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US Orchestras Really Are Playing More Music By Women And Minority Composers, Finds Report

"Compositions by women and people of color now make up about 23 percent of the pieces performed by orchestras, up from only about 5 percent in 2015, according to a report released on Tuesday by the Institute for Composer Diversity at SUNY-Fredonia." - The New York Times

As Of July, At Broadway Theatres, Masks Will Be Optional

"In a statement, Charlotte St. Martin, president of The Broadway League, said audience members were still encouraged to wear masks, but would not be required to beginning July 1. The policy will be re-evaluated on a monthly basis going forward." - Gothamist

Cut Our Funding In Favor Of The Regions, Says UK’s National Theatre, And We Won’t Be Able To Tour The Regions Anymore

"Cutting us back because of where our postcode is will have a direct and negative effect on the nationwide work that this move is designed to address," said NT director Rufus Norris. "It will have the exact opposite effect of their stated intention." - The Guardian

Another Call, This Time From Sudan, For Britain To Return Looted Art Objects

"Museum officials from Sudan are calling for the repatriation of cultural artifacts and human remains that were stolen by British soldiers and other colonizers in the late 19th century.  Many of the items in question were taken as trophies after the Battle of Omdurman in 1898." - Artnet

How BTS Became A Global Phenomenon To Rival Beatlemania

It was unusual for a K-pop group to start from a base of rap and hip-hop. It was even more unusual for a group to speak and sing openly of the struggles of youth. - The New Yorker

The Strange Case Of Google’s “Sentient” Artificial Intelligence

Where we’ve arrived instead is somewhere more foreign than artificial consciousness. In a strange way, a program like PaLM would be easier to comprehend if it simply were sentient. We at least know what the experience of consciousness entails. - The Atlantic

Where Does Responsibility Lie For Things We Do Wrong?

On the one hand, if we are solely responsible for the things we do wrong, some genuinely malevolent parties get off scot-free. On the other, if we locate responsibility entirely outside the individual, we relegate ourselves to sentient flotsam buffeted by currents beyond our control. - The Guardian

National Gallery Of Canada Names An Interim Director

She’s taking over from Sasha Suda, who has been at the gallery’s helm for three years but is leaving for the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Angela Cassie previously served as the gallery’s chief strategy and inclusion officer. - Toronto Star

What To Do If You’re Being Canceled

So, this is my answer: if I am being canceled I want my friends — and this includes not only my closest associates, but anyone who considers themselves friendly to me — to stand by, remain silent, and do nothing. If you care about me, let them eat me alive. - The New York Times

Upending Contemporary Native American Art

Cannupa Hanska Luger’s theory is that it has to do with their trauma of becoming American, which meant severing all ties to their own ancestral lands — a trauma that has left them with a longing for what Luger calls a “deep time connection” to the land they now inhabit, which is, of course, someone else’s ancestral land. - The New...

George Lamming, Giant Of Caribbean And Post-Colonial Literature, Dead At 94

Returning to Barbados after university in England, "(he) became a moral, political and intellectual force for a newly independent country seeking to tell its own story. ... His calling was to address the crimes of history, unearth and preserve his native culture and forge a 'collective sense' of the future." - AP

Screw Up Your Courage. This Is A Great Time To Read “The Greatest Book Ever Written”

This would be Ulysses, by James Joyce, which came out 100 years ago, and has been commonly heralded as the Best Novel Ever Written. I feel like I should underline and bold that for effect, or you can just imagine me using my best voice-of-God impression. - The Smart Set

Vienna Philharmonic Musicians Reveal The Secrets Of Their Orchestra’s Unique Sound

There are plenty of factors, and these people are oh so proud of them all (despite the fact that one of them is subtlety).  And there's an explanation of what exactly they do with the waltz rhythm that nobody else gets quite right. - Euronews

Broadway’s Brooks Atkinson Theatre Is Being Renamed. But First We Should Remember Atkinson

For close to 62 years, the Brooks Atkinson Theatre has stood on West 47th Street, so it did 34 years previously as the Mansfield. On June 9, 2022, its current owner, the Nederlander Organization announced that this fall it will be renamed in honor of the distinguished performer Lena Horne. - Theatre Scene

Reclaiming The Lindy Hop’s African-American Roots

It's named after pioneering pilot Charles Lindbergh, it was a staple of social dancing in the 1930s, and it regained popularity in the swing revival of the 1980s and '90s, but — as Black Americans today are reminding us — the Lindy Hop was born in the Harlem Renaissance. - KQED (San Francisco)

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