U.S. Troops Decimate Babylon "Troops from the US-led force in Iraq have caused widespread damage and severe contamination to the remains of the ancient city of Babylon, according to a damning report released today by the British Museum... The ancient city has been used by US and Polish forces as a military depot for the past two years, despite objections from archaeologists." The Guardian (UK) 01/15/05
Posted: 01/16/2005 11:25 am
London Gallery Accused Of Prejudice London's Hayward Gallery is being accused of racial discrimination in a £65 million lawsuit brought by a Harvard-educated Pakistani painter who says that the gallery lost or damaged 300 of his works. "The lawsuit might sound nearly as quixotic as his approach to selling his art - Geoffrey prices his work according to the relative wealth of his clients - but it is likely to shine an uncomfortable spotlight on the London art world's treatment of foreign artists." The Observer (UK) 01/16/05
Posted: 01/16/2005 11:21 am
Baltimore's Architectural Future Takes Shape Like many other American cities, Baltimore is in a building boom, and new office towers and residential complexes are rising at a nearly unprecedented rate. "While there is no shortage of new buildings opening in the Baltimore region this year, many simply reinforce the status quo. For those seeking signs of fresh thinking about architecture," though, there are a number of diamonds in the rough just waiting to be built. Baltimore Sun 01/16/05
Posted: 01/16/2005 10:54 am
Big Tasks Ahead For The Barnes Winning the years-long court battles over its proposed move to central Philadelphia may have been the easy part for the Barnes Foundation. "In the months to come, the Barnes must expand its board, collect $100 million in capital pledges, raise at least $50 million more for an endowment and figure out how to cover its interim operating costs. And while stepping up its fund-raising, the foundation must select an architect and decide how to continue its educational mission." And as if that weren't enough, the opponents to the Barnes move haven't conceded defeat just yet. The New York Times 01/15/05
Posted: 01/16/2005 9:54 am
DaVinci's Workshop Leonardo DaVinci's Florence workshop may have been discovered by researchers at an Italian military installation. "Italian museum officials are hoping that the discovery of the frescoes and five small rooms where Leonardo might have lived and worked, in a building just off the Piazza of the Santissima Annunziata in central Florence, will help flesh out the life of the artist, inventor and scientist." The New York Times 01/15/05
Posted: 01/16/2005 9:46 am
Those Lonely, Lonely Germans Something about the sight of a lone figure wandering along a remote road was an irresistable inspiration for countless German artists of the mid-1800s. "The early 19th century in Germany was tough on intellectuals; in the wake of the Napoleonic wars and the Congress of Vienna came a fierce persecution of democratic ideas and those who held them, so that to assert one's 'German-ness' as an artist, one's allegiance to folk culture and local history, was in some ways a radical act." Inherent in the theme of the lonely exile was "an inwardness, whispering and pleading to be let out." The Guardian (UK) 01/15/05
Posted: 01/16/2005 9:12 am
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Philly Looks To Beethoven. Again. A lot of eyebrows were raised in the orchestra world when Christoph Eschenbach, an enthusiastic promoter of new music, was hired to be the music director in Philadelphia, a city known for its ultra-traditional musical tastes. A look at the orchestra's just-released 2005-06 season calendar indicates that some compromise between the two philosophies may be in the offing: the Philadelphians will focus heavily on Beethoven next year, but there will be several world premieres hidden amongst the warhorses. Philadelphia Inquirer 01/16/05
Posted: 01/16/2005 10:28 am
Something Rotten In The Opera House Of Denmark Copenhagen's much-anticipated new opera house opens this weekend with near-unprecedented fanfare, but a lot of people aren't at all happy with the finished product. First on the list of malcontents: the architect, who claims that his vision was forcibly altered by the project's lead donor. The New York Times 01/15/05
Posted: 01/16/2005 9:48 am
Strathmore Nears Completion The Music Center at Strathmore, in suburban Washington, D.C. is very nearly ready for its close-up, and if successful in its mission, it will change the face of the arts in the Baltimore-Washington corridor. "The state-of-the-art building is unique in the way it embraces art from its tiniest beginnings to its loftiest expressions. Five-year-olds learn how to hold a violin correctly; 3-year-olds can take tap dance with their mothers or fathers. When the concert hall opens next month, cellist Yo-Yo Ma will be center stage; later, Sauvion Glover will bring his thrilling kind of tap to the hall." Washington Times 01/15/05
