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  • A Century Closes In A Single Day

    Good Morning,

    Two losses today compress a century of classical music into one obituary page. Michael Tilson Thomas, one of the most distinguished American conductors of his generation and San Francisco Symphony’s music director for 25 years, died at 81 (Washington Post). A few hours earlier, pianist Ruth Slenczynska — Rachmaninoff’s last surviving student — died at 101 (BBC).

    AI keeps turning up where it wasn’t invited. Electronic musicians are using the tools at every level but refuse to talk about it (Music Radar). Reading platforms are embedding chatbots to tell you what to read next (Korea Joongang Daily). Sony’s robot just beat elite ping-pong players (The Guardian). And TikTok’s biggest star watched his $975 million AI-likeness deal collapse in three months (TheWrap) — the technology is moving faster than the contracts meant to contain it.

    Elsewhere, Algerian novelist Kamel Daoud, who won the 2024 Goncourt, was sentenced to three years in prison for writing about his country’s civil war (AP). And in Florence, a tourist climbed the Neptune fountain on a dare to touch the sea god’s anatomy — and broke it (The Guardian). Neptune got the last word.

    All of our stories below.

  • Director of People & Culture – Oregon Shakespeare Festival via TOC Arts Partners

    About the Opportunity

    This is a unique opportunity to join one of the nation’s leading cultural institutions at a moment of meaningful transition and renewal. The Director of People & Culture will lead a team with the goal to help stabilize, strengthen, and reimagine the employee experience, supporting both the people and the art at the heart of the organization. The Director of People & Culture will serve as a key member of the senior leadership team, responsible for shaping and stewarding a people-centered culture within a highly collaborative and uniquely complex theatrical environment.

    This is a pivotal moment for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Following a period of leadership transition, evolving labor dynamics, and recovery from the pandemic closures, the Festival is experiencing an exciting time of revival. Audiences are growing; critical reception for the work is thriving; and the artistic vision for the future of the company is expansive and inclusive. The Director of People & Culture will play a central role in strengthening internal systems and fostering a cohesive and supportive workplace culture at a time when the impact of their work will be pivotal to the continuing success of the organization. This is both a stabilization and an impact opportunity—requiring a leader who can balance empathy with rigor, listening with action, and relationship-building with operational discipline.

    About the Oregon Shakespeare Festival

    The Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) was founded in 1935 in Ashland, OR, and has grown from a three-day festival of two plays to a nationally renowned theatre arts organization that presents a rotating repertory season of up to 10 plays and musicals, including illuminating interpretations of Shakespeare, other enduring classics, and new works. OSF productions have been presented on Broadway, internationally, and at regional, community, and high school theatres across the country. OSF received the 1983 Special Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre and is one of the largest nonprofit theatres in the nation with three stages, including an outdoor Allen Elizabethan Theatre.

    The Oregon Shakespeare Festival creates world-class theatre, revealing our collective humanity through illuminating interpretations of new and classic plays, and inspiring a love of our art form for current and future generations. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Tim Bond and acting Executive Director Javier Dubon, a team of over 500 theater professionals produce thrilling theatrical experiences to audiences of over 130,000 from every state in the U.S.

    Learn more about the Festival: www.osfashland.org

    About Ashland, Oregon

    Nestled in the Rogue Valley of southern Oregon, where the Cascades meet the Siskiyou Mountains, Ashland is a beautifully unique town, in a beautifully unique setting. The small town atmosphere of Ashland (population 21,000) holds many surprises for first time visitors – this small community has the rich cultural life of a city many times its size, with a varied artistic community including and beyond the Festival; a culinary scene that includes world class chefs and home grown cooking stars; access to nature that is literally at one’s doorstep; a nationally recognized wine growing region and industry; and an engaged and active local population. The Festival’s impact on the town, the presence of Southern Oregon University, and the thriving tourism industry has helped build a population of both residents and visitors who represent a wealth of backgrounds, education, and life experiences that gives Ashland its vibrancy. It is a town that is self-reflective in grappling with both its history and its future, and invites involvement from all who choose to call it home. Located roughly equidistant between San Francisco and Portland for weekend road trips, and with an airport in nearby Medford that makes travel out of the valley easy, Ashland offers the experience of small town life with great convenience to travel when desired.

