With the mass introduction of vaccines, the decline in infections, and the lifting of travel restrictions, orchestras have already taken to the road, with many others just waiting to take off. - San Francisco Classical Voice
As three celebrated, longtime directors depart these companies, the entrance of women is proving that female directors are staking a firm claim in a professional terrain that has traditionally favored men. - Dance Magazine
In four years, the number of students graduating from high schools across the country will begin a sudden and precipitous decline, due to a rolling demographic aftershock of the Great Recession. - Vox
As one gets older and realizes that most of life’s good stuff is contained between two ledger entries, one sees that if it weren’t for dreams, for stories and for art, for inventing personas and writing books through their hands and eyes, life would be insufferable. - 3 Quarks Daily
Many have seen how the foolish and unwary "intellectually self-immolate under the pressure of his polite prodding. ... This raises a question that many ask on social media: Why does anyone ever agree to be interviewed by Chotiner in the first place? I can speculate on some possible answers." - Drezner's World
The subversive intent of Hansberry’s art and activism has long been underestimated. Early reviews of Raisin, which debuted in 1959 and made Hansberry the first Black woman with a show on Broadway, were quick to domesticate her. - The Atlantic
The soon-to-open International African American Museum will be the flagship of efforts, beginning in the 1990s, to stop trying to ignore the history of slavery and to properly incorporate the Black people who built the city into the stories Charleston tells about itself to both visitors and locals. - BBC
Justin Steffman, a professional authenticator who runs a Facebook group for collectors, said the autograph was most likely created by an autopen. The machine, which recreates signatures, is used by universities, celebrities and, most notably, the White House. - The New York Times
"Straub ... and his wife, Danièle Huillet, worked together as filmmakers for more than 30 years. Straub-Huillet, as they were often called by French critics, broke away from accepted notions of realism, disengaged from bourgeois values and questioned the primacy of narration." - The Guardian
Perhaps Sphinx’s most fundamental and meaningful achievement has been its simplest one, the part that crying mother caught onto: creating a community of people who had thought they were the only one of their kind, or close. Forming what those in the Sphinx network call “la familia.” - The New York Times
A Princeton University study involving singers and orchestral players from the Met found that "musical professionals have such fine control over their breath that they emit weaker airflows during singing and playing than they and others do while speaking and breathing" — so aerosol-borne pathogens don't travel as far. - Smithsonian Magazine
"It is no exaggeration to say that no single person had a greater role in the SPCO's artistic trajectory over the last 20 years than Bruce Coppock," SPCO artistic director and principal violin Kyu-Young Kim said. - The Star-Tribune
After a lifetime "blindly" following the path of her parents — director Peter Brook and actress Natasha Parry — Irina realized she was in "the wrong business." Since then, she's been creating House of Us, "a permanent moving work in progress ... (so) insanely personal that it becomes insanely universal." - The New York Times
Yes, "a shock" is the term used by the army general overseeing the project for visitors' anticipated reaction to the interior stonework once centuries' worth of dirt and smoke have been peeled away, adhering to a coat of latex which cleaners are spraying on and then removing. - The Art Newspaper
In previous years, participating Academy members would rate the films they saw on a point scale ranging from 7 to 10. Now they'll rank their preferences from 1st down to 15th. It's expected that this change will lead to some surprises when the five nominees are revealed on December 21. - Variety
