Says San Francisco Opera general director Matthew Shilvock of the platform, called Aloha, “It allows a singer and a pianist to essentially be in the digital space together making real-time music — which is just transformational for us. A pianist can now hear a singer breathe, and that may sound very basic, but those breath cues are the things that allow the pianist to really mold their sounds to what the singer is doing.” – Fast Company
Here’s A Landmark For A Growing Company: Indianapolis Ballet Hires Its First Executive Director
“More than three years after its 2018 debut, the professional company … announced April 6 that longtime Indianapolis arts leader Don Steffy will take the helm and manage the administrative, funding, facility and human resource functions.” – Indianapolis Star
Preparing To Resume
“I think part of the answer is going to be for arts organizations to look in the mirror and ask themselves, “What really was working before the pandemic? And what was not?” There may be fundamental changes in the way that they did business. I’m not sure that everything that we did was truly sustainable even before the pandemic hit.” – Bloomberg
Has NPR Recovered From COVID Cutbacks? ‘Not Completely’, Says CEO
“NPR cut spending in areas including staff and executive pay to offset a decline in revenue spurred by the pandemic, particularly in corporate sponsorship. The network’s revenue is ‘slightly above’ its 2019 income but hasn’t reached 2020 levels, [acting CEO Deborah] Cowan said. Next year, NPR will aim to completely roll back the budget cuts that staffers agreed to last year in order to avoid layoffs.” – Current
Jazmin Morales Talks About Being an “Intrapreneur”
The Assistant Director of the Colburn School’s Center for Innovation and Community Impact shares the impact of Colburn’s EDI initiatives and strategies on being an “intrapreneur.” – Aaron Dworkin
What It’s Like To Edit A Legendary Beat Poet
Michael McClure’s final editor, Garrett Caples: “As any editor can tell you, turning a manuscript into a book is an affair in itself. Michael’s poetry is not easy to lay out. It’s always centered on the page, but only sometimes dead-centered, where you can just press a button and you’re fine. Often enough, he centered by hand and eye, giving the poems a quivering life unachievable by automation.” – LitHub
Teens Use The Arts To Document Their Pandemic Times
If you want to know how young people are experiencing the pandemic, the assault on the Capitol Building in January, vaccinations, and more, what better to do than ask? A project called Dispatches from Quarantine “launched in April 2020, and those questions were explored and answered through all sorts of mediums — like the stringing of words, the strokes of a paintbrush or to the strums of a ukulele.” – NPR
The Redesign Of The Hirshorn Sculpture Garden Has Hit A Wall
A rock wall, and a water feature as well, to be precise. “This is a debate in which everyone is a little right, and a little wrong, and this kind of argument can take a deceptively large toll on collective goodwill. The Cultural Landscape Foundation is an enormously valuable group when it comes to educating the public about mid-century landscape design. Its website is an important resource, with interviews, oral histories and designer profiles. But the group tends to go very quickly to Defcon One.” Tempers are fraying. – Washington Post
Budweiser Paints Lionel Messi Ads Over Iconic Murals In India
The outrage was so strong, including in statements by St+art India, that the beer company is backing down. Of course they can’t fix what happened, and “it remains unclear why Budweiser chose to paint over these specific wall, but amends are in place. Budweiser is now approaching the original artists from Bollywood Art Project and St+art India to ‘restore the works in good faith,’ said a statement by the company.” – Hyperallergic
Joye Hummel, The First Woman To Write ‘Wonder Woman,’ 97
Hummel was 19 when she began working as an assistant for William Moulton Marston, the psychologist who had created the character and the comic a few years earlier. Jill Lepore writes in The Secret History of Wonder Woman: “At first, Hummel typed Marston’s scripts. … Soon, she was writing scripts of her own.” – The New York Times
Vartan Gregorian, Savior Of The New York Public Library, Has Died At 87
Gregorian, an immigrant from Armenia who became a scholar and leader of Brown University and the Carnegie Corporation, “was best known for resurrecting the New York Public Library from a fiscal and morale crisis. It was a radical, midcareer change from the pastoral academic realm, and a risky plunge into the high-profile social and political wars of New York City, where the budget-cutting knives were out.” – The New York Times
A French Novelist Wins The LA Times’ Book Prize For Fiction
But the prizes are numerous, and many American writers won prizes in many other categories and genres, including poetry, history, current interest (where Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste took top place), mystery, horror, and more. A full list is at the link. – Los Angeles Times
When John Adams’ Most Playful Piece Was Booed
Adams came up with the vision for Grand Pianola Music when he was tripping – literally – and audiences weren’t sure what to do with it. “They didn’t know what to make of its puckish rebelliousness. The beginning, a Minimalist shimmer, was familiar territory — albeit scored idiosyncratically for winds, brasses, percussion, two pianos and a trio of siren-like singers. But the finale was audaciously melodic and openhearted, in defiance of contemporary music’s persistent, thorny seriousness.” Forty years later, it’s got many more fans. – The New York Times
