Making Music With the DSO With Host Leonard Slatkin premiered Jan. 3 on Detroit’s WTVS (Channel 56). “Each 30-minute episode in the 13-week series promises to explore a specific theme and is designed to open a window on the world of classical music and the orchestra for general audiences.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Edmund Purdom, 84, Star Of Hollywood And Cinecittà Pageants
A British actor who replaced Mario Lanza in MGM’s The Srudent Prince, Purdom starred in the Hollywood costume epics The Egyptian and The Prodigal, then went on to a career in Italian sword-and-sandal epics.
Times Of London Names British Museum Director ‘Briton Of The Year’
“Neil MacGregor is far more than just the highly successful administrator of an iconic national establishment. He is a committed idealist who, in a world in which culture is increasingly presented as the acceptable face of politics, has pioneered a broader, more open, more peaceable way forward.”
Assembling The Great Canadian Songbook
CBC Radio 2 is asking its listeners to submit candidates for a collection of ” 49 songs from north of the 49th parallel that best represent” the Great White North as an offering for Barack Obama iPod.
Michael Kaiser Appeals For Government Help For The Arts
In response to the financial crisis, the head of the Kennedy Center and the arts’ Mr, Fixit writes, “We need an emergency grant for arts organizations in America, and we need legislation that allows unusual access to endowments. Washington must encourage foundations to increase their spending rates during this crisis, and we need immediate tax breaks for corporate giving.”
Native American Composers Making Their Mark
“A small but growing number of American Indian musicians are embracing classical music. Drawing as much from European composers as traditional American Indian harvest songs, the music and the musicians are getting noticed in concert halls and on reservations.”
Cambodia’s First Rock Opera Now Banned In Cambodia
Where Elephants Weep, a sort of post-Khmer Rouge Romeo and Juliet-crossed-with-Rent, was developed in Massachusetts in 2007 and played Phnom Penh last month. But Cambodia’s Supreme Sangha Council of Buddhist Monks has persuaded the government to ban the show from television.
Indianapolis Foundation Wiped Out By Alleged Embezzler
“The Penrod Society, which grants money to local arts groups and puts on one of the city’s best-known art fairs, has had all of its funds stolen, and the group believes it was an inside job. Police are investigating the theft of $380,000 from the organization. Penrod officials say it was embezzled by its former assistant treasurer.”
Archaeologist To Publicly Spank The Met Over Antiquities
“Colin Renfrew, a British archaeologist who is an authority on the trade in looted antiquities,” is preparing “to violate the museum world’s unwritten rules of politesse” by giving a lecture titled “Combating the Illicit Antiquities Trade: The 1970 Rule as a Turning Point (or How the Metropolitan Museum Lags Behind the Getty).”
The Cell Phone – The Swiss Army Knife Of The 21st Century
“So your cellphone has a brushed-metal shell, can flip and slide four ways and has more buttons than an airplane cockpit. Big deal. The new status symbol is what your phone can do – count calories, teach Spanish, simulate a flute, or fling a monkey from a tree.”