“When I’m still imagining the music in my mind before making notes is the most problematic. I try to imagine the music first: that’s very precious. The first idea includes the tempi, the orchestration, which are not difficult to imagine. But to reduce the possibilities for harmonic use and pitches, that is the most time consuming before starting the actual composition.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
How Did U. Cal.-Irvine’s Art School Get So Radical? It Was Born Radical
“At this recently opened university – which was still young and free from historical traditions – artist/teachers including SoCal Light and Space art movement pioneers Robert Irwin, Craig Kauffman and Ed Moses counseled students, employed curious teaching methods such as having classmates put crayons between their toes, collaborated with them on performance pieces, and even partied with them.”
Robert Moses Vs. Jane Jacobs: The Opera (Yes, It’s Real)
“It’s called A Marvelous Order – the phrase is drawn from Jacobs’s masterpiece, The Death and Life of Great American Cities – … [with] music by composer Judd Greenstein, choreography by Will Rawls, and words from Pulitzer Prize-winning librettist Tracy K. Smith.” Says director Joshua Frankel, “The biggest challenge is we don’t want to make this, Moses is Darth Vader and Jacobs is a perfect angel from heaven.”
The Show That Makes People Literally Dance In The Streets
Choreographer Dan Canham says that his Of Riders and Running Horses is “about reclaiming the city space in a gentle way. In the four UK cities the show has been performed in so far, he said they always ended with a spontaneous dance party erupting as the audience joined in.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 10.19.15
It’s Not A Career. It’s A Lifestyle.
It’s hard to plan for how to follow your dreams. And those of us who work in the arts have landed here because of a personal calling, following an often … read more
AJBlog: Field Notes Published 2015-10-19
Your Career Plan: It’s not always a straight line!
Even though I am not an arts administrator, I have had to wear small versions of that hat in my career as a professional musician. In my past life as … read more
AJBlog: Field Notes Published 2015-10-19
Feeling Alive
The following two thoughts cross my mind nearly everyday. When I forget why I’ve chosen to build an unconventional career, they remind me. … read more
AJBlog: Field Notes Published 2015-10-19
Cartoon Artist Kate Evans Does Rosa Luxemburg
I notice that the NYT Sunday Book Review’s not-so-special “Special Issue” on graphic books (Oct. 18) makes no mention of Red Rosa by Kate Evans, forthcoming from Verso (Nov. 3). My tireless staff of thousands … read more
AJBlog: Straight|Up Published 2015-10-19
Come for the sex dolls, stay for the protest
The Young Vic is calf deep in sex dolls. Tacky plastic fake-flesh spills over the stage as Measure for Measure begins, a ‘huge peach heap of vinyl orifices,’ as critic Natasha Tripney wrote. … read more
AJBlog: Performance Monkey Published 2015-10-19
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Ottawa’s Opera Lyra Shuts Down Mid-Season
“In the end, the shortfall in cash flow meant the company could not continue to operate, he said. The board made the decision Tuesday evening, after much discussion, to shut the doors. The company was also still struggling with a debt of more than $500,000, which became increasingly hard to manage.”
Cleveland Orchestra’s Retiring CEO Looks Back
“Indeed, on the eve of his retirement Nov. 30, longtime executive director Gary Hanson likens his departure to jumping off a moving train. For all their enormous impact, he says, his accomplishments weren’t his alone. Neither will the organization fall apart without him. … ‘I’m proud to have had a role,’ [he says]. ‘But I didn’t start it, and no one’s ever going to finish it.'”
That Pay-Us-To-Review-Your-Play Website In L.A.? It’s Not Working Out
“Since an initial burst of summer activity from shows in the Hollywood Fringe Festival abated (festival reviews were discounted [by half] to $75), Bitter Lemons has posted just 12 paid reviews over the past 11½ weeks. … Colin Mitchell, Bitter Lemons’ founder, said Wednesday that there were no additional reviews in the pipeline.”
The Street Artist Who Punked ‘Homeland’ Tells How She Pulled It Off (And Why)
Heba Amin: “This is not necessarily a specific attack on Homeland, but on the inaccuracies in the visual depictions of the region, not just the storylines. And that has consequences on real-world situations. …Obama said this was his favorite show. So when you have a show where Iran and al-Qaida are friends all of a sudden …”
Why Did Berkeley Breathed Revive ‘Bloom County’? Because Of ‘Go Set A Watchman’
“I watched slack-jawed in horror as they threw one of the 20th century’s most iconic fictional heroes, Atticus Finch, under the bus.” (audio with transcript)