Last month, Gerald Dworkin posted a list of ten lies he considered justified and asked readers to respond. They “brought forth almost every position that has ever been put forward by philosophers on the subject.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
George Weidenfeld, Dean Of British Publishers, Dead At 96
After fleeing to the UK from Vienna in 1938, “he founded his publishing house with Nigel Nicolson in 1949 … He published big-name authors from Charles de Gaulle to Pope John Paul II and Henry Kissinger … In 1959, Weidenfeld & Nicolson risked obscenity laws to publish Lolita.”
Penguin Random House Will No Longer Require Job Applicants To Have A Degree
“Penguin Random House human resources director Neil Morrison said that growing evidence shows there is no simple correlation between having a degree and future professional success … ‘Simply, if you’re talented and you have potential, we want to hear from you. This is the starting point for our concerted action to make publishing far, far more inclusive than it has been to date.”
ISIS Has Razed The Oldest Christian Monastery In Iraq
“Located just four miles south of Mosul,” Dair Mar Elia (St. Elijah’s Monastery) “was built in the 6th century by Assyrian Catholic monks … [Satellite] imagery analyst Stephen Wood described the stone walls as ‘literally pulverized … into this field of gray-white dust.'”
Lorin Maazel’s Castleton Festival Called Off For 2016
The summer event, “which conductor Lorin Maazel founded on his private estate in Virginia in 2009 and nurtured until his death in 2014, … [will] take a year-long hiatus. … ‘I have no finances anymore,’ said Dietlinde Maazel, the actress and widow of the conductor, who took over the festival after her husband’s death.”
Conductor Bernard Labadie Makes His Way Back After Stage Four Lymphoma
After the diagnosis in May of 2014 began “a grueling convalescence that included bouts of chemotherapy so violent that the founder of Les Violons du Roy was placed in a coma the following November. Only last month, more than a year after awakening, did Labadie return to the podium.”
The Economist Discovers The Alt-Classical Movement
‘Classical includes a range of new artists and sounds: from the minimalism of Steve Reich to the percussion of Inuksuit Ensemble. Contemporary artists like Maya Beiser, who transforms our expectations of the soloist by using technology to layer her own playing of different parts on the cello, and Max Richter, who merges violin, orchestra and synthesiser, should be considered no different to the Stravinskys and Schuberts of eras past. Such artists create a valuable entry point for new listeners, whatever their age.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 01.20.16
Playing For The Screens – Is Our Obsession With Video Changing The Live Arts Experience?
One weekend last November, the biggest box-office at movie theatres throughout the UK wasn’t for the latest Hollywood blockbuster (the latest Hunger Games movie opened that Friday). It was for a live broadcast of Kenneth Branagh’s production of The Winter’s Tale which was streamed live to 520 theatres in the UK … read more
AJBlog: Diacritical Published 2016-01-20
Repeating some lessons
As we head into 2016, we — meaning we in classical music — have to focus more than ever on the future. We have to! Because here are some truths, truths that can’t be said strongly enough. … read more
AJBlog: Sandow Published 2016-01-20
How Cage Makes Us Philosophize
One name that musicians may run across often in the literature on John Cage and not recognize is Richard Fleming. He’s a philosophy professor at Bucknell University, a friend of mine for twenty-five years, and … read more
AJBlog: PostClassic Published 2016-01-20
For Fun: Shorty Rogers
When the music labeled West Coast Jazz was still in its heyday, before rock achieved more or less total dominance in popular music, Shorty Rogers maintained his popularity. One of his most successful pieces was … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-01-20
slow it down
The sixth movement of Olivier Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie presents an interesting lesson in melody, harmony and scoring, if we can step beyond the usual comments on birdsong, modes of limited transposition and the Ondes Martenot … read more
AJBlog: Infinite Curves Published 2016-01-20
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Stiffed New York City Opera Ticketholders Will Finally Get Refunds
“Nearly 670 people had bought roughly $323,000 worth of tickets for performances that were canceled when City Opera went bankrupt in 2013” – and they’ll be getting their money back from NYCO Renaissance, the group that’s reviving the company.
Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg To Step Down As Music Director Of Bay Area’s New Century Chamber Orchestra
“Since she joined NCCO in 2008, Salerno-Sonnenberg led the orchestra over a robust period of growth, including a Featured Composer program, commissioning eight new works and expanding the string orchestra repertoire, going on three extensive national tours, publishing three live recordings on her own NSS music label.”