An admired historian — his 1966 book The Icon and the Axe is perhaps the most admired book on Russian culture ever published in English — he was appointed Librarian of Congress by Ronald Reagan and remained in the post for 28 years, expanding the institution and prodigiously raising funds, though he retired amid heavy criticism in 2015.
Author: Matthew Westphal
Increasing Censorship Causing Worries For China’s Booming Art Market
Said one dealer who insisted on anonymity, “The last few years have not shown an opening in attitudes, but almost the opposite. … Every year, we have a few works rejected, but it is getting [to be] more and more — it makes me feel uncomfortable.”
EU Set To Double Its Culture Spending
“European politicians have added an extra billion Euros to the EU’s proposed culture budget for its next funding round, meaning that the current allocation would double from 2021. … The new position would take funding for the Creative Europe programme from the €1.4bn currently available to €2.8bn for the years 2021-27.”
Arts Columnist For Britain’s Daily Telegraph Found Dead At Age 33
Florence Waters had been reported missing last Monday; her body was discovered outdoors on Thursday evening. An artist in her own right, Waters had contributed articles to the Telegraph on books and film as well as visual arts, and she was previously the paper’s online arts editor.
Arnold Schoenberg survived Nazi Germany, Vienna and Hollywood. But Boston?
Opera thrives on iconic figures, whether from mythology or history. But maybe composer Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) hasn’t been gone long enough – or was never outwardly heroic enough – to fill Tod Machover’s new opera Schoenberg in Hollywood.
How South Dakota Shows What Orchestras Are For
The American orchestra that most shows the culture of the community can only be the South Dakota Symphony. The SDSO subscription audience is by far the most diversified in age I have ever encountered at a professional symphonic concert (and I have been around). And yet the programing is bold.
Čači Vorba Delivers a Mystery Song
Čači Vorba was one of the more cohesive and likable bands at this years Crossroads Festival, which takes place immediately preceding the huge Colours of Ostrava festival in Czech Republic. Violinist, singer and songwriter Maria Natanson definitely struts her stuff, and has a great grasp of Roma music.
“I have cap and bells”
After a prospective student played Maurice Ravel’s “Alborada del gracioso,” I asked the not-so-simple question: “What’s the melody?”
Recent Listening: Two Superb Pianists
Sam Leak, Dan Tepfer, Adrift (Jellymould)
Pianists from opposite sides of the Atlantic met in a New York studio to collaborate in an engrossing performance of Sam Leak compositions as a suite called “Adrift.”
Aversive Verse: At The Alfred Joyce Kilmer Memorial Bad Poetry Contest
“The judges in the front row were ready to revel in wretchedness, line by line and verse by verse, as the contestants, more than 30 Columbia University students in a lecture hall on the campus, read their poems aloud.” (In case you’ve forgotten, Kilmer is the man who perpetrated “I think that I shall never see / A poem lovely as a tree.” He is memorialized with a rest stop on the New Jersey Turnpike.)