“A Swiss musician sees colours when she hears music, and experiences tastes ranging from sour and bitter to low-fat cream and mown grass, astounded scientists say. Zurich University neuropsychologists were so intrigued by the case of ES, a 27-year-old professional musician whose full name has been withheld, that they recruited her for a year-long inquiry. They say she is the world’s most extreme known case of synaesthesia, the phenomenon whereby hearing music triggers a response in other sensory organs.”
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Edinburgh Gets Out Of The Cheap Ticket Business
The Edinburgh Festival is abandoning its late night cheap performances. Why? Because they’re too cheap. The £5 ticket price for the series known as Royal Bank Lates, which last year featured such artists as singers Ian Bostridge and Simon Keenlyside, “undermines the value of the events”, according to a spokeswoman. “They are too cheap. There is a reasonable price for these things and it’s more than £5.”
BBC Reforms In Return For License Renewal?
The BBC would have its license renewed until 2016, under a government proposal. But the renewal comes with a stick: “the BBC was warned that in return for the licence fee settlement it had to redouble its efforts to produce landmark programming, cut down on repeats and US imports and tackle public concerns over the falling standards on TV. It should not play copycat. Or chase ratings for ratings sake.”
A Plan For Low-Cost Electricity For Broadway
A bill in the New York State legislature would provide for cheaper electricity for Broadway theatres. “It’s hard to know what the savings would be because it’s based on usage. So up-to-date theatres’ energy costs would be less than those of older theatres. The money involved across the board would be substantial. We don’t do anything for Broadway enterprises the way we do for professional sports. It’s nutty. It matters much more for New York that we have a thriving Broadway theatre season than a baseball or football team. But we’ve never been able to bridge that gap. The sports teams get cheaper power.”
UK To Dismantle BBC Board Of Governors
The British government is starting the process of dismantling the BBC’s board of governors. “Today’s green paper on the future of the Corporation said its governance needed to be modernised to suit the changing demands from the broadcasting industry and that the current system lacked clarity, transparency and accountability. ‘The governors’ dual role as cheerleader and regulator does not sit easily in a public organisation of the size and complexity of the BBC’.”
New York Library Online
The New York Public Library has put 275,000 images of objects from its collection online. Included are collections of “prints, maps, posters, photographs, illuminated manuscripts, sheet-music covers, dust jackets, menus and cigarette cards. “If you dive in today without knowing why, you might not surface for a long, long time. The Public Library’s digital gallery is lovely, dark and deep. Quite eccentric, too.”
Queen Announces New Music Prize
Quen Elizabeth believes her musical tastes have been unfairly disparaged. “We are not philistines. Philip and I are interested in music and we’ve had this terrible press,” she says. So she’s announced a new music prize: the Queen’s Medal for Music. “To be awarded on St Cecilia’s day, November 22, the winner will be someone who has had a “major influence on the musical life of the nation”, and may be of any nationality. St Cecilia is the patron saint of music.”
Yet Another Musician Starts His Own Label
“Composer Michael Nyman is mounting a challenge to the record industry with the launch next month of his own label, MN Records. Citing frustration with the major labels that have released his work, Nyman will inaugurate the imprint with a solo piano album.”
La Scala’s Woes Deepen (Why, It’s Operatic!)
“La Scala is being paralysed by a crisis of Verdian theatricality that has led to rebellion and strikes, and is now prompting a head on clash between two of the titans of contemporary opera.
From his tranquil villa-cum-studio near Rome, Franco Zeffirelli has watched the goings-on in Milan with growing alarm…”
See It, Feel It, Touch It – Art For The Blind
Shouldn’t blind people have art too? “Sense & Sensuality, at the Royal College of Art, is the first in a planned annual art competition and exhibition open equally to sighted and unsighted artists and launched by the new charity BlindArt. The charity has ambitious plans for a permanent national collection of art which can be stroked and listened to as well as looked at, equally enjoyable to sighted and blind and indeed to anyone in a wheelchair or with a disability that can make visiting galleries a nightmare.”