“Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs … revealed a new plan, in a memo to county leaders, that lays out a path to get the arts center the final $45 million in tourist development tax dollars it needs to start the $185 million second phase that includes the 1,700-seat Steinmetz Hall acoustical theater.”
Royal Ballet’s New Principals Say YouTube Is Making It Harder To Wow Audiences
“The rise of YouTube and the internet have made it more difficult than ever to impress the viewing public, the dancers have said, as they are expected to perform ever-more gymnastic feats to keep up with what people can see online.” Says one, Alexander Campbell, “I think there’s a video of a Chinese acrobat standing en pointe on someone’s head, and that’s incredible. So if you come and see someone en pointe on a massive floor, it doesn’t have that same excitement.”
An Incendiary Title, A University President, A Cancellation, A Resignation
Howard Sherman: “To start at the end, or at least where we are today: Michele Roberge, executive director of the Carpenter Performing Arts Center on the campus of California State University, has resigned, effective yesterday. Why? Because the school’s president, Jane Close Conoley, insisted upon the cancelation of Roberge’s booking of the comedy :N*gger Wetb*ck Ch*nk, a show that has toured extensively for more than a decade to performing arts centers on and off college campuses. In fact, it played to a sold out house of more than 1,000 seats last year at the Carpenter Center.”
How New York City Became The Center Of The Jazz World
“Many jazz fans assume that New York has always been the preferred destination for up-and-coming musicians, but this hasn’t always been the case. In fact, New York came late to the jazz party.”
UK’s National Gallery Sued Over Matisse Portrait By Heirs Of The Woman In It
“Portrait of Greta Moll (1908) depicts a fellow-artist and a pupil of Matisse. Moll’s heirs – Oliver Williams, Margarete Green, and Iris Filmer – say that Moll, who owned the painting, turned it over in 1945 to a student of her husband, Gertrud Djamarani, fearing it would be lost or destroyed during the Allied occupation of Germany. … Instead of preserving the painting, says the complaint, Djamarani sold it in Switzerland for her own gain.”
Redeveloping Chicago’s South Side With Art
“It roots itself in unlikely places like a once-dilapidated bank that hadn’t been active in more than 30 years, a recently shuttered currency exchange office, a retired beer warehouse, and a housing complex that had been shuttered after the city couldn’t find a way to stymie the violence that had permeated the site. This constellation of projects is the brainchild of Theaster Gates.”
A Dance Video Advertising A Clothing Line Roils All Pakistan
“A video advertisement for a clothing company [in Lahore] featuring women dancing in public to Beyoncé’s ‘Run The World (Girls)’ has sparked a backlash from both feminists and religious conservatives.”
Some Questions About The Fort Worth Symphony Strike
“The piece doesn’t attempt to present an even-handed explanation of what’s happening; instead, it uncritically reposts the position of one actor in the dispute. This is a blind spot I’ve seen many times, from many reporters. We’re conditioned to believe that since management deals with the business side of the organization, anything it says about the business side of the organization is true and unbiased.”
How The Fort Worth Symphony Got Into A Mess (And A Strike)
“Management says it simply can’t grant the musicians raises and remain viable. Orchestra staffers’ pay has been frozen for several years, and they have received no pension funding, management says. The orchestra is projecting a $700,000 operating deficit for the 2016-17 season. The symphony finished its most recent season with a $500,000 deficit, $300,000 less than projected, partly because of better-than-expected ticket sales for the Concerts in the Garden. How did the orchestra’s financial situation get so dire?”
Even Nicholas Serota Was Shocked By Tate Modern’s Wild Success And Popularity
“No one expected such numbers. Serota thought he had an art museum; what he got was a major tourist attraction.”
At City Ballet, Young Women Make The Leap From Ballerina To Choreographer
“I like the stuff that happens when I’m at that mental-empty place. That’s so cool, because in already a short amount of time, I’m learning to trust myself. It’s empowering. It’s because when you do something scary, you get stronger. Always.”
