Earlier this year, the veteran Miami impresaria, who founded the Concert Association of Florida in 1967 and was ousted from its helm in 2007 over persistent deficits, announced a new series of four concerts featuring such artists as Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Pinchas Zukerman. Now the first two performances in the series have been postponed to allow the organization and its board – only just appointed – “to organize an agenda.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Film Industry Revives In Former Yugoslavia
“While it might be premature to claim that there is a second New Wave of western Balkan cinema … it can be said that a large group of talented young filmmakers from the region are making an impact on the international film circuit.” Foreign productions are filming in the region as well, and there is growing cooperation among film professionals in the formerly warring republics.
Merce Cunningham’s Final Set Designer
“Daniel Arsham was barely aware of Merce Cunningham in 2005, when he got a call telling him that he was being considered as the set designer for the next work by Cunningham’s dance company. Mr. Arsham was 25 and just two years out of art school at the Cooper Union.”
Pop Artist James Rizzi, 61
“[He] was known for his bright, cartoon-like drawings and 3-D constructions and for applying his easily recognizable designs to everyday objects. His playful pastel images adorned everything from Volkswagen cars to Rosenthal china, Lufthansa jets and German postage stamps.”
Why UK Businesses Are Stepping Into The Arts Funding Breach
“‘Firstly, the reputation of being a good corporate citizen; secondly, people ascribe the quality of one organisation to the other.’ A bit like being a strait-laced banker who starts dating a bohemian artist, the firms hope that some of that coolness will rub off on them.”
The Problem With Political Theatre Today
“[It] is therapy for the middle classes who stopped protesting on the streets long ago, choosing instead to sit in the dark, watch a political display, and reassure themselves that they are doing something. In case that’s not enough, many are accompanied by lectures and conferences to ram the point home.”
Anger Fizzles Over Cuts In Grammy Categories
“When the group that organizes the Grammy Awards abruptly announced last April that it was cutting nearly a third of the award categories and eliminating trophies for smaller genres like Latin jazz and zydeco, it did not take long for the protests to start. … But with the awards ceremony less than two months away the steam seems to have gone out of the protests.”
A New, More Stable Calendar – Could It Catch On?
In our Gregorian calendar, from year to year, “New Year’s Day – or any other notable fixed date, from your birthday to Christmas to the Fourth of July – moves forward in the week one day (and two in leap years).” Now an astronomer and an economist have come up with a new, stable calendar which will keep all those dates on the same day of the week.
Dostoevsky, Faith, Atheism, And The Archbishop Of Canterbury
Dr. Rowan Williams says that the Richard Dawkins school of militant atheism sees religious faith as “a rather second-rate theory to explain why the world is the way it is or a second-rate psychological crutch for people who can’t bear the weight of reality … I turn to Dostoevsky and think, well that sounds more like what I think faith is than what Richard Dawkins thinks faith is.”
Adrienne Cooper, Yiddishe Diva, Dead At 65
“[The] American-born singer, teacher and curator of Yiddish music … was a pioneer in the effort to keep the embers of that language smoldering for newer generations.”