“Even at age 36, Lang Lang projects a boyish charisma that employs your protective instincts — all the more so if you saw him grow up before your eyes, emerging from his cramped Spruce Street apartment, speaking broken English, and yet becoming something as close to a rock star as any classical pianist can be.” David Patrick Stearns (who did see all that) reports on Lang Lang’s performance of a Mozart concerto with the Boston Symphony last week and checks in with Lang Lang’s primary teacher at Curtis, Gary Graffman.
Author: Matthew Westphal
Relocating This Science Museum Could Be The Most Expensive Museum Move In History
“The New South Wales state government is pushing ahead with a controversial plan to relocate the Powerhouse Museum — part of the Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences — from central Sydney to a western suburb, despite widespread criticism and an ongoing parliamentary inquiry. At a cost of A$1.2bn ($890m), … [the project] means demolishing the museum, which opened in 1988 in Ultimo, central Sydney, and seven historic buildings in Parramatta, 23km to the west, to make way for a new museum due to open in 2023.”
Are We On The Cusp Of A New Age Of African Literature?
“If so, the key to new novels from African writers seems to be the fresh use of historical fiction to articulate a new future.”
Here’s One Theatre That Raised Its Hiring Of Women Directors Tenfold
“The number of women directing plays at [the Gate Theatre in Dublin] is up from 8 per cent between 2006 and 2015 to 80 per cent in the last 18 months … The number of women writers increased from 6 per cent to 33 per cent over the same period, set designers 26 per cent to 44 per cent, lighting designers 13 per cent to 33 per cent, and sound designers 1 per cent to 44 per cent.”
Why The Semicolon Is A Truly Great Punctuation Mark
“Semicolons are useful when two thoughts are related, independent yet interdependent, and more or less equally weighted. They could exist as discrete sentences, and yet something would be lost if they were, an important cognitive rhythm.”
Running A Theatre Is About So Much More Than The Plays, As These First-Time Artistic Directors Found Out
“Most UK theatres are run by people with the title of ‘artistic director’. But many taking over a building for the first time, even if they are not doing the job of chief executive as well, very quickly understand that being artistic is only one part of the job. … Lyn Gardner talks to those in the know and finds they all agree the overall experience of an audience is as important as the plays they stage.”
Television Is Dead, Cinema Is Dead And Resurrected, And The Future Is Streaming, Says Filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn
“Television is dead. And television will not be reborn. It will not come back. What has surfaced instead is the digital platform of entertainment. Cinema will come back with different meaning.” The digital platform to which Refn seems to be referring in particular is his own byNWR.com, which he calls an unadulterated cultural expressway for the arts. It’s there to inspire the youth!”
Oops! New Broadway Musical Sells $169.50 Tickets For $16.95
“This was quite the Broadway bargain. Last night, producers of the upcoming Broadway musical Gettin’ the Band Back Together, which begins previews July 19 at the Belasco Theatre, scrambled to correct a massive error they posted on Telecharge.”
New Paid Internship Program Aims To Increase Diversity Of Art Museum Staff
“In response to the demographic disparity of staff in museums, the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) has launched a paid internship programme aimed at giving undergraduate students from under-represented backgrounds an opportunity to work in the arts.”
Five Choreographers Talk About How They Handle Reviews
Dance Magazine talks to Sergio Trujillo, Gabrielle Lamb, Joe Goode, Rosie Herrera, and Claudia Schreier, who says, “Often I am already thinking about the things they mentioned. Translating dance into words is the gift of the critic, so to hold that reflection back at you can be incredibly helpful.”