“The Philadelphia Orchestra Association has withdrawn its invitation to Plácido Domingo to appear as part of its Opening Night concert on September 18, 2019. We are committed to providing a safe, supportive, respectful, and appropriate environment for the Orchestra and staff, for collaborating artists and composers, and for our audiences and communities.” – Philadelphia Inquirer
Blog
Almost All Languages Have Some Version Of The Expression, ‘It’s Greek To Me’
Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish, Norwegian, and Dutch, along with English, assign Greek this particular honor. In the Baltic languages, it’s Spanish; the Bulgarians use “Patagonian.” And the Greeks? They, along with more nations than any other, use Chinese to signify the incomprehensible. Dan Nosowitz looks into the origins of the expression. – Atlas Obscura
Refugees, Migrants And The Role(s) Of The Arts
According to the annual Global Trends Report from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, released on June 19, nearly 70.8 million people worldwide had been displaced as of the end of last year. Add to that approximately 13.6 million individuals displaced so far in 2019. “We are now witnessing the highest level of displaced persons on record,” says the UNHCR, a fact that affects all aspects of modern society and social progress, including the arts. – Clyde Fitch Report
In Russia, Stand-Up Comedy Is New. Female Comedians Are Very New — But They’re Catching On
“Slowly at first — but now in increasing numbers — Russian female comics are taking to the stage to challenge the status quo. Embedded in the humor are also serious reckonings on their countrymen’s grip on power, both in the Kremlin and over their personal lives.” – The Washington Post
12-Year-Old Debuts His First Broadway Musical
“I was bitten by the theater bug from a very, very young age,” he tells The Post in his high-pitched voice. Just weeks after the family moved to New York from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Josh, then 8, signed with an agent and booked a job. He’s hardly stopped working since. – New York Post
”Apocalypse Now’ Is Not An Anti-War Film’, Says Its Director
Francis Ford Coppola: “No one wants to make a pro-war film, everyone wants to make an anti-war film. But an anti-war film, I always thought, should be … something filled with love and peace and tranquility and happiness. It shouldn’t have sequences of violence that inspire a lust for violence. Apocalypse Now has stirring scenes of helicopters attacking innocent people. That’s not anti-war.” – The Guardian
Bob Wilber, Who Specialized In Early Jazz, Dead At 91
“While other budding jazz musicians of the 1940s were enamored of the daring bebop innovations of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, Mr. Wilber, … a clarinetist and saxophonist who was a protege of Sidney Bechet, one of the founding fathers of jazz, … looked toward the past for inspiration. He found it in the music of the 1920s.” – The Washington Post
Memoir By Kurdish Prisoner In Australia’s Offshore Migrant Camp Keeps Winning Book Awards (Which He Accepts Via WhatsApp)
Behrouz Boochani’s No Friend but the Mountains, which recounts his escape from Iran to Indonesia and onward to Australia by boat, has just won the $25,000 National Biography Award, the fourth prize it has received in a year. Boochani composed the book text message by text message, which he sent from the detention center on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea. – The Guardian
Metro DC’s National Philharmonic Is Officially Saved From Bankruptcy
“On Saturday afternoon, the orchestra’s board voted unanimously for a transition plan … which calls for the exit of the orchestra’s top leadership [and] brings a temporary close to weeks of tension between the orchestra’s musicians and senior administration.” – The Washington Post
The Most Visited Single-Artist Museum In The World? It’s Not The Van Gogh Museum Anymore
“The art collective teamLab’s new, immersive museum in Tokyo attracted more visitors than the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam last year, and twice the combined number of visitors to the three Dalí museums in Spain. … In its first year of operation, teamLab Borderless in Tokyo attracted 2.3 million visitors in total. A further 1.2 million visitors enjoyed the collective’s temporary immersive light experience in Japan’s capital.” – Artnet