“Black and Latino musicians account for about 3 percent of the musicians in American orchestras nationwide but about 30 percent of the Chicago Sinfonietta. Most orchestras have practically all-white boards of directors and audiences, but about a third of the Sinfonietta’s board is non-white and about 40 percent of its audience is minority. Most orchestras rarely play music by minority composers, but the Sinfonietta integrates these works throughout its entire season.”
Blog
From Mail Room To Big-Time Publishing
“A few months ago, 28-year-old Dean Carter was a small cog in a very big machine. Hidden away in the basement at the grand old publisher Random House, he spent his days sorting mail sent by fans to such eminent writers A S Byatt and Tom Wolfe. Now, after a series of lucky encounters, he is the recipient of a five-figure, two-book deal, has senior publishers saving his emails as collectors’ items and could soon be considering film deals from the likes of Brad Pitt and Robert De Niro.”
Domingo’s Farewell?
Placido Domingo is singing in the Barcelona opera house he considers home. “The 64-year-old tenor will take the stage as Wagner’s Parsifal in the Liceu Theatre in Barcelona on Friday, his first operatic role for 15 years in the theatre he considers home.” Does this sound like the beginning of a farewell tour?
Levy Wins Whitbread
Small Island, Andrea Levy’s affectionate, Orange prize-winning comedy of errors, misunderstandings and prejudice at the onset of West Indian immigration to Britain, was last night voted Whitbread book of the year.
London’s Favorite Book?
According to a Time Out poll, it’s a gudiebook. “The London A-Z street atlas, first published in 1936, yesterday beat volumes by Virginia Woolf, Evelyn Waugh, Joseph Conrad, Zadie Smith and Peter Ackroyd to come in at number five in a poll of the 30 best-loved London books.”
The Next Superstar Violinist/Supermodel/Spokesperson?
Seventeen-year-old violinist Nicola Benedetti is about to become a household name and one of the highest-paid performers of her generation after agreeing a £1 million-plus, six-album record deal with Universal. Last May she became the first Scot to win the BBC Young Musician of the Year award. “Between modelling, advertising and other personal appearances, she has been booked for a series of UK and US performances this year.”
Do “Genius” Awards Help A Career?
How effective are the MacArthur “Geniue Awards” that give recipients $500,000 to use as they see fit? “An examination of the program reveals that most of the 31 writers chosen since 1981 as MacArthur Fellows had already hit their artistic peak. Surveying book reviews, author profiles and the opinions of literary scholars, Crain’s determined that 88% of the MacArthur recipients wrote their greatest works before being recognized by the Chicago-based foundation. The sheer number of books produced by the writers declined, too, after their MacArthur awards.”
American, Cuban Musical Ties Broken
“The Bush administration has severed the fertile connection between Cuban and American musicians—and audiences—by reversing American policy. The security crunch following 9/11 has given immigration authorities the excuse they’ve long sought to exclude many foreign musicians from the United States. But against Cubans, the resistance runs far deeper. This is a Cuban music crisis—a development that has more to do with the Cold War than the War on Terror.”
Hugh Grant On Being A Literary Prize Judge
“Grant, whose only literary claim to fame had been playing a bookseller in ‘Notting Hill,’ confessed that he felt like a student back at Oxford University when put under pressure to read the finalists for the Whitbread Book of the Year award. Asked if he felt insulted by critics who argue it is dumbing down to choose celebrity judges for big literary awards, he told Reuters at Tuesday’s awards ceremony: ‘It is not insulting to me. I am very dumb as everyone knows’.”
Saltz: Reinventing MoMA
Jerry Saltz can’t stop going to the new Museum of Modern Art. Since it’s reopened, he’s made 14 visits. So he has some suggestions for how it could be improved. Nothing major… a rehang here, a new space there…