In a study published in a German scientific journal, anatomist and musician Andreas Otte deduced that Bach—a gifted organist and harpsichordist—had an exceptional reach at the keyboard. – National Geographic
Orlando’s Philharmonic, Opera And Ballet Companies Say They Can’t Afford The Rent On The Venue Being Built For Them
“Although the downtown Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts has long touted itself as the future home of the Orlando Philharmonic, Orlando Ballet and Opera Orlando, arts leaders say their nonprofit groups are being priced out of … the center’s new Steinmetz Hall, which was designed with those groups in mind.” – Orlando Sentinel
Pew Study: YouTube Videos With Kids Get More Views
Any video that starred a child who appeared to be under the age of 13 “received nearly three times as many views on average as other types of videos.” – The Verge
Oakland’s Beloved Green Monster, Once Faded, Is Now Better (And Greener) Than Ever
The Mid-Century Monster, a children’s play structure created in 1952 by artist Robert Winston for the shores of the city’s Lake Merritt, had by 2015 become “a washed-up husk. Its chartreuse color had faded to a drab white. Several of its knobbly concrete limbs had begun to crack. … But this year, after a long restoration project, the monster has finally been let out of its cage.” – Atlas Obscura
How Erdogan Purged Turkey’s Intellectuals
“An authoritarian state can do many things to get rid of these democratic types — put them in jail, put them on trial — but ultimately the government must attack the institutions that produce and sustain them. Newspapers can be easy to buy. NGOs are easy to shut down. Universities are much harder to dismantle. But this is what, through the great purge, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his allies sought to do.” – New York Times Magazine
HBO Officially Declines To Remake Ending Of “Game Of Thrones”
HBO programming president Casey Bloys explained that the network never had any intention of caving to the fan petition requesting that HBO hire new writers to do season 8 over — despite the fact that it has been signed by nearly 1.7 million people. – Time
Woman Breaks World Record For Singing Lowest Note
Helen Leahey, the aptly named ‘Bass Queen’, sang from a D5 to a D2 note at an incredibly deep 72.5 hertz(es) in her attempt at the Music School Wagner in Koblenz, Germany. – Guinness World Records
Sasquatch Books’ Gary Luke Retires After 25 Years: The Secret To Regional Publishing
“I think that it was possible to thrive as a regional publisher in the Northwest because we have a very healthy bookstore ecosystem. In other parts of the country, you don’t have that. Like in Los Angeles for example, they don’t have stores like Powells, and Elliott Bay, and Village Books, and Third Place. They’re, I think, predominantly served by chain bookstores like Barnes and Noble. So that’s a big piece of the ecosystem that has to be in place in order for regional publishing to survive.” – Seattle Review of Books
Curtis Institute Asks Its Community Not To Talk About Story Of Sexual Abuse
“Out of respect for all those involved, we request that you refrain from discussing this matter publicly, online, or on social media,” Curtis spokeswoman Patricia K. Johnson wrote in an email to the Curtis community shortly after the story was published. – Philadelphia Inquirer
Facebook, Google, And Twitter Need Constant Moderation, But There’s A Human Cost
The thing is, all of our social media are really “a remarkable dragnet for capturing nearly half of the $600 billion or so of the annual global advertising budget.” Sometimes that doesn’t lead to great conditions for the moderation, or for the moderators. – Los Angeles Review of Books
Confessions Of A Sexist Playwright
Jerrod Bogard says it wasn’t easy or fast to learn what a sexist playwright he was. When a director and producer asked him to make some changes, whew … he wasn’t into it. “My first response was confusion and anger. Being challenged to do better is uncomfortable.” – HowlRound
The Opening Of Ghana’s First Subscription-Model Library Changed Lives, But The Founder Says It’s Not Enough
The founder of Libreria Ghana opened with 1300 volumes in 2018, but she soon learned that having a cozy library wasn’t enough for her, or for her country. She doesn’t want to be seen as a hero. “To deny the feeling of pleasure and, indeed, self-satisfaction that comes from knowing you’ve made a difference to an individual, a community and, by extension, a society, would be to deny being human. After all, the payoff of self-sacrifice is often self-fulfillment. There are no saviors, not even Black ones.” – LitHub
Why Are The ‘Harry Potter In Concert’ Programs So Popular?
