“Santos started out playing Latin big band music at resorts in upstate New York’s Catskills, and performed with Machito’s orchestra at New York’s city’s Palladium in the 1950s. Over his long career he collaborated with Eddie Palmieri, Tito Puente, Tito Rodríguez, Paquito D’Rivera and many others.” – Billboard
Author: Matthew Westphal
World’s Only Museum Of LGBTQ Art Removes ‘Gay And Lesbian’ From Its Name
As it begins a $7 million capital campaign to fund a new Learning Center for Arts and Intersectionality that will host workshops and after-school programs, upgrades its archives and library (which are seeing increased use by researchers), and launches an endowment, the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art, located in lower Manhattan, has renamed itself the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art. – ARTnews
Has The Drag Ballroom Scene Outgrown The Criterion That Once Defined It?
The performance-competitions that were made famous by the documentary Paris Is Burning, introduced the world to voguing, and arguably inspired RuPaul’s Drag Race have generally judged their participants and winners on “realness” — the ability to pass as the real thing for whatever the category. Ballroom veteran Sydney Baloue makes a case that, while it was needed as the ballroom scene was born and grew, the concept of “realness” may no longer be necessary and might actually be damaging. – The New York Times
Reopening Of DC’s National Children’s Museum Delayed Yet Again
“The once-beloved institution that has been closed for four years has delayed the [planned Nov. 3] reopening of its new Pennsylvania Avenue space. … Some of the delay was caused by unforeseen problems in the federally owned building that had to be fixed, according to a museum official, and the additional work was slow to be approved by federal officials.” – The Washington Post
Thanks To Seven-Week Strike, Chicago Symphony’s Ticket Sales Fell By $5 Million And Deficit Grew By 22%
The musicians’ walkout in March and April of this year was the key factor in the increase in the CSO’s deficit from $900,000 in 2017-18 to $1.1 million in 2018-19. On the other hand, operating expenses fell by $3.5 million (also due largely to the strike), contributions went up by $1.3 million, and the endowment grew by 3.6% to $314 million. – Chicago Tribune
Cannes Plans To Spend Half A Billion Euros To Make Itself Into An ‘Audiovisual Silicon Valley’
The project, called “Cannes on Air,” includes adding another floor to the Palais des Festivals, building a new museum of cinema history and a state-of-the-art 12-screen multiplex, and establishing a new university for film, TV, video games and online media. – The Hollywood Reporter
Here’s One Major Ballet Company Whose Entire New Season Is By Female Choreographers
The Royal New Zealand Ballet’s artistic director, Patricia Barker, “says she realized that a season devoted to women’s works shouldn’t be seen as a huge undertaking, but something that could and should be commonplace. ‘It’s just as easy to hire a female choreographer as a male one.'” – Pointe Magazine
How Does Chicago Keep Its Busy Storefront Theatre Scene Going? Hard Work, Low Pay, Grit, And Community
“Whether traditional black boxes or nontraditional spaces, often in residential neighborhoods, Chicago storefront theatre prides itself on more intimacy, as well as edgier material, than an audience member can find in a Broadway touring production or the city’s larger venues. Storefront theatre differs from community theatre, not in its meager starting budget but in its aspiration that those involved strive to be professional working artists. Even if they don’t make a living doing what they love, they are making a life (and some money) in it.” – American Theatre
The middlewoman of modern art
Edith Halpert’s career as a pioneering gallery owner who specialized in modern American art is memorialized in a new exhibition at New York’s Jewish Museum. – Terry Teachout
The twenty-five record albums that changed my life (7)
I can’t imagine how a record of concerted works by Berg and Bartók made its way into the classical bin at the musical instrument store in Smalltown, U.S.A. Granted, Isaac Stern and Leonard Bernstein, the album’s conductor, were as famous in 1969 as it was then possible for American classical musicians to be. But Berg and Bartók wrote modern music. – Terry Teachout.