“Classical musicians of African descent have existed on the margins of obscurity for centuries — in the classroom, the concert hall, the record industry, and on the radio,” says Terrance McKnight, evening host at New York classical radio station WQXR. In this radio special for Juneteenth, he talks to Wynton Marsalis, Martina Arroyo (one of the great operatic sopranos of the 1960s and ’70s), composers Alvin Singleton and Leslie Dunner, Nashville Symphony principal oboist Titus Underwood, and other guests as well as listeners about working as an African-American in the classical music industry. (audio) – WQXR (New York City)
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After Years Of Criticism, An Off-Broadway Institution All At Once Agrees To Pay Its Actors
When the Flea Theater was founded by Sigourney Weaver, playwright Mac Wellman and two others in 1996, it was intended to have no stable location and to shut down after five years. Twenty-six years later, the Flea is still here, and in its own $21 million, three-theater building. Yet it continued to operate like a shoestring enterprise, requiring its actors to work for free both on- and offstage. Helen Shaw reports on how the current moment of racial reckoning shocked the Flea into addressing its problems with both pay and inclusion. – Vulture
Please (Don’t) Touch (Without Hand Sanitizer): How Children’s Museums And Interactive Exhibits Are Trying To Reopen Safely
“As states ease restrictions, many museums and animal attractions are next in line to reopen, if they haven’t already. Like other businesses, they must enforce social distancing rules and reduce touch points, measures that run counter to their high level of interactivity. … To better understand how attractions are reimagining their experiences, we reached out to several museums, aquariums, zoos and wildlife centers in the country. Here is a snapshot of their look-Ma-no-hands plans.” – The Washington Post
Utah Symphony | Utah Opera Hires New CEO
Steven Brosvik comes to Utah from the Nashville Symphony, where he was Chief Operating Officer. He has previously worked in management at the Baltimore, Houston, and San Antonio Symphony Orchestras. – Deseret News (Salt Lake City)
Director Kirill Serebrennikov Convicted Of Embezzlement In Case Many See As Trumped-Up
The 50-year-old Russian, celebrated at home and overseas for his productions of theatre, film, and opera, is artistic director of the Gogol Center, Moscow’s most celebrated stage for avant-garde and dissident work. (He is also a frequent critic of Vladimir Putin.) He and two colleagues were convicted of stealing 129 million rubles ($1.8 million) in government funding designated for projects that, prosecutors alleged (and the judge agreed), never took place — even though many people saw the productions and they were covered in the press. – Yahoo! (AFP)
Boris Johnson’s Government Releases ‘Roadmap’ To Restarting Live Performance; Arts World Says, Is That All There Is?
“On Thursday, Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden published the five-stage plan for a ‘phased return’, which will initially let performances take place outdoors, with indoors performances to follow later.” The plan is being widely dismissed as inadequate: one theatre exec called it “as useful a map as a snakes and ladders board,” and the chair of the Writers’ Guild said that “a road map is only any use if you have enough petrol to get you where you need to go.” – BBC
Dixie Chicks Drop The “Dixie”
The band’s social media accounts and website were changed Thursday to reflect the new name for the band, which is made up of Martie Maguire, Natalie Maines and Emily Strayer. “We want to meet this moment,” read a statement on The Chicks’ website, which also noted that the trio recognizes the name was already in use by a band in New Zealand. – CBC (Reuters)
We’re Witnessing The Death Of Shopping Malls
By mid-May, 28 percent of the surveyed members of Restaurants Canada, which represents 30,000 restaurants and food-service operations across the country, either said they were never reopening or predicted they would close unless conditions quickly improved. After rent came due on June 1, nearly half of the members of the Retail Council of Canada reported they had not been able to pay their rent at all; over a quarter of them said that landlords had threatened to either change their locks or formally evict them as tenants. – The Walrus
Our Enduring Myths Of College
Thirty-four million Americans—over a tenth of the nation’s population—have some college credits but dropped out before graduating. They are nearly twice as likely as college graduates to be unemployed and four times more likely to default on student loans. That’s a scandal for the nation, not just for higher education. We like to imagine college as an egalitarian force, which reduces the gap between rich and poor. But over the past four decades it has mostly served to reinforce or even to widen that gap. – New York Review of Books
Performance Reviews For Statues?
While some have suggested placing these statues in a museum or leaving them to deteriorate naturally, I propose another way: a statue of limitations, where towns and cities would hold a mass review of their monuments, say every 50 years. At that point, citizens would be tasked with deciding whether to maintain the memorials as they are, reimagine them, or remove them from the public square for good. – The Atlantic