Anne Midgette: “The conventions surrounding such announcements have become slightly risible. In classical music, things are booked so far in advance that the performances being announced now have been set in stone for some time. … The mainstream press, however, is not supposed to know anything about this.”
Tag: 01.04.10
Ticket Sales And Revenue Jump At St. Louis Symphony
“Ticket revenue totals $5.19 million at the mid-point of the 2009-2010 season, up 20 percent from $4.34 million during the same period last year, the symphony orchestra said Monday.Total tickets sold are up 14 percent to 145,790, up from 128,362.”
Colm Toibin Finally Wins A Major Award
“Tóibín is one of the most highly regarded Irish writers of his generation, loved by his readers and admired by his peers, but when it comes to major book prizes he is something of a bridesmaid. He so often nearly wins them but doesn’t – until, that is, tonight when he was named winner of the Costa novel of the year award.”
Edinburgh Int’l Festival 2010 To Go ‘Post-Colonial’
EIF director Jonathan Mills “is planning a fiesta of art this year, focusing on the contemporary cultures of the countries that were colonised by European powers.”
Red-Diaper Babies: Degree Of Party Commitment Is Partly Genetic
“New research in Political Research Quarterly … suggests that although your genes don’t predict which party you’ll belong to, they appear to play a major role in determining the extent to which you’ll belong.”
Attacked Danish Cartoonist: I’m ‘Not A Particularly Brave Man’
“Kurt Westergaard has been living in fear since he drew his notorious Muhammad cartoon. But even that could not prepare him for being attacked in his own home by a Muslim seeking revenge.”
A New Computer Method To Spot Art Fakes?
“The approach, known as ‘sparse coding’, builds a virtual library of an artist’s works and breaks them down into the simplest possible visual elements. Verifiable works by that artist can be rebuilt using varying proportions of those simple elements, while imitators’ works cannot.”
H’wood Theatre Director Slain In Apparent Home Invasion
When 59-year-old Bennett Bradley “didn’t show up to lead a 5 p.m. rehearsal of the Fountain [Theatre]’s West Coast premiere of ‘The Ballad of Emmett Till,’ the show’s stage manager went to his home and found his body, said Stephen Sachs, the company’s co-artistic director.”
An Endowment At Last For American Conservatory Theater
Last year, the San Francisco theatre “cut its budget by approximately $1.5 million … and eliminated three high-level positions, including its associate artistic director.” But “ACT said today that it has established its first-ever endowment — the result of a five-year effort,” which “has raised close to $31 million.”
Michael Kaiser: If We Lower Prices, Audiences Will Come
“When we increase prices, typically at budget time, we hope that a small increase will not be noticeable and we need the added revenue to break even. However, we have been doing this for so long that tickets prices are now too high for many people to afford regularly. … No wonder so many people have stopped going to performances.”