Playing chamber music in a midtown Manhattan park? Sure, you can (especially if you’re playing Florence Price), but folks are getting way more creative these days. David Patrick Stearns reports on the Ellen Reid/New York Philharmonic app configured for Central Park, The Crossing dispersing its singers and a specially designed speaker system across a wildflower preserve, and a multi-composer “immersion” in Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery. – WQXR (New York City)
Month: September 2020
Choir Practice In Spain Infects 30 Of 41 Members
After one member of the chorus tested positive following the Sept. 13 performance, more than 40 other members and their close contacts went into isolation, the chorus said. Since then, at least 30 singers have tested positive, the Sallent municipal government said. – Seattle Times (AP)
Even Rio’s Carnival Has Been Ruined By The Pandemic
“Rio’s League of Samba Schools, LIESA, announced Thursday night that the spread of the coronavirus has made it impossible to safely hold the traditional parades that are a cultural mainstay and, for many, a source of livelihood. … And while the decision is being characterized as a postponement of the event, no new date has been set.” – AP
Uncertainty Can Be A Good Thing
The examined human life reflects, we suggest, a new kind of relationship with our own expectations and uncertainty. Yet it is one that we have somehow constructed within the inviolable bounds of a biologically bedrock drive to minimise long-term prediction error. How is this neat trick possible? – Aeon
It’s A Horrible Time For British Theatre, But It Could Be Great For Circuses
“With many circuses sustained by performers and backstage crew from outside the UK, Brexit is a cause for concern. But as the UK’s leading circus directors tell Douglas McPherson, it is also a chance for them to make their mark.” Why? “Circuses thrive in a recession.” – The Stage
Not Some Vow Of Poverty – Getting Paid In The Arts
The money being made in the cultural sector isn’t being made by artists. It is being made by digital platforms and corporate conglomerates. These are deliberate transfers of wealth, not unintended consequences. – ArtsFuse
Fifty Years Too Early: This 1970 Flop Is Just The Satire For 2020
The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer, a British film that featured Peter Cook, Graham Chapman and John Cleese of Monty Python, and Harold Pinter (as a vicious talk-show host), ended up coming out about six months too late for the British election it was meant to skewer. “[But] for today, the film’s observations on the intersection of media and politics seem uncannily prescient, anticipating the triumph of two populists on opposite sides of the pond: Donald J. Trump and Boris Johnson.” – The New York Times
F. Scott Fitzgerald In 1920 Was The Prophet Of 2020
“We should look anew at 1920 not because centenaries have magical properties but because Fitzgerald’s remarkably sensitive inner ear helped him register, before almost anyone else, when America started losing its balance.” – The New York Review of Books
Fire Destroys Moldova’s National Philharmonic Hall
“Firefighters worked for seven hours to put out the fire on Thursday afternoon and were still there on Friday morning. According to the Emergency Situations Inspectorate, the flames burned an area of about 3,500 square metres, reducing much of the interior to ashes.” – Balkan Insight
Things Seem Genuinely Hopeful At Baltimore Symphony For First Time In Years
Only a year ago, musicians and management were just ending a very bitter lockdown-turned-strike, and unflattering details of the orchestra’s severe money troubles had been splashed across the media. Now, despite the pandemic, there’s a new five-year contract in place and a spirit of cooperation. “It’s an astonishing reversal of fortune,” says the co-chairman of the players’ committee; “We’re working together in ways we haven’t in many, many years,” says the CEO. – Baltimore Magazine