Category: people

“As the executive director of the American Guild of Musical Artists, Mr. Gordon represented chorus members, soloists, dancers, choreographers and production personnel at major companies across the country, from the Metropolitan Opera and New York City Ballet to the San Francisco Opera and San Francisco Ballet. Since many cultural institutions have been trying to curb their spending, he often used unorthodox tactics to fight for the interests of his members.”

“What do a Manhattan-based billionaire, a naked Russian model, and a loaded gun have to do with one of the biggest tax fraud trials in French history now underway in Paris?”

“I found that I couldn’t walk steadily and veered, first into a wall, then into a parked car. I placed my hand to my neck, and it came away covered in blood.” In an essay, the playwright recounts the attack, which happened this past Thanksgiving weekend.

“As a young composer he had matched intelligence with great force of mind: He knew what had to be done, according to his reading of history, and he did it, in defiance of all the norms of French musical culture at the time.” As a conductor, “his keen ear and rhythmic incisiveness would often produce a startling clarity. (There are countless stories of him detecting, for example, faulty intonation from the third oboe in a complex orchestral texture.)”

“Police investigated for two weeks before arresting the aide on Tuesday. The aide was arraigned in Manhattan criminal court on a charge of felony assault. She was released without bail.”

“Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi identified openness and sensitivity as oppositional personality elements that not only coexist in creative performers, but form the core of their personalities. This paradox helps explain how performers can be bold and charismatic on the one hand and emotionally fragile on the other.”

“In prison, Cluchey received an education on what it was to be on Beckett’s stage. It allowed him to love Beckett’s work. That, in turn, made him into a man Beckett himself could love.”

Ahmad Naser Sarmast, director of the Afghanistan National Institute of Music, was the target of a 2014 suicide bombing; he’s still partially deaf, and he has shrapnel in his brain. In response, he’s made the school more secure, kept all of his teaching staff, and began giving free concerts to refugees from camps.

“The police claimed that handmade explosives were thrown at their forces by the group, but upon reviewing the evidence a Turkish judge released all of the detainees on Sunday, January 3.”

“It comes down to the question of who gets to decide what’s good for black people. Should all kinds of blackness be shown, or should its representation be curated? To Perry, no one should have the authority to make that call.”