“The former American Ballet Theatre principal and ballet mistress … will succeed Terrence Orr, who announced last year his intent to retire this summer after 23 years.” – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Author: Matthew Westphal
Instead Of Canceling Rest Of Its Season, Minnesota Orchestra Rearranges It
The five remaining regular-season concerts are being rescheduled (with some change of program) to August and September, and 2020’s Summer at Orchestra Hall (formerly Sommerfest) will be postponed to 2021. The orchestra’s 2020-21 season is expected to open as usual in late September. – St. Paul Pioneer Press
Condé Nast Starts Its Pay Cuts At The Top
“The salaries of those earning $100,000 or more — just under half the company — will be reduced by 10 to 20 percent for five months, starting in May, [a] memo said. The pay of executives in the senior management team, including Anna Wintour, the artistic director and Condé Nast’s best-known figurehead, will be cut 20 percent,” with CEO Roger Lynch giving up half his pay. – The New York Times
Cannes Finally Admits Film Festival Can’t Happen ‘In Its Original Form’
“But, in typical Cannes style, the festival did not close the door entirely. Instead of canceling outright, organizers said they are exploring contingencies to make ‘Cannes 2020 real, in a way or another’ and have begun discussions with members of the industry in France and abroad to do so.” (The Cannes Film Market, however, has made the decision to go virtual in June.) – The Hollywood Reporter
How Andrea Bocelli’s Easter Concert In The Empty Milan Cathedral Became A Worldwide Megahit
“Roughly 5 million people around the world logged on to YouTube to view the half-hour sacred music concert as it was happening. By Monday night the archived performance had 32 million views. Clearly, it transcended religion, nationality, age demographic and even music preference on its way to becoming perhaps the signature cultural event of the pandemic.” – Variety
Is there room in the world for this clarinet trio? There’d better be.
Even with so many Beethoven 250th-birthday concerts being cancelled, the world needs to hear pieces of his that haven’t already been played a zillion times. This one is solid, perfectly engaging — and performed by musicians that are among the best out there, even if we’ve barely (yet) heard of them. – David Patrick Stearns
Ghost on the wall
In order to divert those of you who, like me, are staying home these days, I’ve been posting images from what a friend calls “the Teachout Museum.” The latest is of a 1990 lithograph by Joan Mitchell, an artist for whom my feelings have grown progressively stronger. – Terry Teachout
Iverson, Harrell And The Gershwins
For his recent collection Common Practice, pianist and composer Ethan Iverson has put together a quartet with bassist Ben Street, drummer Eric McPherson, and trupmeter Tom Harrell at a peak of imagination and inventiveness remarkable even by his high standards. – Doug Ramsey
After Two Weeks, Photographer Peter Beard Still Missing
The 82-year-old, suffering from dementia, was last seen on March 31, walking the grounds of his cliffside oceanfront property near the eastern tip of Long Island. – The New York Times
Here’s To The Workers Disinfecting The World’s Great Historic Sites
“While non-essential workers are still housebound, pictures from around the world show surreal scenes of Tyvek suit-wearing workers spraying down eerily empty spaces like Hagia Sophia in Istanbul and the Egyptian Museum in Cairo,” the Great Pyramids of Giza, the Leaning Tower of Pisa and the Great Mosque of Mecca. – Artnet