“The Colour of Music Festival announces the Nashville, TN début of Colour of Music Festival ‘Petit’ November 6-9, 2019 at multiple noted venues throughout downtown Nashville, a five-day festival featuring black classical artists and scholars from France, Britain, Colombia, the Caribbean, and the United States performing organ, piano, vocal, chamber and orchestral works showcasing the impact and historical significance of black classical composers and performers on American and world culture.” – The Tennessee Tribune
What American Theater Owes To Uta Hagen
“Beyond her acting, her greatest legacy may be how she influenced generations of actors, teaching at HB Studio and writing two books that are popular with acting students across the globe. Reporter Jeff Lunden speaks with some of those former students and colleagues, including F. Murray Abraham, Mercedes Ruehl and David Hyde Pierce, about what made Hagen such an important figure in the history of American theater.” (audio) – Studio 360
Philadanco Founder Joan Myers Brown Gives Up One Of Her Many Jobs
Brown, at age 87 still the company’s artistic director, will remain at least through next year’s 50th anniversary celebrations, but she has turned over the executive director position, on an interim basis, to administrator, professor, and former company dancer Elgie Gaynell Sherrod. Her main task will be stabilizing the company’s long-precarious financial situation; Brown has, over the years, lent Philadanco hundreds of thousands of dollars of her own money. – The Philadelphia Inquirer
Can Plants Think? There’s Evidence They’re Smarter Than We Think
The idea of a “plant intelligence”—an intelligence that goes beyond adaptation and reaction and into the realm of active memory and decision-making—has been in the air since at least the early seventies. – The Paris Review
An Architect Who Rebuilt A City After An Earthquake With “Half” Houses
Having been given a small budget to construct homes for low-income families, many of whom said they would like to expand their dwellings in the future, Alejandro Aravena hit upon the idea of building half of a larger, nicer home, and leaving the other half for the residents to finish themselves, either with their own hands or with help from local “micro-contractors.” – CityLab
Why Has Performance Become Such A Big Part Of Visual Art?
Perhaps it’s precisely the soft science of working with and viewing other people that makes performance a refreshing counterpoint to an art industry that is increasingly commercialized and corporatized. Regardless of athleticism or ability, in dance traditionally made for the stage there’s a satisfaction – and, perhaps, seduction – in viewing the technique-driven, trained body of a performer. – Frieze
Can Artists Still Live In San Francisco?
From 2010 to 2018, approximately 882,000 new jobs were created in the Bay Area, but only around 100,000 new housing units were built throughout the region. The resulting white-hot competition for living space has forced anyone at a structural disadvantage — communities of color, artists, creatives — further toward the margins. – Hyperallergic
A Tap-Dancer’s Place Is In, Uh, The Band?
Yes indeed, historically speaking. “Tap and jazz grew up together, and in the 1930s and ‘40s, it was assumed that the greatest jazz bands — Duke Ellington’s, Count Basie’s — would bring tap dancers with them on tour. After World War II, though, as jazz separated from dance, hoofers became much scarcer in jazz clubs and concerts — never entirely absent but unusual, forgotten enough to be a novelty. Lately, that’s been changing a little.” – The New York Times
How Has This 14-Season TV Show Avoided ‘Cancel Culture’ Coming For It
Seriously, how has It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, which started its life during the George W. Bush administration, survived? “The show strips away innocence for every character that gets more than three lines in an episode, making it clear that these are bad people with bad intentions and worse follow-through.” – BuzzFeed
Is It Time To Get Rid Of Remedial Math?
College students actually do just fine without it, or so Cal State says. This probably won’t shock a lot of humanities majors, but an administrator says, “The traditional pathway, where we had one route through developmental math for all students, as if they were all going on to take an algebra-based major, was not functional.” You don’t say. – LAist
The Illusion Of Consciousness And Our Perceptions
“As yet, we have only a sketchy understanding of access consciousness, and there are many controversies over the details of the neural systems involved, but in time we should be able to fill in the picture and settle the disputes. Yet, many philosophers would say, even then we wouldn’t have a full understanding of consciousness.” – Aeon
Roomful Of Teeth As Living Organism
With a dedication to diverse input, RoT seems less a performing ensemble and more a living organism. The group has studied yodeling, Tuvan throat singing, Korean p’ansori, Persian classical singing, Inuit throat singing, and, closer to home, belting and death metal. Collaborators include an illustrious list of contemporary composers. – San Francisco Classical Voice
Why Our Symbols And Monuments Aren’t Permanent
We create symbols, then alter their meanings. Some argue vehemently that monuments, such as Confederate statues, should be left in place—that their part in history should not be “erased.” But change is not an erasure of history; it is a part of it. – Nautilus
Why Debbie Allen And Nigel Lythgoe Decided L.A. Needed An International Dance Festival — And How They Put One Together In A Year
Los Angeles already had one dance festival, but Lythgoe, producer of So You Think You Can Dance, knew that if he hadn’t heard of it, it wasn’t getting enough publicity. So he and Allen created a big new one, and here he tells Jennifer Stahl how they did it. “Los Angeles has so much going for it dance-wise,” he says, “but we don’t sort of come together and show off.” – Dance Magazine
Do We Need A Public Broadcasting Version Of Social Media?
