Columbia University's Arts Initiative Columbia University wants to become more involved in the arts. How to do this? First, Columbia has hired director Gregory Mosher. "All of us believe there should be far less separation among intellectual and creative activities. We don't know exactly how we will do this. But we are going to make an effort. We hope to build something quite distinctive, and to make a contribution." The New York Times 02/09/04
Posted: 02/09/2004 8:01 pm
Walker Center Attendance Declines 30 Percent Attendance at Minneapolis' Walker Art Center was down 30 percent lasty year. Officials attribute the decline "primarily to a tourism fall-off after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and a natural decline after a 2001 blockbuster season that included popular shows of home design and art by Yoko Ono. Attendance at the Walker fell from an all-time high of 636,000 in 2001 to 439,000 in the 2003 fiscal year, which ended last June 30."
Posted: 02/10/2004 7:45 am
Kennedy Quits National Gallery Of Australia Controversial National Gallery of Australia director Brian Kennedy has decided to leave the museum after seven years. "While acknowledging that criticisms of him as stubborn, combative, ambitious and a workaholic may be true, Dr Kennedy said he was also passionate, concerned and dedicated." The Age (Melbourne) 02/10/04
Posted: 02/09/2004 7:07 pm
Schjeldahl: Altering Barnes Would Be "Aesthetic Crime" Peter Schjeldahl pays his first-ever visit to the Barnes Collection and weighs in on discussions now determining its fate. "Altering so much as a molecule of one of the greatest art installations I have ever seen would be an aesthetic crime. It would also give hosts of my fellow art lovers access to treasures that they might otherwise never see. And it’s not as if aesthetic crimes don’t happen all the time. Life goes on. But something extraordinary would be lost in the event." The New Yorker 02/09/04
Posted: 02/09/2004 6:04 pm
Update: On The Road With The Minnesota Orchestra The Minnesota Orchestra kicked off a three-week tour with a concert in Carnegie Hall Monday night. While the orchestra is on tour, Sam Bergman, a violist in the orchestra, will be keeping a blog describing life inside a big American orchestra on tour. Follow his daily progress in the blog RoadTrip RoadTrip (AJBlogs) 02/10/04
Posted: 02/10/2004 10:20 pm
Legal Download Sales Rising To The Top Sales of downloaded music in the UK are rivaling sales of singles-format CD's. "More than 150,000 downloads were sold last month, exceeding sales of 12-inch, seven-inch and DVD singles, the Official Charts Company reported. This included a record 50,000 downloads in the week after the 19 January launch of online music service MyCokeMusic. CD singles remain the most popular singles format, however, with 341,461 sold during that week." BBC 02/10/04
Posted: 02/10/2004 9:03 am
Volpe To Leave Met Opera Metropolitan Opera general manager Joseph Volpe announces he'll leave the company after 40 years. "He said he had been preparing to step down for some time. The workload and the demands of attending at least four performances a week had become taxing, he said." The New York Times 02/10/04
Posted: 02/09/2004 7:30 pm
UK Music Singles In Precipitous Sales Decline Sales figures in the UK of record singles show a one-third decline, from "52.5m in 2002 to 35.9m last year. The drop is mirrored by a 'disturbing' increase in illegal in ternet downloads. But albums continue to rise in popularity, which means the total value of record sales remained steady." The Guardian (UK) 02/09/04
Posted: 02/09/2004 7:13 pm
Brooklyn Opera Agrees Not To Use Virtual Orchestra Reversing a decision aimed at saving money, "the Opera Company of Brooklyn will no longer use a computer that replicates an orchestra in place of live musicians. A deal reached with the musicians' union explicitly bans the use of the computer, known as a virtual orchestra machine, or any other type of synthetic music, the union and opera announced Monday." Newsday (AP) 02/09/04
Posted: 02/09/2004 7:09 pm
GarageBand - Clogging The Internet With Amateur Music Since Apple released GarageBand, its digital music creation application, the internet has become jammed with amateur musicians posting their musical creations. "The amount of creative energy that GarageBand is creating is staggering. Apple has created a monster.... As a pro musician/producer, I love this app. It puts the fun back into creating. I'm amazed." Wired 02/09/04
Posted: 02/09/2004 6:31 pm
Florez - The Tenor As Rock Star Peter G. Davis is ready to declare 31-year-old tenor Juan Diego Flórez a star, after his New York debut. "There has been no shortage of agile tenors recently to handle the florid bel canto repertory, but none I’ve encountered offers this kind of total package. Flórez’s accurate articulation of coloratura and the sheer fizz of his passagework, without loss of tonal quality or definition, take the breath away." New York Magazine 02/09/04
Posted: 02/09/2004 6:18 pm
