A principal dancer at the American Ballet Theater has been placed on medical leave and will not perform at all during ABT’s fall season. Nina Ananiashvili, who hails from Tbilisi, Georgia, will reportedly return in the spring, but the company isn’t disclosing the nature of her illness or injury.
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A New Intellectual-In-Chief
“Six months after the abrupt dismissal of its former editor, The American Scholar, one of the nation’s leading literary and intellectual journals, has found a successor. On Thursday, the Phi Beta Kappa Society, the journal’s publisher, named Robert S. Wilson to replace Anne Fadiman, whose departure after a budget dispute with the publisher led to the angry resignation of 20 contributing editors and board members.”
Behind The Fraud, Some Very Nice Instruments
The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra opens its season after a summer of turmoil surrounding the ensemble’s purchase of millions of dollars of possibly overvalued instruments from now-imprisoned financier Herbert Axelrod. And while the controversy is far from over, James Oestreich says that it’s nice to see the music once again taking center stage in Newark. “Whatever the collection may be worth beyond the smoke and mirrors of expert appraisals, no one questions that these are marvelous instruments and a boon to the orchestra.”
The Sounds Of 9/11
A new audio-guided walking tour of lower Manhattan has just launched, memorializing the fall of the World Trade Center towers. At first blush, the idea of listening to the horrific sounds of 9/11 seems like a ghastly exercise, but the tour, put together by two National Public Radio producers, blends together such a wide array of aural experiences that you can’t help but be drawn in.
Broadway Turned Into Sculpture Row
British sculptor Tom Otterness Otterness is mounting “the biggest one-man sculpture exhibition in New York City parks since a show of Henry Moore works in 1984.” Otterness is “well suited to the diversity and commercial energy of Broadway. He is both popular and populist — an artist whose sculptures are intended to work everywhere and be understood by almost everyone. The sculptures in ‘Tom Otterness on Broadway’ range in size from under 2 feet to over 20 feet tall.”
Broadway Turned Into Sculpture Row
Sculptor Tom Otterness is mounting “the biggest one-man sculpture exhibition in New York City parks since a show of Henry Moore works in 1984.” Otterness is “well suited to the diversity and commercial energy of Broadway. He is both popular and populist — an artist whose sculptures are intended to work everywhere and be understood by almost everyone. The sculptures in ‘Tom Otterness on Broadway’ range in size from under 2 feet to over 20 feet tall.”
Who’s In Line To Lead The Dallas Symphony…
Who will succeed Andrew Litton as music director of the Dallas Symphony? “One thing’s clear: The field is wide open. At least at this point, there’s no leading contender.” So here’s a list of the possibilities…
On The Architectural Menu This Fall…
This fall brings a number of important architecture events around America – from the opening of the Museum of Modern Art, to the opening of the Museum of the American Indian in Washington DC. Blair Kamin enumerates…
Schwarz’s Troubled Tenure At The Seattle Symphony
Gerard Schwarz has been music director of the Seattle Symphony for 20 years. But his hold on the orchestra has been troubled in recent seasons. “The reasons are many and complex, including increasing conflicts between influential members of the symphony’s board of trustees and Schwarz over artistic and administrative policies and doubts about his future value as music director…”
Grokking The Club Talkers
Why do some people go to clubs to listen to music, then spend the performance talking away? “Talkers embody the raw Darwinism of popular music. The harshest public trial for any unknown musician occurs on the night she opens for somebody else, to an entire room full of people prepared to ignore her. She’s got to compel someone to listen or the jungle will close over her.”