The Canadian government’s $45 million cut to federal arts funding is forcing many projects to be shelved, including an award-winning play commemorating the Rwandan genocide which was scheduled to travel to Rwanda itself in 2009.
Author: sbergman
Vancouver’s New Populist Theatre Chief
“Max Reimer, new artistic managing director of the Vancouver Playhouse, is taking on one of the most important jobs in Western Canadian theatre… If there are concerns about Reimer, they centre on a worry that quality could be sacrificed for popularity in his drive to increase box office. Reimer is aware of the criticism, but he rejects it.”
Taking It All Off Between Arias
Well, it’s finally happened: nudity has come to the operatic stage. “Opera buffs have seen plenty of alluring sopranos in skimpy dresses and handsome bare-chested baritones. Is actual nakedness, if the dramatic situation justifies it, such a big leap?”
The Militant, Meatpacking District Snow White
Snow White is supposed to be a story of innocence lost and love found, but Catherine Baÿ has a different take. “The site-specific installation, seen Tuesday at the Diane von Furstenberg shop in the West Village, transports the character from the land of fairy tales to the fashionable meatpacking district,” and recreates Snow White as “slightly creepy and undeniably militant.”
Legendary Motown Songwriter Dies
“Motown songwriter and producer Norman Whitfield, whose credits include hits I Heard It Through The Grapevine and War, has died in Los Angeles… The Temptations’ chart hits were all Whitfield’s work, and he was their chief producer from 1966-74. The songwriter also co-wrote and produced songs for Gladys Knights and The Pips.”
Teaching The Politics Of Music
“A new course in music policy starting at the University of Edinburgh this month aims to open students’ eyes to the politics of sound, teaching them about who is allowed to make music, and who is allowed to hear it, and why.”
Little-Known Maestro Takes The Reins In Steel City
When the Pittsburgh Symphony announced that Manfred Honeck would be its next music director, the reaction from much of the music world was, “Who?” But Pittsburgh is getting to know it’s new chief conductor quickly, and “Honeck and the orchestra hit it off instantaneously at their first rehearsal for his debut in May 2006.”
Arts Groups Sweating Wall Street’s Woes
“With Wall Street in a shame spiral, ‘What’s coming next?’ is a question that has everyone in the arts community taking big, anxious gulps… The fear isn’t limited to those groups that were getting money from corporate America’s recently deceased and badly wounded. There’s agita all around.”
DSO Meets LBJ
A new oratorio to be premiered this week by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra commemorates the two seminal events of Lyndon Johnson’s presidency: the campaign for the passage of the Voting Rights Act, and the initial bombing of North Vietnam based on fraudulent reports from the Gulf of Tonkin.
From Center Stage To The Corner Office
Oboist Peter Kjome was forced to give up his performing career in the 1990s because of health problems, but he never forgot his passion for the orchestral world. So after a stint in business school and nearly a decade running the $3.4 billion consumer-products division at 3M, Kjome is back at his old orchestra, Michigan’s Grand Rapids Symphony, this time as CEO.