Seattle Rakes In The Music Dollars A new study measures the economic impact of Seattle's music business. Figures show that the music business generates "more than $650 million in annual revenue and 8,700 jobs for the local economy, according to an economic impact study released last night by Mayor Greg Nickels. When combined with revenue generated by businesses that support the core music industry, the figure tops $1.3 billion." Seattle Post-Intelligencer 02/09/04
Posted: 02/09/2004 5:06 pm
Cuban Musicians Denied Vist To US For Grammys The US government is continuing to make it difficult for foreign artists to perform in the United States. Last week, visas were denied for Cuban musicians invited to the Grammy awards. And other musicians hired to perform in the US are finding they can't get their visas sorted out in time. (second and third items - scroll down) SF Classical Voice 02/10/04
Posted: 02/10/2004 7:05 am
Shreveport Times Ditches Arts Reviews In Drive To "Improve" Arts Coverage The editor of the Shreveport Times has some interesting ideas on how to "improve" his paper's arts coverage: Starting immediately, "the Times will no longer do reviews of plays, symphonies, ballets and art shows. The Times will expand and improve its arts coverage during the coming year. These last two sentences are not mutually exclusive. Not running reviews does not mean The Times is cutting back on its arts coverage. We want to improve it." Shreveport Times 02/08/04
Posted: 02/09/2004 5:58 pm
Toledo Arts Groups Painting The Town Red Arts groups in Toledo, Ohio are selling plenty of tickets these days. But that isn't protecting the bottom line. "Some of Toledo’s best-known regional arts and community assets - from black-tie traditions to avant-garde artists - are working in a new medium: red ink. At least four of the area’s major venues have posted a string of deficit years, according to records they’ve filed with the IRS: the Toledo Opera, the Arts Commission, COSI, and Citifest." Toledo Blade 02/09/04
Posted: 02/09/2004 5:31 pm
Figuring Out Baryshnikov Mikhail Baryshnikov is a prodigious talent. But "in all the agony and ecstasy that has surrounded Baryshnikov's every move – the matchless dancing, the seething love-life, the mediocre film career, the downmarket commercial activities – it has taken time to see that his greatest claim to world gratitude is the almost unbelievable generosity with which he has marketed his talent." The Telegraph (UK) 02/10/04
Posted: 02/09/2004 7:27 pm
Newly Restored Baltimore Theatre Makes A Bid For The Big Time The 1914 Hippodrome Theatre in Baltimore is reopening after a $62 million makeover. Organizers of the project are "declaring their intention of making Baltimore once again a force in the world of live theater. The center's operators envision the new venue becoming an arts stadium of sorts, a live entertainment hub." Baltimore Sun 02/10/04
Posted: 02/10/2004 7:28 am
Shanghai Not Ready For Vagina Monologues This just in: "Shanghai has abruptly banned the U.S. play 'Vagina Monologues,' said the theater that had planned a one-month run beginning Tuesday, adding that conditions in China are 'not ripe' for the taboo-breaking drama." Backstage (AP) 02/09/04
Posted: 02/09/2004 6:52 pm
RSC - Ready For A Turnaround? The Royal Shakespeare Company has faced nothing but problems over the past year. And yet, there are encouraging signs that the company is turing itself around... Backstage 02/09/04
Posted: 02/09/2004 6:42 pm
- Doran Is RSC White Knight Who's leading the Royal Shakespeare Company's revival? Gregory Doran. "It wouldn't be too strong to suggest that he has redeemed the RSC's battered reputation at a time when it was reeling from the sudden resignation of its former artistic director Adrian Noble and the crisis that followed the company's precipitate decision to quit the Barbican." The Telegraph (UK) 02/10/04
Posted: 02/09/2004 6:21 pm
Harry In Ancient Greek The first Harry Potter book has been translated into ancient Greek. "Classics teacher Andrew Wilson, from Bedford, says it is the longest text to have been translated into the ancient language in 1,500 years." BBC 02/09/04
Posted: 02/09/2004 6:23 pm
Lord of the Rings - Biggest Movie Of All Time The Lord of the Rings movie will soon become the highest box-office grossing movie of all time. "Peter Jackson's epic has now made $942.7m (£517.9m) worldwide, and is expected to pass the $1bn mark after it is released in Japan on 14 February. Only Titanic from 1997 and Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, released in 2001, have taken more money." BBC 02/10/04
Posted: 02/10/2004 9:23 am
Blockbuster On The Block Blockbuster Video is being sold by Viacom, and at a greatly reduced price. "Blockbuster's business has been under pressure from cheap sales of DVDs through major retailers as well as emerging video technologies like video on demand and personal video recorders." The Star-Tribune (Mpls) (AP) 02/10/04
Posted: 02/10/2004 7:43 am
Disney Signs On For Microsoft Protection Disney has signed a deal with Microsoft to incorporate the software maker's digital protections into its movies. "The deal with Microsoft will wrap the software giant's Digital Rights Management (DRM) system around the media being made available to stop it being illegally copied. The system being developed should allow buyers of the Disney films a limited ability to move the movies between PCs and media players." BBC 02/09/04
Posted: 02/09/2004 6:25 pm
