“Aged 36, Jing [Huan] is part of a new breed of foreign-trained conductors, as China hopes to gain recognition in the field after winning global fame for its soloists, including piano and string virtuosos. After long relying on Western conductors, a growing number of symphony orchestras around the country are now entrusting the baton to a fresh generation of Chinese musical directors.”
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Christine Nöstlinger, 81, Prolific, Award-Winning Children’s Author
“[Her] more than 150 books — including works about an oppressive ‘cucumber king’ who lords over a cellar and a ‘factory-made boy’ who always goes to bed on time — earned her some of the highest honors in children’s literature, … sold millions of copies and were translated into 30 languages.”
The Challenges (And Rewards) Of Producing “Cyrano” In Prison
“We just sat in chairs and read the script,” said Mr. Scatamacchia, who is 63 and retired from the music-publishing industry. “‘What are you saying here?’ ‘What does this mean?’ I encouraged them to rewrite their dialogue in modern jargon. These guys are just talking to each other.” Both performances — one for the inmates and another for about 100 outsiders — were well received, despite the periodic interruption of a prison guard’s walkie-talkie. It wasn’t hard to imagine that some of the men were being applauded for the first time in their lives.
Kansas Governor Complains About Artist’s Flag Depiction And University Takes It Down
“Untitled (Flag 2)” by German artist Josephine Meckseper was intended to serve as commentary on the deep divisions in the United States, according to a statement by the artist. Meckseper drip painted a rough illustration of the U.S. on the flag and a striped sock in the left-hand corner to symbolize children imprisoned on the border. Some are viewing the work as an affront to active military and veterans. Among them is Kansas governor Jeff Colyer, who called for the flag’s removal in a statement Wednesday.
Can Boston Re-Establish Itself As The Big Pre-Broadway Tryout Town?
“Composer Richard Rodgers, of Rodgers & Hammerstein fame, used to say he wouldn’t open a can of tomatoes without first bringing it to Boston. … It’s been a long time since the Hub had that kind of clout. But now a major new player, the UK-based Ambassador Theatre Group, and Emerson College are pouring millions of dollars into making the Emerson Colonial Theatre a venue for pre-Broadway tryouts.”
Are Podcasts And Audio Books Converging?
I believe the way to think about this is to see all audio content providers — from the conventional podcasts of the open ecosystem to everything on Audible to whatever Anchor will become to Headspace plus whatever subscription-first audio platforms come over the horizon to the entire digital music ecosystem — as fighting from the same cochlear real estate.
As Arts Philanthropy Pivots To Addressing Social Issues, How Do Big, Lumbering Legacy Organizations Keep Up?
Mike Scutari considers the issues involved in general and looks at how one particular old behemoth, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is working with a charitable trust on a residency program for artists in such underserved New York communities as East Harlem and Bedford-Stuyvesant.
How Two Major Ballet Company Bosses Are Trying To Change The Culture Of Bullying And Passivity
Judith Mackrell talks about counteracting the powerful forces of discipline/submissiveness, competition, ego, and tradition with Royal Ballet artistic director Kevin O’Hare (“We had issues with one guest coming in recently who was behaving in ways that we aren’t used to any more”) and Scottish Ballet artistic director Christopher Hampson (“We have 40 dancers, and there are still about 15 who would rather I shouted at them and tell them what to do.”).
How Instagram Is Messing Up The Dance World’s Value System
Theresa Ruth Howard: “There are the … dance feeds that I find myself simultaneously intrigued and horrified by: the hyper-elastic, hyper-extended, gumby-footed girls always at the barre doing developpés to six o’clock. There are the multiple turners, the avid stretchers and we can’t forget the endless balancers. … This is a slippery slope. Surfing Instagram is like watching the virtue of dance as a high art deteriorate in real time. Who and what goes viral is a reflection of a newly-forming value system. With each ‘like’ and ‘follow,’ we vote on the future of our field.”
Secrets Of The Mummies: 2,500-Year-Old Embalming Workshop Discovered In Egypt
“A mummification workshop and adjoining burial shaft as well as five mummies, their bejewelled sarcophagi, figurines, and a gilded silver and onyx mummy mask were all unearthed at the [Saqqara] site, which archeologists say provides a wealth of new knowledge about the mummification process.”