The current Boston “Arts Fuse” carries my thoughts about the pertinence today of Henry Higginson, who invented, owned, and operated the Boston Symphony until 1919. You can access the full article here. Excerpts follow: About a dozen years ago I was invited, impromptu, to address a gifted youth orchestra at
That Chopin’s 24 Preludes are commonly performed as a set makes sense. They are individually short and concise, they vary greatly in mood and texture, they suggest a trajectory beginning with a clearing of the throat and ending with a firestorm. That Chopin’s waltzes are not commonly performed as a
Old systems of certification are failing from every direction: technological, legal, institutional and political. So what's left when you can't just say "trust us"? You have to show your work and construct a context, making the case not by institutional credential but by demonstration.
John Milbauer, Dean of DePaul University’s School of Music, shares the three things he learned in policy school that he wished he learned in music school.
Conrad L. Osborne’s detailed assessment of the new Met “Tristan und Isolde,” a definitive critique of Yuvan Sharon’s obtrusive production, is compulsive reading for all remaining Wagnerites. Even more distressing than this version’s shortcomings is the acclaim it has received and the influence it may exert on opinion and practice.
As jazz — the music, business and culture of it — depends on an intricate and widespread network of activists, altruists and advocates to thrive, and celebrating local doers at least used to be a way to focus attention on the out-of-the-spotlight work necessary to make anything worthwhile happen, the
The first audience for your art is becoming a machine. The question isn't just how to optimize for that machine, it's what you give it to say, and whether what it says is worth a conversation.
Maribeth Stahl, Chief Development Officer of The Cleveland Orchestra, shares why Data, Depth and Discovery are key ingredients for successful fundraising.
[A human named David Szalay]. Paul Bloom posted this note on Substack: I’ve always thought that I would never want to read an AI-written novel, no matter how objectively well-written it is. But I’m starting to question this. I’m on a real David Szalay kick these days; last night, I finished “London
(Kudos to the art director who chose that American flag done with handprints – it’s perfect). I enjoyed reading Becca Rothfield’s “Listless Liberalism” in The Point, in which she reviews Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson’s Abundance, and Cass Sunstein’s Liberalism, and also asks the question of why the aesthetics of a liberal society, barely addressed
Rachel Thompson, Program Manager at the Curb Center for Art, Enterprise & Public Policy at Vanderbilt, talks about building curricular ties between students and the arts and art institutions.