The 49-year-old Slovak conductor, previously chief conductor of Italy’s RAI National Symphony Orchestra and the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, took up the position in Houston in 2022. This latest agreement extends his term through the 2027-28 season. - OperaWire
The contract between the New Jersey Public Broadcasting Authority and New York City PBS station WNET — which has operated NJ PBS since 2011, when then-Gov. Chris Christie eliminated funding to state-run NJN — expires on June 30, and the two parties have been unable to agree on an extension. - Inside Radio
“Alexander Loxton, who played the ‘older Billy’ in the West End musical Billy Elliot as well as dancing with the Royal Ballet …, says he suffered a career-wrecking ankle ligament injury during an unjustified stop-and-search by Met Police in September 2016.” He is suing for £600,000 (roughly $800,000) in damages. - The Independent (UK)
In addition to prizes presented in ten categories, the 35th first annual award ceremony — the theme: digestion — featured appearances by actual Nobel laureates, a mini-opera titled The Plight of the Gastroenterologist, and the secret to preventing lumps in your cacio e pepe sauce (which won the Physics Prize). - AP
“Some clubs are charging £5 for a ticket, you get to the bar and it’s £12 for a double,” meaning cash-strapped students will stay in or pre-drink heavily to spend less later. By raising ticket prices to £10-£15 but allowing BYOB, students come out, knowing they can then drink at supermarket prices. - The Guardian
“The owner of a popular YouTube channel has filed a federal lawsuit alleging that organizers of the Burning Man festival prevented filmmakers from recording cleanup efforts in 2024 by using public law enforcement as private security.” - Las Vegas Review-Journal (MSN)
Left as it is, the nation’s not-for-profit performing arts sector will not survive. The whole system is teetering on the edge of artistic and financial viability. - The Guardian
The shortlist includes Indian-born author Kiran Desai, 19 years after she won the prize, as well as past nominees Andrew Miller and David Szalay. A trio of US writers - Susan Choi, Katie Kitamura and Ben Markovits - will also be up for the prize when the winner is announced in November. - BBC
If the university exists only to warehouse knowledge and to transmit tradition, then it is doomed. But the university’s inability to claim a near monopoly on knowledge doesn’t make it obsolete. The focus must now shift to critique. The university needs to replace the question of access to information with judgment and interpretation. - The Walrus
Masquerade is a $25 million reconfiguring of the long-running Broadway hit, spread out over six floors in midtown Manhattan. This version is told mostly from the viewpoint of the phantom himself, with more backstory, a few scenes and an hour or so of “newish” music. - The New York Times
Humans do not think or speak in sentences; we think and speak in thoughts, which interrupt and introduce and complicate one another in a neat little dance that creates larger, more complex ideas. - The New York Times Magazine
It’s easy to roll your eyes at late-night comedians getting applause for mocking the president. Many people, myself included, found some of those jokes pandering. But that now seems a little glib. - The New York Times
This exercise in what she calls immersive attention has remained a core element of Jennifer Roberts’s art history teaching for more than a decade, despite the ever-increasing amount of distractive pressures that smartphones, social media and now A.I. heap on students’ minds. - The New York Times
“A post on the singer’s Instagram on Friday said the U.S. leg of the tour ‘is in serious jeopardy due to significant delay in U.S. immigration processing. Despite our team’s exhaustive efforts, the required performance visas for Yusuf and his band have not yet been issued.’” - The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)
