“The dirty secret of the Billboard classical charts is that album sales figures are so low, the charts are almost meaningless. Sales of 200 or 300 units are enough to land an album in the top 10. [Hilary] Hahn’s No. 1 recording, after the sales spike resulting from her appearance on Conan, bolstered by blogs and press, sold 1,000 copies.”
Category: today’s top story
This Week On ArtsJournal (Jan 25-29):
Bill Ivey, Adrian Ellis, Alan Brown, Andras Szanto, Andrew Taylor, Bau Graves, Douglas McLennan, Ellen Lovell, William James, James Early, Jim Smith, Lewis Hyde, Marian Godfrey, Martha Bayles, Nihar Patel, Russell Taylor, Sam Jones, and Steven Tepper argue the value of heritage and artistic engagement in a world where how we use culture is rapidly changing.
This week on “Life’s a Pitch”
Blogger Amanda Ameer hosts a virtual panel on when and how artists, managers, journalists, presenters and publicists single out musicians for being “special” in their promotion and career-building efforts. Pianist Jonathan Biss; manager James Egelhofer of IMG Artists; critic Matthew Guerrieri, who blogs at Soho the Dog and writes for the Boston Globe; and presenter Michael Kondziolka of the University Musical Society in Ann Arbor, Michigan join in.
Piano’s Design Brings Major Changes To Gardner Museum
Renzo Piano’s $118 million expansion of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is a “glass and copper-clad wing that will fundamentally change the way visitors experience the museum.” Nonetheless, “Gardner’s original Venetian-style palazzo will remain almost untouched.”
Canadian Opera Co. To Offer $12 Standing-Room Tickets
“As of October, there will be 50 standing-room-only spaces available in the theatre, at the back of rings three and four, for just $12[Cdn] – less than a movie ticket at most cinemas. … Still, with an average of 99% capacity for every performance, the COC doesn’t have too much to worry about.”
Why Aren’t Black Writers’ Works Made Into Movies?
Where are the many “promising films to be made from hundreds of years of black writing,” whether plays or novels or short stories? “[O]utside a movie theater, the black experience is rich and complicated and diverse. Inside, at this point, it feels like [Tyler] Perry or nothing else.”
Erich Segal, 72, A Novelist And A Scholar
“After the success of Love Story, Segal neglected neither his academic, nor his popular, writing. … Despite his success he remained respected by colleagues and popular with students at Yale and Oxford, whom he charmed with lectures sometimes described as ‘living theatre’.” Not to mention that he wrote the screenplay for the Beatles’ film Yellow Submarine.
Cleveland Orchestra, Players Reach Tentative Deal
“The agreement requires ratification by the musicians and the orchestra’s board, and that is expected today, giving the orchestra enough time to move forward with a scheduled trip to Miami for a series of concerts and educational events.”
An Ouster Exposes The Fault Lines In Getty Management
When J. Paul Getty Trust President James Wood requested museum director Michael Brand’s resignation, the move disturbed “the very waters Brand and Wood were hired to calm. But more alarming to some observers is that Brand’s resignation suggests the Getty has failed to resolve a tension inherent in its management structure from its earliest days.”
Striking Cleveland Orchestra Players Demonstrate
“About 50 members of the striking Cleveland Orchestra stood in the cold in their formal concertwear on the front steps of Severance Hall during a press conference today.”