“The rapidly raised $50 million was a coup for Deborah Borda, who has only been the orchestra’s president and chief executive officer for a few months but is already putting her stamp on the organization. Ms. Borda has pushed the Philharmonic to rethink the costly and disruptive plans to rebuild its Lincoln Center home, hired a new executive team, and turned her attention to the shaky finances of the orchestra, which has run deficits for most of the current century.”
Author: Douglas McLennan
UK Public Library Survey: 100 Libraries Closed Last Year
“The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy’s annual survey of Great Britain’s libraries paints familiar picture: for the seventh year running, the number of branches and paid staff declined. There are now 3,745 branches remaining in England, Scotland and Wales, down by 105 since 2016, while the number of paid staff has declined by 5% compared with a year ago.”
Study: Jazz And Classical Musicians’ Brains Respond Differently To Sound
In a new, small-scale study, a Wesleyan University research team led by Psyche Loui and Emily Przysinda report the brains of jazz musicians are uniquely attuned to surprising sounds. Electronic monitoring revealed these players have “markedly different neural sensitivity to unexpected musical stimuli,” the researchers write. These musicians are trained not only to anticipate unpredictable turns, but also to engage with them in a positive, creative way. That dynamic reflex stimulates creative thinking.
How Artificial Intelligence Is Going To Change The Art World (And Not Just The Art)
As the complexity and capability of these algorithms grow, their users are beginning to cede more artistic control over their outputs to machines. In doing so, they may be ceding another type of control, too: ownership over the creative product. And the consequences could transform the way mainstream art is produced, how we consume it, and how we value the artists behind it.
Chatelet Artistic Director Ruth McKenzie On Producing Culture For A City (Or An Olympics)
“The thing that’s frustrating about doing the Olympics is that you get to the end and then you understand what you should have done. When you’re running a theatre or an opera house or a festival, you can learn from your mistakes. You get to the end of London 2012 and think, ‘Damn, I’m never going to get a chance to apply this wisdom that I have now acquired.”
Science’s Broken Publishing System Abets Junk Science
“Pseudoscience by definition is not supposed to find its way into scientific publications. From peer review to layers of ostensibly expert editorial scrutiny, the barriers to entry for nonsense are high—at least in theory. The reality, however, can differ substantially from the theoretical. Peer review can be porous, in that it allows errors, significant methodological problems, and misconduct into the literature. It also is vulnerable to gaming by researchers who exploit sloppy editorial processes to slip pseudoscience into the literature.”
Syrian Pirate Radio’s Lifeline To The World
Alwan is an independent Syrian news station broadcasting into that devastated country every day. It “provides much-needed news updates to information-starved Syrians and also runs popular entertainment programs and controversial discussions. After being forced to move its operations to Turkey, the voice of Radio Alwan still provides comfort to thousands of Syrians, at great risk to the individuals within Syria who help create the station’s programs.”
“I’m A College English Instructor. My Breed Is Dying”
“This is a bad time for my species — and a bad time for the study of English. In academe, we are witnessing an extinction of fields of study once thought essential. I teach at a private university that has just canceled majors in English, religious studies, philosophy, and music. The English major is becoming the useless gentleman, the Charles Smithson, of the modern university.”
Can We Really Take Pleasure From Music That’s The Product Of Suffering?
Music is a product of a particular time and place and the context in which it is created can be dark, violent, exploitative, and even demonic. To think seriously about music it is necessary to reckon with the problematic role it can play in culture.
Berlin’s Powerhouse State Opera Rebuilds Its Cultural Influence
With his bullish idealism, Daniel Barenboim is putting a stamp on the State Opera and its satellite organizations that increasingly defines a large segment of Berlin’s cultural identity in his own image.