One day after unionized staff narrowly voted to reject cost-cutting measures to reduce debt of €25 million, the board of the Fondazione Arena di Verona, which operates the popular summer festival, voted unanimously to ask the national culture minister to shut the organization down. Verona’s mayor claims that this action won’t affect the actual performances this summer, though a new, privatized entity will have to run the festival. (in Italian; Google Translate version here)
Author: Matthew Westphal
Philadelphia Orchestra Launches New Social-Impact Programs
“The group is instituting [one new] program, increasing others, and packaging them under an umbrella acronym: HEAR, which stands for health, education, access, and research. … The initiatives are part of a changing institutional direction, [orchestra president Allison Vulgamore] said, taking the orchestra more heavily into social-mission work. ‘I want to be off stage as much as we are on stage.'”
This Year’s Pritzker Prize Winner Makes His Low-Cost Housing Plans Available For Free
“Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena … is releasing a number of his residential designs as an open-source resource to help tackle the global affordable housing crisis. … The aim is to provide the material to government agencies and developers who might think it’s ‘too expensive’ to invest in well-designed social housing.”
U. Texas Student Found Murdered Was Promising Ballet Dancer
“The body of 18-year-old Haruka J. Weiser was found Tuesday in a creek in the heart the University of Texas campus, one day after her roommate reported her missing … She was in Austin on a full dance scholarship.”
Ailyn Pérez Wins Beverly Sills Artist Award
“A rising lyric soprano who won the 2012 Richard Tucker Award, Ms. Pérez, 36, … [has won the annual] $50,000 prize to help foster the careers of young singers who have appeared in solo roles at the Metropolitan Opera.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 04.07.16
George Goldner: Nothing If Not Opinionated–And Entertaining
It’s not quite The Car Guys, but an exchange at a recent symposium at the Frick’s Center for the History of Collecting* has tickled a couple of people I know … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2016-04-07
The Butterfly Art Project | Frygrond
This is the third essay in a series of four “We the Audience” posts designed to introduce my readers to the citizen artists working in some of South Africa’s most challenged areas. … read more
AJBlog: We The Audience Published 2016-04-07
Flesh and the Gaze
Rosane Chamecki and Andrea Lerner’s Eskasizer, at The Boiler February 26 through April 3. … read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2016-04-07
Kudos Wayne Shorter, sole “jazz” Guggenheim fellow
Though the Guggenheim Foundation has in recent practice conferred several of its prestigious annual fellowships on musicians of jazz or beyond, only Wayne Shorter, the great 83 year old saxophonist-composer – an NEA Jazz Master, co-founder of Weather Report, … read more
AJBlog: Jazz Beyond Jazz Published 2016-04-07
Record Store Day
Every day is a special day. That is not a random feel-good statement; it reflects the reality that most, if not all, days on the calendar are co-opted in the name of a cause, … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-04-07
Just one week away
My concert — my reemergence as a composer — is just one week away. April 14, 7:30 PM at the Mansion, the warm and intimate performance space at Strathmore, the big performing arts center … read more
AJBlog: Sandow Published 2016-04-07
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Ben Whishaw Promises He’s Not Damaged Like The Characters He Plays
“It’s weird, isn’t it? Because I don’t see myself that way and I’m not that way. But I agree that obviously I’ve played a lot of people like that. I don’t know why it’s come about to be like that.”
The Largest War Ever Fought On The Internet (So Far)
“EVE Online is a massive multiplayer online game – a single environment shared by thousands of players, like World of Warcraft or Second Life – that has been in continual operation since 2003. … And in the latter half of the 2000s, those people engaged in an enormous conflict: The Great EVE War.”
This Woman Wants You To Dance Every Single Day At 3:15 PM
“[Choreographer Meg] Foley and three collaborators committed to creating an improvised dance at precisely 3:15 p.m. each day for six months, and documenting the results in writing, photos, or video. … Members of the public also are urged to do their own 3:15 dances – and document, upload, and hashtag them as part of the project.”
Blindsight – When Your Brain Sees What You Don’t
“Blindsight offers a tantalizing hint about human consciousness. It demonstrates the difference between merely processing visual information in the brain, like in a computer, versus having a reportable conscious experience of it.”