A Revolution In Textbook Publishing?

Bill Gates predicts it: “Within four or five years, instead of spending money on textbooks, they’ll spend a mere $400 or so buying that tablet device and the material they hook up to will all be on the wireless internet with animations, timelines and links to deep information. But they’ll be spending less than they would have on textbooks and have a dramatically better experience.”

More Students Opt For Online Courses Over In-Person

“At some schools, online courses — originally intended for nontraditional students living far from campus — have proved surprisingly popular with on-campus students. At least 2.3 million people took some kind of online course in 2004, and two-thirds of colleges offering ‘face-to-face’ courses also offer online ones. But what were once two distinct types of classes are looking more and more alike — and often dipping into the same pool of students.”

Shostakovich The (choose only one) Visionary/Fraud

There may be no composer whose life and work divide critics more than Dmitri Shostakovich. Was he a courageous rebel working against the Stalinist regime from within, or a Communist stooge too fond of his privileged place in Soviet Russia to worry about the politics of it all? Does his music represent a visionary advancing of the traditions established by Russia’s 19th-century compositional luminaries, or is it all “undercomposed” and second-rate stuff? “It is extraordinary how vitriolic such discussions… become, both inside and outside Russia.”

How Documentarians Became Artists

Photographs celebrating “real life” – gritty, unadorned reality undisturbed by notions of art or beauty – are the hottest thing going these days. But are such snapshots of life really the type of thing that belongs in a gallery alongside more traditional genres? “In these unelitist times, most of us would now question the old distinction between art on the one hand and photography (and documentary film) on the other… We don’t usually look for sociological information from drawings and sculptures. But there are times of crisis when artists are commissioned to do their bit for the nation, and even before the war, in the early 1930s, Benjamin Britten, WH Auden and William Coldstream were all contributing to the documentary movement. Art was to be brought to the people, and the people into art.”

The Future Of The Written Word

“If Bill Gates has his way, those of us who love the tactile pleasures of reading should proceed into 2006 with a degree of caution. The way we read books, and the way they are distributed globally, is about to undergo radical transformation similar to changes in the way we acquire, distribute and consume music.” But with Google and Microsoft locked in competition to be the first to digitize all the printed words that have come before, and to transform the future of publishing itself, debate is raging over what is good for the marketplacem, and what is good for the consumer.

Ailing Sawallisch Cancels Concert Dates

Conductor Wolfgang Sawalisch is canceling concerts because of health concerns. “I cannot say if and when I will be strong enough to fly to America and to see you again. So I take the possibility now to thank you once again for the great collaboration in the past: The concerts in the Academy and in the new hall, the exciting travels to the most different parts of the world. The experiences remain always in my heart.”

Ma Appointed World Peace Envoy

UN Secretary General Kofi “Annan met with Ma on Thursday and confirmed the cellist would become a “peace envoy,” joining a list of other notables such as environmentalist Jane Goodall, actor Michael Douglas, basketball player Magic Johnson, jazz musician Wynton Marsalis, opera singer Luciano Pavarotti and Nobel laureate Elie Weisel.”

NACO Players Divided Over Zukerman’s Leadership

Details are continuing to emerge in the sordid tale of Pinchas Zukerman’s abrupt “sabbatical” from Ottawa’s National Arts Centre Orchestra, and the divisive and outspoken Zukerman appears to have left behind a divided orchestra. “While it’s not unusual for orchestra musicians to have varying opinions about their leader, some longtime NACO musicians say they’ve become polarized in a way they have never been before… The kind of reasonable debate musicians used to have about conductors has become difficult.” Furthermore, some within the NACO are openly acknowledging that the orchestra’s artistic standard has diminished under a conductor they see as authoritarian and uninterested in expanding his artistic horizons.

Bringing Art To America’s Beach Party Capital

Not so very long ago, Miami was a cultural wasteland, a city of beach bums and water skiiers with little to no artistic presence. Today, Miami and its sprawling South Florida surroundings are fast becoming one of America’s most intriguing arts centers. Why the change? One organization that had a lot to do with it is the National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this month.

Detroit Tries A Few Gimmicks

Orchestras across the country are scrambling to attract new audiences with such gimmicks as video screens, loquacious conductors, and hot young soloists, but much of the experimentation is in the trial-and-error realm, since there isn’t a lot of evidence concerning what works and what doesn’t. The Detroit Symphony launched a new series this season aimed at cultivating demographics it doesn’t currently see much of, but Mark Stryker says the idea will need a lot of tweaking before it yields dividends. Moreover, its possible that orchestras are barking up the wrong tree with the idea that younger audiences want less substance and more flash.