“Toshio Sasaki, a Japanese sculptor known for works in public spaces, particularly ‘The First Symphony of the Sea,’ a 322-foot-long wall relief at the New York Aquarium at Coney Island, died on March 10 near his home in Nagakute in the Aichi Prefecture of Japan.”
Author: sbergman
Poli-Girl Lit Takes Off
What’s the best way to score yourself a book deal when you have no previous experience as a writer? Just arrange to be born the daughter of a prominent Washington, D.C. politician. “The authors of D.C.-daughter lit are often, however, the very same children who grew up trying to steer clear of the media spotlight. They didn’t run for public office, the line of reasoning goes; they didn’t ask for the publicity. But now they are asking.”
Making French Less French
“With French long engaged in a losing battle against English around the world, a new way of fighting back has been proposed by a multinational group of authors who write in French: uncouple the language from France and turn French literature into ‘world literature’ written in French. For guardians of the language of Molière, Voltaire and Victor Hugo, this is tantamount to subversion.”
The Remarkable Mr. Benjamin
“That George Benjamin at 47 is one of the most formidable composers of his generation should come as no surprise. A British prodigy, he began playing the piano at 7 and was soon after composing. His first work for orchestra was given its premiere at a BBC Proms concert when Mr. Benjamin was 20… Stylistically, Mr. Benjamin’s music, while bursting with personality, has always been hard to pin down. The pungent chromaticism of Berg, the astringent atonality of Boulez, a feeling for French sonorities, spectral colorings — these elements and more permeate his works.”
Oprah & The End Of The World
Oprah Winfrey’s selection of a grim, terrifying, post-apocolyptic novel for her national book club has raised some eyebrows, but Gail Caldwell says that “in a year when a former presidential contender is being touted at the Oscars for a documentary on climatic ruin, Oprah’s attention to [Cormac] McCarthy’s novel makes a fine (and hardly risky) bid for planetary conscience.”
Cleveland Museum Stays Visible Through Loans
“A small new museum devoted to Jewish heritage has been thrust into the art world spotlight with loaned works by Rembrandt, El Greco, Rubens and others while the Cleveland Museum of Art undergoes renovation… For the Cleveland museum located about seven miles away, the loan represents a chance for fans to stay in touch with a world-renowned collection that for the most part has been locked away in storage since 2005 for a $258 million, six-year expansion and renovation.”
Want To Play The UK? It’ll Cost Ya.
Foreign musicians hoping to perform in the UK are running up against a slew of exorbitant new visa fees. “An act, whether one person or 50, requires a work permit, which is to cost £190 from tomorrow instead of £153. Then every member of a group also requires a work permit visa, the cost of which is rising from £85 to £200. Fees are waived if an organisation secures what is called permit-free festival status from the Home Office but the entertainment industry is fearful whether that will survive the introduction of a points-based system for visa applicants next year.”
Opera’s Nationwide Reach
The cost and logistical difficulty of presenting opera used to mean that only the largest metropolises could afford to put on anything innovative or impressive. But times are changing… “For all the attention being lavished on the innovations at New York’s Metropolitan Opera and the ones expected at its Lincoln Center neighbor, New York City Opera, there is, right now, no center to American opera.”
Taking A Masterpiece Out For A Test Drive
Much is made of the high cost of the world’s best violins, especially when they’re sold at auction. But violins are, after all, tools of a trade, and no musician would want to buy an instrument he had never played on. As it turns out, the auction houses are sensitive to that, and so, this past week, anyone who wanted a chance to play a million-dollar Stradivarius got a chance to do so (free of charge) at Christie’s in New York.
NYC’s Tonic To Close
The New York music club known as Tonic will shut down later this month after a nine year run, and if you don’t live there, you may well wonder why you should care. But Tonic has been one of the mainstays of New York’s avant garde music scene, which reverberates around the world, and its loss will have a profound impact on musicians across multiple genres.