Today’s Stories
How EDM (Electronic Dance Music) Quickly Evolved Online And Reached A New Audience At Home
“What I like about streaming right now is I get excited about it … My mom’s in Guatemala. My mom and dad are retired and my mom tunes into the streams,” Nonfiction said. “My parents never really got a chance to see me DJ … but with the streaming, they can be involved. They get to see me do what I do.” – Voice of Orange County
Mark Morris’s First Created-On-Zoom Dances Are Here
“For the past two months, he has experimented with making dances using Zoom and Final Cut Pro. Four of these short works will premiere on ‘Dance On!,’ to be shown on the Mark Morris Dance Group’s website on Thursday evening. (The program is free, but registration is required.)” Marina Harss reports on how it all came together. – The New York Times
Opera Conductor Joel Revzen Dead Of COVID At 74
A staff conductor at the Met for 21 years, Revzen served as artistic director of Arizona Opera (2003-2012) and Berkshire Opera (1991-2005) and was, from 2012, the founding artistic director of the Nevada summer festival Classical Tahoe. – The Strad
Here’s What Actors’ Equity Wants To See Before It Tells Members It’s Safe To Do Shows Again
Saying “I do not think that making everything safe for the audience – although that is important – and leaving the the people on stage to be epidemiological guinea pigs is the right answer,” Equity president Kate Shindle and the union’s public health consultant released a set of four principles on which the reopening of theaters should be based. – Deadline
‘Fear Of Jerks’ Is Why New Yorkers Are Nervous About Coming Back To See Live Shows
“A New York Times/Siena College Research Institute poll, administered [last week], sought to gauge how soon New Yorkers would be comfortable attending live performances like Broadway shows. … And for the hesitant, their single greatest concern is their fellow audience members, who they worry will show up without masks or ignore social distancing rules.” – The New York Times
Guy In Hazmat Suit Tries To Steal Painting That Banksy Gave To Hospital
The piece, titled Game Changer and showing a boy leaving his other superhero action figures behind for one of a nurse, had been in Southampton General Hospital in England for all of two days when a man wearing a protective coverall and carrying a cordless drill was caught walking past the painting five or more times, “clearly having a good look.” – Artnet
Philly Fringe Festival Will Happen This Fall, At Least Partly In The Flesh
No specific program has been announced yet, but “look for some combination of performances presented online, outside, or in other ways that maintain social distance. The festival will continue [from Sept. 10] through Oct. 4, and organizers expect it to include eight to 12 curated works, as well as a virtual bookstore, artist talks, and independently presented works.” – The Philadelphia Inquirer
€50,000 A Day: What La Scala Would Lose By Operating Under Social-Distancing Rules
That’s the grim figure that the Milan opera house’s new superintendent, Dominique Meyer, will present to its board of directors on Thursday. Under the law that Italy’s parliament passed last week, La Scala could accommodate only 200 people, including the performers. – Gramilano (Milan)
Post-Virus Prognosticators – We Just Don’t Know
“The public square is thick today with augurs and prophets claiming to foresee the post-Covid world to come. I, myself, who find sundown something of a surprise every evening, have been pursued by foreign journalists asking what the pandemic will mean for the American presidential election, populism, the prospects of socialism, race relations, economic growth, higher education, New York City politics and more. And they seem awfully put out when I say I have no idea. – The New York Times
Using The Human Brain As A Model For Artificial Intelligence Hasn’t Turned Out (So Far)
What computer scientists and neuroscientists are after is a universal theory of intelligence—a set of principles that holds true both in tissue and in silicon. What they have instead is a muddle of details. Eleven years and $1.3 billion after Henry Markram proposed his simulated brain, it has contributed no fundamental insights to the study of intelligence. – Wired
How Leadership Is Failing Universities
How does a university with a $6-billion endowment and $10 billion in assets suddenly find itself in a solvency crisis? How is one of the country’s top research universities reduced, just a month after moving classes online, to freezing its employees’ retirement accounts? – Chronicle of Higher Education
Arvo Pärt On What The Pandemic Says To Us
“This tiny coronavirus has showed us in a painful way that humanity is a single organism and human existence is possible only in relation to other living beings. The notion of “relationship” should be understood as a maxim, as the ability to love. Although this is truly a high standard, maybe even too high for a human being. Our current situation is paradoxical: on the one hand, it means isolation, on the other, it brings us closer. While isolating ourselves, we should be able to – we are even forced to – appreciate our relationships in a small circle and to tend to them.” – Estonian World
Cirque du Soleil Founder Wants To Buy It Back To Save It
In 2015, Guy Laliberté sold the Cirque du Soleil to American private equity investment firm TPG Capital, Chinese investment company Fosun and the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec for a reported US$1.5 billion. In late March, the Montreal-based circus laid off 95 per cent of its staff, close to 4,700 employees, after all of its shows around the world were shuttered as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. – Montreal Gazette
Actor Showcases Go Online – A Push To The Future?
