Category: people

Though he never reconciled his love for books with the need to make money – the landlords seized his inventory in 2006 – Brown ran a place that was devoted to writers, readers, and lovers of idiosyncrasy, after he was recruited by original owner Frances Steloff in 1967. – The New York Times

Johnson, a sculptor who may be responsible for more double takes than anyone in history thanks to his countless lifelike creations in public places — a businessman in downtown Manhattan, surfers at a Florida beach, a student eating a sandwich on a curb in Princeton, N.J. — died on Tuesday at his home in Key West, Fla. – The New York Times

Known for his adherence to thorny modernism and his strong opinions, Wuorinen won the Pulitzer Prize in 1970 for Time’s Encomium (the first piece of electronic music to earn the honor) but is best known for his opera adaptations of Salman Rushdie’s Haroun and the Sea of Stories and Annie Proulx’s Brokeback Mountain. – Yahoo! (AP)

“Pop culture imagery and canonical works from art history were frequent subjects of Leirner’s painting and collages; think Velázquez’s court ladies swarmed by flies or a football stadium packed with Incredible Hulk cartoons and Power Rangers. Little in the zeitgeist was safe from Leirner’s ironic translation, which was rendered with a keen attention to composition and color.” – ARTnews

It’s enough, more than enough, really, for an artist to simply find a voice, to chisel it out of the noise and to keep it ringing clear across a lifetime. Though he tried lots of modes and moods, Tyner began his professional career in the early sixties as a fully formed artist, and his last albums, from the aughts, are not unlike his first. – Paris Review

Known as Bill Smith to the jazz world and William O. Smith in classical circles, Mr. Smith served on the University of Washington faculty from 1966-1997. He was a founding member of the Dave Brubeck Octet, which in 1947 pioneered a blend of classical music and jazz later known as Third Stream and had a profound influence on the development of West Coast, or “cool,” jazz. – Seattle Times

A client of Sol Hurok, she sang the major Italian dramatic roles at Europe’s leading opera houses, though much of her work at the Met was as a cover, going onstage at short notice. Her career ended abruptly in late 1979 when she contracted a severe case of Bell’s palsy. – Opera News

The culture minister was supposed to meet Tuesday with representatives from the cinema and performing arts industries to assess the impact of new measures taken to counter the Covid-19 epidemic, following Sunday’s decision to ban any public gathering of more than 1,000 people. In France, more than 300 concert halls and theaters, including the Opera House, the new Philharmonie de Paris or Le Zénith indoor arena, have 1,000-plus seats. The Salon du Livre, France’s annual showcase event for publishers, which was expecting 160,000 visitors from 20 to 23 March, had already been cancelled along with a rock and roll festival planned a week before on the French-Swiss border. – The Art Newspaper

“[He] appeared in the children’s chorus for the 1926 American premiere of Puccini’s uncompleted Turandot, conducted his own ending to the work some nine decades later, and in between had one of the longest careers as a maestro in modern times” — including founding a company (Opera Tampa) and conducting the premieres of several noted American operas, among them his own Sacco and Vanzetti. (And yes, he is part of the moviemaking family.) – The New York Times