Stories

Player Pianos, Automation And AI

Nearly every major pianist of the early 20th century made music for these machines. Echoing AI commentary today, some musicians viewed the player piano as not just replicating human playing, but exceeding it. - The Atlantic

Damage To Iran’s Historic Sites Mounts

The strikes on Isfahan on Monday came a week after another cultural icon, the Golestan Palace, was badly damaged during an attack on a police station in downtown Tehran, according to the ministry. - The New York Times

National Choreographers Initiative In Los Angeles Will End After This Summer

For two decades, NCI has offered four young choreographers the chance to spend three weeks creating works on professional dancers. In a Q&A, artistic director Molly Lynch talks about the initiative and why it is ending. - L.A. Dance Chronicle

What We Can Learn From Radical Access To The Arts

Access Fringe program at the Melbourne Fringe Festival is a 10-year partnership with Arts Access Victoria supporting d/Deaf and disabled artists through commissions, mentorships and specialised development programs. The initiative shows how embedding access into every space and conversation can lead to change across the entire cultural sector. - ArtsHub

Why Did The Boston Symphony Decide To Part Ways With Its Music Director?

Right now though, it’s anyone’s guess where the “future vision” of the BSO will take them – and if the relationship between the players and the board is in the state of disrepair it seems to be, this could become a Premier League style story of power, vanity and ingloriousness. Oh dear. - The Guardian

Lessons From Sundance: New Focus On Artist Care

For all of the egregious consent violations in the film industry that the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements shone a light on, I was heartened by what I heard about artist care from the independent filmmakers, and I believe that there’s much that theatre can learn from them. - American Theatre

Pritzker Prize For Architecture 2026 Goes To Smiljan Radić Clarke Of Chile

Though The New York Times has described him as “a rock star among architects,” he’s not as famous as previous “starchitect” winners such as Frank Gehry, I.M. Pei, and Zaha Hadid. In fact, Radić says that this award “will probably mean being far more exposed than I would like.” - NPR

Change To Middle Passage Exhibit At Smithsonian’s African-American Museum

Since the National Museum of African-American History and Culture opened in 2016, its exhibit on the transport of millions of enslaved Africans to the Americas has featured a piece of the slave ship São José-Paquete de Africa. That fragment, on loan from the Iziko Museums of South Africa, will be returned this summer. - AP

Barack And Michelle Obama Are Now Broadway Producers

Higher Ground, their production company, is one of the main backers of this spring’s 16-week run of David Auburn’s Tony- and Pulitzer-winning play Proof, starring Don Cheadle and Ayo Edibiri (in their Broadway debuts) and directed by Thomas Kail, who staged Hamilton. - Variety

Bill Cosby May Be Out Of Jail, But He’s Not Out Of The Courtroom

The now-disgraced entertainer is facing a number of lawsuits (one of which began trial this week) in California by women who allege that Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted them. - The New York Times

Can Voice Of America Rebuild After Kari Lake Nearly Dismantled It?

“(A) source familiar with the matter suggested a ramp-up could occur within a matter of months, but that would mean a more nimble operation of around 500 journalists” — down from more than 1,000 — “and a potential consolidation of VOA and Radio Free Europe or Radio Free Asia.” - TheWrap (MSN)

All About America, Good And Bad, At This Year’s Edinburgh International Festival

“It is the largest presentation of American artists in the history of the festival,” says director Nicola Benedetti. The program includes a residence by Wynton Marsalis (Benedetti’s husband). Theatre productions will explore the AIDS crisis and racist lynchings; Clown Show will present a ‘contemporary portrait of America as a falling-apart circus’.” - The Guardian

Historic Palaces In Iran Damaged By U.S. Bombing

“The most serious confirmed damage to date has been to Tehran’s Golestan Palace, dating back to the 14th century, and the 17th-century Chehel Sotoon Palace in Isfahan.” Other landmarks in Isfahan, one of Iran’s most historic cities, have been damaged as well. - The Guardian

The Once-Banned Street Music Of Afro-Uruguayans Has Leapt Back To Life

Candombe — not to be confused with candomblé, the syncretic religion created by Afro-Brazilians — was once confined to poor black neighborhoods in Montevideo. Now it has many thousands of practitioners and fans throughout the country. - The Guardian

What If A “Day Job” Is The Foundation Of An Artistic Career?

Rather than sticking our heads in the sand—and hoping that belief, alone, will be the source of motivation we need to succeed—what if we focused on doing what it takes to play the game for as long as possible? - 3 Quarks Daily

Our Free Newsletter

Join our 30,000 subscribers

Latest

Don't Miss