How Does Christopher Guest Come Up With His Sweetly Pointed Satirical Movies?
“It struck me a long time ago that it didn’t really matter on what level people were working on anything, it was just as important to them as the people working on what’s perceived as a higher level. The major leagues as opposed to the minor leagues or off-off-off Broadway as opposed to Broadway. It really is all the same.”
A Classically Trained Painter’s Inspirations From The Contemporary World
“The dual mission Mr. Marshall has been pursuing with a kind of holy fervor for almost 40 years now: building a sturdy bridge for figurative painting from the 15th century to ours, over treacherous spans of recent history that declared both figuration and painting to be finished — and at the same time trying to rewrite history itself.”
Texas Ballet Theater Creates A Special Deal With Striking Musicians
“The company will still use the striking musicians to accompany the ballet performances, but the musicians will perform under the name Symphony Musicians of Fort Worth. Harth-Bedoya will conduct as planned.”
Accusations Against Cosby Are Part Of The Story In New African American Museum
“The museum, opening Sept. 24, came under fire last spring for its decision to include Cosby in its entertainment exhibition without noting that more than 50 women have accused him of rape, sexual assault or sexual harassment.”
The Challenge Of Adapting One Of China’s Most Beloved – And Lengthy – Masterpieces Into An Opera
“The novel — over 2,400 pages in its standard English translation, twice as long as ‘War and Peace’ — is told in a mere two hours and 20 minutes. Hundreds of characters have been cut, leaving just eight main figures in the final show.”
The Museum Where You Can Listen To The Tour In Klingon
“Even the most expert Klingon linguists get tongue-tied, so here for your entertainment are the outtakes from Okrand’s recording of the Klingon audio tour segments.”
The Widespread Influence Of Jazz Musician And Teacher Connie Crothers
“A lesson would often begin with a conversation about anything from musical to personal to political to philosophical. Two chairs were set, just a bit away from the piano. She’d sit on the one closer to the piano, the student would be closer to the stereo. I’d often put a CD into it with the track I’d be singing for her.”
What An Islamic Philosopher From The Turn Of The First Millennium Can Teach Us About The Mind-Body Split
“Three questions immediately arise. First, when Douglas Adams, the author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1978), imagined a whale popping into existence in mid-air above an alien planet, had he been reading Avicenna?”
Philadelphia Orchestra Contract Talks Continue Past Deadline
“We’re not very close at the moment, but are going to allow some time to let both parties figure out how to get close, and we are optimistic we can be closer in a couple of weeks.”
Are West End Productions Choosing Smaller Theatres To Raise Ticket Prices?
Andrew Lloyd Webber: “It’s really important that theatre is accessible and that is one of the reasons we went into a rather bigger theatre on Broadway than perhaps some people would have suggested. There is a school of thought that what you do is keep the show really, really tight and then force ticket prices up,” he said. He added: “Several producers have been doing that but I am not one of them.”
Turkish Court Acquits Pianist Fasil Say On Blasphemy Charges
The Istanbul court ruling ends the long-running legal saga which began in October 2012 when Say went on trial on charges “insulting religious beliefs” in a series of Twitter posts. In a hugely convoluted process, the Turkish classical star was initially handed a 10-month jail sentence in 2013 before a retrial was ordered the same year in which he received an identical sentence.
Comcast Says FCC’s New Proposal For Set-top Boxes Is Illegal
“The Chairman’s new proposal… violates the Communications Act and exceeds the FCC’s authority,” Comcast claimed in a statement provided to Multichannel News and other outlets.
She Was So Much More Than The Topless Cellist: Getting Reacquainted With Charlotte Moorman
For all her work with the likes of John Cage, Yoko Ono, and Nam June Paik, it was as booker, presenter and grand impresaria that she made her considerable mark on 20th-century art – especially with New York’s Avant Garde Festival (1963-80). “[She] invented the festival, produced it and coaxed city officials who didn’t know performance art from police procedurals into endorsing it.”