Are America's Great Universities Failing? Education is suffering at America's elite universities. "Many seniors graduate without being able to write well enough to satisfy their employers. Many cannot reason clearly or perform competently in analyzing complex, non-technical problems, even though faculties rank critical thinking as the primary goal of a college education. Few undergraduates receiving a degree are able to speak or read a foreign language. Most have never taken a course in quantitative reasoning or acquired the knowledge needed to be a reasonably informed citizen in a democracy. And those are only some of the problems." Commentary 09/06
Posted: 09/12/2006 5:32 pm
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Bilbao Effect - Profitable By 2010? "A new study by the economist Beatriz Plaza of the University of the Basque Country suggests that the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao will not return a profit on the public funds paid to establish the institution until 2010 at the earliest, despite reports from the museum that this investment has already been paid off." The Art Newspaper 09/07/06
Posted: 09/13/2006 6:11 am
The Tax Law That Kills Art Gifts? Imminent tax code changes have American museum directors worried donations of art will dry up. But "some members of Congress saw the previous law as ripe for abuse and out of sync with most of the tax code, which does not allow fractional gifts of tangible assets and which tends to require that the public benefit for a charitable contribution occur in the same year that the taxpayer takes a deduction for the gift." The New York Times 09/13/06
Posted: 09/12/2006 10:36 pm
The Mystery Of Michelangelo "What is it, in this age of hype and empty celebrity, that makes the name of Michelangelo so magnetic? One can perhaps understand the draw when Van Gogh or the Impressionists take over a museum. These are the prophets of a modern sensibility: lyrical, colorful, yet with an edge of experimentation and a tinge of revolt. Michelangelo, by contrast, is remote, often deliberately unapproachable, cerebral, scathingly hard on himself (and all around him), and devoted to values, both aesthetic and spiritual, that are now long gone." Commentary 09/06
Posted: 09/12/2006 5:39 pm
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Indianapolis International Violin Competition Finalists Finalists include musicians from South Korea, Italy, Bulgaria, the Netherlands, the US and Germany. would be the "survivors." They're competing for $250,000 in prizes. Indianapolis Star 09/13/06
Posted: 09/13/2006 8:40 am
Top 200 - The Crowds At No. 1 Pretty much every week now there's a new song at the top of the Billboard charts. "There are multiple reasons behind the instability at the top of the Billboard 200, as the chart is officially known. For one thing, album sales continue to decline (they're off by about 7 percent this year), and the threshold for reaching No. 1 is dropping accordingly." Washington Post 09/13/06
Posted: 09/13/2006 7:03 am
Chicago Concertmaster To Retire After 48 years, the Chicago Symphony's long-time concertmaster is going to retire. "Samuel Magad made his debut with the CSO at 11 as the winner of the CSO youth auditions. He joined the first violin section in 1958 under music director Fritz Reiner and was named assistant concertmaster in 1966. Georg Solti appointed him concertmaster in 1972." Chicago Tribune 09/13/06
Posted: 09/13/2006 6:54 am
Birmingham Orchestra Launches Podcast The City of Birmingham Orchestra is launching a monthly podcast. "Members of the public will be invited to review recent concerts, and each recording will aim to explain how the musicians work together. Each free podcast can be downloaded through the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra's website." BBC 09/12/06
Posted: 09/12/2006 6:42 pm
iTunes' Classical Top Ten Classical music sells on iTunes in greater numbers than in CD stores. But what are the most popular downloads? The list is revealing, writes Marc Geelhoed. Slate 09/12/06
Posted: 09/12/2006 6:34 pm
Gottschalk Gone Louis Moreau Gottschalk was America's first great composer, writes Terry Teachout. "The near-complete failure of Gottschalk’s music to be taken up by American pianists is all the more inexplicable in light of the fact that so much of it incorporates elements of the folk and popular music of the Americas." Commentary 09/06
