Category: people

Lest his new novel suggest anything else, Philip Roth would like you to know that he’s feeling just fine, and he’s invited some photographers to snap a few shots to prove the point. “The reason for Mr. Roth’s pre-emptive photographic strike is that ‘Everyman’ is a book about mortality. It begins in a graveyard and ends on the operating table. And Mr. Roth is hoping that the pictorial evidence on the book’s jacket will stave off autobiographical interpretations.”

In 20 years of running the Curtis Institute of Music, Gary Graffman has raised the school’s international profile, boosted its endowment, and expanded the school’s training beyond simple pursuit of orchestral jobs, traditionally considered the plum positions in the classical music world. “Behind the scenes, Graffman also managed to keep the school tuition-free and mostly deficit-free during a challenging time.”

As the Curtis Institute of Music prepares to transfer its top leadership post from pianist Gary Graffman to violist Roberto Diaz, Graffman says that all he ever tried to do was maintain an already outstanding level of musical achievement. He also feels that his whatever legacy he may have as longtime leader of one of the world’s most prestigious conservatories is wrapped up in the quality of the school’s students. “We try to adjust to the students, that they should not fit into a preset mold. We have to rein them in once in a while… The technical level of incoming students is obscenely high. It’s scary in some cases.”

Civic engineering is a vital part of urban life, but rarely does it provide us with a glimpse at pure beauty. “Isambard Kingdom Brunel, whose bicentenary we celebrate this month, changed the face of Britain. A restless polymath, he imbued the kingdom with gloriously ambitious railways, sensational steamships, revolutionary bridges and a new industrial-era architecture… His monuments are all around us – and they are as dramatic and useful today as they were in their Victorian heyday.”

“Now, at 34, Midori has begun commissioning new music in a joint initiative with the violinist Vadim Repin. She has also decided that as a musician and teacher, she has to do more than simply perform contemporary music. She has to persuade everyone, from reluctant arts administrators to confused audience members, that there is a good reason to listen.”

The arts have had a tough time getting a foot in the door of the reconstruction effort at New York’s Ground Zero. Two cultural organizations have already been driven out of the official plans by relatives of 9/11 victims, and plans for the official memorial museum are under constant scrutiny by countless interested parties. So why would anyone want the job of designing and launching such a museum? Alice Greenwald, who took the job, says it’s all about bringing people together, and knowing that not all of them will be pleased.

“Though his iconic buildings grace much of the planet, it’s only now, as conjurer of urban visions in Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary, that [Norman] Foster and Partners has seriously begun to infiltrate Canada…”

Lang Lang is only 23 years old, but his career as a pianist is at the top of the classical music world. “The Philadelphia-based pianist is professor in five conservatories in his native China – and just bought an apartment in Berlin. He plays 150 concerts a year, but he also appears on Sesame Street. There’s also that goodwill UNICEF ambassadorship to Africa.”

The author of the book of used for “The Graduate” is about to be evicted from his home. “Novelist Charles Webb, 66, and his partner have only days to pay two months’ overdue rent, totalling nearly £1,600, on their flat in Hove. Mr Webb wrote the book on which the 1967 movie starring Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft was based. The Californian author accepted a one-off payment of £14,000 for the novel, while the film made £60m.”

Dale Chihuly is the superstar of the glass art world. His enormous operation sells millions of dollars worth of glass each year. But lately Chihuly has hit a rough patch. He’s suing, he’s being sued, and he’s had major health problems…