“A new wave of artists and curators have relocated to South Florida. Dealers and fairs have followed suit and infused Miami with the promise of becoming a capital of contemporary Latin American art.”
Blog
Out Of The Garage – Dominating This Year’s SXSW Fest
This year’s SXSW conference in Austin Texas found “many of the acts that generated the most buzz during the five-day lineup of 1,000-plus bands came from outside the country.” This year’s dominant music: “Garage bands were definitely the rage this year, a trend that felt like overkill by the end of the week. Many of the groups came up through the same Detroit scene that spawned the Stripes, which led to a quip by the singer of the black-clad Motor City band the Electric Six: ‘If this were the Olympics, [Detroit] would be like Russia’.”
War Fears As Maastrict Fair Opens
The European Fine Art Fair opens in Maastricht with 200 of the world’s most prestigious galleries in attendance. “The art and antiques for sale are breathtaking, and are estimated to be worth a total of about £600 million this year. Some 60 per cent of the world’s currently available supply of good-quality Dutch and Flemish Old Master paintings are on show.” But dealers are worried what impact an Iraq war will have. “Maastricht airport once famously ran out of parking space for private jets during the fair, but this year there are fears that there may be plenty of spare tarmac alongside the runway.”
Bob Moog’s Back With The World’s Greatest Synthesizer – But What’s It Called?
Forty years ago Bob Moog invented the first synthesizer. It defined electronic music in the 1960s. Now Moog is back with what he calls the greatest synthesizer ever made. It’s his first instrument in decades. Only one problem: “British trademark law means that the 70-year-old creative genius cannot sell his synth under the internationally recognised brands of Moog Music or Minimoog, because they have been appropriated by an entrepreneur in Wales.”
Why Sarah Vaughan Was One Of The 20th Century’s Great Voices
A reissue of Sarah Vaughan’s recordings give insight into what made her one of the great singers of the 20th Century. Yet she was also careless about protecting her musical gifts. “Essentially, she was correct in her belief that miracles, like her voice itself, not only happen but, like diamonds, are forever. Or, at least, they should come with a lifetime guarantee. Her voice, which ripened with age into plummier, darker depths, really was a like a precious gift from heaven that just kept on giving. It kept on giving, in fact, right up until the lifelong, two-pack-a-day smoker died from lung cancer at 66 in 1990.”
Guggenheim To Build Rio Outpost
The Art Newspaper is reporting that the Guggenheim has made a deal to open a branch in Rio de Janeiro. “The so-called Guggenheim Rio will be the New York-based foundation’s first outpost in South America, augmenting a global network that presently includes the Frank Lloyd Wright flagship in Manhattan, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, the Guggenheim Bilbao, the Deutsche Guggenheim Berlin, and the Guggenheim Hermitage Museum in Las Vegas. The city-run museum will be housed in a striking new building designed by French architect Jean Nouvel and set within the waters of beautiful Guanabara Bay, affording sweeping views of the picturesque harbour whose entrance is marked by the famous ‘Sugar Loaf’. Construction is to begin this summer with completion scheduled for late 2006.”
International Ballet Fest Seems More Like Competition
The Kennedy Center’s International Ballet Festival has, in many ways, “been successful – the sold-out houses, the fodder for discussions of style, form and substance, the views of dancers and works we do not often see here. One hopes it will inspire more such collaborative events. But in some ways the festival has been indifferently executed. In the parade of excerpts that has constituted the bulk of the festival, excerpts performed without sets, out of context and lacking atmosphere, what has been missing is the very thing this festival was designed to highlight: artistic impact and style. Why did the Kennedy Center allow the companies free rein?”
Making Out To Mozart? Really?
Showing a little skin to try to sell recordings is one thing, but a new series of “classical” (and we use the term advisedly) recordings is right over the top. “Shacking Up To Chopin, Making Out To Mozart and Bedroom Bliss With Beethoven are the three albums in the Love Notes series. Each claims to be “the perfect addition to intimate moments” and boasts a selection of “teasing, tantalising and suggestive melodies with rapturous crescendos”. They also promise to provoke “uninhibited passion”, “loss of control” and “sleepless nights of the best kind”.
San Antonio Symphony Catches Up On Some Of Its Bills
The San Antonio Symphony, which announced two weeks ago that it didn’t have enough money to make its payroll or pay more than $400,000 in past-due bills, says it has raised $200,000 since then, enough to pay musicians for the delayed payroll and cover some of the payroll due today. The musicians agreed to continue playing, and most staffers remained on the job. “The symphony has collected about $200,000 in individual gifts and proceeds from benefits hastily organized by other organizations concerned for the orchestra’s survival.”
Cutting Back The Arts In The Twin Cities
Minneapolis/St. Paul arts institutions are cutting back their operations in response to a downturn in funding. “The Guthrie Theater said it plans to pare its core staff by 10 percent or more within a few weeks. The Ordway Center for the Performing Arts said it has eliminated eight of its 68 jobs, half through layoffs. The Minnesota Opera Company will shorten its coming season, and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts will start closing earlier on Fridays next week. Last month, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra cut 10 administrative positions from a staff of 45. Other leading arts groups, including the Minnesota Orchestra and the Walker Art Center, have reduced staff size through attrition and job consolidation.”