    Learn more about Ashland and Oregon:
    www.travelashland.com
    www.ashlandchamber.com
    www.traveloregon.com

    Job Description

    The Director of People & Culture will be a visible, trusted, and relationship-driven leader, responsible for fostering a people-centered culture within a highly collaborative and uniquely complex theatrical environment. This individual will play a critical role in building trust, strengthening communication, and supporting a healthy, connected workplace, bringing a leadership approach grounded in empathy, transparency, and sound judgment.

    Key Responsibilities

    People & Culture Leadership

    • Lead all aspects of People & Culture, including employee relations, professional development, recruitment, compensation, benefits, and compliance
    • Serve as a trusted advisor to senior leadership on organizational health, culture, and people strategy
    • Foster a workplace culture rooted in respect, inclusion, transparency, and accountability

    Employee Relations & Culture Building

    • Provide thoughtful, human-centered guidance on employee relations matters
    • Help build trust through fairness, consistency, and clear communication
    • Support a culture where staff feel heard, valued, and supported

    Labor Relations

    • Lead and support collective bargaining and union relationships across multiple bargaining units
    • Navigate ongoing labor dynamics with skill, credibility, and respect
    • Ensure compliance with applicable labor laws, with particular attention to Oregon-specific requirements

    Operations & Infrastructure

    • Strengthen and streamline HR systems, policies, and procedures
    • Improve onboarding, offboarding, and overall employee experience
    • Ensure operational excellence while adapting systems to a complex, non-linear environment

    Manager & Leadership Support

    • Provide guidance and training to managers to strengthen leadership capacity across the organization
    • Help clarify roles, expectations, and processes to reduce administrative burden
    • Support a more consistent and effective approach to people management

    Cross-Functional Collaboration

    • Partner closely with Finance on payroll, benefits, and strategic planning budgetary needs
    • Collaborate with Artistic and Production leadership to ensure alignment with the realities of the needs of theatrical operations
    • Contribute to a cohesive and aligned senior leadership team

    Key Priorities

    • Strengthen employee relations practices, ensuring a human-centered, fair, and responsive approach to staff support
    • Stabilize and enhance core HR systems and processes, including onboarding, offboarding, and policy clarity
    • Support and guide managers across the organization, through consistent, transparent, and accessible practices
    • Navigate and strengthen labor relations within a highly unionized environment, helping to strengthen productive relationships with union partners
    • Improve communication and cohesion across a large and physically dispersed organization
    • Establish strong cross-functional partnerships, particularly with finance and senior leadership, to ensure alignment and shared decision-making
    • Provide proactive leadership, anticipating organizational needs and helping to mitigate challenges before they escalate

    Experience & Qualifications

    • Demonstrated leadership experience in People & Culture / Human Resources, ideally in a complex, mission-driven organization
    • Experience in the performing arts, theatre, or similarly collaborative creative environments strongly preferred
    • Deep knowledge of labor relations and collective bargaining, ideally within unionized environments
    • Strong understanding of employment law and compliance, including Oregon-specific requirements
    • Experience building or strengthening HR systems, policies, and operational infrastructure
    • Proven ability to navigate complexity, balance competing priorities, and work across diverse stakeholder groups
    • Track record of building trust and strengthening organizational culture

    The successful candidate will bring:

    • A deeply human-centered approach, leading with empathy, compassion, and respect for the individuals and creative work that define the organization
    • A strong, visible presence, building trust through accessibility, consistency, and authentic relationship-building across all levels of the company
    • Emotional intelligence and steadiness, with the ability to navigate complex interpersonal dynamics with patience, good judgment, and a calm, thoughtful approach
    • Humility and low ego, demonstrating openness, curiosity, and a willingness to listen and learn while fostering a culture of mutual respect
    • A collaborative mindset, working in close partnership with leadership and staff, valuing shared ownership, and engaging stakeholders in decision-making
    • Clear and transparent communication, providing context, rationale, and follow-through to build understanding and confidence across the organization
    • The ability to balance compassion with accountability, offering warmth and support while making thoughtful, sometimes difficult decisions in service of the organization
    • A genuine connection to the mission and art form, with an appreciation for the creative process and the role culture plays in supporting artistic work
    • A commitment to consistency and stability, helping to build confidence in People & Culture through reliability, follow-through, and sustained engagement

    Compensation

    The salary for this position is $135,000 – 155,000.

