She studied with Andrés Segovia and is a virtuoso in classical and flamenco styles. "At her shows, after she sings and gyrates to a set of disco numbers,” writes Amanda Hess, "she slips backstage, emerges in the tuxedo, picks up the guitar and blows everybody's mind." - The New York Times
Almost nobody knows him back home in England, but in China — thanks to a chance meeting while waiting to renew his visa — Kevin Lee (or Kaiwen Li in Chinese) has become a familiar face in several popular action franchises. - BBC
If his name was less well known to the museumgoing public than those of Met directors like Thomas Hoving or Philippe de Montebello, two towering figures under whom Mr. Hawkins served, he was their near-equal when it came to the ultra-rarified networks that undergird the museum. - The New York Times
“From the start of the invasion of Ukraine by the armies of Vladimir Putin, I’ve felt deep dread and a certainty that this will be a bloody and horrific conflict,” writes Baryshnikov, in the submission titled, “The Ukrainians are fighting for all of us.” - San Francisco Examiner
It is fascinating to realize that McLuhan only becomes more of a prophet the further our world turns to the digital. As Paul Levinson notes, McLuhan’s metaphors were extravagant and malleable because they had to be. - LitHub
“We’re not prepared to change our position,” Peter Gelb, the Met’s general manager, said in a statement. “If Anna demonstrates that she has truly and completely disassociated herself from Putin over the long term, I would be willing to have a conversation.” - The New York Times
After a long period of house arrest and a travel ban based on embezzlement charges widely understood to be trumped-up, the dissident director has settled in Germany. - Variety
While he claimed to have “never got 1 cent” for creating the GIF technology, his invention transformed the internet ecosystem and the ways in which people communicate online. - Slate
Over a 17-year tenure, she stabilized the orchestra's finances; led it through the Great Recession, a bitter 2011 strike, and COVID; saw the appointment of two music directors; and launched an impressive set of new programs, from neighborhood concerts to live-streaming performances. - Detroit Free Press
Not that his influence ever went away, "but if Warhol seems particularly ubiquitous right now, that’s because he is — onscreen, onstage, in museums and in the streets." (The article doesn't even mention Todd Haynes' Velvet Underground documentary, with prominent Warhol moments.) - The New York Times
Renee Fleming’s comment that, as a singer, she doesn’t travel as much as instrumental soloists came just a few minutes after mentioning that she had seen Yannick Nézet-Séguin open the Metropolitan Opera’s 2021-22 season and Carnegie Hall’s season—commuting to Paris for concerts in between. - Van
No, it's not that they thought show business was too risky: they literally could not conceive of such a thing as earning a living by telling people jokes you made up. Of course, now that he's on television every week (Saturday Night Live), it makes more sense to them. - Vulture
"It's incredible to consider the lengths we used to go to in forgiving artists for being bad people. ... The myth of the high-functioning addict whose great work was fueled by liquor and drugs has become, if not entirely passé, at least less visible." - T — The New York Times Style Magazine
Likolani Brown Arthurs, 36, spent 15 years dancing with the New York City Ballet. Now, she’s moving to a new stage: NYU Langone’s operating theater, where the retired ballerina will begin her surgical residency. - New York Post
At one point he said: ‘There are important political analysts in the West who claim that it is their part of the world that is to blame for the situation in Ukraine.’ At another moment the 53-year-old pianist asked a military officer: ‘Should we really care about the timeline (of the ‘military operation’)? - Classical Music
