Believed to be the first woman to play tuba in a fully professional orchestra in the U.S., she was hired by the Boston Pops in 1955, after her second time at Tanglewood, and went on to hold positions in the North Carolina Symphony, the Netherlands Ballet Orchestra, and the Kansas City Philharmonic. (For a time, she was acting principal tuba for the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam.) A Florida native, she spent most of her career, more than 30 years, at the University of Miami and the Miami Philharmonic. – The New York Times
Blog
Hunter College Laid Off Half Its College Art Assistants. The Other Half Is Threatening Not To Work
With an average enrollment of 125 students, Hunter’s art department is one of the largest in the US. The college assistants are usually given one-year contracts, with benefits, and they are responsible for maintaining and running the department’s facilities, equipment, and supplies, in addition to overseeing the use of studio spaces, tools, and training students. – The Art Newspaper
How Much Difference Does Rotten Tomatoes Really Make In A Movie’s Success?
“As recently as a few years ago, the movie-review aggregator was seen as something of an industry bogeyman. But is there a correlation between box office receipts and a high (or low) score on the Tomatometer? We dug deep into the numbers to determine that.” – The Ringer
So What Are Straw Man Arguments Really For?
One wonders how straw man arguments function. Our answer is that straw men arguments do their rhetorical work not on the speaker depicted as made of straw, but rather on an audience of argumentative onlookers, often selected specifically for the argument by the straw-manner. – 3 Quarks Daily
This Manuscript Book May Be The Only Surviving Relic Of Thomas Becket
The elaborate shrine to Becket at Canterbury Cathedral, where he was Archbishop and where he was murdered at the altar by King Henry II’s knights in 1170, was smashed to bits by Protestant iconoclasts during the English Reformation. Every remnant and relic of the man was destroyed. Now an illuminated psalter held at one of the Cambridge colleges has been identified as having belonged to Becket. – Apollo
There’s One Place In Times Square That’s Already Presenting Indoor Broadway Concerts
Thank goodness for liquor-law loopholes, because one of them is the reason that Open Jar Studios, a complex normally used for rehearsals, has become the only indoor venue in New York City presenting live performances. The thorough COVID-safety measures that Open Jar has in place could be a good example of what we’ll see elsewhere before long. – Gothamist
More Pay Cuts And Layoffs At Pittsburgh Symphony
“To alleviate the [lockdown-induced budget] shortfall, orchestra musicians have amended their contract to take a 25% cut in base salary in the 2020-21 season and a 50% cut in overscale pay. … Previously, musicians had accepted a cut of 10% in May and then 20% in July. … The administrative staff is changing the status of 30% of its full-time staff — 25 people — through a reduction of hours, furloughs, layoffs and position elimination through attrition.” – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Kennedy Center Spent More Than $50 Million To Present ‘Hamilton’
That amount is almost five times what the complex paid producers to put on the next most expensive show, the Broadway tour of The Book of Mormon in 2015. The price is also more than theaters in other American cities paid, even on a per-performance basis, though higher ticket prices in D.C. made up that difference. Yet the Kennedy Center made back almost all of the money on ticket sales alone, and that’s before the extra revenue from ticket-processing fees, snack and gift shop sales, and new subscriptions. – The Washington Post
Philadelphia Museum Of Art COO To Step Down Next Year (Not At All Because Of This Year’s Scandals)
“[Gail] Harrity, 70, who joined the museum in 1997 as chief operating officer and was named president in 2009” — that is, second-in-command after the museum’s director — “has been on top of virtually every building project of note at the museum for the last 15 years. And there have been plenty.” However, “museum officials said Harrity’s departure was unrelated to the turmoil that has afflicted the institution this year.” – The Philadelphia Inquirer
UK Culture Secretary Says He Wants To See Performance Venues Open As Normal For Christmas
Using articles in this past weekend’s Mail on Sunday and Sunday Times, secretary Oliver Dowden announced what he’s calling “Operation Sleeping Beauty,” a plan “to bring back some of the magic of theatre for families this Christmas … We need to start filling seats in much larger numbers – not just for the audiences, not just for the venues and livelihoods who depend on them, but for the entire urban economy, too.” (The performing arts community is responding with — well, not cautious optimism, more like optimistic caution.) – WhatsOnStage (London)