QRS Music Technologies, the sole remaining mass producer of the paper rolls used in mechanical player pianos, punched out its last of the iconic sheets last week. “The roll market has continued to decline, which is no surprise,” said an official of the company, which years ago began concentrating on digital piano technology.
Tag: 01.03.09
Why Struggling Publishers Are Still Paying Big Money For New Books
Yes, that’s right — amid the worst economic crisis to hit the United States in decades, publishing executives are still making what many see as outrageous gambles on new manuscripts.
Buzz About Theatre Director’s Huge Salary
The Twin Cities arts community has been buzzing about the recent disclosure that Guthrie Theatre director Joe Dowling “was paid $682,229 in salary and benefits in 2007. Even discounting a one-time bonus of $100,000, his compensation surpassed that of his peers not only in New York but also at nonprofit theaters elsewhere in the United States.”
Big Ohio Dinner Theatre Closes
Northeast Ohio’s only professional dinner theater, founded in 1973 in Ravenna and moved to a former Vegas-style nightclub in Akron in 1988, has shut its doors after 35 years.
Daniel Nagrin, ‘The Great Loner Of American Dance,” 91
“Mr. Nagrin’s choreography and performing were craggily innovative, drawing on jazz movement and music as well as traditional modern dance and classical music in pieces that incorporated words and images well before mixed media became popular in American dance.”
Dancing About A Mine Disaster
A young Welsh company called The Ballet Pod has created a 31-minute piece called The Ballad of Edward Owen, Miner, a “docu-ballet” about an 1880 mine explosion that killed nine men.
Thomas Quasthoff Uses His Rage
“When I was little and waiting for my mother outside a shop, sometimes passers-by would say I was cursed by a witch. And that stays with you. But now I use that in my singing, so it’s actually a plus.… I am not here as some sort of role model. Of course, maybe at first people would come to see a freak. But they come a second time so then I know it’s for my singing.”
Slatkin and Detroit SO Make TV Series
Making Music With the DSO With Host Leonard Slatkin premiered Jan. 3 on Detroit’s WTVS (Channel 56). “Each 30-minute episode in the 13-week series promises to explore a specific theme and is designed to open a window on the world of classical music and the orchestra for general audiences.”