Posted: 01/16/2005 9:36 am
Jarvi In Newark: Where To Begin? It was a major coup when the New Jersey Symphony announced that Neeme Jarvi would become its next music director. But what will the legendary Jarvi need to accomplish to put the NJSO on the map? "The [major] task will be to make the woodwind and brass players perform with the polish, subtlety, warmth and cohesiveness of the string players, newly empowered by the orchestra's acquisition of a cache of valuable string instruments... [Jarvi,] with his obvious taste for Nordic music and with a readily available stable of maestros to extend the Nordic range... seems to be ideally placed to develop a specialty with this orchestra much the way Charles Dutoit did in French music with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra." The New York Times 01/15/05
Posted: 01/16/2005 9:29 am
Health Care Cut Off For St. Louis Musicians The work stoppage at the St. Louis Symphony has been remarkably civil thus far, but tempers are beginning to flare over the issue of health insurance, which was cut off to the musicians when they rejected management's final contract offer. The SLSO had prepaid the musicians' premium, and received a rebate from the cancellation. Meanwhile, the 2-year-old son of an orchestra cellist had a seizure last week, and his mother found herself stuck with a major hospital bill when her insurance was found to have been terminated. The musicians claim that their health insurance was never affected during previous work stoppages. St. Louis Post-Dispatch 01/15/05
Posted: 01/16/2005 9:10 am
- More Concerts Canceled A third week of concerts has fallen to the St. Louis Symphony's work stoppage. This time, the scheduled soloist and conductor was Itzhak Perlman, and the SLSO chose to cancel several days sooner than usual, due to the unusually large number of tickets sold, and the possibility of patrons coming great distances to see the famous fiddler. St. Louis Post-Dispatch 01/16/05
Posted: 01/16/2005 9:07 am
A Phoenix Rises In Texas The San Antonio Symphony was supposed to be dead and buried by now, the victim of endless deficits, questionable management, and meager community support. Instead, SAS officials are in a jubilant mood after meeting the requirements of a major challenge grant, and are preparing to launch a major PR initiative designed to increase ticket sales and make the orchestra more attractive to high-rolling donors. San Antonio Express-News 01/16/05
Posted: 01/16/2005 9:06 am
Are You Ready For Some... um... Orchestral Music? A staid, refined art form like classical music just can't compete in a dumbed-down NFL/MTV world, right? Actually, maybe it can. "In an upset of Joe Namath proportions, orchestral music has been thriving in the realm of the football fan, rabid and otherwise. For 40 years, the highly regarded highlights of NFL games airing on such TV programs as 'Game of the Week,' 'This Is the NFL' and channels such as ESPN Classic and the NFL Network have been accompanied by an orchestra. Based in Mount Laurel, N.J., NFL Films currently has an unheard of two composers on staff -- Tom Hedden and David Robidoux." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 01/15/05
Posted: 01/16/2005 8:40 am
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Cooperation Ain't The Way Cleveland arts groups have been ratcheting up efforts to improve the city's cultural scene, but many have discovered that joining forces can be the most effective way to compete in a world with seemingly endless entertainment options. "So why aren't the creators of two significant new Cleveland arts festivals working together?" The Cleveland Play House is planning a theater and arts festival for May 2006, but the creators of a Labor Day arts-and-technology festival will beat them to the punch by nine months. So why not let two become one? Well, for one thing, the Play House's artistic director thinks that Labor Day weekend is "box office poison." The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 01/15/05
Posted: 01/16/2005 8:57 am
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Soprano de los Angeles Dies "Legendary Spanish soprano Victoria de los Angeles has died in hospital in Barcelona aged 81, her family has said. The singer had been admitted to the city's Teknon clinic on New Year's Eve with a bronchial infection. The singer, who was renowned as one of 20th Century's finest sopranos, retired from the stage in 1979 but continued giving recitals into her 70s." BBC 01/16/05
