“A planned increase in federal funding for Soulpepper Theatre has been voted down by the Canada Council for the Arts’ board of directors. On Thursday, the council’s board voted to rescind an increase of $375,500 the theatre company was set to receive. That was on top of a $184,500 ‘core grant’ which the company will still collect this year and again next year … After four civil suits were launched against former artistic director Albert Schultz in January, the granting agency placed Soulpepper on ‘concerned status’ and conducted a review.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
$1.5 Million Cello Stolen At Knifepoint In Paris, Returned Two Days Later
Outside her home in the Paris suburb of Pantin last Thursday, Ophélie Gaillard was accosted with a knife by a thief who forced her to give him her 1737 Francesco Gofriller cello. On Saturday she received an anonymous call saying to look in a car nearby, where she found her instrument unharmed.
The Opera House That’s Really Pulling In A Younger Audience Is The World’s Oldest Company
“The [Paris Opera], which celebrates its 350th birthday next year, is an unlikely contradiction to the worldwide trend of an aging audience at operas. … According to the company, it had 95,000 audience members younger than 28 last season – more than 10 percent of tickets sold and 30,000 more than just two years before.”
‘The First Large-Scale Exhibition By A Major Western Museum In Iran’
“In a masterstroke of cultural diplomacy, the Louvre will launch a major exhibition next month at the National Museum of Iran in Tehran, comprising 50 works [ of Greek, Roman, and Persian art] drawn from its collection and the Musée Eugène Delacroix in Paris.”
Africa Gets Another New Contemporary Art Museum
Five months after the much-anticipated Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa opened in Cape Town, at the opposite end of the continent, the Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden (MACAAL) is having its official international opening in Marrakech, Morocco.
Top Posts From AJBlogs 02.19.18
The Ground as Partner, as Enemy
Soledad Barrio & Noche Flamenca at the Joyce Theater through February 25th. … read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2018-02-19
Jazz and beyond projects with 2018 NEA funding support
Given all the noise, the National Endowment for the Arts’ $25 mil for arts, literature and education announced Feb. 7 may have been overlooked. But these funds and the projects they support, nationwide, should be noted. … read more
AJBlog: Jazz Beyond Jazz Published 2018-02-19
Artistic Resistance in Our America
This weekend, the conductor and pianist Jeffrey Kahane played with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra … But it was his encore that was unforgettable. He bowed his head before starting, waited a moment, we anticipated. It took several notes to recognize with his slow start. … read more
AJBlog: The Bright Ride Published 2018-02-18
The Gershwin Moment
Not only do I believe in George Gershwin; I believe we are embarking on a Gershwin Moment. That is: modernism has departed, and so (sooner or later) will the Standard Narrative for American classical music that we learned from … read more
AJBlog: Unanswered Question Published 2018-02-18
Monday Recommendation(s): Three From ECM
Andy Sheppard, Romaria (ECM)
Nicolas Masson Quartet, Travelers (ECM)
Shinya Fukumori Trio, For 2 Akis (ECM) … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2018-02-19
Making Sense Of Contemporary Dance: An Intro For Visual Arts Types
With input from three choreographer-dance scholars, fine art journalist Natalie Cenci answers the questions “What is contemporary dance?” (and how does it differ between the U.S. and Europe), “How does contemporary dance differ from performance art?”, and how a beginner should approach watching the genre.
How Lewis And Clark Added More Than A Thousand Words To American English
“[President Jefferson] knew that future mapmakers, naturalists, and other scientists would rely on the valuable first-hand knowledge that Lewis and Clark collected. He encouraged them to make their observations ‘with great pains and accuracy … for others as well as yourself.’ That meant that every time they encountered an unfamiliar plant, animal, landscape feature, or cultural item – the Louisiana Territory and the western portion of the continent teemed with them – they had to invent a new term.”
A Brief History Of Bootlegged Classical Recordings
“During the rock era, the bootlegging craze was put into motion by Great White Wonder, the unauthorized Dylan vinyl released by two devotees in 1969. But classical music, long its own ground for renegade recordings, is where the practice got its wings.”
Jack Kerouac Was Really A Catholic Mystic Poet
Scott Beauchamp: “The spiritually inverted radicals of the Sixties who sacralized their politics and secularized their spirituality – blame Reich and Marcuse – read Kerouac with blinders on. They only saw what they wanted to see, and what they wanted to see was a celebration of the ‘freedoms’ of hedonism. … The truth is more complex and so much more interesting: Kerouac” – who described himself as a “strange solitary Catholic mystic” – “was one of the most humble and devoted American religious writers of the 20th century.”