a conductor podium, draw risers and platforms, and add free text labels. * **Scope each map:** cover the **whole project**, or a single **work session** or **piece** — the instrumentation can differ from map to map. * **Sync hiring:** refresh chairs, assignments and statuses in one click so the map matches current hiring — it even reports what was added, removed and reseated. * **Save and share:** keep multiple named maps per project, export any map as an image, or drop it into a **Booklet** with the new Stage Map block. *(Available on request.)* ### 🎯 Mission Control & Seating * **Compact view:** switch the Pieces / Work Sessions board into dense, single-line rows to see far more of the ensemble at once — with the same drag-to-seat, quick replace and row actions. Toggle it from the View pill. * **Auto-focus next chair:** seat whole sections from the keyboard — arrow keys move through the picker, Enter seats the musician, and Rhapsody can automatically advance to the next empty chair. A visible highlight shows the active chair, and you can toggle auto-advance right from the picker. * **Offer Additional Sessions:** from a seated, accepted musician's ⋮ menu, offer them more work sessions and send a revised call — no need to re-hire from scratch. * **Cancel Work Session(s):** cancel one or more work sessions and Rhapsody sorts affected musicians into those who still have other dates (a **release**) and those who don't (a **cancel**), then helps you notify each group with the right wording. * **Clone seating to new sessions:** add work sessions to a v3 project and copy an existing session's seating into them — instrumentation only, or musicians too. Offered automatically when you add sessions, or on demand. * **Schedule a call:** compose a Notifier communication now and send it later — pick a future date, time and timezone instead of sending right away. * **Add a previously-declined musician:** record a musician who declined outside Rhapsody — logged silently on the project, with no message sent to them. * **Smarter Release & Excuse:** excusing a musician from part of a project now correctly frees their seat on those dates, and Rhapsody warns you first if an excuse would empty an entire work session. * **Clearer column headers:** redesigned, always-visible Piece and Work Session headers, aligned across columns for easier scanning. * **Notify from the Work Sessions view:** send notifications directly from the Work Sessions view. * **Vacation indicator on v3:** the vacation 🌴 now shows on v3 projects too.
Mission Control Compact view showing a full ensemble in dense rows

Compact view fits an entire ensemble on screen in dense, scannable rows.

### 📊 Musician Insights, redesigned The musician **Insights** tab has been rebuilt as a clean, iOS-style dashboard that adapts to light and dark — a musician's activity, venues, sessions and pay at a glance.
The redesigned Musician Insights dashboard

Headline metrics, a monthly activity chart, and ranked venue and service-mix breakdowns — filterable by date range and exportable.

