Category: people

• No matter what he has done in the rest of his career as a musician, Robert Craft will always be known as the man who was Igor Stravinsky’s assistant. Is that okay with him? Absolutely. “He [Stravinsky] started composing the music he did, with the techniques he was using, because I was able to teach him these things.” – The Telegraph (UK)

Pianist Oscar Peterson has become the first Canadian recipient of the International Music Council UNESCO Music Prize. “The prize is given every year to a musician or musical institution that has contributed to the development and enrichment of music and has served peace and understanding around the world.” – CBC

Memorabilia from the estates of Stanley Kubrick and Laurence Olivier are being sold at auction today. Among Kubrick’s lot are draft scripts for the nuclear war satire “Dr Strangelove”. The Olivier papers include 250 letters and cards written by the actor and his family. – BBC

“Two years ago, Bill T. Jones was approached by Arena de le Sol in Bologna, Italy, to make a dance depicting the influence of Latin culture in the New World. Though confronted with issues of colonization and what Jones describes as cultural ‘collision,’ he decided to make a poetic rather than a political response to the unjust historical truths surrounding these native communities. ‘Ultimately, I’m trying to enter this on the level of culture and art,’ he says. ‘I’m trying to tell the story as I see it, and what that looked like in terms of music.'”-  Village Voice

More than 400 personal items once belonging to opera diva Maria Callas will be auctioned in Paris in December. The auction itself will also be open to Internet bidders using the site www.leftbid.com. – New York Times

It seems the more conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt likes a piece of music, the less he’s inclined to perform it. He’s a sworn enemy of routine. This and his thoughts on Bach, Bruckner and Beethoven. – The Independent (UK)

He’s one of the world’s most celebrated architects, but so far he hasn’t had much built to show for it. Now Rem Koolhaas’s buildings are starting to pop up everywhere and he’s at the forefront of what has become “arguably the most exciting branch of culture.” – New York Times Magazine

Architect Norman Foster got his “gherkin” tower approved by the City of London last week. “Foster is a tough cookie; some of his competitors might go as far as to say he is ruthless. None doubts his genius as a designer.” – The Independent (UK)

“Hollywood may forever think of Foote as the Oscar-winning screenwriter of the original ‘Tender Mercies’ and the adapted ‘To Kill a Mockingbird,’ but his stature within theatrical circles has soared in his ninth decade.” – Los Angeles Times

Zhang Yimou is revered in the West as one of China’s greatest filmmakers. But his name is still inseparable from that of Gong Li, his partner for eight years and the star of the cycle of six Zhang films. Most were historical dramas with strong political undertones. Now that the pair has split, Zhang’s last two films have none of the lush sense of historical sweep we associate with his name, and you couldn’t imagine Gong Li playing in either of them. – The Age (Melbourne)