Eric Lu, a 27-year-old pianist from Massachusetts, won the International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition, becoming the first American since 1970 to receive the top honor in a contest regarded by some as the Olympics of classical music. - Washington Post
“Poems from an Attic: Selected Poems, 1936–1995, to be published on 6 November, brings together decades of work that Murdoch largely kept private, stored for years in a chest in her Oxford home.” - The Guardian
As one producer said about the mandatory location inspection by a fire marshal, "As a resident, I understand the need for fire protection and to preserve our parks, especially now. But ... I'm paying almost $1,500 a day for a guy to sit in his car for most of the time." - TheWrap (MSN)
There are actually some good, and even practical, reasons not to insure the Louvre or its contents. By law, in fact, such items are insured only when they travel. - The Telegraph (UK) (Yahoo!)
“(One expert) said that high-visibility safety jackets had become such a ubiquitous symbol of authority — like a clipboard or a reporter’s microphone — that they were like ‘a cloak of invisibility.’” (Not to mention that the screaming yellow or orange fabric distracts the eye from the wearer’s face.) - The New York Times
Alan Fletcher took the helm at the festival and school in 2006, oversaw the construction of the $80 million Bucksbaum Campus, and established several new education programs as well as (with Renée Fleming and Patrick Summers) the Aspen Opera Theater and VocalARTS program. He retires at the end of 2026. - Aspen Public Radio
“Misty Copeland took one last spin on her pointe shoes Wednesday, showered with golden glitter and bouquets as she retired from American Ballet Theatre after a trailblazing career in which she became an ambassador for diversity in an overwhelmingly white art form.” - AP
AFM Local 802 announced that a deal with the Broadway League at 4:30 Thursday morning, saying in a statement that “this three-year agreement provides meaningful wage and health benefit increases.” - The Hollywood Reporter
String player and early music specialist Kivie Cahn-Lipman writes about how — when given the right parameters and prompts — ChatGPT helped him decipher the, um, idiosyncratic handwriting of the scribe in a 17th-century manuscript which he simply couldn’t figure out on his own. - Early Music America
We have faked historical bindings, fake manuscripts, and fake letters by famous people like the Protestant Reformer Martin Luther. We have books about impostors from the Middle Ages to the modern era as well as hoaxes and archaeological forgeries. - JStor
“In just four years since the launch of these vertical dramas, the genre’s market has surpassed $8 billion globally. ... Once dismissed as a niche Chinese trend, short dramas are now one of the fastest-growing scripted formats — and Hollywood’s studios, producers and investors are finally catching on.” - TheWrap (Yahoo!)
Across the country, arts funding models are shifting. Where once large institutions absorbed the majority of public and philanthropic support, new approaches are emphasizing direct investment in artists themselves. - Comstock Magazine
More than elsewhere, New York “is a city premised on destruction,” said Dana Polan, the Martin Scorsese Professor of Cinema Studies at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. “You walk through the city and you’re endlessly seeing new buildings going up where there were previous buildings.” - The New York Times
“We unfortunately are operating with a little bit of fear, as we continue to be the prominent immigrant community theater company in Chicago, let alone in our neighborhood." - WBEZ
“It would be hard to find another nation as serious about its language. In Lithuania, one misspelled word can turn a politician into a clown; a misplaced comma can be enough to cancel a date. … Yet people often say, ‘If only that book/song/movie were in English, it would be a hit.’” - Literary Hub
