Category: AJBlogs

Four rules of money
Budgets and balance sheets and audited financials have a tendency to simultaneously over-simplify and over-complicate organizational life. The way they appear on a page suggests a linear, logical, orderly aggregation of resources in clean compartments, … read more
AJBlog: The Artful Manager Published 2016-02-11

Making art the focus
I’m sure we’d all say that, if we’re musicians, or producing musical performances, that art is the focus. The music is what matters. Everything else – marketing, how the ushers behave, how we dress, … read more
AJBlog: Sandow Published 2016-02-11

The uninvited critics
In today’s Wall Street Journal “Sightings” column I take a closer look a theatrical controversy in Los Angeles that made national headlines. Here’s an excerpt. … read more
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2016-02-11

For Fun: Nicole Johänntgen
The German saxophonist Nicole Johänntgen is one of Europe’s busiest musicians, traveling frequently from her home in Switzerland to play with a cross-section of the continent’s jazz artists. … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-02-11

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Wroth About Rothko: “Order & Joint Stipulation of Dismissal” in De Sole Case vs. Freedman & Knoedler
When a litigant perceives, during the course of a trial, that there’s a good chance he’ll lose his case, there is an impetus to settle. With many expert witnesses having denied authenticating the disputed Rothko … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2016-02-10

Alwin Nikolais’ Works Revived
The Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company performs at the Joyce Theater through February 14. … read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2016-02-10

Engagement Is a Means, Not an End
So much interesting stuff has been written recently about engagement and related topics, I barely know where to begin. The Irvine Foundation has published a series of mini-essays responding questions about engagement. … read more
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2016-02-09

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Engagement Is a Means, Not an End
So much interesting stuff has been written recently about engagement and related topics, I barely know where to begin. The Irvine Foundation has published a series of mini-essays responding questions about engagement. … read more
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2016-02-09

Black History Month (1) — Roland Hayes
I thought I’d do a few blog posts to honor Black History Month. Which I don’t think is honored enough in the classical music world. And where better to start than with Roland Hayes, … read more
AJBlog: Sandow Published 2016-02-09

A Milwaukee Walk: Photo Companion for My WSJ Review of the Milwaukee Art Museum
As promised in my last post, below is my illustrated companion for In Wisconsin, a Museum Reborn – my review in today’s Wall Street Journal of the reinvented Milwaukee Art Museum, which gave me a very warm welcome … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2016-02-09

Short and to the point
I love aphorisms and epigrams, perhaps because I have no gift for coining them. The brilliantly precise concision that allows writers like La Rochefoucauld, Chamfort, and Karl Kraus to say big things on the smallest possible scale, … read more
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2016-02-09

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Squawking in Milwaukee: My Upcoming WSJ Review of the Milwaukee Art Museum
For my article on the “Arts in Review” page of tomorrow’s Wall Street Journal, (online later today, if all goes according to plan), I had the challenging task of reviewing an entire museum in 900 words. … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2016-02-08

Monday Recommendation: Thad Jones/Mel Lewis
The Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra, All My Yesterdays (Resonance) This is an alert to an event—a recording documenting the birth of an ensemble that electrified listeners and set a new standard for big band jazz. … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-02-08

Dancing a Fairytale, Its Joys and Tribulations
The New York City Ballet premieres Justin Peck’s new ballet and offers works by Thatcher, Binet, Schumacher, and Wheeldon. Justin Peck’s The Most Incredible Thing. Sterling Hyltin and Taylor Stanley dance in front of the… … read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2016-02-06

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A Bebop Super Bowl

Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Still Stalled, as Monitoring Report is Issued on Saadiyat Island Labor Conditions
PricewaterhouseCoopers’ 4th annual monitoring report on labor conditions on Abu Dhabi’s Saadiyat Island, recently released by the Tourism Development and Investment Company (TDIC) of the United Arab Emirates’ capital, gives a mixed picture of progress and continued concerns. … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2016-02-04

Frank Collett Observed
Rifftides reader Mike Harris responded to last week’s post about the passing of pianist Frank Collett and the outpouring of comments about him. Testifying to what all those folks have been saying, … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-02-04

So you want to see a show?
Here’s my list of recommended Broadway, off-Broadway, and out-of-town shows, updated weekly. In all cases, I gave these shows favorable reviews (if sometimes qualifiedly so) inThe Wall Street Journal when they opened. … read more
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2016-02-04

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We Asked: What’s the Biggest Challenge Facing the Arts?
Last week we conducted our first ArtsJournal poll, asking: What’s the biggest challenge facing the arts? We had 3,191 votes, with the largest percentage – 37% – answering funding. Second at 24% was “relevance/changing tastes” … read more
AJBlog: Diacritical Published 2016-02-03

History boy
There are productions I’ve never seen that are burned onto my brain. As a teenage Shakespeare geek, I devoured books on stage history, describing landmark productions staged long before I was born. I read … read more
AJBlog: Performance Monkey Published 2016-02-03

Bob Elliott, R.I.P.
Bob Elliott, who died yesterday at the age of ninety-two, was the longer-lived member of Bob & Ray, a much-loved comedy team whose subtle, at times near-surrealistic routines were developed for radio and never sounded … read more
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2016-02-03

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Irvine asks: Is there an issue in the arts field more urgent than engagement? My answer: Yes.
A couple weeks back the Irvine Foundation launched an online Q&A series, Are We Doing Enough? – aimed at “exploring tough questions about engagement practices and programming.” … read more
AJBlog: Jumper Published 2016-02-02

Definitions, Again
Last November Matt Lehrman, author of Audience Wanted, ran a series of posts attempting to address the meaning of “audience engagement.” The need to do so will probably never end, as we have so many … read more
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2016-02-02

MoMA’s New Expansion Plan: Another Reality Check for Diller Scofidio + Renfro
Once again, with the recent revisions to the Museum of Modern Art’s expansion plans, Diller Scofidio + Renfro‘s transgressively creative but farfetched architectural follies have been (mercifully) abandoned. All I can say is: I told you so. … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2016-02-02

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Local, state, federal: public funding for the arts in the U.S.
At the Atlantic, Andy Horwitz asks ‘Who should pay for the arts in America?‘ He is specifically asking about nonprofit arts, whose funding comes from paying customers, donors and other sponsors, and the public sector. … read more
AJBlog: For What It’s Worth Published 2016-02-01

Miles To Go: The Met Breuer’s Unspoken Task
The Metropolitan Museum put on a show for the press last week at a briefing on the Met Breuer. It took place, oddly (for the Met) in a black gallery in the main museum building and … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2016-02-01

Boulez
Pierre Boulez’s passing last month brought back memories of what a giant he was in his prime.  He certainly gave the generations that followed a complex heritage.  I really can’t imagine what it must have … read more
AJBlog: Infinite Curves Published 2016-02-01

Goodbye to All That (Almost)
The Trisha Brown Dance Company presents three of Brown’s proscenium works in New York for the last time.  … read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2016-02-01

Journalism as ‘The Poetry of Fact’
At the Chicago Sun-Times I watched some great wordsmiths up close. Roger Ebert wrote with an ease that seemed miraculous. His profiles flowed like swift streams. David Elliott was another. His reviews had the density … read more
AJBlog: Straight|Up Published 2016-02-01

In two and a half months …
Here’s something I’ve mentioned before. But now it’s time to get serious. My reemergence as s composer is just two and a half months away, with an evening of my work on April 14, … read more
AJBlog: Sandow Published 2016-02-01

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Victoria Tchekovaya, Part 2