    The Oregon Shakespeare Festival provides comprehensive benefits, including providing Medical, Dental, and Vision coverage, flexible spending account options, an Employee Assistance Program; Free/Discounted Show Tickets; local discounts, and Group and Voluntary Life Insurance

    Application Instructions

    The Director of People & Culture search is being conducted on behalf of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival by TOC Arts Partners, a national consultancy aligning strategies, structures, and leadership toward a thriving cultural sector. The search is being led by VP of Executive Search Cynthia Fuhrman, in consultation with and support from the TOC Arts Partners search team.

    To apply, visit the online application and submit your materials. Your cover letter should include any training or experience relevant to the job profile that you would like to highlight, why you consider yourself a good fit for this opportunity, and anything else you’d like us to know about your qualifications that may not be present in your resume. Applications will be accepted until this role is filled.

    For general questions or nominations of prospective candidates, please contact searchteam@tocartspartners.com. We kindly request no phone calls.

    Specific questions about the position may be directed to:
    Cynthia Fuhrman
    VP, Executive Search
    cynthia@tocartspartners.com

    Not sure you meet 100% of our qualifications? Research shows that cis men apply for jobs when they fulfill an average of 60% of the criteria, while others tend only to apply if they meet every requirement. If you believe that you could excel in this role, we encourage you to apply. We are dedicated to considering a broad array of candidates, including those with diverse workplace experiences and backgrounds. So, whether you’re returning to work after a gap in employment, simply looking to transition, or taking the next step in your career path, we will be glad to have you on our radar.

    MORE

  • NYC Ballet Star Takes A Big Leap: Wearing Hearing Aids Onstage

    “Sara Mearns was missing her cues. She couldn’t hear what her dance partner was saying from across the studio. She was late for her entrances because the music sounded too soft. … Now, ‘I feel like it’s a whole new chapter of my life,’ Mearns, 40, said in an interview.” – AP

  • A Backlash To Biennales?

    But with the boom came backlash: the suspicion that biennales were above all an excuse for a tote-bag-wearing international art crowd to descend on a city for a few weeks, leaving behind a large carbon footprint but little meaningful engagement with the local population. – The Guardian

  • Warner Shareholders Approve Sale To Paramount

    Shareholders of Warner Bros. Discovery voted to sell the company to David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance for $31 a share in cash at a special virtual meeting Wednesday morning. The approval was a key hurdle in advancing the deal. – Deadline

  • Director Joe Mantello On Time In “Death Of A Salesman”

    “One of the questions I always have is whether Willy is having flashbacks, or if he has some kind of dementia. … Miller said very clearly that they’re not flashbacks — Willie is not revisiting his past, but the past and the present absolutely exist simultaneously. He called them concurrences.” – TheaterMania

  • Musicians Are Using AI At All Levels. They Don’t Want To Talk About It

    Tech companies with billion-dollar valuations are extracting value from copyrighted music on the internet and selling it as a service: making music-making easier and, they claim, more democratic. But creatives have always found ways to democratize and innovate music and art, long before tech companies tried to bite their flow. – Music Radar

  • A 60s Art Experiment That Redefined How We Think About Creativity

    The discovery of this “problem-finding” creative process was a seminal moment in creativity research. In the decades since, countless researchers have shown that many of the most meaningful forms of real-world creativity and invention depend less on solving well-defined problems than on figuring out what the problem is in the first place. – Psychology Today

  • Hundreds Of Musicians Call For Eurovision Boycott Of Israel

    This year’s list is organized by the “No Music for Genocide” initiative, which also calls on anti-Israel artists to have their music geo-blocked inside Israel. – Times of Israel

  • Montreal Symphony Gives Rafael Payare Five More Years And New Title

    His contract, which was to expire in summer 2027, has been extended through the 2031-32 season, and the Venezuelan-born conductor’s title is now Music and Artistic Director. (He is also music director of the San Diego Symphony.) – Gramophone

