What’s a movie critic to do when he/she is reviewing a film with a strongly political slant? Should the critic’s political bias be prominent in the review? “The question of a critic’s bias is especially controversial with feature-film documentaries, which are not bound to reflect both sides of an issue; but even many works of fiction get assessed on the correctness of their worldview as much as on the quality of their aesthetics.”
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Orchestras Thrive In Colorado
The Colorado Symphony and the Colorado Springs Philharmonic both end their seasons with small surpluses. “The success enjoyed in the Springs is particularly impressive, considering that the orchestra started with no assets. It emerged out of the collapse last year, under the weight of a $1 million debt, of the Colorado Springs Symphony.”
Can You Teach Pleasure In Books?
“Educators say that from first through third grades, children learn to read; from fourth grade on, they read to learn. Often left out of this discussion is whether a person can be taught to love to read and when or how that happens. In a time when statistics tell us that reading literature for pleasure is on the wane, it seems important to look at our own relationships with books.”
Does It Help To Know A Composer?
Does knowing the composer make for a more authentic performance if you’re a performer? The answer is probably not, writes David Patrick Stearns. Association with a composer is no guarantee of anything, and when you see how unreliably composers themselves often have been with their own work…
North Of Music
“Iceland may have more musicians per capita than any country in the world. This nation of two hundred and ninety thousand people—roughly the same population as Cincinnati—has ninety music schools, about four hundred choirs, four hundred orchestras and marching bands, and some vast, unknown number of rock bands, jazz combos, and d.j.s. Before Björk ascended to world fame, in the early nineties, it never occurred to many outsiders that such a small country could have such an active music scene.”
A New Place For Choreographers
The first-ever National Choreographers Institute was recently held in Southern California. It featured four choreographers – Peter Pucci, James Sewell, Ann Marie DeAngelo and Lynne Taylor-Corbett…
Gotta (Commercially) Dance!
“Dancers are used to sell products and entertain visitors in a startling number of ways. There is work performing and choreographing on cruise ships, at theme parks, with live pop music acts, and for television, film and music videos. There’s even the more obscure world of “industrials” – conventions and conferences at which dance routines are used to market everything from computers to shoes. This is the world of commercial dance, which is generally distinct from the modern dance and ballet performances in a traditional theater space, known as “concert dance.” While plenty of little girls dream of becoming a prima ballerina, many others dream of being a Laker Girl. For a commercial dancer, the emphasis isn’t so much on the art of dance – it’s on the fun of it all.”
NJ Symphony To Investigate Instrument Purchase
After much controversy, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra has decided to “formally review its $17 million purchase of rare violins and other stringed instruments from philanthropist Herbert Axelrod last year, following revelations that some of the instruments are probably not authentic.”
Khouri Insists Her Book Not A Fraud
Norma Khouri is still maintaining her book is not a hoax, even after her publisher pulled the book from stores. “It didn’t take them [Random House] long to make up their minds. They gave her until Friday to respond to them and when she didn’t respond to them, they pulled the pin on her. They were obviously very anxious to move.”
Manly Men’s Reading Club Wins Reading Prize
A British reading club known as the Racketeers has been named “as recipients of the Penguin/Orange Reading Group Prize, awarded each year to the group who ‘demonstrate the most imaginative and diverse reading’ in Britain. The only all-male group among 700 entrants, their submission was entitled ‘Real Ale, Real Books, Real Men?’ and set out their mission: ‘The pub atmosphere is an integral part of our ethos. We like the noise, we like the beer, we like the idea of talking about literature in these surroundings. Other drinkers frequently express an interest in our discussions and sometimes get involved’.”