* **Headline metrics:** projects, work sessions, hours worked, earnings, venues, average response time, nudges sent, and on-time rate. * **Performed vs scheduled:** session and hour counts now separate what a musician has actually **performed** from what's still **scheduled** ahead. * **Activity over time:** a monthly sessions chart you can filter by date range. * **Ranked breakdowns:** top **venues** and the **organizations** that book them most, **service mix** by session type, **section roles & orders**, and **statuses**. * **Season tracker:** engagement across your seasons at a glance. * **Projects & pay:** a per-project pay ledger with paid/unpaid totals and wage details. * **Attendance:** on-time, late and absent, plus total time on stage. * **Export anywhere:** save the whole report to **Excel** or a shareable **Booklet**. *(Available on request.)* ### 📚 The Library A brand-new module to manage your physical and digital music library — built for librarians, and connected to the Projects you already run in Rhapsody. * **Catalog your pieces:** title, composer and contributors, movements, durations, and full instrumentation — all in one place. * **Library entries:** track editions, catalog numbers, publishers, and the materials (scores & parts) you actually own. * **Locations:** organize your physical library by **institution, room, shelf, and bin** so anyone can find a part in seconds. * **Markings & Bowings:** build **marking sets** and **marking sheets**, and apply bowings and markings to a piece. * **Usage history:** see every Project that has used a given library entry. * **Import from Daniels:** look up an orchestral work and import its instrumentation, movements, durations, and credits directly from **Daniels' Orchestral Music**. * **Instrumentation shorthand:** type a shorthand string and Rhapsody expands it into the full instrumentation for you. * **Project Librarian:** a dedicated **Librarian** view on every Project to hand out materials and manage markings for that program. * **Housekeeping & duplicates:** a new **Housekeeping** page tidies your catalog — bulk-rename and fix capitalization across pieces and contributors, run library reports, and find likely **duplicate** pieces and people to review and merge. ### 🤖 AI access & MCP Connect Rhapsody to **Claude** and other AI assistants and run your orchestra by simply asking — in plain language, instead of clicking through screens. Every account gets its own secure **MCP** (Model Context Protocol) endpoint that lets your assistant read your Rhapsody data and act on it for you. A few things you can ask it to do: * **Build a program from a website:** paste a link to a concert listing — *"create this project and add every piece with its full instrumentation"* — and Claude reads the page and sets it up for you. * **Hire and communicate:** *"Invite my regular first violins to the October sessions,"* or *"draft a reminder to everyone who hasn't answered the Mahler yet."* * **Get answers in plain English:** *"How many services did the cellos play last season?"* or *"Who's still unconfirmed for next week?"* * **Produce documents and reports:** *"Generate a PDF roster for Friday's rehearsal,"* or *"give me a pay summary for last month."* * **Manage your library:** *"Add Mahler's Symphony No. 5 to the library with the instrumentation from Daniels."* Everything runs through your own account and permissions — the assistant only ever sees and does what you already can. ### 🌍 Languages * Rhapsody is now available in **French**, in addition to English. * Switch languages anytime — your choice is remembered on your device. ### Projects * **Project v3 can now have Pieces.** Building on the Project v3 introduced in 8.0, you're no longer limited to piece-less projects. * **Program editor:** build a detailed program — add slots with movements and durations, insert breaks between them, mark slots paid or unpaid, and reorder from a row-actions menu. ### Booklets * **Dynamic merge tags:** Booklets support a large set of placeholders that fill in automatically — Season info and schedules, Project details, rosters, detailed programs, credits, notes, contacts, carpool, and the event timeline. * **Season booklets:** generate a Season overview alongside your Project booklets. * **PDF heading formats:** heading formatting now carries through to the PDF export. ### Musicians & Address Book * **Event timeline:** review a musician's event history at a glance, with an export. * **Custom fields:** define your own fields to capture extra information about musicians — choose each field's type and control who can see it. * **Redesigned Bulk Actions:** a sleeker, sectioned panel updates many musicians at once in a single request — faster and more reliable. * **Favorites group:** starred musicians now gather into an automatic Favorites group. * **Searchable Groups:** Address Book groups moved from overflowing tabs into a searchable dropdown. * **Add scanned contacts from a link:** add a scanned contact straight from an add link. * **Accurate reconcile icon:** the reconcile icon now appears only for musicians who actually need reconciliation. * **Birthdays on the calendar:** musician birthdays now show on the main and project calendars. ### Payroll * **Calculate Mileage, rebuilt:** faster and more accurate, with a live progress dialog while it runs. * **Not-playing warnings:** Payroll now flags musicians who aren't playing or were added manually. * **Adjustment explanations:** enter an explanation for pay adjustments — including bulk edits — so every change is documented. * **Faster, more reliable labor grid:** edits apply instantly (reverting only if a save fails), and copy/paste round-trips reliably. * **Conceal pay from reviewers:** reviewers can be prevented from seeing musician pay. * **Payroll-only mode:** a dedicated mode for users who work solely in Payroll. * **Vendor invoices & W-9s:** upload a vendor's invoice and W-9 right on their payment. ### Billing & Account * **In-app Billing:** a new Billing page (under Settings) lists your Rhapsody invoices, newest first — view any invoice as a PDF without leaving the app. * **Searchable preferences:** account preferences are grouped into collapsible sections with a search box, so settings are easier to find. * **Branding assets:** clearer asset naming and previews, plus a monochrome logo upload that looks right on dark surfaces. * **Email digests (on request):** a daily or weekly summary of your organization's activity — sessions played, emails sent, upcoming birthdays, removable musicians and payrolls in progress — delivered at the time and timezone you choose. * **Talkback alerts (on request):** get an email the moment a musician replies from a call, sent to the project manager, with a link straight to the message. ### 🔒 Security * **Passkey sign-in:** sign in with Face ID, Touch ID, or your device's screen lock — nothing to type, remember, or reset. Passkeys are **phishing-resistant** and can't be reused or leaked in a data breach, so your account is meaningfully harder to compromise than with a password. ### Misc * Cleaner **piece name formatting** and consistent **duration** display across the app. * **Manual links** are now labeled "Manual" (not "Everybody"), and correctly carry their audience and tag. * **Importer:** instrument reconciliation, plus project link and note pickers during import. * **Season Overview:** project headers and the Repertoire / Schedule / Ensemble dividers now stay pinned as you scroll the board.