You have to go behind the billboards to understand what's happening in America. So said the novelist Nelson Algren, who was as sharp a social critic of the culture as H.L. Mencken ever was. Seems to me that the British author A. Robert Lee would agree Algren. But Lee has
The current Boston “Arts Fuse” carries my thoughts about the pertinence today of Henry Higginson, who invented, owned, and operated the Boston Symphony until 1919. You can access the full article here. Excerpts follow: About a dozen years ago I was invited, impromptu, to address a gifted youth orchestra at
That Chopin’s 24 Preludes are commonly performed as a set makes sense. They are individually short and concise, they vary greatly in mood and texture, they suggest a trajectory beginning with a clearing of the throat and ending with a firestorm. That Chopin’s waltzes are not commonly performed as a
Old systems of certification are failing from every direction: technological, legal, institutional and political. So what's left when you can't just say "trust us"? You have to show your work and construct a context, making the case not by institutional credential but by demonstration.
John Milbauer, Dean of DePaul University’s School of Music, shares the three things he learned in policy school that he wished he learned in music school.
Conrad L. Osborne’s detailed assessment of the new Met “Tristan und Isolde,” a definitive critique of Yuvan Sharon’s obtrusive production, is compulsive reading for all remaining Wagnerites. Even more distressing than this version’s shortcomings is the acclaim it has received and the influence it may exert on opinion and practice.
As jazz — the music, business and culture of it — depends on an intricate and widespread network of activists, altruists and advocates to thrive, and celebrating local doers at least used to be a way to focus attention on the out-of-the-spotlight work necessary to make anything worthwhile happen, the
The first audience for your art is becoming a machine. The question isn't just how to optimize for that machine, it's what you give it to say, and whether what it says is worth a conversation.
'Don't let anybody convince you this is the way the world is and therefore must be. It must be the way it ought to be.' — Toni Morrison 'Waiting until everything looks feasible is too long to wait.' — Rebecca Solnit
Today’s Boston’s “The Arts Fuse” carries an investigative piece of mine exploring how the Boston Symphony trustees decided not to hire Leonard Bernstein as the orchestra’s Music Director in 1949 even though he was the chosen successor of Serge Koussevitzky. This story is not irrelevant to the current controversy over
Reviewing my new novel “The Disciple: A Wagnerian Tale of the Gilded Age,” the British critic Clive Paget writes in “Musical America” that it’s “a richly detailed depiction of [New York] at the apogee of the Gilded Age and its embrace of all things Wagnerian.” His review reads in part:
I don't mean to be pedantic, but I think defining what we mean by excellence really matter if we're really going to figure out the place of AI in creativity. Four stories this week suggest layers to this debate:
Maribeth Stahl, Chief Development Officer of The Cleveland Orchestra, shares why Data, Depth and Discovery are key ingredients for successful fundraising.
