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‘Reflective Nostalgia’: Alex Ross On Grieving For His Mother With Brahms

“Bach is undoubtedly music’s supreme companion of extreme distress. … But, on the plane to D.C. that night, Bach would have been too raw, too dire. With Brahms, everything passes through layers of reflection. He is the great poet of the ambiguous, in-between, nameless emotions: ambient unease, pervasive wistfulness, bemused resignation, contained rage, ironic merriment, smiling through tears, the almost pleasurable fatigue of deep depression. In a repertory full of arrested adolescents, he is the most adult of composers.” – The New Yorker

Envisioning A New, Post-Pandemic Dance World

“In many ways, we’ll have to start from scratch. So why not learn from this moment and rebuild our community on a stronger foundation? Why not use this opportunity to enact the desires, the dreams, the radical changes that we haven’t been bold enough to voice before? Why not reevaluate the systems and structures we’ve long seen as immutable? We talked to 10 leaders from across the field about how they’d radically reimagine the dance world.” – Dance Magazine

It Takes A Lot Of Work To Cancel A Big Arts Festival

“It’s bizarre to be this busy and not presenting music,” said an official at one festival; “We’ve had to unravel a pretty huge ball of yarn while transitioning to working remotely,” said another. Not only are there the issues of contacting patrons (individually, in some cases), testing the cancellation clauses of contracts, and dealing with lost income, there are problems like airlines giving (in place of refunds) travel credits to the ticket holder, not the festival who paid for the ticket. – The Post and Courier (Charleston)

How A Public Radio Station Raised $1 Million In 13 Hours With A Pandemic Pledge Drive

“[WBUR in Boston] had planned to return to a full eight-day campaign in 2020, after doing a marathon-themed 26.2-hour version for the past few years. … Months of planning for the original drive, however, went out the window when the coronavirus [hit].” Here’s what CEO Margaret Low (who had been in the job for less than three months) and the WBUR staff did instead. – Nieman Lab

Actor Brian Dennehy, 81

“Standing 6-foot-3, Mr. Dennehy had a booming voice and an often intimidating screen presence. … [He] was celebrated for his work as a character actor in Hollywood and on television, where he earned six Emmy nominations. But he received even greater acclaim for his performances on the stage, starring in revivals of classic plays including O’Neill’s The Iceman Cometh, Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard and Bertolt Brecht’s Life of Galileo,” as well as the two productions for which he won Tony Awards, Miller’s Death of a Salesman and O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night. “‘If it doesn’t scare me,’ he once said of theatrical roles, ‘I’m not interested.'” – The Washington Post

Hollywood Writes Off Making Money In 2020

“We have to write off 2020. It’s already the year that didn’t happen,” says one top agent at one of the town’s powerhouse firms who, like everyone reached by Vulture for this story, requested anonymity due to sensitivities surrounding ongoing business endeavors. “We’re not going to make any money because there are no revenues with TV and movies not getting made. – New York Magazine

Armageddon For Print Media?

Much of what was going to happen in any case will now happen suddenly: publishing history is suddenly accelerated. The shift from print to digital at virtually all publications will be radically sped up. A lot of publishers are simply going to run out of cash. One regional publisher has being ringing up contractors asking if it can delay payments by three months at least. – BBC