The final NEH-funded, multi-media “Music Unwound” concert featuring the South Dakota Symphony took place last Saturday night. I cast myself in a cameo role, playing the Soldier in three excerpts from Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale. I modelled my impersonation on Elmer Fudd. The main events, however, were Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G with Jean-Efflam Bavouzet and … [Read more...] about Stravinsky, Elmer Fudd, and the South Dakota Symphony
The Erosion of the American Arts
The new issue of the online New American Studies Journal is devoted to the challenged fate of the arts. I append an overview of my contribution on “The Erosion of the American Arts.” To read the whole article, click here. To see the whole issue, click here. The gripping cover story of the 2024 December issue of The Atlantic is “How the Ivy League Broke … [Read more...] about The Erosion of the American Arts
The Tangled Legacy of JFK and the Cultural Cold War: America Needs a New Public Policy for the Arts
Today’s online Persuasion magazine carries my thoughts on “The Tangled Legacy of JFK and the Cultural Cold War: America Needs a New Public Policy for the Arts.” You can read it here. Bottom-line, I write: “If, logically, American arts policy today should focus on greatly increasing government support at every level, never has this prospect seemed less likely. Now, too, is … [Read more...] about The Tangled Legacy of JFK and the Cultural Cold War: America Needs a New Public Policy for the Arts
The Answer Is “Blowin’ in the Wind”
In my most recent NPR “More than Music” show – “’Blowin’ in the Wind’ – Music and American Identity” -- the conductor JoAnn Falletta asks, “‘How can we grow as human beings without the arts?” She continues: “If you don’t learn through the arts as a child, you can’t open yourself up easily. I read once when I was very young that the arts help us deal with our mortality. … [Read more...] about The Answer Is “Blowin’ in the Wind”
Ives and the Erosion of the American Arts
In celebration (yet again) of the Ives Sesquicentenary, I write for the online digital magazine Persuasion: “Of the crises today afflicting the fractured American experience, the least acknowledged and understood is an erosion of the American arts correlating with eroding cultural memory. Never before have Americans elected a president as divorced from historical … [Read more...] about Ives and the Erosion of the American Arts