Sometimes, you have to let a SyFy reviewer explain: “The Harry Potter in Concert series not only provides an opportunity to visually watch each individual instrumental sound take shape on the stage in front of you, but allows the viewer to line it up with the film as you watch it. This offers a whole new appreciation for productions in the arts. You might even be inspired to pick up a flute or learn to play the harp yourself.”- SyFy Wire
Turning The Tables On Superheroes
Superheroes have had their day – and now shows and movies are focusing on superhero backlash. – Los Angeles Times
How Do We Measure What’s Popular In Music?
We used to be able to look to Billboard charts. But there are so many ways people are accessing music it’s become almost impossible to tell what the “top” music is by how many are listening. – The New York Times
How To Address Gender/Race Imbalances In Classical Music?
“From art to science and beyond, the work of historically marginalised groups is being gloriously shared. Except within classical music, that is. And to compound matters, the errors of the past are being repeated today.” – The Guardian
Composer Ben Johnston, Who Made Microtonal Avant-Garde Music Sound Sweet, Dead At 93
“Mr. Johnston was an unusual avant-gardist: His music was so melodically engaging, rhythmically vital and structurally transparent that listeners who were unaware of his tuning experiments and their complex theoretical underpinnings heard his works as essentially neo-Romantic.” – The New York Times
Even In 2019, More Than Four-Fifths Of All Ballets Performed In America Were By Men
“A new report released by the Dance Data Project — a nonprofit launched earlier this year to assess gender inequity in ballet — looks at the 2018-2019 seasons of America’s 50 largest ballet companies [by budget]. … 81 percent of works last season were choreographed by men … Looking at just full-length ballets the number grows worse: 88 percent were choreographed by men.” – Dance Magazine
Design Is Changing As The Environment Forces Us To Adapt
The Cooper Hewitt’s curators are illuminating how environmental challenges are scrambling the roles of designers, scientists — and the museum itself. – The New York Times
Yao Li, ‘Silver Voice’ of Shanghai, Dead At 96
“With her soft, high voice, Ms. Yao was long referred to as one of the seven great singing stars of Shanghai, … [whose popular music] bore not only the rhythms of jazz, but also global sounds like Cuban rumba and the Hawaiian steel guitar. … She was not famous well beyond Asia, but at least two of her songs made an impact in the United States.” – The New York Times
The Rockettes Are Looking For Something They’ve Never Had Before: An Artistic Director
“While the iconic precision dance troupe has of course always had artistic leaders for each of its shows, its parent organization, Madison Square Garden Company, is now looking to hire someone to oversee the artistic vision of all of the Rockettes’ year-round programming. That includes workshops, outreach activities and, intriguingly, new productions.” – Dance Magazine
Woodstock 50 Is Saved! (But It Won’t Be Anywhere Near Woodstock)
“The troubled anniversary festival … will now be at the Merriweather Post Pavilion, an outdoor amphitheater in Columbia, Md., the producers confirmed on Thursday. It will be held from Aug. 16 to 18, almost exactly 50 years after the first Woodstock. But it was unclear what artists would be performing.” – The New York Times
$200K Egon Schiele Drawing Discovered In New York City Thrift Store
The drawing Reclining Nude Girl (1918) was found by a part-time art handler at a Habitat for Humanity ReStore in the Queens neighborhood of Woodside and authenticated by Jane Kallir, who wrote Schiele’s catalogue raisonné. – The Art Newspaper
London Philharmonic Names Edward Gardner Its Next Principal Conductor
“At 44, he’s also making a triumphant return to London after the rollercoaster ride of being music director of English National Opera from 2007 to 2015 — one of the most troubled periods of that company’s turbulent history.” Gardner succeeds Vladimir Jurowski in the fall of 2021. – The Times (UK)
The Subversive Genius That Was Mad Magazine
Sixty-seven years is a good run for anything, but, when Mad confirmed that it was joining National Lampoon and Life and Spy in the magazine graveyard, and the Elysian Fields of online archives, the pang that many felt, as if leaving a childhood bedroom for the last time, was that its departure was nonetheless abrupt and premature. – The New Yorker