“‘Thumb piano’ is a generic, westernised name for a range of different sub-Saharan lamellophones (instruments played by plucking tuned fixed metal tines or keys). Usually, thumb piano refers to either the mbira or its more modernised variant, the kalimba.” The Guardian explains where they come from and how they work.
Tag: 11.01.10
Ireland’s National Theatre Posts €1.8m Loss
“A restructuring, which also entailed an average pay reduction of 5% across all staff, followed what the theatre called “severe cuts” in its annual grant from the Arts Council. That, it claimed, had fallen by 28% in three years, from €10 million to the current level of €7.2 million.”
Rat-Infested Glasgow Warehouse Transformed Into RSAMD’s Dream Studio
“On the outside, the new Speirs Lock Studios on Glasgow’s Garscube Road resemble a long, low unit of brisk industrial storage. Step inside, however, and you enter an airy, expansive complex giving the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama the kind of workshop facilities most dance or theatre companies can only dream about.”
Was Wladyslaw Szpilman – ‘The Pianist’ – a Nazi Collaborator?
“He became a national hero after his story of survival in the Warsaw ghetto was immortalised in the Oscar-winning film The Pianist – but the wartime exploits of the late Polish pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman are at the centre of a row following accusations, from beyond the grave, that he collaborated with the Gestapo.”
The Face(s) of Philosophy
As part of a photographer Steve Pyke’s two-decade-long project taking portraits of philosophers, a dozen of the breed – from Kwame Anthony Appiah to Slavoj Zizek – give brief(-ish) statements of what attracted them to their discipline.
American Library Ass’n Adds Award for Gay/Lesbian Children’s Lit
“An award for gay and lesbian literature will be included in the American Library Association’s annual announcement of children’s prizes, a list which features the prestigious and influential Caldecott and Newbery medals.” Says the ALA’s president, “Ours is a very inclusive profession and we represent a wide variety of viewpoints.”
Tap Dance Meets Kathak
At the American Dance Festival in 2004, Indian kathak dancer Pandit Chitresh Das encountered tap dancer Jason Samuels Smith practicing in a hallway. ”Whatever Jason was doing with his tap shoe I was doing with my bare feet. He turned around and said ‘Man, what are you doing?'” Within three days, they were performing together, and the makings of their show Tap Kathak was born.”
Bollywood Meets Busby Berkeley On Stage
“There’s a show opening in Toronto this week that’s billed as the first authentic Indian dance-music spectacle of its kind. It’s live, but it draws heavily on the cinematic production values of Bollywood, including this specific tenet: To do it right, you have to do it big.”
Is Ugly Music More Difficult Than Beautiful Music?
“Is it possible to write music that a majority of people would think sounds ugly for an orchestra playing their instruments using established and accepted techniques?”
Turkey Ends Ban On YouTube
“A court in Ankara lifted the ban on YouTube videos on Saturday. In 2007, the court imposed the ban under a law that makes it an offence to insult Turkey or Turkishness. An individual had complained of clips disrespectful to the founder of the modern Turkish state, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.”