“Carlos Kalmar, the Oregon Symphony’s music director since 2003, has renewed his contract through 2015. His current contract ran through 2013.” The most recent of the orchestra’s successes was a rapturously received concert at Carnegie Hall in May.
Author: Matthew Westphal
Why Is America Becoming More Homogenized? Because Americans Move So Much.
“From Boston to Burbank, we buy the same nationally advertised products at the same chain stores and restaurants, happily embracing conformity as we proudly proclaim our uniqueness.” U.Va. researchers “argue [that] our willingness to move far from home leads us to crave the comfort of sameness in our immediate surroundings.”
Australian Library Aims To Revive Disappearing Aboriginal Languages
“Hidden in the manuscripts of early British settlers are the last surviving records of many indigenous languages. Last week, the State Library of NSW launched a new project to rediscover these forgotten dialects. Of the 250 indigenous languages spoken at the time of British settlement, fewer than 20 are still in daily use.”
John Lennon’s Correspondence To Be Recovered And Published
“More than 250 letters and cards sent by John Lennon to his family and friends are to be published for the first time. Author Hunter Davies, who wrote the only official biography of The Beatles in the 1960s, is trying to track down every missive written by the singer.”
Watching The Royal Shakespeare Company’s Voice Coach At Work
“‘Walk around the room saying your lines,’ instructed Cicely Berry, and the half-dozen members of Fiasco Theater, a theater troupe [in New York], hopped to it, moving around a rehearsal studio at the Duke Theater while speaking their particular stretch of a soliloquy from Romeo and Juliet.” She went on to make them say their lines while running, lying down and rolling from side to side, and slapping their thighs in rhythm.
The Symmetry Of Exploded Flowers
“Singapore-based photographer Qi Wei offers up this beautiful series of images showing ‘exploded flowers’ – flowers which have been carefully disassembled and then photographed in a way that honors their radial symmetry.”
Argentines Salvage Nation’s Honour At World Tango Championships
After a salon tango competition in which a Colombian couple and no Argentines placed, the host country dominated the stage tango contest, with Argentine couples landing the top four spots at the close of the finals.
Australian Chamber Orchestra Plans Surfing-And-Music Tour
Next July, ACO violinist/director Richard Tognetti – already known in Australia as a serious surfer – “leads a band of intrepid musicians and surfers from Darwin to Perth via Ningaloo Reef to explore the relationship between surfing, music, desert and ocean” for a multimedia project Tognetti sees as the sequel to his 2008 project Musica Surfica.
Earl Of Glasgow Wants To Keep Graffiti On His Castle
“The Earl of Glasgow has written to Historic Scotland asking if the exhibit can remain as a permanent feature of [the 13th-century] Kelburn Castle … The mural features a psychedelic series of interwoven cartoons depicting surreal urban culture.”
Pride And Prejudice And Zombies Movie Will Be ‘Incredibly True To Austen’
Director Craig Gillespie (Lars and the Real Girl) says his film is “staying incredibly true to Jane Austen and the humor that you get from Jane Austen and the dynamic of this society and the humor and insight that comes from the situations that she wrote about. And then you also get the horror of zombies.”