"Shock waves from the war have been felt throughout the arts and cultural world, with movie productions, museums and book festivals — not to mention universities, institutions and entire industries — experiencing bitter conflict over what qualifies as tolerable speech about the conflict and its combatants." - The New York Times
"With just 23 days to go until the Dec. 7 reopening, the (office) of President Emmanuel Macron and the Archdiocese of Paris detailed the final inspection and ceremonial events leading up to the big day." The historic cathedral was ravaged by a catastrophic fire on April 15, 2019. - ABC News
The 41-year-old Italian maestro, currently principal conductor at the Opéra national de Lyon in France, will conduct at least two Met productions per season, starting in 2025-26. He will be only the third principal guest conductor in the company's 141-year history, - AP
The dry, landlocked West African nation used to be known for its lively cultural scene; in recent years, the country's stability has been wrecked by extremist militias and their battles with government forces. Solace has come from the festival Récréâtrales, a festival spread across a district in the capital, Ouagadougou. - AP
Even beyond social media, the internet seems to flatten prose. This is likely due to the distinct ways our brains interpret text – or, how they have been user-engineered to do so –when reading online. - Spike Art
The 45-year-old Englishman enjoys a substantial social media following; he’s a fan of multidisciplinary performances combining music with other art forms; he’s passionately devoted to developing new audiences through music education, outdoor concerts and community initiatives. - CultureOC
New York–based media giant Condé Nast, which owns Pitchfork Media, the longtime online music criticism website, broke the news on Instagram Monday that the festival would no longer take place in Chicago, where it originated 19 years ago. Condé Nast did not explain the decision. - WBEZ
For decades she has been one of America's leading singers of avant-garde classical music, premiering dozens of pieces by composers from Elliott Carter to Oliver Knussen. But, until recently, she's worked almost entirely on the concert stage. Now she has opera composers writing roles for her. - The New York Times
What is needed is a path forward that allows us to cope with tragedy and injustice without abandoning the value of people we care about or the issues we find important. We long for solutions that ease our anxiety but also provide us with reasons to live. - 3 Quarks Daily
AI gets so close to replicating Travis’s voice that it has, in a sense, brought him back as a full recording artist. The music industry’s reaction to AI is like that of many other industries: impressive new friend or creativity-destroying foe? In Travis’s case, it provided a glimmer of hope. - Variety (MSN)
Our storytelling is necessarily derivative, since we’re responding to works of someone else’s imagination. And yet in how we frame the plays and operas and films we write about, and whether we even write about them at all, we’re implicitly telling a story about what’s newsworthy and what isn’t. - San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)
"An alto saxophonist with a supple, earthy style, (he) was a key figure in the development of three styles of jazz" — bebop, hard bop, and soul jazz — "from the 1940s to the 1960s and sustained a career for almost seven decades." - The Washington Post (MSN)
A report from the Sutton Trust found stark overrepresentation in the arts for those from the most affluent backgrounds, which it defines as those from “upper middle-class backgrounds”. - The Guardian
Mr. Leeman was most struck by the cheeky mischief — like the A.I.-generated snubs of the artist’s show that rotated on a wall display, declaring it, among other insults, a “masterstroke of blandness.” - The New York Times
Librarians around the country are struggling to reconcile their desire to serve their communities with their need for self-preservation, especially as libraries have become hubs for social services and battlegrounds for the culture wars. - The New York Times
