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Boston Ballet Fires Ballet Mistress

Eva Evdokimova, brought to Boston Ballet last year by new Artistic Director Mikko Nissinen as ballet mistress, has been fired for “economic reasons.” “Undisputedly one of the world’s finest ballet teachers, Evdokimova is also one of the most acclaimed performers in recent history. Born in 1948, she was the first American to win a gold medal at the 1970 International Ballet Competition in Varna, Bulgaria. She went on to dance with such prominent companies as the Royal Danish Ballet, The Kirov, Paris Opera Ballet, American Ballet Theater and National Ballet of Canada, to mention only a few.”

Australian TV Makes Cuts In Kids Programming

The Australian Broadcasting Company has shut down two channels aimed at children, saying that the government had not funded the broadcaster sufficiently and that cuts needed to be made. “ABC managing director Russell Balding told a Senate estimates committee in Canberra that apart from the children’s channels, up to $25 million in programming or jobs would be be cut by mid-year. “I don’t cry wolf. This is very serious. The ABC needs to be properly funded, and when we put the arguments to the Government that we needed additional funding for content it was not a matter of crying wolf – it was serious.”

The Case Of The Conductor Who Stabbed Himself Onstage

“David Tilling, of Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, thrust the baton through his hand while rehearsing Land of Hope and Glory, by Elgar. He finished conducting the piece but then collapsed. Some of his bandsmen feared he was having a heart attack. A few may even have been aware of a disturbing precedent: at a concert in a Parisian church in 1687, the composer Jean-Baptiste Lully stabbed himself in the foot while conducting. Gangrene set in and killed him…”

If Museums Ruled The World…

Should museums take a hand in running British schools? That’s a proposal made last week education secretary, Charles Clarke to representatives of major London museums. “Most museums already work closely with schools through outreach and education programmes. But Mr Clarke’s proposals go further, and involve giving museums, which have charitable status and receive government and local subsidies, a role in the management and running of schools.”

Lure ‘Em In With Something New

When times are tough, how do you lure in audiences? “Two theories are doing the rounds. One says the only way to lure back the crowds is by going shamelessly populist. The other, unhelpfully, states the opposite: that you are most likely to prise open wallets when money is tight if you offer them something unusual, unrepeatable and unmissable. There can be no argument as to which camp the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra belongs in. In an amazing four-day festival in Birmingham from Thursday it offers (in conjunction with its sister ensemble, the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group) no fewer than 18 big, bold, bracing blasts of contemporary music, most of them composed in the past five years.”

Canada Announces New Political Museum

The Canadian government plans to “turn a near century-old train station in downtown Ottawa into a museum on Canadian history and politics. ‘Our political history is a rich one that needs to be told. This centre will be a meeting place where academics, students and visitors will be able to learn how Canada came about’.” The project is expected to cost $90 million, and museum critics are complaining that the money coule be better spent helping museums that are already struggling for funding.

Moving San Francisco Across Europe

What does it take to move the San Francisco Symphony across Europe on its $1.8 million tour? “In between transatlantic flights on commercial airliners, the tour schedule includes six chartered flights, two train rides (including one on Eurostar, the new high-speed train that runs from London to Brussels through the Channel Tunnel) and three bus trips for short run-outs to cities such as Brighton and Dusseldorf. But that’s just the humans. Running in tandem, in two climate-controlled trucks, is the cargo – almost 11 tons of evening clothes, cellos and basses, trombones and bassoons and harps and cymbals.”

Artist Thrown In Jail Over Bush Comment

A Bay Area artist upset about George Bush’s war on Iraq got into a heated political argument in an Emeryville furniture store. When he mentioned the words “kill Bush” it was the “wrong move in a place filled with American flags and run by military veterans who support the president. Store employees called police, who alerted the Secret Service. Hours after entering the furniture store to buy cubicle partitions for a fellow artist’s project, Barry Schwartz was sitting in a small room in the Emeryville police station, being interrogated by two Secret Service agents.” He spent the next two days in jail.

Britons Agonize Over Why No One Liked Their Song

Britain has won five Eurovision Song Contests. So Britons are furious that their representative this year didn’t pick up a single vote. politics to blame? Maybe a “post-Iraqi backlash”? Or were viewers in Europe “engaging in political voting against a country out of step with the rest of Europe?” Maybe there an “element of vote-rigging going on, with geographical allies voting for each other.”