  • Another Human Threshold Crossed: Robot Beats Elite Ping Pong Players

    Named Ace, the robotic system developed by Sony AI, won three out of five matches against elite players, but lost the two it played against professionals, clawing back only one game in the seven contests. – The Guardian

  • How AI Is Already Changing How People Read

    “I believe AI can simultaneously solve the problem of not knowing what to read and the difficulty of maintaining consistent reading habits.” Subscription-based reading platform Millie’s Library is taking things a step further by integrating a conversational AI chatbot into its platform. – Korea Joongang Daily

  • A Pioneering Greek Arts Institution Calls It Quits: “We’ve Done What We’ve Set Out To Do”

    NEON goes out on a high note after 14 successful years of exhibitions, performances and initiatives that enriched Greece’s art scene. – Ekathimerini

  • Book Publishing’s Latest Demographic Category: “New Adult”

    “Young Adult” fiction, despite its name, is aimed at teenagers; the “New Adult” category covers actual young adults, 18 to 24 or so. Four of the Big Five US publishers have now launched imprints dedicated to that audience. The subject matter is mostly romance, though publishers hope to expand beyond that. – Publishers Weekly

  • V&A East Museum Opens With A Very Different Lens On Art

    V&A East’s boxy, beige facade, pierced by pointed shards of window, was concocted by Irish architects O’Donnell + Tuomey and has received mixed reviews. Its futuristic appeal does, however, help establish a distinct identity from that of the original V&A in west London—an ornate Victorian shrine to the history of design and the decorative arts. – Artnet

  • 30-Year Copyright Case In EU Finally Settles

    The initial court ruling “was subsequently appealed, overturned and referred on several occasions to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), resulting in a three-decade long legal battle over the regulation of sampling in Europe.” –NME

  • Layoffs At Artnet And Artsy

    Days after layoffs at Artnet and Artsy shook the art world, investor and owner Andrew E. Wolff has offered his clearest explanation yet for the cuts, framing them as part of a broader consolidation strategy already underway at the two companies. – ARTnews

  • Algeria’s Leading Author Says He’s Been Sentenced To Prison For His Prize-Winning Novel

    Kamel Daoud, who lives in France, said that a court in Oran fined him five million Algerian dinars ($38,000) and sentenced him to three years’ imprisonment because his novel Houris, which won the Prix Goncourt in 2024, makes public mention — a crime under current Algerian law — of the country’s 1992-2002 civil war. – AP

  • Michael Tilson Thomas Is Dead At 81

    “He was widely considered one of the most distinguished American conductors of his generation” — most notably for his 25 years as music director of the San Francisco Symphony. “In addition to making more than 100 recordings of both rare and familiar classical repertory, he created valuable instructional series for television and radio.” – The Washington Post (Yahoo)

  • Pianist Ruth Slenczynska, Rachmaninoff’s Last Surviving Student, Has Died At 101

    She gave her first recital at four and performed her first concerto at seven, going on to tour with the Boston Pops, play for five U.S. presidents, and record 10 LPs. She developed a new audience with Beethoven videos during the 2020 lockdowns and recorded her last disk at age 97. – BBC

  • Tiktok’s Biggest Star Had A Nearly-Billion-Dollar AI Deal. How Did It Fall Apart?

    This past January, Khaby Lame, a Senegalese-Italian who has 160 million followers for his Chaplin-esque silent TikTok shorts, signed a $975 billion deal with Hong Kong-based firm Rich Sparkle Holdings for use of his likeness in AI-generated videos. Three months later, Lame largely disavows Rich Sparkle, whose share price is plummeting. – TheWrap (MSN)

  • What The Kennedy Center’s Chief Showed Journalists To Prove The Building Really Does Need Renovation

    “A theme emerged at virtually every stop: The water damage was real, apparent in some places through discoloration and pooling. Some pieces of equipment, including several 800-ton chillers that help cool the building, are decades old and need replacement. And the building is so massive … that repairs will require time to finish.” – AP

  • San Francisco’s Broken-Down Brutalist Fountain Will Be Hauled Away Starting Next Week

    “The first phase — removing grout from the massive concrete sculpture and cataloging the pieces for future reassembly — will take at least a week, officials said. Starting in May, cranes will begin removing the (Vaillancourt Fountain’s) 10-ton cantilevered arms and hauling them away (from Embarcadero Plaza).” – San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)

