“Mr. Tarr left his mark on every aspect of the trumpet world. As a player he set new standards of lyricism on an instrument long associated with military bravado. As a scholar he hunted for rarities in European archives and created performance editions of hundreds of newly discovered works.” He wrote the definitive history book on the instrument, and he led the revival of the 18th-century valveless trumpet played in period-instrument ensembles. – The New York Times
Author: Matthew Westphal
Hilary Teachout, R.I.P.
The “Mrs. T” of this blog suffered throughout our years together from pulmonary hypertension, a rare and devastating illness that gnawed inexorably at her body without touching her soul. She faced death as she faced life, with indomitable courage. – Terry Teachout
Strategic Planning and Muddling Through
Out in the woods for today’s video, on Charles Lindblom’s classic essay “The science of ‘muddling through’”. When an arts organization sets out to form a strategic plan, what exactly is it doing? – Michael Rushton
A Slice of Life in Lockdown
The Amazon delivery guy rang the bell, then scampered off to safety behind the garden gate, a good distance, but not so far that he couldn’t hear and acknowledge my “thank you.” – Paul Levy
Dancer In The Dark: Did Intensive Study Of Butoh Drive A Young American Woman To Suicide?
Sharon Stern was a vivacious, popular, hard-working actor when she enrolled in the MFA program at America’s first Buddhist university. There she met Butoh master Katsura Kan and became his ferociously devoted disciple. That ferocity of devotion — to her teacher, to the art form and the idea of loss of self behind it — concerned her parents, her friends, and ultimately Kan himself. When Stern killed herself, her parents blamed Kan and sued him for wrongful death. – The New Yorker
How One Off-Broadway Company Is Able To Close For Three Months But Still Pay Everyone
“Ars Nova did not seek an article about the course it has chosen. On the contrary, [its directors] worried that discussing it publicly could look like they were shaming colleagues amid an industry-rattling pandemic.” That Ars Nova can pay everyone it had engaged for its canceled shows “has nothing to do with an angel donor — there isn’t one, [the managing director] said — but rather serendipity.” – The New York Times
‘We Are All Edward Hopper Paintings Now’
Jonathan Jones: “If [the widely-shared tweet is true], a crisis of loneliness is impending that may be one of the most fraught social consequences of COVID-19. The loss of direct human contact we’re agreeing to may be catastrophic. This, at least, is what Hopper shows us.” – The Guardian
No, We Are Not All Edward Hopper Paintings Now
Alex Greenberger: “[There’s] a difference between Hopper’s forlorn subjects and so many of us right now. They choose to live in modernity and find themselves alienated because of it. We choose to simply try to stay alive in the world today and a pandemic that has so far killed more than 36,000 worldwide is keeping us captive.” – ARTnews
Michael Sorkin, Who Fought For Social Justice Concerns In Architecture, Dead Of Coronavirus At 71
“A fiery champion of social justice and sustainability in architecture and urban planning, [he] emerged as one of his profession’s most incisive public intellectuals over a multifaceted career as a critic, author, teacher and designer.” – The Washington Post
Public Service Or Piracy? Authors Battle Internet Archive Over ‘National Emergency Library’
With libraries and bookstores closed across the U.S., and with teachers searching for materials to use for remote teaching, the Internet Archive decided to lift all restrictions on access to the 1.4 million books — many still under copyright — that it has digitized. Teachers and academics are very pleased; authors and publishers, on the other hand, call the move a “copyright grab” that robs them of royalties and breaks the law. – The New York Times