Ann Southam, a Toronto-based composer who died in 2010, “has willed $14 million to the Canadian Women’s Foundation … This gift marks the largest ever donation to a Canadian women’s organization.”
Tag: 10.25.11
English Rockers Discover What Classical Fans Knew: Churches Can Make Good Concert Venues
“Brit Award-winning singer Laura Marling and the band Elbow are the latest performers to shun the bawdy, beer-stained venues of the conventional gig circuit to perform in sacred surroundings. Marling is currently on a 16-date tour of English cathedrals.” (Just like The Sixteen does.)
The New Yorker In Praise Of Teen Dance Movies
Joan Acocella: “[In] my experience, all teen dance movies have serious messages. About the social hierarchy, for one thing.” And gender equality, too, and especially courage and perseverance. “But most of [that] is subtext, or pretext. The text is dance itself.”
Dancing About Painting (It’s A Tricky Business)
“One thing you won’t see in Darshan Singh Bhuller’s ballet about Caravaggio is the act of painting. ‘One afternoon during rehearsals we tried to recreate the act of painting on stage,’ he tells me. ‘We all fell about laughing’.”
Chinese Government Ends ‘Excessive Entertainment’ On TV
“China will limit the number of entertainment programmes allowed to air on television, from match-making game shows to dance broadcasts, and push to replace them with morality-building programming, Chinese media reported on Tuesday.”
Liviu Ciulei, Pioneering Theatre Director, Dead At 88
One of a wave of emigré Eastern European artists who revolutionized modern theater in the West in the 1970s and ’80s, Ciulei spent five years as a galvanizing, controversial director of the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis.
Joseph Heller Enjoyed WWII More Than Yossarian Did
“Fans of Joseph Heller’s novel Catch-22 may be surprised to learn that the American author actually enjoyed his military service during the second world war – at least according to a letter about to be auctioned in the US.”
Sylvia Plath, Illustrator
“At the age of 20 she chose to pursue a career in literature despite her passion and talent for art, yet continued to draw illustrations to accompany her writing for her own pleasure.”
Christian Fundamentalists Disrupt Paris Play; Author ‘Forgives’ Them
“On Thursday, members of the Institut Civitas group interrupted a performance of On the Concept of the Face, Regarding the Son of God at the Theatre de la Ville, brandishing placards with the slogan ‘Stop Christianophobia’.” Playwright Romeo Castellucci says “I forgive them for they know not what they do.”
Is Copyright Killing Classical Music? (It’s Not So Simple, Natch)
“The future of classical music is full of complexity, but the fact is these are very misplaced arguments. There is no ‘orchestra crisis’ that has anything to do with this. If there’s a crisis, it’s about cultural attitudes, not about rental fees.”