“Where are the next great maestros? Four major American orchestras –the Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Pittsburgh Symphony — either are now or soon will be searching for new music directors. Two of these — Chicago and Pittsburgh — have been looking for more than two years. … Why have two major orchestras failed to find conductors brilliant enough and willing to lead them?”
Author: Laura Collins Hughes
Pinkett Smith Gives $1M To Baltimore School
“Actress Jada Pinkett Smith, who learned her craft at the Baltimore School for the Arts before launching a successful film and television career, is donating $1 million to a major renovation and expansion campaign at the school, officials announced yesterday. The School for the Arts, considered one of the top public arts high schools in the country, plans to name its new theater the Jada Pinkett Smith Theater. At Pinkett Smith’s request, the theater will be dedicated to rapper Tupac Shakur, a former classmate who was shot and killed in 1996.”
Oldest Surviving Record Store Faces Closure
In Wales, “Spillers Records (est 1894) is under threat. Spillers has been told that it is not going to be able to afford the rent the landlord will demand when two big shopping developments opposite and next to the shop open. When the rent rises owner Nick Todd, who has worked at the shop for 31 years, says the shop will be lost. Its possible disappearance has created shock waves not just among Cardiff musos but also among many who would not know their house music from their jungle.”
The Classics: So Pop-Cult, So Proletarian
“Vintage, an imprint of Random House, are about to enter the ‘lucrative literary classics market’, republishing some of the greatest novels ever written with new ‘simple and approachable’ covers. In other words, The Devils may soon look no different from The Devil Wears Prada. This is an outrage. Without those reassuringly stern black bars that mark out a Penguin Classic, how is anyone to know I’m communing with a noble work of art, and not just the latest from Richard and Judy’s Book Club?”
Will W’s Oils Fetch This Much?
“A Moroccan landscape by Sir Winston Churchill fetched £612,500 in auction at Sotheby’s today. The figure was far in excess of the painting’s estimated price tag of £250,000.”
Calatrava’s Twizzler Tower
Santiago Calatrava has substantially altered his proposal for a spiraling, 2,000-foot Chicago skyscraper. “With the needle-thin broadcast antenna gone and its airspace replaced by sellable condo space, this is practically a whole new building,” Blair Kamin writes. “At root, the question about the revised plan (which now stands at 160 stories rather than the 150 the developer announced last week) is this: Has Calatrava turned new functional and financial requirements to his advantage — or has he sold out the integrity of the original design?”
Borges Manuscripts Lost! Oh, Wait. Never Mind.
“The news from Harvard Square had rare-book collectors aflutter: Two manuscripts by the renowned Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges had vanished and were presumed stolen in an international literary heist worth $950,000.” But the pair of short stories turn out — whoops — to have been there all along, simply misplaced.
National Portrait Gallery Director To Retire
“National Portrait Gallery Director Marc Pachter, who has held a series of high-profile jobs during his 33 years at the Smithsonian Institution, announced yesterday that he will step down next October.”
Happy Holidays! All Best, Charles Dickens
A letter written by Charles Dickens on Christmas Day, 1849, is up for sale. “In the letter to William Jerdan, Dickens blasts the British journalist for reprinting a bogus biography of him in the Literary Journal. … ‘Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,’ Dickens wrote. ‘As you reprint the extraordinary lies of the New York Herald, perhaps you may like to know something more of their authority.’ “
Building A Film’s Support From The Boards Up
“Even in seen-it-all Hollywood — which never fails to pull out the stops in a quest for Oscar gold — one publicity campaign in particular stands out this year. DreamWorks has been building support for its Oscar-gunning adaptation of the stage musical ‘Dreamgirls’ by paying licensing costs for any noncommercial theatrical organizations (high schools, colleges, community and youth groups and other groups) that wanted to stage the musical.”