Like many other American cities, Baltimore is in a building boom, and new office towers and residential complexes are rising at a nearly unprecedented rate. “While there is no shortage of new buildings opening in the Baltimore region this year, many simply reinforce the status quo. For those seeking signs of fresh thinking about architecture,” though, there are a number of diamonds in the rough just waiting to be built.
Blog
Soprano de los Angeles Dies
“Legendary Spanish soprano Victoria de los Angeles has died in hospital in Barcelona aged 81, her family has said. The singer had been admitted to the city’s Teknon clinic on New Year’s Eve with a bronchial infection. The singer, who was renowned as one of 20th Century’s finest sopranos, retired from the stage in 1979 but continued giving recitals into her 70s.”
Philly Looks To Beethoven. Again.
A lot of eyebrows were raised in the orchestra world when Christoph Eschenbach, an enthusiastic promoter of new music, was hired to be the music director in Philadelphia, a city known for its ultra-traditional musical tastes. A look at the orchestra’s just-released 2005-06 season calendar indicates that some compromise between the two philosophies may be in the offing: the Philadelphians will focus heavily on Beethoven next year, but there will be several world premieres hidden amongst the warhorses.
Yes, But What Do You Do?
Tampa has an art czar. Officially, he’s the city’s Manager of Creative Services, his name is Paul Wilborn, and he makes $90,000 per year, a figure which everyone in the city’s moneyed classes seems to know. Wilborn’s salary is of interest because many observers have had a very difficult time figuring out exactly what it is that he does for the money. “Here’s what he doesn’t do: Raise funds. Distribute grants… His days are filled with meetings, which he attends on behalf of the mayor… His job – albeit unofficially – is also hobnobbing.”
Northern Ballet Cancels Season
The Northern Ballet Theatre is one of only two professional arts groups still operating in Nashua, New Hampshire, and this weekend, two will become one, as the ballet announces the cancellation of the remainder of its 2004-05 season. The company will use the next several months to retool and raise money, with the aim of mounting a 2005-06 season.
Is Nothing Sacred? Not At The Movies.
Why was movie attendance down in 2004? Desmond Ryan thinks it might just have something to do with the insulting and infuriating decision of the nation’s multiplexes to preface films with up to a half hour of over-loud commercials and horrid previews. “Taking in a movie used to provide an oasis from the avalanche of hucksterism in our daily lives. If you pay your own good money for a movie or, for that matter, Internet service, nobody should be allowed to intrude on it with ads.”
Turnaround In Minnesota
By the standards of the orchestra industry, Minnesota Orchestra president Tony Woodcock did not have a smooth first few weeks on the job in 2003, as a bitter behind-the-scenes battle over his appointment spilled into the press. But in a little over a year on the job, he has “led a financial turnaround at the venerable institution and now plans to further strengthen it with a $50 million fund-raising campaign.” On top of the financial success, Woodcock’s employees say that he has begun to heal the deep wounds left by previous managements, and to reassert the orchestra as one of the Twin Cities’ most valued cultural mainstays.
Those Inexplicably Influential Golden Globes
It’s Golden Globes time again, which means it’s once again time for entertainment writers the world over the bemoan the outsized influence wielded in Hollywood by the motley collection of hacks, suck-ups, and gladhanders who make up the Globes-sponsoring Hollywood Foreign Press Association. But like it or not, the Globes have managed to acheive first-team status in the movie industry, even if they are the awards show equivalent of Paris Hilton or Anna Nicole Smith – famous just for being famous.
Thoroughly Global Glass
Philip Glass has never been what you’d call a populist composer, but neither could the majority of his work be accurately assessed as “minimalist,” a label with which Glass has been tagged throughout his career. Now, on the eve of the premiere of his newest symphony, the composer finds himself embracing a variety of cultural and musical influences that would have been unthinkable even 20 years ago.
Big Tasks Ahead For The Barnes
Winning the years-long court battles over its proposed move to central Philadelphia may have been the easy part for the Barnes Foundation. “In the months to come, the Barnes must expand its board, collect $100 million in capital pledges, raise at least $50 million more for an endowment and figure out how to cover its interim operating costs. And while stepping up its fund-raising, the foundation must select an architect and decide how to continue its educational mission.” And as if that weren’t enough, the opponents to the Barnes move haven’t conceded defeat just yet.