In New Jersey, A Closed Theatre Results In An Arts Incubator And Virtual Shows
There’s no audience; there’s no one in the building, but Newark Symphony Hall is busy. There’s a new “career accelerator and business incubator” in the making. “Musicians, singers, dancers, actors, spoken word artists, directors and theater technical staff are eligible for the program,” and some of the proposals will result in virtual shows. In pandemic times, it could be far worse. – Newark Star-Ledger
Oscars Producers Say It’s A Good Thing The Pandemic Has Upended The Evening
Well: “Changing the Academy Awards, a 93-year-old American institution, has typically proven an exercise in futility. Tweaks have been tried along the way, yet the basic format has been stubbornly immutable.” Maybe this year will be different? Hope dies hard in Hollywood. – Boston Globe (AP)
Helen McCrory, Star Of Peaky Blinders And Harry Potter, Has Died At 52
McCrory’s husband, actor Damian Lewis, announced the news of her death on Twitter. “I’m heartbroken to announce that after an heroic battle with cancer, the beautiful and mighty woman that is Helen McCrory has died. … We love her and know how lucky we are to have had her in our lives. She blazed so brightly. Go now Little One, into the air, and thank you.” – The Guardian (UK)
The Teams That Save Spain And Portugal’s Shop Signs, From Neon To Giant Calligraphy Pens
Across the Iberian peninsula, more than 50 groups are working to save what they can of the cityscapes that are under what they feel is a kind of attack. “As small businesses close, they’re often replaced by a familiar roster of global behemoths with little connection to the city, said Laura Asensio, a graphic designer based in the north-western Spanish city of Valladolid.” So the teams are mapping each area’s unique design features – and saving signs. – The Guardian (UK)
The Accent That Most Actors Won’t Even Half-Try
Yes, it’s Philly. Despite how much those of us outside the area might think we know it, “the characters in Rocky don’t talk like they’re from Philadelphia. Neither do the ones in Silver Linings Playbook or The Irishman. For all the stories that have been set in and around the city, there’s a pronounced lack of authenticity when it comes to speaking the way the locals do—not a matter of failed attempts, but a failure to attempt it at all.” – Slate
What Does Dudamel’s Paris Opera Appointment Mean For Los Angeles?
For star conductors, of course, it’s not unusual to have appointments both with an orchestra and an opera company. And Dudamel’s contract with the LA Phil runs through the 2025-26 season. Classical France is interested: “Radio France, clearly anticipating the appointment, ran five 90-minute programs on Dudamel in the last week of January, ostensibly in celebration of the conductor’s 40th birthday. Dudamel’s appointment by Paris Opera’s new general director, Alexander Neef, clearly marks a new vision for a company that traces its beginnings to the birth of the Paris Opera Academy in 1669.” But wow, does Los Angeles have a weird history with the Paris Opera. – Los Angeles Times
A Scammer Is Targeting British Literary Prizes Via Paypal
The emails appear to come from the winning authors, and to connect to Paypal accounts that could conceivably be associated with them. “Over the past year, at least five British book prizes have been targeted by the same swindle — and one has even paid out. In March 2020, the Rathbones Folio Prize paid £30,000, about $41,000, to a scammer posing as the author Valeria Luiselli, who had just won the award for her novel Lost Children Archive.” The organization had to come up with another £30,000 to pay the actual winner. – The New York Times
Where Dance Is Online
Somehow, despite the continued strain and strife, many dance companies have successfully adapted to the evolving digital stage — reimagining Nutcracker seasons, digitizing never-before-seen archival videos and launching their own streaming services. – Washington Post
Head Of New York Theatre Workshop To Step Down After 34 Years
James C. Nicola, the artistic director of New York Theater Workshop, announced on Friday that he will step down in June 2022. At that point, he will have spent 34 years — nearly half his life — at the off-Broadway theater, which spawned the once-in-a-lifetime hit musical “Rent” and grew under his leadership into a steady home for provocative fare by the likes of Caryl Churchill, the Five Lesbian Brothers and the director Ivo van Hove. – The New York Times
Key Arts Figure In Belarus Freed From Prison After International Campaign
“Tatsiana Hatsura-Yavorska, the director of the Watch Docs Film Festival in Belarus, has been released from prison and had charges against her dropped following an international outcry from film festivals and human rights organizations. [She] was arrested in Minsk on April 5, allegedly for her role in organizing an underground photo exhibition celebrating Belarusian health workers.” – The Hollywood Reporter
Gustavo Dudamel Is Paris Opera’s Next Music Director
The world’s oldest opera company (founded in 1669 by Louis XIV) has signed one of the very few living conductors to become a celebrity in popular culture. The 40-year-old Venezuelan, the most famous product of El Sistema, begins a six-year term in his new job on August 1; he will also remain music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic for at least five more seasons. – The New York Times