He’s one of the most popular classical composers alive, despite the fact that he is notoriously reluctant to grant interviews, especially to discuss his own music. BBC4 producer Simon Broughton recounts how he and actor Simon Russell Beale, host of the series Sacred Music, wooed Pärt into speaking with them on camera.
Tag: 03.20.10
No Charges For Children In Suicide Of Conductor, Wife
“Caractacus Downes was told there was sufficient evidence to prosecute him for assisting his parents’ suicide but it was not considered to be in the public interest to do so. Sir Edward [Downes] died alongside his wife Joan at the Dignitas clinic in Zurich in July last year, leaving £2.6 million to Caractacus and his sister Boudicca, 38.”
A Photographer Is Britain’s Official Election Artist
The first photographer to hold the position, “Simon Roberts has been commissioned by the Speaker’s Advisory Committee on Works of Art to document campaigning activity in the run-up to polling day. Mr Roberts will be given special access to the campaign trail and his images will join the House of Commons Parliamentary Art Collection.”
How To Fatten Up PBS’s Emaciated Arts Programming
“[I]t should air fine-arts programs that encompass the full range of the performing arts. That means not just ‘The Nutcracker’ but ballet and modern-dance masterpieces of all kinds. It means not just ultrafamiliar operas but solo recitals and chamber music. It means not just Broadway musicals but performances of classic and contemporary plays.” It means arts all over the country.
Wuppertal After Pina Bausch
“[V]isiting the city [where she was based] barely seven months after Bausch’s death, I could be forgiven for expecting to find a company still wrapped in the gloom of mourning, or even on the verge of extinction. Instead, Bausch’s colleagues are buoyant in their determination to keep Wuppertal on the international dance map.”
Vienna Phil Lets Its Female Concertmaster Keep Her Job
“Albena Danailova has been acting concertmaster since September 2008, making her the first woman ever in that position with the orchestra. The Bulgarian-born musician had been promoted from [the] first violin [section] – she was also the first woman ever to hold that job.” The notoriously tradition-bound orchestra only began admitting women to its ranks in the 1990s.