Until very recently, photography in Russia was regarded as a documentary exercise rather than an artform. Now the Hermitage has appointed its first curator of photography, and the daunting task of sorting through thousands of photos – just to see what’s there – begins. – Chicago Tribune
Author: Douglas McLennan
HIRSHHORN’S NEW CURATOR
Washington’s Hirshhorn Museum picks a new chief curator – Kerry Brougher, an American who is director of the Museum of Modern Art in Oxford, England. – Washington Post
BACH ONLINE
J.S. Bach’s complete oeuvre, including manuscripts and digitized scores, will soon be stored online in a digital library accessible over the Internet (at www.bachdigital.org). The project is a collaboration among IBM, the Berlin State Library, and other libraries across Germany. – Nandotimes (Agence France-Presse)
JAZZ ENTERS THE MUSEUM?
Jazz is suddenly getting a lot of attention in the institutional world. “But what exactly is being honored: a music of unceasing innovation and achievement, or an archive parsed into its historical components? If jazz in the 21st century is to become what classical music became in the 20th century, an art of reconnaissance and interpretation, then last month’s 2000 JVC Jazz Festival may be remembered as a key transitional event.” – Village Voice
BEYOND BOSSA NOVA
When people think of Brazilian music, bossa nova, samba, and the strains of Carnival come to mind, while Brazil’s classical composers (namely Heitor Villa-Lobos, Lorenzo Fernandez, Camargo Guarnieri) are often overlooked. “Why has it taken so long for them to gain any recognition abroad? Brazil, now officially 500 years old, is a relatively young nation and came late to classical music. – The Herald (Scotland)
A DIVA’S DUDS
More than 400 personal items once belonging to opera diva Maria Callas will be auctioned in Paris in December. The auction itself will also be open to Internet bidders using the site www.leftbid.com. – New York Times
CROSSOVER JAZZ
The classical music world has found countless ways to commemorate this year’s 250th anniversary of J.S. Bach’s death. “But musicians from the other side of the musical tracks, including Dave Brubeck and Jacques Loussier, have been gate-crashing the party as well. A sign of our enlightened times, or another case of dumbing down?” – The Times (UK)
SURPRISING MOVE
Recently knighted conductor Andrew Davis – chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra for the past 11 years and musical director of Glyndebourne Festival Opera for the last 12 – will step down from both posts in September to move to the Chicago Lyric Opera. It’s certainly a plum job, but so were the two he’s walking away from and his English following is far from pleased with his decision. “Rarely can one musician’s career have been woven so deeply into this country’s musical life.” – The Telegraph (UK)
GOING PUBLIC
The musicians’ coalition Artists Against Piracy kicked off its national campaign against copyright infringement with full-page ads in five major U.S. newspapers. “If A Song Means A Lot To You, Imagine What It Means To Us” read the headline, above a list of 68 musicians in favor of protecting their music through stricter copyright-law enforcement. – Billboard
BEING POLITICAL BY BEING APOLITICAL
“Two years ago, Bill T. Jones was approached by Arena de le Sol in Bologna, Italy, to make a dance depicting the influence of Latin culture in the New World. Though confronted with issues of colonization and what Jones describes as cultural ‘collision,’ he decided to make a poetic rather than a political response to the unjust historical truths surrounding these native communities. ‘Ultimately, I’m trying to enter this on the level of culture and art,’ he says. ‘I’m trying to tell the story as I see it, and what that looked like in terms of music.’ ” – Village Voice