Author: Matthew Westphal

Frank Almond Tells The Story Of His Stolen Stradivarius

In 2014, in a parking lot following a solo recital, the Milwaukee Symphony’s concertmaster got zaped with a Taser and had his violin ripped from his hands. (The culprit, it turned out, was an individual named Universal Knowledge Allah.) In an appearance at The Moth, Almond recounts the entire tale, from the mugging to the police response(s) to the recovery. (audio) – The Moth

Modern Library To Release New Low-Cost Series Of Classics By Women Authors

“The Modern Library will launch a new trade paperback series, Modern Library Torchbearers, this May. The series, the publisher said, will ‘honor a more inclusive vision of classic books’ by ‘recognizing women who wrote on their own terms, with boldness, creativity, and a spirit of resistance.’ The books, all previously published, will be repackaged, and each will be introduced by a contemporary woman writer.” – Publishers Weekly

Henry Wollman Bloch, Art Philanthropist And Co-Founder Of H&R Block, Dead At 96

The primary beneficiary of Bloch’s largesse has been Kansas City’s Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: he spent three years as its board chairman, he and his wife are the name donors on the museum’s 2007 expansion and its 2015-17 renovation, and at the same time the couple gave a collection of 29 major Impressionist paintings to NAMA. – ARTnews

In China, Two Historical Soap Operas Go Viral, And The Communist Party Promptly Cancels Them

The Story of Yanxi Palace and Ruyi’s Royal Love in the Palace smashed viewing records for the streaming services that showed them. Then the journal Theory Weekly (a title only a Communist bureaucrat could love) published an article condemning the series as “incompatible with the core values of socialism” and “[a] negative influence on society.” State media condemnation went on from there, and the series disappeared. Why? – The New Yorker

Katy Waldman Was Reviewing A Novel. Then She Found Herself In It. And On It Goes From There.

Well, she’s pretty sure she found herself — more specifically, an essay she wrote about herself and her twin sister — but the novel’s author differs. And the author of another book claims she found more of it in Waldman’s essay than Waldman credited her for. (Waldman differs, as does her editor, who was her twin sister.) Waldman digs into all this here, in a very meta essay. – The New Yorker

Presenter Engagement

I have spoken with staff members of presenting organizations interested in community engagement who lament the fact that they are not in a position to select specific works themselves; they have to book what producing organizations are offering. Yet there are some ways in which the presenter is better positioned to support community engagement. – Doug Borwick