Mstislav Rostropovich has had a brilliant career. Now he says it’s time to give something back. So he started a foundation to identify and support seven promising young musicians. Each month , he pays living and teaching money. He also helps them get concert engagements, buy instruments and pay for masterclasses.
Tag: 11.01.04
Overnight At The NYT
For the first time in years, overnight reviews are back at the New York Times. “Not all NY Times reviews will be overnights, according to classical music editor James R. Oestreich, only those deemed practical and/or appropriate because of an event’s importance. He told a conference of music critics at Columbia University several weeks ago that the move is part of the paper’s effort to give its arts coverage more zing.”
ABT’s Short Sensation
Short male dancers don’t have an easy time in ballet. Indeed, they’re generally shut out of leading roles. But Joan Acocella is comfortable declaring that 5’6″ ABT dancer Herman Cornejo is “the most technically accomplished male ballet dancer in the United States.”
Has Aspen Santa Fe Ballet Figured Out A Working Model?
The 10-year-old Aspen Santa Fe Ballet is on a roll. “As co-directors of Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, Jean-Phillipe Malaty and former Joffrey star Tom Mossbrucker have guided the 10-member company into a sound financial situation that permits touring, commissioning new works, affording the royalties of modern-dance classics and supporting a summer dance festival.”
Canada’s Anti-Bush Theatre
“The ingredient fuelling all of these works is a burning hatred for George W. Bush and his government, particularly as manifested by the war in Iraq. While this kind of agit-prop has been around since the ancient Greeks, it usually doesn’t hit the stage this quickly after the events that inspired it.”
Nobel-Winner Sues America To Publish In US
When Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi went to publish her memoirs in the US she discovered that “doing so would be illegal, under a trade embargo intended to punish repressive governments such as the regime in Tehran that once sent her to jail. Last week, Ms. Ebadi and her American literary agency, the Strothman Agency of Boston, sued the Treasury Department, which enforces the sanctions, in Manhattan federal district court. The suit says the regulations ignore congressional directives to exempt information and creative works from the trade sanctions, and more broadly violate the First Amendment rights of Americans to read what they wish.”
Hans Christian Anderson, Dancer?
Hans Christian Anderson knew he was going to be a star when he was a teenager. But of what? At one point he decided his future was as a ballet dancer, and presented himself for an audition. “What Andersen thought he could achieve is unclear. Not only did he have no formal dance training but his gawky limbs lacked any kind of instinctive grace or co-ordination. The audition was a disaster.”
Needed: A Plan To Save Egyptian Tombs From Tourists
Tourist traffic is destroying Egypt’s Valley of the Kings. “Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities has asked the archaeologists, architects and engineers of the Theban Mapping Project – launched 25 years ago simply to make a detailed map of the 62 tombs and temples of the pharaohs and nobles buried more than 3,000 years ago – to complete a plan for the conservation of the valley by the end of 2005.”
Piece Of The Berlin Wall Goes Back Up
A Berlin museum has re-erected a portion of the Berlin Wall. “The rebuilt concrete barrier stands at the former Checkpoint Charlie border crossing, next to a field of 1,065 crosses meant to represent the people who were killed as they tried to escape the former East Germany between 1961 and 1989.”
British Museum Raided
A theif managed to steal jewelry out of the British Museum over the weekend. “The raider beat sophisticated security systems and pocketed around 15 items, including ornate hairpins and fingernail guards. He is thought to have posed as a visitor and grabbed the items from under the noses of staff.”