The program was not a crowd pleaser. But the crowd seemed open to whatever they were given at this closing Aug. 10 concert of the Festival Orchestra of Lincoln Center’s summer season. From a distance, the program looked a lot like a particularly wide-reaching New York Philharmonic subscription concert, but
So much stimulating, challenging music threatened to overflow and overload the Tanglewood Music Festival’s annual composer’s week that one had to stand back and realize how radically this bucolic setting in Lenox, MA diverges from the typical summertime concert life of major orchestras. The closest thing to recreational listening over
“A lot of people in Hollywood only seem able to discuss the middle of the country while holding their nose. But entertainment is a reactive business: chase what worked over the weekend, drop what didn’t.” - The New York Times
Singing Bach’s Mass in b minor can be terrifying. You’re holding your own, and then, the page turns to reveal something that looks barely singable. You’re teetering like a novice downhill skiier on a slope with pathetically inadequate skills. No turning back. And that’s just a matter of vocal technique.
Any Steinbeck adaptation needs to be epic. Few works of literature go so deep into the need for home and family as the John Steinbeck novel The Grapes of Wrath. And Ricky Ian Gordon’s 2007 opera version packed the Carnegie Hall stage April 17 with the necessary magnitude of resources,
Since 2001, the Jazz Journalists Association (over which I preside) has celebrated some 350 “activists, advocates, altruists, aiders and abettors of jazz,” as Jazz Heroes. The class of 2024 Jazz Heroes has just been announced, recognizing the good works of 33 people whose efforts extend from the Baja-San Diego borderland
Is local non-profit theater over? In crisis? In decline? About to pivot? On the verge of a massive shift? Funding is down down down. Ticket sales too. Was the pandemic the cause? Or did it hasten changes already in the works pre-pandemic? What are the remedies? My feed is full of dire threats and serious
Geoffrey Robson, 41, who joined the orchestra in the fall of 2008 as associate conductor and a full-time member of the violin section, will be the orchestra's eighth music director. - Arkansas Democrat Gazette
But "the museum said that 'certain terms' of the deal remain in effect, because it has verbally agreed to let BP exercise its 'supporter benefits' until the end of 2023." - The Guardian (UK)
While Knight continues to support journalism programs, Ibargüen has added the arts as an increasingly prominent part of its funding mix — from essentially an afterthought to nearly a quarter of its $115 million to $130 million in annual grants. - The New York Times
"China's TikTok is considering separating from parent ByteDance to help address U.S. concerns about national security risks. … A divestiture, which could result in a sale or initial public offering, is considered a last resort and will be pursued only if the company's existing proposal ... does not get approved." - Reuters
Whatever is being sold by the happiness experts, we imagine, cannot really be happiness, but can only bear a relationship to it even more distantly removed than the one a synthetic mass-produced blanket at Target has to an early American album quilt. - Liberties Journal
Adams' right-wing rhetoric has become increasingly clear since the election of the 45th president in 2016, but his most recent racist rant finally ended the comic strip's run in hundreds of papers. - Washington Post
Wendy Toye started on stage as a 3-year-old. Once she started directing, "It wasn’t just that Toye had an aptitude for film-making, but that her background in dance and comedy gave her a unique take on the craft." - The Guardian (UK)
