On Monday night, Met director Peter Gelb returned fire, strafing the Gray Lady — and its chief classical critic, Zachary Woolfe — and claiming there was “an agenda” behind the brutal review. - New York Post
"Over a career that lasted more than 30 years, Abeshouse made hundreds of records with some of classical music’s biggest stars," many of whom gathered at his home last month for a goodbye concert. "He won two Grammy awards, including Classical Producer of the Year in 1999." - NPR
The Finnish eccentric, known for his long white hair and beard, rotund figure and quirky personality, composed 371 symphonies, most single-movement works with colorful titles. While he guest-conducted widely when younger, in later years he kept most of his work on the podium within Finland but attracted devoted followers via recordings. - Gramophone
"It’s a strange thing to have a walk-on role in the fifth act of a great man’s life. Lewis was exactly fifty years and one month older than I was. Twenty-two when I first entered the small Irving Place office." - Literary Hub
"An esteemed Viennese-American author and translator, (her) gift for words helped her family escape from the Nazis and … later drew upon her experiences as a Jewish refugee and immigrant for such fiction as Other People’s Houses and Her First American." - AP
Magee was “an enigmatic and idiosyncratic artist and poet who spent four decades building a starkly beautiful monument of stone and steel in the West Texas desert that may be the most significant artwork most people have never heard of.” Then there was his alter ego. - The New York Times
She will soon meet with King Charles, a classical music fan who studied the cello, piano and trumpet, to outline her ideas. She is contemplating a flash musical event in which the rooms at Buckingham Palace are briefly occupied by composers or performers. - The New York Times
The singer, now 82, gave up touring in 2018, and he lost most hearing in his let ear while recording last year's album Seven Psalms. Now, he says, "I’m hoping to eventually be able to do a full-length concert. I’m optimistic. Six months ago I was pessimistic.” - The Guardian
Over the course of the concert, nearly a dozen musicians played for Adam Abeshouse. Each one embraced him after performing. At least for one afternoon, joy supplanted pain. - NPR
Kris Kristofferson, who died at age 88 in his Maui home on Saturday, was a guitar-toting stage performer, a ruggedly handsome movie actor, and an outspoken humanitarian and activist. But at base, he was a thinker-poet who pushed country music in existentialist directions. - The Atlantic
The three-time Oscar winner is co-starring in his son Ronan's debut feature film, Anemone, whose screenplay the two wrote together. Ronan is also a painter; his first international exhibition opens this week in Hong Kong before traveling to Los Angeles and New York. - The Guardian
"A running back turned actor who appeared in scores of TV shows — including groundbreaking 1970s programs such as the sitcom Good Times and the epic miniseries Roots — (he) risked his career to protest demeaning portrayals of Black characters." - The Washington Post (MSN)
"Her astonishing range, as borne out by a stage and screen career that traversed generations, genres and culture levels, had one common denominator: a reverence for the written word. Her gifts — and they were rightly legendary — turned dialogue on the page into verbal music." - Los Angeles Times
Figures from the arts include poet Jericho Brown, violinist Johnny Gandelsman, media artist Tony Cokes, filmmaker Sterlin Harjo, cabaret artist Justin Vivian Bond, writers Juan Felipe Herrera and Ling Ma, multimedia artist Ebony G. Patterson, choreographer Shamel Pitts, visual artist Wendy Red Star, and young people's lit author Jason Reynolds. - NPR