Posted: 01/16/2005 10:34 am
Yes, But What Do You Do? Tampa has an art czar. Officially, he's the city's Manager of Creative Services, his name is Paul Wilborn, and he makes $90,000 per year, a figure which everyone in the city's moneyed classes seems to know. Wilborn's salary is of interest because many observers have had a very difficult time figuring out exactly what it is that he does for the money. "Here's what he doesn't do: Raise funds. Distribute grants... His days are filled with meetings, which he attends on behalf of the mayor... His job - albeit unofficially - is also hobnobbing." St. Petersburg Times 01/16/05
Posted: 01/16/2005 10:19 am
MTT at... 60? Really? The San Francisco Symphony's charismatic and ever-youthful music director, Michael Tilson Thomas, turned 60 this weekend, incredible as it may seem, and used the occasion to mount a huge onstage party at Davies Symphony Hall. "Like a kid facing a coffee table stacked with big, glittery presents, Thomas raced through the evening's program, eagerly unwrapping each musical offering... Even among conductors, a famously long-lived and resilient breed, Thomas has always had a preternaturally youthful and even boyish streak. Now, at 60, he seems to be combining that tireless energy and enthusiasm with the ever- deepening mastery that comes with age." San Francisco Chronicle 01/15/05
Posted: 01/16/2005 8:48 am
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Minority Fest Gains Status In Boston Boston's African-American Theatre Festival has been around since 2001, but it's barely registered as a blip on the radar screen of one of the country's top theatre towns. But "this year the festival has gotten a major boost in visibility and cachet. The Huntington Theatre Company is hosting the festival in the larger of its two new theaters at the Calderwood Pavilion in the South End." Boston Globe 01/16/05
Posted: 01/16/2005 10:58 am
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Keeping Up With Ontario Ontario's decision to bail out its floundering film industry with a new round of tax credits and incentives has put the rest of Canada's movie-hungry cities in a tight spot. On the other end of the country, British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell is planning to get personally involved in attempts to rescue his province's Hollywood fortunes. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 01/15/05
Posted: 01/16/2005 11:08 am
Is Nothing Sacred? Not At The Movies. Why was movie attendance down in 2004? Desmond Ryan thinks it might just have something to do with the insulting and infuriating decision of the nation's multiplexes to preface films with up to a half hour of over-loud commercials and horrid previews. "Taking in a movie used to provide an oasis from the avalanche of hucksterism in our daily lives. If you pay your own good money for a movie or, for that matter, Internet service, nobody should be allowed to intrude on it with ads." Philadelphia Inquirer 01/15/05
Posted: 01/16/2005 10:03 am
Those Inexplicably Influential Golden Globes It's Golden Globes time again, which means it's once again time for entertainment writers the world over the bemoan the outsized influence wielded in Hollywood by the motley collection of hacks, suck-ups, and gladhanders who make up the Globes-sponsoring Hollywood Foreign Press Association. But like it or not, the Globes have managed to acheive first-team status in the movie industry, even if they are the awards show equivalent of Paris Hilton or Anna Nicole Smith - famous just for being famous. Boston Globe (AP) 01/15/05
Posted: 01/16/2005 9:58 am
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PBT On The Brink Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre is on the verge of fiscal collapse, and prospects for the future are so bleak that the company is considering either merging with another area arts group, or even folding altogether. Disappointing holiday sales and slumping subscriber renewals have exacerbated PBT's already precarious situation, and the company has been without a managing director since last May. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 01/16/05
Posted: 01/16/2005 11:42 am
Northern Ballet Cancels Season The Northern Ballet Theatre is one of only two professional arts groups still operating in Nashua, New Hampshire, and this weekend, two will become one, as the ballet announces the cancellation of the remainder of its 2004-05 season. The company will use the next several months to retool and raise money, with the aim of mounting a 2005-06 season. Nashua Telegraph 01/16/05
Posted: 01/16/2005 10:13 am
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