“The cancellations include three concerts scheduled Sept. 30-Oct. 2 that featured pianist Stephen Hough performing Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 1. … The musicians went on strike Sept. 8 after rejecting a proposed contract that included pay cuts and higher costs for health insurance. The orchestra association has since canceled three weekends of concerts.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
‘Dance’ Magazine And Its Siblings Acquired By Wall Street Exec/Dance Patron
“Wall Street dealmaker Frederic Seegal has acquired five titles of Dance Media from Macfadden Communications. Seegal, the one-time CEO of Wasserstein Perella and current vice chairman of Peter J. Solomon Co., … has been a longtime patron of the arts, serving as past president of the American Ballet Theater’s board of trustees and as a trustee for the San Francisco Symphony and the San Francisco Opera.”
Best-Selling Historian David McCullough Wins First-Ever Lenfest Spirit Of The American Revolution Award
The author of Truman, John Adams, and 1776 has received two Pulitzers, two National Book Awards, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The new $25,000 prize “will be given to those who contribute to the public’s understanding of the Revolution.”
The Latest Front In The War On Ticket Bots: The Bette Midler ‘Hello, Dolly!’
“The situation is exacerbated because Midler’s engagement in the show will be a limited one, beginning performances on March 15th, 2017 and opening officially on April 20. No end date has been announced, … [but] it’s a marathon role and Bette will be 71 when she comes down the steps of Harmonia Gardens Restaurant.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 09.20.16
Some Of Our Orchestras Seem To Be Thriving – Is This A New Trend?
There’s been a change in the news coming out of symphony orchestras over the past summer. Usually there’s a background drumbeat of struggle as orchestras fight to stay alive. But for months now, the beat has shifted, and we’re hearing about orchestras that are not only surviving but thriving. … read more
AJBlog: diacritical/Douglas McLennan Published 2016-09-20
What Makes A Good Collector? And What Is Craft vs. Art? Two Stories
Usually, the most noteworthy collectors – aside from those, like J. Paul Getty, with the wherewithal to buy anything they want – are the ones that go their own way, that collect a field that’s out-of-fashion but full of worth artworks. … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2016-09-20
Adulated Adjaye: Acclaimed in DC, Under-the-Radar in NYC (with video)
While there’s been widespread critical acclaim for David Adjaye‘s $540-million National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, few New Yorkers have heard of, let alone visited, his $84.7-million, 13-story Sugar Hill Project in Harlem … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2016-09-20
The Art of Relevance
I purchased my copy of Nina Simon’s The Art of Relevance on the first day it was available. I am only now posting comments about it because, frankly, I know more people are paying attention in September … read more
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2016-09-20
Monday Recommendation: Ken Peplowski
Ken Peplowski, Enrapture (Capri) Despite a playlist that seems to represent a grab bag of music, there is nothing scattershot about Ken Peplowski’s eclecticism. The clarinetist and tenor saxophonist with the capacious tone and imagination … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-09-20
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If Humans Are So Smart, Why Are Their Babies Born So Dumb And Helpless?
“A baby giraffe can stand within an hour of birth, and can even potentially flee predators on its first day of life. A monkey can grasp its mother and hang on for protection and nourishment. A human infant can’t even hold up its own head. … Humans are born quite helpless, far more so than any other primate, but, fairly early on, we start becoming quite smart, again far more so than any other primate. What if this weren’t a contradiction so much as a causal pathway?”
Procrastination: A Philosophical Meditation
“Idleness is difficult to find in a pure state. Indeed, in a certain sense, it eludes us because, at its most radical, idleness tends to devour its devotees (again, Oblomov and Bartleby). But procrastination is a different business altogether: It is not only more available, but also more dynamic, just as the procrastinator is a more dramatic figure than the idler, who is as ascetic and immobile as a pillar saint.”
How TV And The Movies Wore Out Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’
It’s a fine song, but “it has soundtracked dozens of deaths and breakups, and been belted in too many singing competitions to count. Because it telegraphs emotion – both mournful and hopeful – and involves some vocal acrobatics, it has become shorthand for Big Emotional Moment and employed by performers looking to stamp themselves with authenticity. Here’s a brief history of how pop culture has tortured Mr. Cohen’s creation over the years.”
Fierce Grief: Pulse Nightclub, Activism, And The Ways That Gay Folks Mourn
“If there is a distinctive power to queer grief, it lies in the styles of mourning that have emerged from queer cultures over time. These styles set the shape and tone of the activism that comes out of grief – and activism, of course, is itself a type of mourning. To address Polgreen’s question, we must examine how queerness behaves when it is at a loss. How a community grieves can tell us a lot about who they are.”
The Incomparable, Insufferable Lou Reed
“Few personalities – particularly as one as protean and occasionally as brilliant as Reed’s – can be summed up in two syllables. But if you were to do a word cloud of memories of Reed in the various volumes that have been published on his life, the word asshole would turn up in surprisingly large type.”