The idea is simple: by showing the communities who manage the halls that live music is an option, a touring circuit will slowly be carved out, which, in turn, will help provide space for music across the country to flourish and grow. Critically, it will also show bigger acts that these rural areas are worth visiting and have the infrastructure to host them. – The Guardian
Author: Douglas McLennan
How About Supporting Artists Above Productions?
“How could we make more of a difference to the artists we work with? What if we put the same level of investment into their professional development as their show budget? What if we committed to supporting the artists over and above any show they make?” – Arts Professional
Curtis Institute Screwed Up Responding To Sexual Abuse Charges. Now It Has Hired Investigators
A leading expert in the field said Curtis needs to do more: “The problem here is, what the public needs is full transparency. Frankly, I would be very concerned if my child were attending the Curtis Institute right now,” she said. Violinist Lara St. John, who made the charges, on Thursday said that the fact that there would be an investigation had her feeling hopeful. – Philadelphia Inquirer
Want To Learn More? Trust More
We learn more by trusting than by not trusting. Moreover, when we trust, we learn not only about specific individuals, we learn more generally about the type of situations in which we should or shouldn’t trust. We get better at trusting. – Aeon
The Mysterious Alchemy Of How We Generate New Ideas
“It’s not at all obvious how to go about thinking up some new twist on these things—the transformation from test-taker to theorem poser and then theorem prover is difficult to articulate. My ideas have always felt contingent and magical to me. I don’t think I’m alone, at least as far as the magic goes.” – The New Yorker
American Theatre Depends On European State Investment
The box-office receipts of commercial theater are not solely attributable to private entrepreneurs and fierce capitalist competition. Broadway producers are buying an artistic sensibility and a talent for provocation honed in state-funded theatrical laboratories across Europe, plus expertise that is the product of working relationships stretching back decades. – The Atlantic
Inside China’s Sprawling Movie City Sets
Hengdian World Studios, built in the 1990s on farmland in China’s southeastern Zhejiang Province, claims to be the world’s largest outdoor film studio and features full-scale replicas of the Forbidden City and Beijing’s Old Summer Palace, along with dozens of palaces, gardens, and streetscapes. – Wired
No One’s Buying Mark Halperin’s Book. His Publisher Says Its “Cancel Culture”
“In this guilty-until-proven-innocent cancel culture, where everyone is condemned to death or to a lifetime of unemployment based on an accusation that’s 12 years old, is criminal,” Judith Regan says. – Washington Post
Armenian Monuments That Stood Centuries Are Completely Wiped Out
The scope of the destruction is stunning: 89 medieval churches, 5,840 khachkars and 22,000 tombstones, the report said. The annihilation of cultural heritage dwarfs the more widely reported and condemned razing of sites by Islamic State in Syria and the Taliban in Afghanistan. – Los Angeles Times
Ted Gioia: Music As A Cultural Storage Medium
What people don’t understand is that, for most of history, music was a kind of cloud storage for societies. I like to tell people that music is a technology for societies that don’t have semiconductors or spaceships. If you go to any traditional community, and you try to find the historian, generally it’s a singer. Music would preserve culture; it would preserve folklore. Well, nowadays, we rely on cloud storage to be the preserver of these same things. And I think there’s a strange shift. – Medium