For decades she has been one of America's leading singers of avant-garde classical music, premiering dozens of pieces by composers from Elliott Carter to Oliver Knussen. But, until recently, she's worked almost entirely on the concert stage. Now she has opera composers writing roles for her. - The New York Times
"The process" — taking place in a glass chamber in a gallery at Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum — "will involve removing varnish that was applied during its 1975-76 restoration and will significantly change the look of the painting, making white paint whiter and dark areas more visible." - The Washington Post (MSN)
"They got in touch with its foundation and creditors, and built a new board. ... The newly-formed team of directors and musicians spent months trying to find a way to resuscitate the southern Ontario symphony. And in October, they pulled it off." - The Globe and Mail (Canada)
"The seizures in Italy, France, Spain and Belgium netted 2,100 fake works attributed to more than 30 famed artists, including Andy Warhol, Amedeo Modigliani, Banksy, Pablo Picasso, Joan Mirò, Francis Bacon, Wassily Kandinsky, Henry Moore and Gustav Klimt," potentially worth €200 million. - AP
"Archivist of the United States Colleen Shogan and her top aides directed employees to remove certain objects and details over the past year in order to avoid angering Republican legislators and making visitors feel ‘confronted.’” - Hyperallergic
“‘If you take your phone and then go to TikTok, you will see a lot of activities, dancing, you know, happy things,’ says Mojez, a former Nairobi-based moderator who worked on TikTok content. ‘But in the background, I personally was moderating, in the hundreds, horrific and traumatising videos.’” - BBC
“The Cultural Olympiad (can’t we go back to the friendlier Arts Festival?) is special. It is the only aspect of the Olympics that needn’t be politicized or commercialized.” - Los Angeles Times (MSN)
Nepali conservationist Rabindra Puri has hired local stonecarvers and craftsmen to create and display replicas of dozens of items of sacred art that were looted from temples and other sites over the past 60-odd years. The idea: return the stolen original to us and we'll give you the replica. - BBC
"Knowing that a work is by Haydn or Mozart allows us to see ‘inevitable’ connections. Take away the certainty of authorship, and it’s devilishly difficult to read the musical images within. … If someone can write pieces that can be mistaken for Haydn, what is so special about Haydn?" - The Guardian
Following another investigation that looked into further allegations (besides the original accusations from 2010), principal oboe Liang Wang and associate principal trumpet Matthew Muckey have been terminated and banned from the premises. The musicians' union has decided not to contest their firing. - AP
Sure, there are the rancorous meetings where people accuse you of peddling porn, and the death threats. But there are also overdoses, physical attacks, and the daily challenges of dealing with people who need a lot more help than you could ever offer. - The New York Times
"In my long career all over the country, I have never experienced a more comprehensively intelligent, generous and progressive audience. Where did that audience go? I suspect the answer to that question is not a short one.” - San Francisco Chronicle
One letter, signed by 2700 authors and entertainers, calls for a boycott of Israeli cultural institutions that are “complicit in violating Palestinian rights,” while another letter, signed by 1000 authors and entertainers, claims, “boycotts of creatives and creative institutions simply create more divisiveness.” - The New York Times
Or at least, that’s how Millennials remember the Book It! program, which is - shockingly - still going strong, 40 years in, with personal pan pizzas for kids in K-6th grade who read a certain number of books. - The New York Times
That’s a rise of 200 percent over 2023, which was already a huge year for organizations that rub their hands in glee as they try to stop kids from reading. - The New York Times
Anne Michaels, author of the spare, gorgeous Held says, "You can use brutal language to describe brutality, but that’s a lie; language can’t represent brutality. It’s exactly the same when I’m trying to get at the most beautiful, profoundly intense experience of intimacy.” - The Guardian (UK)
A package of articles considering some of the most important examples (including forgotten ones) of the style, from Eero Saarinen's Tulip table (the man detested table legs) to Isamu Noguchi's Akari lamps to the Eames Shell chair to Charlotte Perriand's modular shelving units to the city of Columbus, Indiana. - Dezeen