Posted: 09/12/2006 5:36 pm
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Denver Center Gets A New Chairman (And Some Attitude) "Daniel L. Ritchie was unanimously approved Tuesday as the Denver Center for the Performing Arts' new chairman and chief executive. And he wasted no time announcing an agenda that includes seeking relief from the city's 10 percent seat tax." Denver Post 09/13/06
Posted: 09/13/2006 8:58 am
The Ticket Fee Rip-Off Game These days it's impossible to avoid service charges for buying tickets. "Confused? No wonder. And leaving aside the chaos of all this, in what parallel universe is it remotely justifiable to charge audiences an extra £2.50 per ticket?" The Guardian (UK) 09/12/06
Posted: 09/12/2006 6:48 pm
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Wild Man Conductor That's Claus Peter Flor. "With his wildly animated face, enormous mane of salt-and-pepper hair and plummy German accent, the 53-year-old conductor would be Central Casting's idea of a crazy professor. But his podium antics are musically functional: They achieve a gut-gripping intensity and a vividness of characterization, color and texture all but unparalleled among living conductors." Dallas Morning News 09/09/06
Posted: 09/13/2006 8:33 am
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Philly Theatre Restoration Project Shuts Down Renovation of Philadelphia's historic Sameric Theatre has been shut down. "Clear Channel, of which LiveNation is a subsidiary, bought the theater in January 2005 from the Goldenberg Group, and said it would turn the Sameric into a multi-use entertainment house." Philadelphia Daily News 09/13/06
Posted: 09/13/2006 8:29 am
A Real Maria (Chosen On TV) A British reality show is in the process of choosing a Maria for a new West End production of the Sound of Music. "Now the crunch is nigh. On Saturday, the three finalists from the 2,000 or so women who auditioned — Connie Fisher, 23; Siobhan Dillon, 21; and Helena Blackman, 23 — will have their last chance to woo the public. Then, after a 90-minute countdown, one will set off on a stage career blessed by Lord Lloyd Webber." The New York Times 09/13/06
Posted: 09/12/2006 10:28 pm
Ben-Hur Goes Back To The Stadium "Veteran French impresario Robert Hossein is undertaking a re-enactment of Ben-Hur in France's biggest football stadium. "The sword-and-sandal epic in which Charlton Heston swept to victory after cinema's most famous chariot race is to be staged on an epic scale at the arena where France won the football World Cup in 1998. A cast of several hundred will recreate naval battles between the Roman fleet and Mediterranean pirates, and stage ancient Roman gladiator fights and a live chariot race." The Guardian (UK) 09/12/06
Posted: 09/12/2006 6:53 pm
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FCC Has Plan For Vacant Airwaves "The U.S. Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday set a road map for making vacant television airwaves available for other services by early 2009, when broadcasters are due to switch to digital signals. The airwaves at issue, frequencies below 900 megahertz, are a desirable slice because the signals can easily penetrate walls, trees and other obstructions unlike the higher frequencies." Yahoo! (Reuters) 09/12/06
Posted: 09/12/2006 5:45 pm
Apple Jumps Into Movies Apple introduces a newmovie download service. Apple CEO Steve "Jobs also showed off a compact gadget, dubbed iTV, that will allow consumers to watch movies purchased online — as well as other digital content stored on a computer — on a connected television set. It will sell for $299 and be available early next year." Yahoo! (AP) 09/12/06
Posted: 09/12/2006 5:41 pm
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The New Music Guy Takes On Dance Having made a success of programming contemporary music, Columbia University's George Steel is taking on dance for Miller Theatre. "At a time when things are looking bad around the country, and audiences are diminishing, and things are boring, it’s time for New York to step forward. There have been suggestions that New York is lagging behind, and we need to change that. You hear talk that New York institutions are a little shy. No, no, no. That’s not the way we do things around here." The New York Times 09/13/06
Posted: 09/12/2006 11:12 pm
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