A second guest post by Penny Brill, Pittsburgh Symphony violist and alumna of the Community Engagement Training offered by ArtsEngaged. Here she continues her advocacy for musicians to participate in community engagement efforts.
Blog
“In C” for performance on any laptop, thanks to LUTE
Terry Riley’s 1964 ingenious, joyful and warm composition In C can now be performed by anyone with a laptop, regardless of their previous musical or technological experience, thanks to the Loyola University Technology Ensemble (LUTE), which has created an In C app. LUTE gave a demonstration concert in New Orleans this past Sunday, and Howard Mandel took part.
Fashion Photography Is Thriving In Print – But Ads Dictate The Genre
Fashion is about the only ad category in the print edition that looks healthy. Visual arts reviews used to be surrounded by notices paid for by art galleries. Now that Friday section is lucky to have a small promo from one of the auction houses. Other sections of the newspaper are even more ad-deprived. Sports and Metropolitan commonly have none. The New York Times Sunday Magazine, once fattened with messages from General Motors and Coca-Cola, is an editorial skeleton without commercial muscle. Only the perfect-bound T has flesh on its bones.
Can We Irony-Saturated Smart-Asses Of 2018 Still Understand Ingmar Bergman?
“While the majority of Bergman’s movies are available for streaming (largely thanks to Criterion) and cinephiles will always be viewing and discussing them, most audiences today know about his work only through parodies of The Seventh Seal” — the one about the medieval knight who plays chess with Death.
Construction Workers In Egypt Stumble Upon A Previously Unknown Sphinx
While some news outlets compared the discovery to a second version of the monumental Great Sphinx of Giza, the new find seems to be more of a country cousin. But in a nation struggling to rebuild its tourism industry, every new antiquity helps.
Here’s A Theory Of Frank Oz – What Does Frank Oz Think Of It?
“It goes like this: More people on Earth have borne witness to Frank Oz’s characters, be it puppet or person, than any other artist in recorded human history. Between the Muppets (in all its forms), the Star Wars franchise, and Sesame Street, Oz has had a part of three of the biggest entertainment juggernauts of the last-half century.” Oz’s response? “My mind isn’t able to grasp that, it’s too large a concept.”
The Unmaking Of Barnes And Noble
Sales are falling. The Nook, Barnes & Noble’s attempt at selling electronic books, became a financial drain. Critics say the company lacks direction, sometimes seeming to prioritize sales of gifts and tchotchkes over books. For investors, the impact is already evident: Barnes & Noble’s stock price is down 60 percent over the last three years. Publishers are worried that a crucial pipeline for book sales could be crumbling.
The Art Institute Of Chicago Is A Fundraising Powerhouse – How Do The Folks There Do It?
“Interviews with six of the museum’s 40-person development team reveal that it’s a mix of art, science and alchemy.”
Oregon Bach Festival – What Happens When A Venerable Festival Fires Its Artistic Director And Loses The Vision
Judging from the seven events I saw this year, OBF 2018 was below the standards of years past. Nothing distinguished it from an ordinary lineup of classical fare. No artistic vision unified the schedule or oversaw the standards of performance. Engaging with how a particular conductor thinks about music was no longer possible for devoted audience members. Following that conductor’s musical talent (first Rilling, then Halls) from year to year and piece to piece has been the most important feature of OBF. With the absence of a world-class musician heading the festival, I felt a profound artistic void.
Fakir Musafar, Pioneer Of ‘Body Play’ Art, Dead At 87
“Fakir Musafar first found pleasure in pain as a teenager named Roland Loomis in his family’s basement in the mid-1940s. It was the beginning of a lifelong passion for piercing, branding, tattooing, suspension, corseting and other outré practices that he would come to call ‘body play.’ After years of conducting these activities in secret, away from society’s judgmental gaze, he changed his professional name and became a performance artist and passionate body-play advocate.”