Author: Douglas McLennan

This Weekend’s AJBlogs Highlights 09.10.17

The Arts in the Age of Trump (continued) The Age of Trump has rapidly changed the American cultural landscape in many ways. In the silo of classical music, there is suddenly a felt need to ask: What’s it for? Why are we … read more
AJBlog: Unanswered Question Published 2017-09-08

A Pericles of pure joy In the online edition of today’s Wall Street Journal I report on two more productions that I saw last month at Wisconsin’s American Players Theatre, Pericles and The Maids. Here’s an excerpt. * * * … read more
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2017-09-08

Berserk in the Berkshires: Museum’s Perverse Plan Underscores Need for Government Regulations The sad saga of the Berkshire Museum’s descent into madness—its wrongheaded, self-destructive obsession with solving its financial problems by selling off the best works in its collection—reaffirms my long-held conviction that strict laws and/or ironclad … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2017-09-07

Jazz on Millennium Park’s big screen – PoKempner photos How’s that for brass? Jon Faddis presents the trumpeters of the Chicago Jazz Festival Big Band (from left: Chuck Parrish, Pharez Whitted, Tito Carrillo, Victor Garcia) A 40-by-22½-foot LED screen is a dominating feature of … read more
AJBlog: Jazz Beyond Jazz Published 2017-09-07

Gold Medal Winner At Moscow Foto Awards Stripped Of Prize For Stealing Work

The photos, which show a series of portraits of people in Thailand, were changed slightly by Madeleine Fierze and entered into the competition under the title “I look at the world with the eyes of a child”. In July, she scooped the top award in the “Fine Art People Children” non-professional category, but her award was called into question when Sasin Tipchai noticed his photos had been copied at the end of August.

Fred Hersch’s Challenging Road To Jazz Greatness

I must add a warning to music teachers. They will be horrified by this book. “I didn’t practice much and never went to my lesson fully prepared,” Mr. Hersch explains at the outset. Even in later years, he avoided the rote playing of scales and exercises: “I’m never sure what or how to practice, so I rarely do. But I seem to pull it together when the lights go up.” That may seem like a bad attitude for a professional musician, but I have a hunch that much of Fred Hersch’s greatness stems from avoiding over-preparation and embracing the risk-taking attitude jazz improvisation demands when played at a high level.

Greg Escalante, 61, King Of The Lowbrow

Escalante is one of the key figures associated with Lowbrow, a pop-inflected school of art that emerged in 1970s California, and which drew inspiration from underground comics, punk music, tattooing, the custom car scene, and surf and skate culture — the exact opposite of what the minimalist-minded mainstream art world was into during that era.

Oregon Bach Festival Music Director Fired Over Joke?

“Matthew Halls was removed as artistic director of the Oregon Bach Festival following an incident in which he imitated a southern American accent while talking to his longstanding friend, the African-American classical singer Reginald Mobley. It is understood a white woman who overheard the joke reported it to officials at the University of Oregon, which runs the festival, claiming it amounted to a racial slur.”

Oregon Bach Festival Meltdown?

“In late June, the university lavished Halls with a new long-term contract containing a large pay increase that took him into six figures a year. But, less than two months later, the University of Oregon abruptly terminated that contract, ordering Halls to immediately cease any festival-­related work, and told him that it was scrapping tentative plans for him to teach at the UO.”

The Sad (Unnecessary?) Decline Of The Cartooning Business

“Almost a decade ago, these artists—freelancers who face stiff competition for 15 slots each week in the print magazine—could count on licensing deals for substantial passive income. Some received monthly checks as high as $8,000; others regularly saw one or two thousand dollars. Today, even those who saw the highest royalties receive only a few hundred dollars per month.”

Broadway Composer Michael Friedman, 41

Public Theater Artistic Director Oskar in a statement said “Michael Friedman was one of the most brilliant, multi-talented theater artists of our time. He was also a miracle of a human being: loving, kind, generous, hilarious, thrilling. His loss leaves a hole in the theater world that cannot be filled, and a hole in the hearts of those who loved him that will last forever.”

A New String Quartet Festival Highlights Difficulties Of The Art Form

“Although one of the greatest in classical music, the quartet literature is designed to be played in small venues, and performance fees have to be divided four ways. Making a secure living is hard. With the honourable exception of the University of Victoria, which has engaged the Lafayette String Quartet, Canada’s universities seem reluctant to emulate the example of their American counterparts in providing a secure working environment for these custodians of some of our greatest music. Meanwhile, they soldier on.”