Catriona Morison, a Scottish mezzo who didn’t win any of the semi-final rounds and made it to the final in the wild-card slot. Morison, the first Briton ever to win this competition, also shared the Song Prize (the main prize is for operatic repertoire) with Mongolian baritone Ariunbaatar Ganbaatar.
Author: Matthew Westphal
Fort Worth Symphony Hires ‘Mr. Fix-It’ As Interim President
Just a month after the CEO who led management through last fall’s bitter strike, Amy Adkins, resigned, the orchestra’s board has engaged David Hyslop, whom Michael Granberry describes as “the Mr. Fix-It of troubled arts organizations. He swoops in to clean up the mess and then goes back home to Minnesota.”
Forger Arrested For Selling Fake Damien Hirst Prints – For The Third Time
Vincent Lopreto, one of three men arraigned for the counterfeiting scheme on Monday, has already been convicted twice of selling fake “limited edition” prints of Hirst’s dot paintings.
Chicago Opera Theater Names Rising Female Conductor Its Next Music Director
Lidiya Yankovskaya, an alumna of the first-ever class of The Dallas Opera’s Hart Institute for Women Conductors who currently leads two new-music institutions and a small opera company in metro Boston, starts in Chicago with the 2018-19 season.
The Kennedy Center May Honor JFK, But It’s LBJ’s View Of The Arts That Prevailed
The upcoming expansion of the D.C. arts center is making an extra point of paying tribute to the president it’s named after. And yet, Philip Kennicott writes, John F. Kennedy was no aesthete himself, and what he valued in the arts isn’t what became national policy after he died.
$12 Million Worth Of Art Stolen From Storage Locker In Queens
“The stolen artwork included masterpieces from minimalist painter Frank Stella and French painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, owner William Pordy told police.” (Yes, he kept a Toulouse-Lautrec and a Stella in a garden-variety storage unit.) The thief did leave behind five paintings, evidently on purpose.
Musicologist Richard Taruskin Wins $450K Kyoto Prize
“The [¥50 million] Kyoto Prize, given annually since 1985 by the Inamori Foundation, recognizes three winners in a rotating array of subcategories under the headings of Advanced Technology, Basic Sciences, and Arts and Philosophy.” Taruskin is the first musicologist (as opposed to composer or performer) to win the award.
John Avildsen, 81, Director Of ‘Rocky’ And ‘The Karate Kid’
He made a wide range of other films, from early exploitation flicks like Turn On to Love to the Jack Lemmon vehicle Save the Tiger to the George C. Scott-Marlon Brando thriller The Formula to the John Belushi-Dan Aykroyd comedy Neighbors. He was nominated for a second Oscar for, of all things, a short documentary, Traveling Hopefully, about the founder of the ACLU.
Italian Court Reinstates Five Ousted Museum Directors – For Now
“On 15 June, Italy’s highest administrative court, the Council of State, suspended the decision by the Lazio regional administrative tribunal (TAR) that voided the appointments” of museum directors in Modena, Mantua, Naples, Taranto, and Reggio Calabria. “It is the latest twist in a legal saga that threatens the Italian culture ministry’s ongoing reform of the country’s bureaucratic museums sector.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 06.19.17
On “looky-loos” and the institutions who are desperate for them and desperate for them to behave
Reading [Dave] Hickey’s memoir this past week I was suddenly struck by the way arts organizations have set themselves up for this very situation.. … read more
AJBlog: Jumper Published 2017-06-19
Disinterest, distance, and the artist-manager
One of the core actions of aesthetic/artistic attention is to step back. To make a little space between yourself and the object of your attention, so you can see it as it is, rather than see it as you are. … read more
AJBlog: The Artful Manager Published 2017-06-19
Too Much Contemporary? Too Little What Came Before?
That is a prospect we–American consumers of art exhibitions–face, and it is that subject and its consequences for our culture … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2017-06-19
Audiencing: Joining the Resistance at Donmar Warehouse?
Last week in London I was able to see the much discussed Donmar Warehouse production of … The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui. It’s not hard to see why Brecht’s satirical account of the rise of a clownish American dictator would find its moment now, … read more
AJBlog: We The Audience Published 2017-06-19
AAMD’s Response to Metropolitan Museum’s Renegade Reorganization: “Guidance to Consider”
In last week’s post, I noted that Met President Daniel Weiss‘ designation as his museum’s CEO, with the yet-to-be-named new director as his subordinate, ran contrary to the professional guidelines of the Association of Art Museum Directors. I also predicted that AAMD’s reaction to the Met’s going rogue would be to ignore it. … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2017-06-19