“The [five-year] agreement that will carry the Grand Rapids Symphony through its 90th anniversary season in 2019-20 maintains the present 40-week performance season, preserves the current complement of musicians, and makes no changes to the orchestra’s health insurance.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
La Scala Ballerina Hit By Tram, Suffers Skull Fractures
Antonina Chapkina was walking on the street near Milan’s central train station when a streetcar struck her; though her head hit the pavement hard, her body did not fall under the vehicle.
Top Posts From AJBlogs 04.05.16
Relationship Maintenance
The arts industry is event-oriented, if not event-obsessed. Our principal contribution to public life is in the presentation of events. On the very deepest level we are “do-ers.” There is an inbred impatience with anything … read more
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2016-04-05
Forrest Westbrook’s Album
Early this year I had the privilege of writing notes for Forrest Westbrook’s only album as a leader. The CD was released five-and-a-half decades after it was recorded and two years after the pianist’s death … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-04-05
What doesn’t kill you makes you stranger
Mrs. T has a longstanding weakness for James Bond films, so we watched Thunderball, which I hadn’t seen, the other night. Midway through the film I said to her, “If this damn score doesn’t get … read more
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2016-04-05
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The Wrong Way To Teach Painting
“Professors of my ilk see painting as a hands-on art form best learned through looking at great paintings and at painters in action, and by painting while being coached. The new pedagogy see[s] painting as best learned through critical thinking, a method borrowed from literature and the social sciences.” Laurie Fendrich explains why the latter is a dangerous approach.
Do We Care More About Palmyra’s Antiquities Than Its People? (It Sure Looks That Way)
“What might not have been clear if you followed the news stories and photographs is that there is also a modern town of Palmyra (Arabic Tadmur) adjacent to the ancient site, with tens of thousands of inhabitants. And here in microcosm is an unsettling problem/trend of the entire war.”
A Revolution Onstage – How ‘1776’ And ‘Hamilton’ Make History Musical And Make Musical History
“When in the course of human events – and musical-theater history, too – an idea gets repeated, it can still be revolutionary.”
Tenor Gegam Grigorian Dead At 65
“[He] was an Armenian tenor with a powerful and expressive voice whose career was disrupted by a failed attempt to defect to Italy at the height of the Cold War. … When he did eventually appear regularly in the West – under the patronage of the conductor Valery Gergiev – he thrilled audiences.”
Howard Cable, Beloved Canadian Conductor, Composer, And Radio Host, Dead At 95
“Remarkably, Cable was still an active musician. On Tuesday, March 29, he worked a full day writing and proofreading the encore number for his Symphony Nova Scotia concert slated for November 2016.”
‘Co-Veillance’, ‘Intelligence Amplification’, And ‘Mules’: 20 Terms Every Futurist Should Know
“We live in an era of accelerating change, when scientific and technological advancements are arriving rapidly. As a result, we are developing a new language to describe our civilization as it evolves. Here are 20 terms and concepts that you’ll need to navigate our future.”
Why ‘[Weird Pause]’ Is The Most Common Stage Direction In Annie Baker’s Plays
“I guess my experience of the real world is that there are a lot of strange moments in which people don’t know what to say. So that ends up in my plays. But it’s weird, I still find it confusing that I’m known for my pauses.”