Twenty-five years ago the Jazz Journalists Association began to identify and celebrate activists, advocates, altruists, aiders and abettors of jazz as members of an “A Team,” soon renamed “Jazz Heroes.” Today the JJA announced its 2025 slate of these Heroes, 29 people across North America who put extraordinary efforts into
Fear of missing out on cultural turning points is a significant New York preoccupation. My own incessant curiosity takes me to small urban churches, inside security zones requiring a QR code (such as the Columbia University campus) and – as of the early hours of 2025 – to a 3 am
This Composer Created An Entire Week-Long Piece Specifically For People’s Living Rooms “Drawing from a bank of over 7,000 ‘musical shapes, textures and gestures,’ Michael Schumacher’s Living Room Pieces assembles sounds into 301 ‘modules,’ algorithmically arranged over seven ‘modes,’ one for each day.” – The Washington Post (MSN)
London’s Royal Opera Explores What It Means To Have A Voice (And...
“The neo-Western wrapped contemporary ideas of rugged individualism inside the soapy drama of a land-hoarding family’s succession planning." - The New York Times
A Scottish ballet teacher has created classes that meet the needs of autistic kids in ballet. The teacher says the response has been overwhelming: “There were so many parents out there who needed these facilities, and they just weren't given the opportunity.” - Glasgow Live (MSN)
I’m proud of my two published books (Miles Ornette Cecil – Jazz Beyond Jazz and Future Jazz) and my unpublished ones, too; the two iterations of the encyclopedia of jazz and blues; I edited, and my collaborations with some musicians creating their own books — but right now I’m crazy
Good morning: Here are today's ArtsJournal highlights:
LiveNation Builds "Temporary" Music Venue in Toronto for 50,000 FansLiveNation is constructing a massive "temporary" venue at Downsview Airport in Toronto, designed to accommodate up to 50,000 concertgoers. The move responds to the growing number of stadium-level artists touring today. This venue offers a unique solution to the rising demand for large performance...
“In contrast to Donald Judd, her neighbor in ... Manhattan, who outsourced much of his work to industrial fabricators, Ms. Winsor could typically be found in her studio creating enigmatic, obsessively crafted objects. She hammered, drilled, coiled yards of heavy rope and chopped up plywood.” - The New York Times
“We’re already at seven major animated contenders for Best Animated Feature, all of which could have been considered frontrunners in a vacuum. And that’s not even considering potential dark horse movies releasing later this year.” - Vulture
The program was not a crowd pleaser. But the crowd seemed open to whatever they were given at this closing Aug. 10 concert of the Festival Orchestra of Lincoln Center’s summer season. From a distance, the program looked a lot like a particularly wide-reaching New York Philharmonic subscription concert, but
So much stimulating, challenging music threatened to overflow and overload the Tanglewood Music Festival’s annual composer’s week that one had to stand back and realize how radically this bucolic setting in Lenox, MA diverges from the typical summertime concert life of major orchestras. The closest thing to recreational listening over
“A lot of people in Hollywood only seem able to discuss the middle of the country while holding their nose. But entertainment is a reactive business: chase what worked over the weekend, drop what didn’t.” - The New York Times
Singing Bach’s Mass in b minor can be terrifying. You’re holding your own, and then, the page turns to reveal something that looks barely singable. You’re teetering like a novice downhill skiier on a slope with pathetically inadequate skills. No turning back. And that’s just a matter of vocal technique.
Any Steinbeck adaptation needs to be epic. Few works of literature go so deep into the need for home and family as the John Steinbeck novel The Grapes of Wrath. And Ricky Ian Gordon’s 2007 opera version packed the Carnegie Hall stage April 17 with the necessary magnitude of resources,
