“The Clothworkers’ Company is one of London’s younger livery companies, being less than 600 years old, and created to secure the welfare of the cloth industry. The company created its charitable foundation in 1977 and since then it has given away more than £100m … Theatre has never appeared in its portfolio before.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Esa-Pekka Salonen Makes An Ad For Apple
Alex Ross: “For anyone who has endured clichéd, condescending, uncomprehending, or otherwise aggravating depictions of classical music in American TV ads – the snobs at the symphony, the sopranos screaming under Valkyrie helmets, the badly edited bowdlerizations of the ‘Ode to Joy’ – a new ad for the Apple iPad featuring the conductor and composer Esa-Pekka Salonen may come as a pleasant shock.” (includes video)
The Original Artisanal Hipsters?
“The Pre-Raphaelites – that dreamy, incestuous, awkward group of Victorian artists, writers, and aesthetes – are back.” (Does this mean that Gilbert & Sullivan’s Patience was the original Portlandia?)
Molding Stars At The School Of American Ballet
“How does a teenager turn into a cowboy at the School of American Ballet? It’s all in the chest. …’You’ve got to strut that girl around,’ [faculty member Susan] Pilarre said. ‘Just puff up, Chris. Blow up. Mr. B used to say, ‘Stuffed turkey on Thanksgiving.””
Can The Cleveland Orchestra Really Pull In The Country’s Youngest Symphony Audience?
That’s what they’re aiming for – with $10 tickets for students and as-many-concerts-as you-want $50 “FanCards” for young adults. Music director Franz Welser-Möst says that Cleveland Orchestra concerts have even become popular for date nights. (includes video)
William Forsythe Retiring From His Own Dance Company
Ten years after he founded the Forsythe Company, based in Frankfurt and Dresden, following a controversial wavering of support from the city of Frankfurt (where he spent 20 years leading Ballet Frankfurt to international renown), William Forsythe is leaving his troupe on the hands of former Frankfurt dancer Jacopo Godani. (“I am assuming that the name of the company will change,” said Forsythe.)
Why Should Non-Fiction Theatre Get More Respect Than Regular (Made-Up) Plays?
“One of the errors that verbatim theatre often makes is to conclude that because something is true, it is more interesting. Or rather, more interesting than something that has been made up. … Why should that give it any more currency than a story that has been entirely made up and yet feels as if it’s real – or more real than real?”
Australian PM: You Think These Arts Funding Cuts Are Bad? They Could Have Been Much Worse
Tony Abbott is trying to reassure Australian culture makers that he’s not anti-arts, despite having slashed $60 million in spending on the arts sector and pulling another $68 million away from the Australia Council for the Arts and Screen Australia.
Carlos Acosta Makes It Official: He’s Retiring From Ballet
“Two more years in classical. Next two seasons will be the final seasons. I will make a creation with the Royal Ballet, Carmen, and that will be my swan song. Then I probably will carry on doing some contemporary works. And then maybe I will employ a choreographer to choreography me sitting down.”
India’s Largest LGBT Film Festival Holds On In A Nation Changing (And Maybe Changing Back)
When the Kashish Mumbai International Queer Film Festival was launched five years ago, LGBTs in India were slowly achieving social acceptance, and the law forbidding “carnal intercourse against the order of nature” had just overturned. But that law was recently reinstated, and a conservative Hindu part just scored a big win in national elections. What’s next?