Yearly Archives: 2021
18,000-Year-Old Music Instrument Identified — And Played
The ancient conch shell was discovered at the site of some cave art in the French Pyrenees back in 1931, when archaeologists figured it...
New Lead In Case Of Picasso Stolen In Athens
"Almost nine years ago, two thieves carried out a near-perfect heist at the National Gallery in Athens, taking two works by modern masters Pablo...
What’s Actually In The Paris Opera Ballet’s Diversity Report?
Some of the recommendations are both obvious and overdue: no more yellowface/brownface/blackface, hire more diverse choreographers (but classical choreographers, not contemporary or hip-hop as...
Unproduced Stanley Kubrick Screenplay Coming To Screens
"Veteran producers Bruce Hendricks and Galen Walker have optioned the rights to the late Stanley Kubrick's unmade film Lunatic At Large, and have plans...
Oregon Symphony’s Next Music Director: David Danzmayr
The 41-year-old Austrian-born maestro, who recently completed his term as chief conductor of the Zagreb Philharmonic in Croatia, takes up the baton in Portland...
Poland’s Independent Media Go Dark To Protest New Advertising Tax
"Many private Polish TV channels and radio stations fell silent and online sites and newspapers ran black front pages on Wednesday in a concerted...
Polish Region Loses $2.25 Million European Cultural Grant After Declaring Itself ‘LGBT-Free Zone’
The money was to go toward developing a Carpathian "heritage" trail" in Poland's Podkarpackie region. After a local activist brought to funders' attention a...
More Monoliths. (Is This Irritating Yet?)
Even though it has a little more flair, I hope we can accept the Turkish monolith as a normal part of life in 2021....
Has Westernization In The Rest Of The World Been Over-Estimated?
The immense force of Western institutions – capitalism, democracy, Christianity – stamped itself on other parts of the globe, creating independent democratic nations committed...
Texas Theatre Finds Success With Digital Theatre
“We are thinking that we will have a slate of work with both digital and in-person opportunities. Because digital is not going away. We’re...
8-Year-Old Complains About NPR’s Lack Of Dinosaur Coverage
"My name is Leo and I am 8 years old. I listen to All Things Considered in the car with mom. I listen a...
Canadian Artists Debate Universal Basic Income
“If we artists had a basic income, that stress and fear over basic necessities would no longer weigh over our heads and we could...
Long Overdue: Breaking Gender Norms In Ballet
Christopher Rudd’s creation is the first romantic same-sex pas de deux in ABT’s history, and one of the first—if not the first—to celebrate queer...
Why This Afghan-Born Poet Is ‘The Father Of Uzbek Literature’
Alisher Navoiy was born in 1441 in Herat, now in Afghanistan but historically a Persianate city. He wrote in Arabic, Persian, and Chagatai, the...
How Do You Play a Flower Pot?
What makes washtubs sound best? How about coffee cans? For the answers, check out Lou Harrison’s instructions for his Concerto for Violin and Percussion....
When Keith Urban And Nicole Kidman Went To The Opera (The Police Were Called)
It started with a standing ovation. "At this point, allegedly, the gentleman swatted Academy award-winning Kidman with his program, prompting Urban to accuse the...
George Washington Carver Wasn’t Just A Food Scientist, He Was A Gifted Painter
In fact, he was a very promising art student, excelling at plants in particular, but a professor who worried that he couldn't support himself...
Central, Eastern European Governments Take Aim At Museums
Hungary, Poland, and now Slovenia are assembling and executing a “playbook” to shift cultural institutions to the right. Often, the rhetoric around this has...
How’s New York’s Dance World Navigating A Year Of Pandemic? Better Than They’d Feared
"As they announce plans for the spring and summer — mostly digital, garnished with a little outdoors and in-person — many New York dance...
Composer Anthony Davis At 70
Awards don’t help us quantify these qualities, but for a composer who burst onto the operatic scene so spectacularly with X: The Life and...
Last Summer, Museums Made Promises About Diversity. What Are They Actually Doing?
"Many workers regarded it as a positive step this summer when numerous leading institutions released detailed diversity, equity, and inclusion issues (DEI) plans. But...
The Comedy Industry’s Alt-Right Problem
"The mobs that descended on Washington, D.C., last month have intellectual roots in many places, going back to the bloody beginnings of this country....
New National Museum Of African-American Music Open In Nashville
"The museum tells a chronological story of Black music starting in the 1600s through present day and framed around major cultural movements including the...
Flory Jagoda, Living Storehouse Of Sephardic Song, Dead At 97
"A Bosnian-born guitarist and accordionist, brought the traditional ballads of her Sephardic ancestors and the melodies of the Ladino language to American...
Paramount Battles Truman Capote Estate For Right To Remake ‘Breakfast At Tiffany’s’
"Paramount has a screenplay for a new movie, according to court papers. But Alan Schwartz, Trustee of the Truman Capote Literary Trust, has been...