What if the problem is something that can’t be solved by existing for-profit media platforms? Maybe the answer to fixing social media isn’t trying to change companies with business models built around products that hijack our attention, and instead work to create a less toxic alternative. – The New York Times
After More Than 30 Years, Eddie Murphy Is Doing Stand-Up Comedy Again
“Over the years, Murphy has teased fans with talk of a comeback, but this time, inspired by [his new movie, Dolemite Is My Name], he appears to mean it. He signed a deal with Netflix to put out a new special next year, and has a theater tour lined up, which means he could be in clubs working out jokes soon.” Jason Zinoman meets the star to talk about the reasons for his return and how he is and isn’t different from the megastar Murphy of the ’80s and ’90s. – The New York Times
Counting Error: British Museum Was In Fact Britain’s Most-Visited Last Year
The original statistics were 5,799,000 for Tate Modern and 5,709,000 for the BM in the financial year 2018/19. But the BM’s original figures for October-December 2018 appeared too low, and a later investigation suggested that 316,000 visitors had been missed by the counting system. Adding these means that the BM’s revised number for the financial year should be 6,025,000, comfortably beating Tate Modern. – The Art Newspaper
‘Transparent’ Changed Television (And Not Because Its Lead Character Was Trans)
“Throughout its four-season run, the Jill Soloway series defined an entire [new] genre of TV comedy and opened new avenues for TV storytelling” — crossing boundaries of mood, narrative style, and even time — “marking an evolution in our understanding of television as art.” – Vulture
French Billionaires Actually Hand Over €300 Million They Pledged For Notre-Dame Restoration
A few months after public concerns arose about their delay, LVMH CEO Bernard Arnualt has signed a formal agreement with the Fondation Notre-Dame for the €200 million he pledged toward the cathedral’s restoration after the April 15 fire. François Pinault and his son François-Henri Pinault of the luxury goods company Kering will execute a similar contract for their €100 million donation next Monday. – The Art Newspaper
Saying Its Mosaic Façade Is ‘Irreplaceable’, Judge Blocks Sale And Demolition Of Philadelphia’s Painted Bride Art Center
A Philadelphia Orphans’ Court judge ruled that the sale — The Bride, the nonprofit that owns the center, had sold it for $4.5 million to a developer who planned to build condos on the site — would “all but ensure the destruction of what many individuals consider to be a true treasure.” – The Philadelphia Inquirer
Cleveland Orchestra’s Big Economic Impact
“Researchers … found that the orchestra and Cleveland Institute of Music, where many orchestra members teach, together contributed $172.1 million to the regional economy. … Activities at Severance Hall and Blossom Music Center during the 2017-18 season created 1,292 jobs and a total payroll of $60.8 million.” – The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)
Climate Activists Threaten Boycott Of Royal Shakespeare Company
Why? Because the RSC accepts sponsorship money from BP, which funds the company’s program offering £5 tickets to young adults. Says an open letter just sent to the theatre, “If we, as young people, wish to see an affordable play at your theatre we have to help to promote a company that is actively destroying our futures by wrecking the climate.” – The Guardian
Are Ticket Prices Really The Main Barrier To Attracting Audiences?
“The popular misconception that price is the chief barrier to access to the arts has taken hold in the sector, while in reality, price is only one of a complex set of factors affecting engagement with ‘hard to reach’ groups. Tim Baker concludes it’s time to start a debate about the true meaning of affordability.” – Arts Professional
Music Composition Professor At Univ. Of Texas Accused Of Years Of Sexual Harassment — And Administrators Knew
Writer Sammy Sussman reports on allegations of inappropriate comments and touching, aimed at both male and female graduate students, by a composition professor at UT-Austin’s Butler School of Music dating from 2001 to at least 2014. These include alleged incidents that were reported to the University at the time — but nothing happened beyond a single investigation. – Van
Pianist Paul Badura-Skoda, 91
Until his death, Badura-Skoda had been among the last pupils of Edwin Fischer still performing. He was much respected, having played under the baton of Fischer’s friend and colleague Wilhelm Furtwängler, as well as under Herbert von Karajan, Hans Knappertsbusch, Hermann Scherchen (who conducts Beethoven’s five concertos included in the ‘Edition’) and George Szell. – Gramophone