New York’s Museum of Modern Art may have gotten an unprecedented wave of publicity when it opened its new home last year, but that doesn’t mean that the critics spared MoMA their sharpest critiques. It seemed that nearly everyone had some quibble or other with the new building, but after a year to get used to the new setting, no one seems to be complaining any more.
Tag: 12.07.05
ENO Staff Votes To Strike
Staff at the English National Opera have voted unanimously to go on strike. “Union demands for a 5% pay increase and raised pension contributions were met with a pay offer by ENO of 2.77%. Staff at the opera company, based in central London, are unhappy about perceived low pay and unsatisfactory working conditions.”
And No, He Didn’t Have Syphilis
It’s official: Beethoven died of lead poisoning, according to scientists studying hair and tissue samples from the famous composer, and the deadly metal probably also caused his deafness. Still unknown is just exactly how old Ludwig came into contact with so much lead, but one theory involves his heavy drinking, for which lead goblets would have been a likely accessory.
Ukraine’s New Wave of Political Art
The so-called “Orange Revolution” that gripped Ukraine in 2004 and carried opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko to the presidency had a profound impact on every facet of existence in the former Soviet republic. One side effect of the month of protests and confrontations was the emergence of a newly energized political art movement. “[The revolution] announced a new wave of Ukrainian artists, several of whom pulled off the neat postmodern trick of simultaneously appropriating, satirizing and extending the conventions of Soviet-style poster art from Stalin to Gorbachev.”
Making A Point As Well As A Movie
“Message” movies, once thought to be box office poison, are all the rage in Hollywood at the moment, thanks to the emergence of a few specific companies that specialize in making films that engage the public in a specific cause. Of course, crusading filmmakers are nothing new, but the establishment billionaires backing them are quite a novel twist…
The Ivy League Music Buster
The recording industry, obsessed as it is with putting an end to illegal trading of its product, has spent the last several years coming up with scheme after technological scheme to make such piracy impossible. And yet, somehow, no matter how complex and ambitious the industry’s copy-protection tactics become, they keep getting beaten. So who’s beating them? Well, a 24-year-old grad student from Princeton, mainly.
Cleveland Arts Prize Eyes A Comeback
“The Cleveland Arts Prize took a powder and is coming back strong. Or so the organization hopes: After a year’s hiatus in which leaders rethought the award’s mission and approach, the 45-year-old prize will return in 2006 with an emphasis on emerging artists and public input… Created in 1960 as a project of the Women’s Club of Cleveland and now an independent nonprofit organization, the prize has for decades recognized the achievements of established, often renowned, Northeast Ohio artists and arts leaders… Established artists will continue to be saluted with two prizes of $2,500 each. But the organization’s largest award now will be a $5,000 prize for an emerging Northeast Ohio artist.”
New Atlanta Hall Waiting On Public Funding
The Atlanta Symphony is continuing to rack up private contributions towards its planned new concert hall in the city’s downtown district. But the space-age hall, designed by Santiago Calatrava, still faces an uphill battle, because the ASO’s request for $100 million in city and state funding has yet to result in any action. Both Atlanta’s mayor and Georgia’s governor have paid lip service to the project, but the governor won’t reveal whether he is including any funding for the project in his 2006 budget proposal, and the mayor says that the city doesn’t have “even a fraction” of the $50 million the orchestra wants.
Musicians Wanted – Democracy Promised
The Pittsburgh Symphony is having a busy audition season, and the trend of open positions is expected to continue in the coming year, thanks to a buyout offered to 15 senior musicians in the orchestra. Additionally, the PSO recently tweaked its hiring process when it decided against hiring a single conductor as music director. Whereas, in most major American orchestras, the music director has absolute power to hire whom he wishes (while a committee of musicians serves in an advisory capacity,) the rule at the PSO is now an ultra-democratic system of one man/one vote.
Nashville Hall On Track
The Nashville Symphony has raised all but $6 million of the private funding it needs to fund construction of its $120 million new concert hall, and the Kresge Foundation is promising $1.5 million more if the orchestra finishes the fundraising process by next September. Meanwhile, construction of the new hall is in full swing, and the new pipe organ (to be installed one year after the hall opens) is being built in San Francisco.