“Borrowing a page from the opera and European museums, the Museum of Modern Art will soon begin to experiment with taking its exhibitions into movie theaters. On Jan. 13, Matisse – a documentary based on the highly popular exhibition Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs … – will open in movie theaters across the United States.”
The Near-Impossible Challenge Of Fitting The Harvard Art Museum Expansion Into That Location
“The long list of difficulties Renzo Piano faced with this renovation and expansion point to why many architects prefer greenfield builds to infill.”
Why I Became A Philosophy Journalist (And Why We Need Such A Thing)
Steve Neumann: “I feel I owe a debt to philosophy. It liberated me; it gave me the courage to leave behind the comfort and security of a religious worldview, and provided me with a purpose I will be glad to pursue for the rest of my life. So despite having a demanding day job as a guide dog mobility instructor, I spend much of my free time studying it, working out my own positions and trying to inject it into popular culture so that others can be touched by it the way I was. I’ve become not an academic philosopher, but a sort of hybrid – a philosophy journalist.”
Two California Opera Companies Merge
“We were looking at a sustainable model to pay for, support and increase quality for markets of our size.”
San Francisco Symphony Transforms A Dead Acoustical Space Into A Sound Marvel
“Using real-time reverberation and spatialization algorithms, this sound engineering solution tricks our brains into perceiving vastly different acoustic spaces. Add comfortable, if scarce, seating, evocative video projections, blue-and-green mood lighting, and of course alcoholic libations, and you might have created just the kind of alternative venue that would make Jonny Greenwood proud.”
Leadership Changes At Sotheby’s, Christie’s Have Art World Buzzing
“The leadership shake-ups coincide with changes in the contemporary art auction world, where record sales do not necessarily translate into big profits, and where new markets — primarily China and the Web — are proving vital for growth.”
La Monnaie, Belgium’s National Opera House, Eliminates Dance Programming
Faced with huge funding cuts from the federal government, the Brussels theater – home to Maurice Béjart’s company for 27 years, the place where Mark Morris created his most popular works, the base for Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker and her company – must abandon dance, says its chief executive, so that it can continue its core function as an opera company. (in French)
Can They Reinvent The Chamber Orchestra In St. Paul?
With now-stable finances, new leadership, a revamped musicians’ contract, 90% capacity audiences, and plenty of ambition, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra means to try.
Explaining How An Opera Company Works To A Business Journalist
L.A. Opera CEO Christopher Koelsch talks about keeping the company healthy fiscally and artistically, how they weathered the financial crash and recession, and why lower total box office revenue isn’t always a worrisome thing.
Why’s It Taking So Long For The NEA To Get A New Theater Chief?
“This week marks a year since [Ralph] Remington left his job as director of theater and musical theater at the National Endowment for the Arts to take a position with the Actors’ Equity Association in Los Angeles. In the interim, the federal agency has advertised the position twice but hasn’t filled the job.”
The Essential Ballet? It’s About Generosity
“Again and again among dancers and teachers, I saw examples of generosity that were not simply random, but intrinsic to this world. The real-life counterparts of the ballet teacher who nurtures Billy Elliot and his talent turn out not to be the exceptions but the rule. The die-for-your-art histrionics of The Black Swan and The Red Shoes mercifully exist mostly in the realm of fiction.”
OMG! Our City Is OVERRUN With Nutcrackers! WHY???
“I would call our Nutcracker The Great American Way Nutcracker! You get your Nutcracker in a half an hour, you can sit with your family, enjoy coffee, bagels, muffins, a balloon twister and dancing with the Nutcracker characters. And… photos with Santa! No mall lines!”
Have You Ever Noticed How Violent Kids’ Cartoons Are?
“Rather than being the innocuous form of entertainment they are assumed to be,” writes a research team led by Ian Colman, an associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Ottawa, “children’s animated films are rife with on-screen death and murder.”
The Problem With Academic Books (For Everyone Involved)
“There are certainly university press books that sell 350 books and that’s a copy sold to literally everybody in that sub-field and some libraries. So, that’s 100 percent market saturation. I consider that a kind of victory for a book.”
Janis Martin, Mezzo-Turned-Wagnerian-Soprano, Dead At 75
“To most opera lovers worldwide, Ms. Martin is best remembered for her potent mastery of the challenging soprano parts in the works of Wagner and Richard Strauss. She was a regular at the Bayreuth Festival in Germany, dedicated to Wagner’s music, and she appeared at the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala, Covent Garden, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, and other leading opera houses.”
Arts Council England’s New CEO: Boss Of UK’s Classic FM
“Arts Council England has appointed the managing director of Classic FM, the music radio station, to be its next chief executive. Darren Henley will take over at the country’s main arts funding body in 2015, replacing Alan Davey, who leaves after seven years in the role” to become controller of the BBC’s classical network, Radio 3.
Alexei Ratmansky Recreates One Of Petipa’s Classic Ballets
Marius Petipa more or less created what we now think of as classical ballet, but very few of his works have survived intact. “Together with Doug Fullington, an expert in Stepanov notation, he[Ratmansky] has painstakingly pieced together this 1881 Petipa ballet [Paquita], created for the Mariinsky Ballet of St. Petersburg.”
Why Materialism Doesn’t Really Make People Happy
In a new press release from the American Psychological Association, “psychology professor Tim Kasser gives an interesting perspective from his research on just why placing a high value on stuff is no good. In a recent meta-analysis he published with colleagues from the University of Sussex, he found that materialism seems to undermine some of our deepest human needs.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 12.16.14
Restoration Scandal At Chartres Cathedral
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2014-12-16
The Middle Class Gets Crushed
AJBlog: CultureCrash Published 2014-12-16
Perform or Die
AJBlog: Fresh Pencil Published 2014-12-16
Recent Listening, Vinyly: Broadbent, Lowe, Horvitz, Chemical Clock, Kanda
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2014-12-15
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Have We Been Trying To Understand Race In The Wrong Way?
The authors argue that “quantitative researchers should acknowledge that any one person’s racial identity is more like a collection of many different factors — from skin color, to neighborhood, to language, to socioeconomic status. With this insight, it becomes possible to study race not as a single, unchanging variable, but rather as a “a bundle of sticks” that can be pulled apart and carefully examined one by one.”
Mark O’Connor Vs. Suzuki: A Violin Teacher Responds
In the wake of O’Connor’s sharp attack on both the Suzuki method of violin instruction (O’Connor has just published his own primer) and Shinichi Suzuki himself, longtime teacher Kate O’Brien, an ex-Suzuki instructor, weighs in candidly on the method’s strengths and weaknesses.
Philadelphia’s Largest Professional Chorus To Disband
“The Philadelphia Singers’ board voted to shut down after learning in November that the William Penn Foundation had turned down a request for a three-year grant for general support; after its executive director resigned; and in view of $125,000 in debt, said Michael Martin Mills, board vice president.”