“Silkroad turns twenty next year. Like a teenager approaching adulthood, we are exploring our purpose in the world. … One thing we have discovered is the joy and significance of working as an ensemble, and at this turning point, we are formalizing a new approach to leadership that celebrates that collaborative spirit. To this end, I am thrilled to hand over the artistic direction of Silkroad to Jeffrey Beecher, Nicholas Cords, and Shane Shanahan, three extraordinary colleagues who have taught me so much about collaboration, music, and friendship.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Court Rules For Matisse’s Heirs And Against Dealer In Case Of Stolen $4.5M Cutouts
“The judgment is a crushing blow to the French expert and dealer Jérôme Le Blay. The court ruled that his company Côté Art had not acted ‘in good faith’ in claiming to own the [two] works,” which were among the Matisse pieces stolen from a storage facility just after the 1989 death of the artist’s son Pierre.
Pierre Audi Of The Park Avenue Armory On Presenting New Work In The U.S. Versus Europe
The complaints we hear over and over again are that European audiences are more open to the new and European institutions are better funded. Audi, who’s spent nearly three decades running the Dutch National Opera and came to the Armory in 2015, says that audiences over here, especially in New York, are hungry for good work from all over the world. The problem is getting that work to the States.
‘One Of The Buddhas Of American Dance’
A reporter travels to the northeastern corner of Vermont to visit Steve Paxton, who was a star in Merce Cunningham’s company in the 1960s and went on to invent Contact Improvisation.
One Of UK’s Top Stage Directors Fired From Company He Founded Over ‘Inappropriate Behavior’
“Renowned director Max Stafford-Clark – the former artistic director of London’s Royal Court theatre – was forced out of the Out of Joint theatre company after a formal complaint that he made lewd comments to a member of staff. … A spokesperson for Stafford-Clark said the director had suffered from pseudobulbar palsy and ‘occasional disinhibition’ since a stroke and brain injury in 2006.”
Brazilian Artists Fight Back Against Right-Wing Activists Disrupting Art Events
“An open letter written by a group of Brazilian artists and art professionals that condemns ‘the rise of hate, intolerance and violence against freedom of expression in the arts and education’ in the country has been signed by more than 1,000 people since it was published online last week. … The letter cites a specific string of incidents that have happened over the past year, including the closing of an exhibition dedicated to queer art at the Santander Cultural Center in Porto Alegre … and a nude performance by the artist Wagner Schwartz at the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 10.23.17
Dark Matters from Finland
Tero Saarinen Company performs at the Joyce Theater. … read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2017-10-23
Music as Communication: with you, with myself, with it
I write music for three reasons that I can name, though there may be others that elude me. These three reasons jockey with one another for primacy from one work to the next, and sometimes … read more
AJBlog: Infinite Curves Published 2017-10-23
The Most Under-Rated 20th Century American Composer — Take Two
Back in the thirties and forties, there were no American music historians to tell the story of American classical music. So the task fell to a couple of composers: Aaron Copland and Virgil Thomson. … read more
AJBlog: Unanswered Question Published 2017-10-22
United Airlines’ Latest Victim: Ai Weiwei
On Tuesday, the artist was supposed to fly to São Paulo for a special screening of his documentary Human Flow. But the United ground crew at Newark airport refused to let him board the plane, insisting – because they misread the paperwork – that his (entirely valid) Brazilian visa had expired.
The Loneliness Of Elizabeth Bishop
“In 1974, Elizabeth Bishop seemed to have all the things a poet could want: a teaching position at Harvard, a Pulitzer Prize, a National Book Award, and a first-look contract with The New Yorker, which almost always decided to publish her work. And yet she was inconsolably unhappy. ‘When you write my epitaph,’ Bishop said to the poet Robert Lowell, ‘you must say I was the loneliest person who ever lived.'”
What It’s Like To Spend Two Years In ‘Hamilton’
“Thayne Jasperson, who plays the British loyalist Samuel Seabury, is the only cast member still in his original role. Emmy Raver-Lampman, by contrast, started as part of the ensemble on Broadway, left the show in April 2016 for SpongeBob SquarePants, returned as an ensemble member in the Chicago production of Hamilton, and is now playing Angelica Schuyler in the first national tour. She and Jasperson talked to TheaterMania about their experiences with the musical and how it’s changed since the summer of 2015.”