Some representatives believe that, even after social distancing measures fade, schools will begin to incorporate video into at least part of their showcase models. On-demand video allows agents and managers to avoid the hassle of attending a live event, to choose the time when they view the showcase, to take meetings with students over a longer period and to see actors who they are considering for television or film projects onscreen. – The Hollywood Reporter
Italian Museums Reopen: A Survey Of How They’re Doing It
As museums begin to reopen, many are requiring visitors to book tickets in advance, wear masks, use hand sanitizer upon entering or undergo temperature checks, according to Fortune. In Munich, the Bavarian State Painting Collections’ museums are limiting the number of visitors to one person per roughly 215 square feet, reports CNN’s Karina Tsui. At the Giacometti Institute in Paris, meanwhile, just ten people are allowed in every ten minutes, and public bathrooms remain closed. – Smithsonian
Philip Glass’s Lost ‘Music In Eight Parts’ Has Been Recovered
“For decades, [the piece] seemed, to Mr. Glass’s circle, to exist only as fragments in his archive. Then the final manuscript for Music in Eight Parts resurfaced near the end of 2017. … Now in the hands of Mr. Glass’s publisher, it has been realized anew for his ensemble and, 50 years after its premiere, released on a recording by Orange Mountain Music this week.” – The New York Times
Are Patents And Copyrights Slowing Down Innovation?
Whether we’re talking about vaccines or groundbreaking clean energy, lifesaving technologies shouldn’t be treated as precious commodities to be hoarded for private gain. In the midst of global emergencies, they’re public goods to be deployed as rapidly as possible. – The New Republic
How Did Renaissance Architects Build Church Domes Without Columns? High-Tech Analysis Has Found The Answer
The broad cupolas in Italian churches of the era were constructed by laying bricks in a “complex cross-herringbone spiraling pattern” called a double loxodrome, according to a team of engineering researchers at Princeton and the University of Bergamo. – Artnet
Broadway League President Says A January Reopening?
Charlotte St. Martin said that in the last ten weeks Broadway has been losing an average of $35 million a week; this will remain so for however long Broadway remains closed. If this continues to January, that means a total loss of around $1.5 billion—with the sum heading towards $2 billion if the closure continues into next spring. – The Daily Beast
2020 Turner Prize Cancelled – £100,000 Prize Will Be Used To Help Artists
“Gallery closures and social distancing measures are vitally important, but they are also causing huge disruption to the lives and livelihoods of artists. The practicalities of organising a Turner Prize exhibition are impossible in the current circumstances, so we have decided to help support even more artists during this exceptionally difficult time.” The move was broadly welcomed on social media with one contributor calling the initiative a “philanthropic and democratic move”. – The Art Newspaper
Pioneering Op Art Painter Richard Anuszkiewicz Dead At 89
“[He] devoted his career to studying how some of the fundamental elements of art could be manipulated to create perceptual effects. His experiments with color led him to make paintings of geometric shapes that seem to vibrate and emanate light.” – The New York Times
Insurance Companies Put Theatres At Risk
Most theatres and show producers have been sold expensive “business interruption” policies to cover closure as a result of events outside their control. But believe it or not, according to the insurers Covid-19 does not count. I repeat, the closure of every theatre in the country by the pandemic does not meet the insurers’ idea of business interruption. – The Times (UK)
With Lockdown Lifting, This Country’s Bookstores Are Having A Boom
“Booksellers around the country say they’re experiencing ‘Christmas’ levels of demand post-lockdown, as many readers have sworn off shopping offshore following the Covid-19 crisis, which claimed 21 lives in New Zealand.” – The Guardian
The Dangers And Delights Of Choreographing Over-Familiar Music
Carmina Burana. Bolero. Arvo Pärt’s Spiegel im Spiegel. Even The Rite of Spring. They’re good pieces, they work for dance, and audiences are familiar with them. “Still, many choreographers have been sabotaged by the formidable nature and Muzak-y overuse of these iconic compositions,” writes Joseph Carman, who talks to several choreographers about how they’ve successfully pulled the feat off. – Dance Magazine
Africa’s First Million-Selling Singer, Mory Kanté, Dead At 70
“[He] came from a family of griots, the dynastic West African musicians whose songs carry news and chronicle history. Steeped in those traditions, he electrified the kora, the traditional griot’s harp, and he fused African music with styles and instruments from Western pop. … [His] 1987 single “Yé Ké Yé Ké” was a hit, first in Africa and then across Europe. It became the first African single to sell more than a million copies and has been licensed frequently for commercials and film soundtracks.” – The New York Times