When the Dallas-based Meadows Museum sent out invitations to its new exhibit featuring works from the extensive collection of Nona & Richard Barrett, the thinking was that the museum was celebrating a rich legacy of Texan art. But some artists attending the opening were stunned to discover that their Barrett-owned works were not in the show, despite the fact that the museum had listed their names in the brochure. It was all a big misunderstanding, of course, but the hurt feelings have remained.
Blog
Could Slatkin Fill Barenboim’s Shoes?
True, Leonard Slatkin has recently lost two high-profile music directorships amid rumors of his increasing unpopularity amongst musicians in London and Washington. But John von Rhein says that the time is right for the Chicago Symphony to appoint its first American music director, and Slatkin, with his famous enthusiasm and 30-year history of good relations with the CSO musicians, might be just the man for the job.
Banning The S-Word
In a sane world, the new biopic of sex researcher Alfred Kinsey would have become a minor hit with a small moviegoing demographic, might have picked up a few Oscar nominations, and would have been basically ignored by everyone else. But the U.S. is no longer a sane world when it comes to sex, says Frank Rich, and the newly emboldened “moral values” crowd is chomping at the bit to impose their repressive views on anyone who dares to defy their will. Kinsey is the right’s newest target, but this battle isn’t about a movie or a long-dead scientist. It’s about a segment of the population that wants to take the country back to the bad old days when no one talked about sex, for any reason, ever, consequences be damned.
Forget The Scandal, Those Are Some Nice Fiddles
Ever since philanthropist Herbert Axelrod was indicted for tax fraud, his sale of two dozen valuable violins to the New Jersey Symphony has been spoken of mainly in terms of the scandal surrounding the seller. But questions of authenticity aside, the NJSO musicians are thrilled with the chance to play on some of the finest instruments ever crafted, and while they are certainly unhappy to be at the center of a controversy they had no part in creating, many are still amazed that “people who could never hope to play such instruments now have regular access to them. Superstar violinists, of course, can buy, or are lent, famous instruments, but they are out of reach for back-benchers in a midsize orchestra.”
News Flash: Diplomas Don’t Win Auditions
New York’s Juilliard School might be the world’s most famous training ground for young musicians. But even armed with a Juilliard degree, the highly competitive world of classical music is a tough place to make a living, and no one on an orchestral audition committee will give a rip where you went to school if you can’t nail that fast run in Don Juan four times in a row. A look at Juilliard’s graduating class of 1994 reveals that, ten years removed from the school’s rigorous teachings, some have gone on to great success as soloists or orchestral musicians; others have become teachers themselves; and still others have given up the dream of playing music professionally altogether.
Studying Australia’s Musical Life (Where’s The Money?)
“Do reviews of the arts always lead to dollars? The music community must be asking itself this, as no fewer than three separate federal studies have been taking place into Australia’s musical life this year.”
US Bans Some Foreign Writers
American publishers are under US government sanctions not to publish works by foreign writers in certain countries. “In an apparent reversal of decades of U.S. practice, recent federal Office of Foreign Assets Control regulations bar American companies from publishing works by dissident writers in countries under sanction unless they first obtain U.S. government approval. The restriction, condemned by critics as a violation of the First Amendment, means that books and other works banned by some totalitarian regimes cannot be published freely in the United States.”
Rigoletto House For Sale
The house where Verdi wrote Rigoletto is up for sale. “The asking price for the house in Busseto, near Parma, is about $8 million (Cdn). Whoever buys it will probably have to spend $4 million more to renovate it.”
Proposal: Cut SF Arts Funding
The chairman of San Francisco’s budget committee last week “recommended taking roughly $800,000 from the combined budgets of the opera, symphony and ballet in order to keep more social services afloat during mid-year reductions. The sum equates to half The City’s current backing, which performing arts supporters point out has already been reduced by 25 percent.”
At The Movies: Which History?
Movies on historical subjects are popular. But the history they tell is colored as much by the time in which the movie is made as the original story itself. “There’s a huge problem in that (students) assume the history they see is true. However, historical films often are more about the period in which they’re made than the period they depict.”