Tag: 09.28.06

Chicago Children’s Museum To Get New Downtown Home

“The popular Chicago Children’s Museum has settled on a new site in Grant Park after ruling out several other options, including a controversial plan for the north end of the park… Museum officials expect to build a two-story, 100,000-square-foot building, nearly double the size of the museum’s current space. They hope to break ground in 2007.”

Iraqi Orchestra Struggling To Keep The Music Playing

Frequent Bush Administration protestations to the contrary, things have been getting worse in Baghdad for some time, and many of the niceties of everyday life (electricity, safety, clean water) have become unimaginable luxuries for the city’s residents. And yet, somehow, the Iraqi National Symphony Orchestra, which became a symbol of the country’s resilience in the aftermath of the American invasion, has continued to play. “But orchestra members are finding that while art can sometimes provide a brief respite from grim reality, it cannot stand forever as a bulwark against the maelstrom of conflict.”

New Arts Fest In Baltimore

“Nearly 75 arts organizations in Baltimore have banded together to present the first free citywide arts festival this fall… Free Fall Baltimore, which runs through November, will showcase the well-known Baltimore institutions, as well as some smaller ones.” Among other goals, the festival is designed to take advantage of the influx of thousands of Washington, D.C. residents who travel to Baltimore every year.

Uncommon Rise

How can a young, unknown composer catch the attention of a major soloist, a conductor, and critics around the world, and get a new work premiered seemingly out of nowhere? Apparently, it helps to get the soloist drunk while ferrying her around Manhattan. (Oh, and the piece should be really good, too.)

Classical Conversion

Classical music fans are apparently more than ready to join the digital revolution, with 57% having already converted some of their collection to digital format, according to a new UK study. “One in five download classical music legally from the internet – though there are no figures for how many illegally download – and the same number prefer listening on their MP3 player or iPod.”

Rattling The Traditionalists

Has Simon Rattle been good or bad for the Berlin Philharmonic? Is the world’s greatest orchestra (arguably) declining under his leadership, or is the problem that Germans “want something fresh and new, but once they get it, they’d rather revert back to the evergreens? … The fight over Rattle is really a fight between tradition and the new, many say.”