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Reuben Kebede shares the importance of diverse repertoire

Reuben Kebede, 1st Violinist of the Ivalas Quartet (Caramoor’s String Quartet-in-Residence 22-23) shares the importance of diverse repertoire and the driving vision of the ensemble.

I’m Not Angry. I’m Batman.

I’m just trying to help save the nonprofit arts industry from its own worst impulses. Where’s my utility belt, Alfred?! ...

On the frontiers of AI

Prelude, from The Onion: Prague's Franz Kafka International Named World's Most Alienating Airport Now then. A few days ago, my son googled “Franz Kafka Airport” and here is what Google AI came up with: Being a public spirited sort, son informed Google that they might want to tweak this a wee bit. And so I had to check this afternoon for an...

Jyoti Gupta shares strategies to develop arts leaders

Jyoti Gupta, Faculty Fellow at the Curb Center of Vanderbilt Univ, shares the unique community of practice they have developed for Nashville’s arts leaders.

What Ails Today’s Metropolitan Opera? — It’s in the Pit

The current issue of the “New York Review of Books” carries my review of the Metropolitan Opera’s current “Aida” – a new

What Was That? Your Arts Organization Needs Funding? Get In Line.

Sorry, it was hard to hear you above the din of civil destruction. ...

Pro-Social Parents Sing More to Their Infants and, By Doing So, Contribute to Greater Language Acquisition, Study Suggests

Plenty of studies, some of them published by the Arts Endowment, have shown how arts participation in early childhood appears to awaken greater social skills and behaviors at a crucial stage of development. It’s no surprise, especially among infants and toddlers, that most arts activities involve a parent or caregiver. It stands to reason, therefore, that parents’ own preferences or backgrounds,...

Children of Men

At Indiana University each spring there is an arts festival in honor of Kurt Vonnegut, Granfalloon. This year’s theme is his novel Cat’s Cradle, which is the book where he introduces the term Granfalloon (although, to my mind, not really as something one would celebrate; Karass would have been a better choice to name a gathering?). Since that novel is about...

Heroes & Zeroes: Why DOGE Shouldn’t Fund Trump’s Redundant Sculpture Garden

Where’s Elon Musk, the DOGE watchdog, when we really need some “Government Efficiency”? There’s nothing efficient about the proposed creation

Even more on the economics of live theatre

The Freakonomics series on the economics of live theatre continues with this third and final episode, in which I talk about its value – no, not economic value: all the other kinds… Will 3 Summers of Lincoln Make it to Broadway?

Celebrating 100 Episodes of Call Time

Last Thursday’s episode of Call Time with Katie Birenboim, featuring actor and choreographer Aigner Mizzelle, marked the 100th episode of the show — in some form or another. Longtime listeners, friends, or fans might remember that a different version of Call Time, then known as “Theatre Book Club,” started under the auspices of Berkshire Theatre […]

On the hidden economics of live theatre

Freakonomics Radio has a new three part series on the economic landscape facing live theatre. Part One is here, and part two is here, which as a supporting act in an episode with Lin-Manuel Miranda, has me trying to coherently explain cost disease in the theatre, where it comes from and its implications. Part three will come next week,...

What to do with the NEA? Make it Conservative?

In my last post I wrote about the Cato Institute’s Ryan Bourne’s call to eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts. Here I will consider a different approach from the right, Mark Bauerlein’s “MAGA needs High Art, Not just Kid Rock”, from the New York Times. He writes about the National Endowment for the Humanities as well as the NEA, but I...

Anatomy of a Rebound: The Arts in the U.S. Economy

https://youtube.com/watch?v=B9Ro0GWVKFU&feature=oembed

Across North America, 29 “Jazz Heroes”

Twenty-five years ago the Jazz Journalists Association began to identify and celebrate activists, advocates, altruists, aiders and abettors of jazz as members of an “A Team,” soon renamed “Jazz Heroes.” Today the JJA announced its 2025 slate of these Heroes, 29 people across North America who put extraordinary efforts into sustaining and expanding jazz in its various forms. So who...

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