  • Yet Another Tourist Climbs On The Statuary In Florence And Breaks It

    A 28-year-old visitor caused thousands of euros in damage when she climbed the fountain of Neptune in the Piazza della Signoria because her friends dared her to touch the sea-god’s genitals. – The Guardian

  • The Bard Died 410 Years Ago Today. His Poems Live On
    Sometimes he rewrote them. See an example and decide which you prefer: the early or the later version.
  • In Honour of Shakespeare’s Birthday, A Six-Minute, Five-Act Play
    To think that music hath the charms to heal! This arts nonprofit surely needs support.
  • Chief Philanthropy Officer

    Reporting to the General Director & President, the Chief Philanthropy Officer (CDO) serves as a visionary partner, actively shaping and carrying out philanthropic strategies and programs of the Development department.

    Goal oriented and revenue-focused, the CPO will actively build budgets informed by data for all areas of the department, set annual and long-term projections, and create strategies for sustainable fundraising growth of the Annual Fund and the organization’s comprehensive campaign, a $33 million effort designed to support innovation, community-focused programming, and financial resilience. A mature and sophisticated communicator, the CPO will engage with board members, donors, and external partners, building relationships that inspire transformative giving. As a key collaborator, the CPO will work closely with the Finance and Marketing teams to build cross-functional strategies and develop comprehensive plans that align operations with fundraising goals.

    The position requires a combination of high-level strategy and hands-on leadership in frontline fundraising, with the ability to maintain a robust portfolio of major donors and prospects. A strong leader, the CPO will be an inspiring manager who shares a vision for what opera can and should be.

    MORE

  • He Wrote The Hit Torch Songs of The Elizabethan Age

    “(John) Dowland was well regarded; (he) was also well-connected, cosmopolitan and at times unusually well-remunerated for his work. Yet his musical expression was dominated by melancholy. With that imbalance comes the sense that Dowland had an acute understanding of his place in the musical market of the time.” – The New York Times

  • Competitive Chess Is Wearing Down Its Champions

    Life in chess has always been a struggle, never more so than today. During the two-year battle for the 2024 world chess championship, I saw tantrums, I saw tears, I heard one top grandmaster muse about leaving the game for a career in fashion. – The Walrus

  • The Best Thing About LACMA’s New Building

    In a startling and largely gratifying way, LACMA has done what the poet Audre Lorde, alluding to a different but not unrelated aspect of patriarchal dominance, deemed impossible: used the master’s tools to dismantle the master’s house. The change goes far beyond a remodel. It’s a reinvention, a recalibration, a revisionist fever dream. – Los Angeles Times

  • The Independent Philanthropist Changing The Future Of Brazilian Filmmaking

    The Brazilian film industry has plenty of infrastructure for film production, but there was almost none for the early stages of development. So Olga Rabinovich founded, and singlehandedly funds, Projeto Paradiso to provide that support. During the Bolsonaro years, however, Rabinovich had to expand Projeto Paradiso’s remit. – Variety

  • “The Marriage” – Enacting Gustav Mahler’s Demise and Alma’s Indecision

    My play The Marriage: The Mahlers in New York was just premiered (as a work-in-progress) at the University of Michigan/Ann Arbor. It’s my good fortune to be working with a terrific actress and director: Esther van Zyl and Jack Tamburri. We next produce the play (this time with lighting design)

  • Needed: A NATO Alliance For American Universities

    “We need a NATO for universities,” said Lee Bollinger, president emeritus of Columbia University. “When one university is attacked, everyone commits to coming to their defense. We need less capacity of individual institutions to make decisions about where we should go in defending universities and more power in a system.” – InsideHigherEd

  • FCC Opens Investigation Into TV Ratings System

    The FCC has launched a new inquiry into the TV ratings system, including whether issues of gender identity are being included in children’s programming without flagging that content to parents. – Deadline

  • What’s Really Wrong With Trump’s Arch: A Symbol Of Autocracy

    What’s really wrong with Trump’s arch isn’t something that is always wrong with victory arches but, rather, something that is always wrong with all the architecture of autocracy. – The New Yorker