By the time this most recent contract extension (three years) is fulfilled, Jansons will have been chief conductor of this orchestra (widely considered Germany’s only real peer of the Berlin Philharmonic) for 21 years. Considered crucial to Jansons’s agreement to extend was a government commitment to build a new concert hall for the orchestra, which performs at the acoustically poor Philharmonie am Gasteig. (in German)
Month: July 2018
Deneuve, Muti, Portzamparc Win Japan’s Praemium Imperiale
The 2018 laureates of the Japan Art Assoication’s 15 million yen ($133,000) prize, created as a sort of Nobel for the arts, are actress Catherine Deneuve, conductor Riccardo Muti, architect Christian de Portzamparc, painter Pierre Alechinsky, and sculptor Fujiko Nakaya, known for using fog as a medium.
Saudi Arabia Opens Its First Performing Arts Center
The 900-seat theatre/concert hall at the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture (referred to with the Arabic name Ithraa) in Dhahran opened in June with two concerts by Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra to celebrate the holiday Eid al-Fitr. Ithraa, designed by the architecture firm Snøhetta and funded by the oil company Saudi Aramco, says it will present a year-round program of performances from around the world as well as music and drama by Saudi and other Arab artists.
Taking Art Out Of The Studios And Into The Streets And Communities Of Ghana
In an Accra neighborhood, a monthly parade of men in drag carrying big yellow plastic jugs, which the organizer uses to make public art in a style he calls “Afrogallonism.” An artist covering himself in blue or gold paint and slow-walking through the streets of Jamestown. Immersive installations in an old train shed and car showroom in Kumasi. Covering Accra billboards in secondhand clothing and the National Theatre in jute sacks. Billie A. McTernan writes about these and other projects to bring the arts directly to regular people in the West African country.
Today’s AJBlog Highlights 07.11.18
- Intersections of Communities Sheila Novak is a member of many communities and shares the myriad ways they overlap in a colorful drawing…. read more
AJBlog: Field Notes Published 2018-07-11 - Communities Are Fluid Gowri Savoor, “Time Missing” (2016) Gowri Savoor reflects on the warm and evolving community of her childhood in Britain and shares original art that commemorates her cherished memories. I had a fortunate childhood; living in … read more
AJBlog: Field Notes - Want a Spanish Art Surprise? There’s One In San Antonio So you think you know Spanish art? You’ve been to the Prado and the Hispanic Society, etc., etc. and you’re pretty familiar with it. Unless, of course, you are a real expert in the Spanish … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2018-07-11 - Two Ways of Looking at a Poem No shore receives them. / All the portents dog their ride. / Their bodies sink in rough seas. Sketch for the oil painting by Théodore Géricault [1818-1819]Cold Turkey Press [2018]We surf on a gentle … read more
How Music Fans Helped Build The Intenet
Just as industrialization and digital media changed the work of being a musician, they changed experiences and opportunities for audiences. While musicians dealt with the challenges of building and maintaining careers in the face of the new realities of their field, audiences developed new histories of participating with one another on their own terms. Now, even as musicians struggle to find their ways in an internet-mediated music world, audiences flourish.
This Year’s NEA Jazz Masters Awards Recipients
This morning the NEA announced four new recipients of the prize: pianist and composer Abdullah Ibrahim, composer-arranger-bandleader Maria Schneider, critic and novelist Stanley Crouch, and singer-songwriter and pianist Bob Dorough.
London’s National Gallery Buys Its First Painting By A Woman In 27 Years
Of 2,300 works in the London gallery’s collections, it now owns a grand total of 21 by women. It last acquired an artwork by a female artist in 1991, when it was presented with five pieces by Paula Rego.
Why Are Documentaries Doing So Well At The Box Office This Summer?
Is this just a flash-in-the-pan fad during a stressful summer, or the sign of a real shift in audience taste? The first studio that dares take a documentary wide will find out, but I’d wager it’s the latter.
Bankruptcy Judge Approves $21 Million Reduction On Sale Of Weinstein Company
The company was originally supposed to sell for $310 million under a pact the court approved in May. But in another twist in the long saga, the companies sparred over payment of the studio’s outstanding contracts, threatening to capsize the deal.