“Manufacturing campers made Gerry Ryan a very wealthy man, one of the richest people in Australia. … Now he is placing a bold bet on musical theater. Global Creatures, the Sydney-based company he founded and chairs, is producing its first four musicals. On three continents. At the same time.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
‘Alexa, Give Money To My NPR Station’
With the spread of virtual-assistant and smart-speaker technologies – one out of every five U.S. homes with wi-fi has Alexa or an equivalent – both the national NPR network and Seattle public radio station KUOW are experimenting with ways to let listeners donate with a simple voice command.
Despite New Admission Fees, Met Museum Posts Highest Attendance Ever – So Is It Still ‘A Great Institution In Decline’?
“Last year, the Metropolitan Museum of Art was in crisis. On June 28, it announced that more people visited the museum, across its three campuses … than ever before. So whether the Met is ‘a great institution in decline,’ as one former curator described it, or whether its problems are merely temporary is debatable.” Sebastian Smee talks to president and COO Daniel Weiss about the state of the Met.
Jazz Trombonist Bill Watrous Dead At 79
“Sometimes billed as ‘the world’s greatest trombonist,’ Watrous was universally admired among jazz musicians for the beauty and fluency of his playing, as well as both his speed and lyricism. Over a 55-year career he developed a long and spectacular résumé that included work with such luminaries as Kai Winding, Maynard Ferguson, Quincy Jones, Ella Fitzgerald, and Chick Corea, as well as the jazz-rock band Ten Wheel Drive and his own Wildlife Refuge Orchestra.”
Ghanaian Orchestra Gives European Classical Music An African Beat
“The Accra Symphony Orchestra is hoping to make a new generation in Ghana fall in love with classical music. The BBC went to see them in action and to hear how they’re winning over audiences with their fusion of African and Western classical art forms.” (video)
Mumbai’s Victorian And Art Deco Buildings Get UNESCO World Heritage Status
“The two vastly different architectural traditions face off against each other across the popular Oval Maidan playing field, where enthusiastic young cricketers hone their skills. On one side lie imposing and rather austere 19th century buildings housing the Bombay High Court and Mumbai University, with their spires and lancet windows. On the other side stand sleeker buildings boasting curved corners and balconies, vertical lines and exotic motifs.”
This Dance Presenter Lost Government Funding – And Found Itself Afterward
“From 2005 to 2014, Dance Manchester held a biennial festival, Urban Moves International Dance Festival, that presented professional dance performances outdoors and in unusual spaces … However, funding changes over the past six years have disrupted that vision and trajectory and … the subsequent loss of [Arts Council England] funding announced in 2017, though devastating at first, has liberated us to pursue our own path. The future may remain insecure, but it allows excitement to build as we return to our vision to develop home-grown artists and audiences through a dance for placemaking approach.”
President Macron Orders Complete Review Of France’s Artist-Residency System
“The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has asked a senior civil servant to conduct a review of artist residencies funded by the French state, which could lead to the abolition of some culture programmes. … [His] main aim is to make France more attractive ‘to great artistic talents from all over the world’, underlining that the government spends more than €7m annually on around 500 residencies in the fields of visual and performance arts.”
A Centuries-Old Japanese Storytelling Tradition Is Spreading Over The Globe
“Meet kamishibai – from kami, meaning paper and shibai, meaning play or theatre – the ancient Japanese storytelling tool that many librarians, nursing-homes and schools use in several countries around the world.”
Meet The Royal Shakespeare Company’s Head Voice Coach
“[Kate Godfrey studied] anatomy, ‘from the nose down to the pubic bone’. She studied phonetics to be able to teach dialects. And she knows Shakespeare backwards, going through the plays in detail, looking up obscure words, picking up on a particular character’s repeated use of imagery – ‘usually animals, birds or death’ – and teasing out rhetorical devices such as antithesis and alliteration. It’s that last element of the three strands of voice work – parsing the text in the way that makes it sound rhythmical and comprehensible to an audience – that Godfrey says can be the most difficult.”