Ge Wang, a Stanford professor and director of the university’s Laptop Orchestra (“Imagine a rave at a Trappist monastery”), has co-created “a mesmerising application for the iPhone, which turns the mobile phone into an ocarina – a palm-sized, flute-like wind instrument that sounds like pan pipes.” More than 600,000 copies have been sold.
Author: Matthew Westphal
Long Live The Glorious Revolution Of Soviet Constructivism!
“The look remains instantly recognisable and rather friendly. But its energy, commitment and optimism have become frankly unbelievable. Those blocky graphics and lettering! Those zooming diagonals! Those slicing sheets of pure colour! It’s a style that comes with exclamation marks, and for us that means it comes with irony. Its name was Constructivism. Can we take it seriously at all?”
Nazi Officer In The Pianist Honored By Yad Vashem
“Wilm Hosenfeld, the German officer whose assistance to Wladyslaw Szpilman in the [Roman Polanski] movie The Pianist made him famous, has been posthumously recognized as a Righteous Among the Nations for risking his life to save Jews during World War II.”
Concertgebouw Orchestra To Offer Free Downloads
In honor of Bernard Haitink’s 80th birthday, the Dutch broadcast networks AVRO and Radio 4 are offering free downloads of the conductor leading the Royal Concertgeobouw Orchestra. Each weekday from March 9 to 15, one recording will be available at www.radio4.nl. (Repertoire has not yet been announced.)
Ballet BC Hires Interim Executive Director
Andrew Wilhelm-Boyles, former executive director of the Greater Vancouver Alliance for Arts and Culture and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, will help steer the company through its post-bankruptcy restructuring.
It’s Dangerous Being A Violin Teacher
“A 13-year-old schoolboy stabbed his music teacher with a kitchen knife, leaving the blade stuck in the teacher’s back as he made his escape. The pair had just finished a private violin lesson at a middle school near Venice… Fabio Paggioro, 36, had reportedly told the boy, ‘See how you manage to do well when you put the effort in’.”
John McGlinn, 55, Conductor and Musical Theatre Historian
“In 1987, he helped bring to the public’s attention the incredible discovery, in a Seacaucus, NJ, warehouse, of the original versions of the scores of many Broadway shows [such as Show Boat, Anything Goes, Brigadoon, Annie Get Your Gun and Kiss Me, Kate]. Many of these original versions had been presumed lost.”
No Live Music For Madison Ballet Next Season
Two weeks after canceling the remainder of its 2008-09 season, Madison Ballet has decided to save $100,000 by doing without live accompaniment by the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra for next season’s Nutcracker and Cinderella. Artistic director W. Earle Smith said, “I feel very confident this is a one-year thing.”
Maybe You Really Can Judge A Person By His Face
“The idea that a person’s character can be glimpsed in their face dates back to the ancient Greeks. […] Now the field is undergoing something of a revival. Researchers around the world are re-evaluating what we see in a face, investigating whether it can give us a glimpse of someone’s personality or even help to shape their destiny. What is emerging is a ‘new physiognomy’ which is more subtle but no less fascinating than its old incarnation.”
Ohad Naharin On The Boycott-Batsheva Movement
The Batsheva Dance Company has been dogged throughout its North American tour by calls for a boycott from activists angry about Israel’s invasion of Gaza. The BDC’s artistic director says, “I think it’s not really going to make a difference to boycott a dance company. I’m thinking, where else can they channel their energy?”