Category: people

“[Lenny] marched in Selma with Harry Belafonte, he brought black conductors to Tanglewood in the ’50s and in the ’60s integrated the Philharmonic by hiring violinist Sanford Allen. To raise money for civil rights organizations, he also hosted jazz in the afternoon at his house, and when John F. Kennedy was assassinated, he called for André Watts to play Beethoven at the memorial.” Here’s a one-hour audio documentary by WQXR host Terrance McKnight on Bernstein’s activism for racial equaliy. – WQXR (New York City)

“After pleading guilty in September to filing false tax returns that claimed she had taken in millions of dollars less than was the reality, Mary Boone — an art dealer with roots in New York’s 1970s-era SoHo scene and galleries in the present in Midtown and Chelsea — was sentenced on Thursday to 30 months in prison in New York’s Southern District Court. – ARTnews

“Paperbacks had existed in the U.S. since colonial times, but in the 1930s were limited mostly to poorly made ‘pulp’ novels. … [Betty and her husband Ian] started out as importers of Penguin paperbacks from England and founded two enduring imprints: Bantam Books and Ballantine Books, both now part of Penguin Random House.” – Yahoo! (AP)

Adams has seven Grammys and 16 albums, and was seen as a champion of women artists’ careers. But some now say that Adams’s rock-star patronage masked a darker reality. In interviews, seven women and more than a dozen associates described a pattern of manipulative behavior in which Adams dangled career opportunities while simultaneously pursuing female artists for sex.  – The New York Times

“[He] was an extraordinarily prolific author who published more than 100 books, many of which found favor with children and parents alike. His collaborating with leading book artists” — among them Maurice Sendak, Edward Gorey, and Norman Rockwell — “was one measure of the esteem with which his work was held; they can be notably selective about what children’s book authors they’ll work with.” – The New York Times

A performer “of powerful, regal demeanor,” Tomlinson was a member, in turn, of Dance Theater of Harlem, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and New York City Ballet. He was most celebrated for his performance in the Balanchine-Stravinsky ballet Agon, which he learned from its originator, Arthur Mitchell, at DTH and from Mr. B. himself at NYCB. – The New York Times

So what happened? Instagram has now tweeted that the follower loss was not the result of a fake user account culling, but instead due to a glitch they are still looking in to.  – Fast Company

“[He] was one of a group of artists who … blew past utilitarian definitions of what clay was good for and made experimental, often very large works that ended up in galleries and museums rather than craft shows. A dramatic example was Blue Wall, an abstract clay wall piece 21 feet by 7 feet, created in 1959. – The New York Times

“[This] ebullient film buff … led a campaign to restore scores of largely forgotten short sound films from the 1920s and ’30s that featured comedians, vaudevillians, opera singers and musical acts. … Those early shorts used Vitaphone, a Bell Labs technology, which synchronized the speeds of the film projector and a turntable that played 16-inch sound discs.” – The New York Times

“Over the course of the more than half-century of relentless experimentation that followed, Ryman radically expanded the possibilities of abstract painting, continuously rethinking how it could be made and what it could look like, even while seeming to confine himself to a single color: white. His death … brings to a close one of the singular careers in postwar America art.” – ARTnews