“She commissioned more than 70 works from composers, including William Bolcom and Jean Langlais … and shaped generations of organists over a record-breaking 67 years on the faculty at the University of Michigan.” – The New York Times
Author: Matthew Westphal
Happy About The Demise Of The Romantic Comedy? Don’t Be
Wesley Morris: “Romantic comedy is the only genre committed to letting relatively ordinary people figure out how to deal meaningfully with another human being. … This is moviemaking that explores a basic human wonder about how to connect with a person who’s not you. And here we are dancing on its grave.” – The New York Times Magazine
Bill Frisell And Thomas Morgan: “Epistrophy”
Guitarist Frisell and bassist Morgan are captivating in their exploration of pieces whose variety extends from the harmonic challenges of Thelonious Monk to the deceptive simplicity of “Red River Valley.” – Doug Ramsey
We’re In The Era Of ‘Post-Humor Comedy’ — These Days, The Jokes Aren’t Even Trying To Be Jokes
“Very often, they are simple statements of fact, with minimal humorous adornment. James Corden mentions that Google will soon allow you to store your driver’s license on your phone. ‘You have to admit,’ he says, ‘Google is definitely making it easier and more convenient — for your personal information to be stolen by Google.'” – The Atlantic
Surviving Auschwitz By Playing Jazz
Writer Amanda Petrusich recounts the story of trumpeter Eric Vogel and the Ghetto Swingers, a band that played for officers and the Red Cross at Theresienstadt and, for a time, Auschwitz. Vogel later came to New York and became a design engineer and a jazz critic for Down Beat magazine. – The New Yorker
There’s Only One City Where You Can See Four Brand-New Full-Scale Operas In Four Months
“No place on earth rivals Berlin for the volume and variety of opera on offer, from Georg Frideric Handel to Hans Werner Henze. The city has three world-class companies, which this season have combined for a total of 85 fully staged productions. And they are investing in new works to run alongside the old war horses.” – The New York Times
The Poetic, Bombastic, Brilliant Art Of Old-School Sports Writing
“The brilliant hard-boiled lyricism of Sandy Grady, in 1964, as he watches a crowd of Phillies fans after a home loss: ‘They hit the sidewalk with tight mouths, like people who had seen a train hit a car.’ Or Joe Palmer, in 1951, summoning a vision of the racehorse Man o’ War in motion: ‘Great chunks of sod sailed up behind the lash of his power.'” – The Atlantic
Meet Four Black Playwrights Who Are Challenging American Theater
“They are the talk of the theater world: a generation of black playwrights whose fiercely political and formally inventive works are challenging audiences, critics and the culture at large to think about race, and racism, in new ways.” A conversation with Jackie Sibblies Drury, Jeremy O. Harris, Antoinette Nwandu and Jordan E. Cooper. – The New York Times
‘The Most Powerful And Relevant Theater Being Written Today’ — Ben Brantley On New Plays By Black Writers
“I can’t remember a more electrifying run of new, innovative plays during my 25-year tenure as a New York theater critic than the heady spate of works by African-American playwrights that have opened Off Broadway during the past two seasons.” – The New York Times
New Wave Of African-American Playwrights In A Radical Moment
Wesley Morris: “Occasionally, a play ends and nobody really knows what to do, because it just took an audience to outer space, to the center of the earth, to this new electric zone that knows what’s wrong with this country and isn’t afraid to personify it, laugh at it, behold it. … The work is also black — its blackness providing a lens through which to see and be seen.” – The New York Times