“A composer and inventor, Machover is currently writing a symphony about the city of Toronto in collaboration with not just the city’s orchestra, but also its 2.6 million residents. ‘It’s beyond crowd-sourcing,’ he says … ‘I think of it as massive collaboration.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Pancho Villa, Mexican Revolutionary Or Proto-Reality-TV Star?
In 1914, the general is said to have signed a contract with the newsreel producer Mutual Film Company under which “the rebels undertook to fight their revolution for the benefit of the movie cameras in exchange for a large advance, payable in gold.” Is this really true?
The World’s Most Massive Public Art Fair (It’s A Religious Festival In Calcutta)
“Over the course of two hot, humid months at the tail end of the monsoon season, 20,000 new structures come up around the city for [Durga Puja], celebrated over five days in September or October. These temporary temples, called pandals, “have become giant art installations, ‘pandal-hopping’ a kind of gallery crawl.”
Britain’s New Golden-Boy Choreographer, Liam Scarlett
“The much-tipped British choreographer” – aged 26 – “has just stepped down as a dancer with London’s Royal Ballet to become its artist in residence.”
Producer Of Anti-Muhammad Video Sentenced To Prison
“The convicted California scam artist behind a crude anti-Islam film that stoked protests against the United States across the Muslim world was sent back to jail for a year on Wednesday over probation violations stemming from his role in the video.”
Minnesota Orchestra Cancels Concerts Through End Of 2012
“The dispute between musicians and the board of the Minnesota Orchestra deepened Thursday as the orchestra canceled all concerts through the end of the year. The 21 canceled shows include holiday and pops concerts that routinely draw large crowds and produce sizable revenues.”
Are Musicians Beginning To Flee Twin Cities’ Locked-Out Orchestras?
“Locked-out musicians at the Minnesota and St. Paul Chamber Orchestras have been warning of a dangerous decline in artistic quality if they accept new contracts sought by management. They say the severe cuts in salary and benefits will force many musicians to seek employment elsewhere. We hear from two of them who have already made that decision.”
Meet Egypt’s Great Farmer-Poet, At Home In The Village
“Sequestered from the big city, [Abdel-Rahman] Elabnoudy, a songwriter, dramatist, social critic and … one of the Arab world’s best-known vernacular poets, … lives in a whitewashed home on small plot of land planted with mangoes and date palms.”
Corsican Novel Wins Prix Goncourt
“France’s top literary award, the Goncourt prize, went to Jérôme Ferrari for The Sermon on the Fall of Rome, a story of a young idealist whose dreams of finding a haven in Corsica are dashed by the island’s notorious corruption and violence.”
Goncourt Academy Adds New Prize For Middle-Eastern Literature
Le Choix de l’Orient, selected from Prix Goncourt semifinalists by a jury of francophone university students from six Arab countries, went to French author Mathias Enard for Rue des Voleurs (“Street of Thieves”), the story of a Tangiers teenager who gets caught up in the Arab Spring.