Category: AJBlogs

“People have been saying to me, ‘Oh, I’m so sorry you had to go through that!’ Well I’m not sorry — I think it’s the best thing that could have happened to me, considering where I am now. I feel reborn. Everything seems fresh to me. Now, how are things with you?” – Howard Mandel

I have to hand it to Holland Cotter: For better or worse, the NY Times‘ co-chief art critic was right. I was wrong. – Lee Rosenbaum

Instead of reading the sonnets in the numbered sequence of the 1609 quarto, which is the usual way, they examine them in what they believe was their order of composition. This puts a special focus on the considerable tinkering that went into them. – Jan Herman

For a lot of us, these last few months have provided an opportunity to clean out and organize our closets, cupboards, garages, and workshops. (Stick with me, there will be a point to this.) – Doug Borwick

One stands back and marvels how horizons have kept expanding in the music before J.S. Bach, with modern premieres of 400-year-old works by names you’ve barely heard of — and leave you wanting more. – David Patrick Stearns

Showing a courage and candor that’s been in short supply among museum officials navigating the choppy waters of racial tensions, political unrest and economic difficulty, Salvador Salort-Pons has publicly engaged with a Change.org petition calling for his removal. – Lee Rosenbaum

Already battered financially by the pandemic, many art museums now find themselves barraged by attacks from aggrieved staffers and former employees accusing the higher-ups of racism, harassment and micro-aggressions. But until Alex Nyerges candidly responded to my post about the firing of Montreal Museum of Fine Arts director Nathalie Bondil, I hadn’t come across any major museum officials who dared to publicly contradict the critics. – Lee Rosenbaum

True to her outspoken nature, Nathalie Bondil, the summarily sacked 13-year director of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, is not going quietly. Having gotten a taste of her feistiness and grit during a meeting we had three years ago in New York, I’m not surprised. – Lee Rosenbaum

I reported on her last stand with fellow vocalese icon Jon Hendricks, at the Blue Note in Manhattan for the newspaper City Arts. – Howard Mandel