Yearly Archives: 2021
Composer Ryuichi Sakamoto Reveals Second Cancer Diagnosis
The Oscar-winning electronic music legend was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014, though he was back to making records by 2017 and the disease...
Boris Johnson’s Gov’t Passes On Pursuing Visa Waiver For British Musicians Touring EU
"The Musicians' Union (MU) has been lobbying for the creation of a 'musicians' passport' that would last at least two years, cost nothing or...
Hungary Orders Warning Labels Put On Books With LGBTQ Content
After the small queer women's publisher Labrisz released a book of fairytales, titled Wonderland Is For Everyone, that includes LGBTQ characters, the right-wing government...
Beethoven Through The Oppression Of An Anniversary Year
Alex Ross: "The most valuable recordings of the Beethoven Year—Igor Levit’s survey of the sonatas and the Quatuor Ébène’s cycle of the quartets—bring out...
We Need To Rethink The Music Ecosystem
"With the collapse of live revenues, the issues in how streaming pays (or doesn’t) is being discussed. Ingham calculates that 1% of all artists...
On His Way Out, Trump Designates Heroes For His Garden Of American Greatness
The earlier order laid out a vision for a garden to "depict historically significant Americans" at a to-be-determined place with a target date for...
What Critics Are About
Reviewing is not just about giving a thumbs-up or down and handing out generalised star ratings. It’s using experience of the art form to...
The Culture Of Nothing?
For years, an aesthetic mode of nothingness has been ascendant — a literally nihilistic attitude visible in all realms of culture, one intent on...
Tokenism Versus Representation
"The complexity of the question "What qualifies as tokenism and what as representation?" rivals that of Blackness itself. There is often a conflation perhaps...
A Concert Series Programmed For You To Stream While Going To Sleep
The Philadelphia new-music producer Bowerbird has planned a set of seven concerts, each timed for 10:00 or 11:00 pm, that aim to put listeners...
The Limitations Of Adding Video To Classical Music
"With more conventional classical music video where we watch musicians playing, I would argue that the visual experience actually constrains our mind’s eye and...
Here’s One Country Where Print Magazines Have Come Roaring Back From The Dead
Just a year ago, one of New Zealand's largest magazine publishers decided to shut itself off and sell off its titles (if it could),...
Border Wall SeeSaws Win Design Award
They were installed by Ronald Rael and Virginia San Fratello at the Anapra zone in Ciudad Juarez in Mexico. Even though they were only...
Remembering The Other Nijinsky — And How She Changed Dance
"The Nijinsky name, however, does not belong to alone. In an era where static positions were the marrow of classical dance, Nijinska...
A Critic Ponders A Critical Interruption
Nate Chinen: "A disaster of this magnitude turns every critic into an advocate. For many of us, of course, that function was already part...
Reasoning Behind Tories’ Protect-Monuments-From-Mobs Law Is Rubbish
Charlotte Higgins: "What is happening in reality – and to a greater or lesser extent has been happening for years – is a reappraisal...
Boris Johnson’s Government Prepares Law To Protect Public Monuments From ‘Baying Mobs’
"The legislation would require planning permission for any changes and a minister would be given the final veto. … The plans follow the toppling...
Trump Pardons Disgraced Art Dealer
"Helly Nahmad, a member of the Nahmad family dynasty and the son of art collector David Nahmad, was caught running an illegal gambling ring...
Late-Night TV Writers Dish On The Hard Work Of Writing Jokes About Trump
"Ahead of Biden's inauguration, Vulture spoke with multiple late-night writers who either still work or previously worked for Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Trevor Noah,...
Take It From A Times Theater Critic: The Trump-To-Shakespeare Analogies Really Don’t Work
Jesse Green: "I admit that I do it too. … But even these comparisons are reductive — in both directions. Shakespeare's characters are much...
Egyptian Queen’s 4,200-Year-Old Tomb, 13-Foot Papyrus, And Even More Painted Coffins: The Latest Treasures...
"Egypt's Ministry of Antiquities has revealed details of the latest landmark discoveries to emerge from the Saqqara necropolis, south of Cairo. The vast burial...
With New Contract, SoCal’s Pacific Symphony Can Start Playing Again
Last week the Orange County orchestra's musicians and management agreed on a four-year contract, running through the 2023-24 season. "Crucially, the agreement lays out...
Trump’s NEA Chair Departs As Biden Administration Arrives
"National Endowment for the Arts chairwoman Mary Anne Carter has resigned as head of the federal agency, telling her staff in a letter sent...
BBC Faces ‘Financial Risk’ As Viewers’ Habits Change
The UK's national broadcaster is funded by mandatory license fees, charged annually to every household that owns a television set. But as more and...
Founders Of Belarus Free Theatre Get Death Threats From Lukashenko Government
"We will definitely find you … and we will hang you side by side." So said a column in Sovietska Belarus, the more-or-less official...
