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Hawaii Orchestra Finally Gets Some Good News

The Honolulu Symphony has been battling serious fiscal problems for years, and this season was no exception. But as the orchestra wrapped up its year onstage, the Hawaii state legislature came through with a $4 million matching gift for the HSO’s endowment, as well as a $150,000 for educational programs. The orchestra will need to raise an additional $4 million in order to keep the state money, as part of a wider campaign to boost the HSO’s endowment.

Is The Balance Of Orchestral Power Shifting In Tokyo?

The city of Tokyo has a whopping eight professional orchestras, but until recently, only three – the NHK Symphony, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony, and Yomiuri Nippon Symphony – have been considered major players on the national and international scene. Now, though, two of the lesser ensembles, both notable for operating without a major commercial sponsor, are making a major push for promotion to the top ranks of orchestras. But market factors are also at work, and with many in Japan (as elsewhere) questioning how many orchestras even the biggest cities need, the upstarts still have a long road ahead.

The NEA At 40

The National Endowment for the Arts celebrates the milestone. An exhibition gives some idea how far. “We’ve come a long way. Parallel to the art of engagement has been a politics of disengagement, at least when it comes to arts funding. The only reason the NEA could meet in the midst of this exhibition without a firestorm is that, politically, the NEA has disengaged not just from funding this kind of art, but from the people, artists, curators and audiences who are interested in it.”

All The Books In The World In One Place

That’s the dream of armies of copiers, working to digitize the world’s libraries. “The dream is an old one: to have in one place all knowledge, past and present. All books, all documents, all conceptual works, in all languages. It is a familiar hope, in part because long ago we briefly built such a library. The great library at Alexandria, constructed around 300 B.C., was designed to hold all the scrolls circulating in the known world…”

Will A Royal Ballet Production Revive Design Tradition?

“Ballet is a bastard art, a highwire pas de quatre of music, choreography, theatre and design. Though the composer speaks first, for most watchers it is when the curtain rises that they snap that critical first impression. Before the dancers have moved, the audience’s senses and intuitions have been switched to a certain frequency by the designer.”

The Kimmel’s New Organ

Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center unveils its new organ. “If the Philadelphia Orchestra has done well all this time without a proper in-residence pipe organ (as opposed to the Academy of Music’s movable organ), is this really something we need? Given the organ’s flashy range and magnitude of sound, will it usher in an era of effects more than music? Will it be some sort of Frankenstein’s monster, strangling all subtlety in its path?”

Vancouver’s Precinct Of Culture?

Vancouver wants to build a “cultural precinct”. “Among other things, the development might include a provincial Asia-Pacific Museum of Trade and Culture, a National Gallery of Aboriginal Art and two performance halls. Some observers are skeptical; the provincial government, until very recently, has had an appalling record when it comes to supporting the arts.”

Fans Bury Rowling In Paper

JK Rowling complained of a paper shortage near her home. “Fans, who are anxiously waiting for the seventh and final Harry Potter book, sent Rowling everything from a single sheet of paper to entire notepads. A paper merchant even delivered a set of notebooks embossed with the author’s name.”