Stories

We live in an age of unprecedented connectivity, and yet this very connectedness has led to something paradoxical: uniformity. In our quest to standardise, streamline, and compare ourselves globally, we risk erasing the very differences that make human creativity, and particularly music, so rich. - The Strad

Mackerras had a major impact on British musical life, whether as Music Director of English National Opera and Welsh National Opera, working with major symphony orchestras, or conducting smaller groups such as the English Chamber Orchestra and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. - Gramophone

Leaving the Kennedy Center is a possible scenario after a collapse in box office revenue and “shattered” donor confidence in the wake of Trump’s takeover, said Francesca Zambello. - The Guardian

“It’s important to us that younger generations know what the work stood for and don’t get some false impression from these decontextualized samplings — and we don’t want it to be associated with what the Department of Homeland Security is doing.” - Washington Post (MSN)

And it benefits literally everyone, advocates say, including the audience. “If everyone feels like this is a safe set and they can do their best work, the work will just be better.” - Los Angeles Times (MSN)

The plan: Rena Bransten Gallery will turn into a pop-up. "I have uncertainty about whether the model that we all grew up in, going to galleries, is viable,” the gallery director says. “I need to really look around and see what people are doing.” - San Francisco Chronicle

“Parker leveraged his extensive experience in woodworking and guitar repair, along with his maverick streak, to build groundbreaking guitars that went on to be displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.” - The New York Times

Zhou accused Renner of sending unwanted sexual images, and of threatening “to call immigrationICE” to intimidate her. The actor denies the accusations. - Los Angeles Times (AOL)

And they kept right on dancing. - Radio New Zealand

Vince Gilligan of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, on his new series Pluribus: "The concept of the others being in sync telepathically led to us hiring our first-time choreographer, ever. Technically, I think he's billed as a movement coordinator or a movement designer.” - Collider

“For years we’ve been grappling with the collapse of the creative middle class due to corporate greed. … We have more content than ever, but fewer opportunities for art and artists to thrive.” - LitHub

“Gurinder Chadha was wandering through the Charles Dickens Museum in London, trying to commune with the author’s spirit. ‘If you were alive today,’ the film-maker asked him, ‘what story would you tell?’” - The Guardian (UK)

“Navigating life in an era of ‘alternative truths’ has proved to be a disorienting experience: How can people live together when truth has become whatever one would like it to be?” - Le Monde (Archive Today)

“A child actor turned movie star turned director and producer and prolific tech documentarian, Winter’s career has been fitful, searching and unconventional, full of sharp left turns and voracious curiosity.” - The Guardian (UK)

The mysterious person “was cast as an old-school detective, an inside man, a Netflix pitch — or not human at all. ... Pedro understood why. ‘In the photo, I'm dressed more in the 1940s, and we are in 2025,’ he said. ‘There is a contrast.’” - NPR