“Richard Seaver, an editor, translator and publisher who defied censorship, societal prudishness and conventional literary standards to bring works by rabble-rousing authors like Samuel Beckett, Henry Miller, William Burroughs and the Marquis de Sade to American readers, died Tuesday at his home in Manhattan.”
Tag: 01.07.09
Sizzling Nightlife At Home (In Ancient Greece)
“It’s a wonder the Greeks accomplished as much as they did, as many of their homes seem to have doubled as pubs and brothels. This finding, from new analyses of archaeological remains, could explain why previous hunts for evidence of ancient Greek taverns have been fruitless.”
Cutbacks at Chicago’s Field Museum As Endowment Falls By A Third
The natural history museum’s endowment lost $95 million in the past six months, “leading to salary cuts, layoffs and buyout offers to scientists and other employees.” In addition, the Field has cancelled this fall’s exhibition of Lucy, the 3.2 million-year-old hominid fossil.
Canadian Opera Company Selects New Music Director
34-year-old Johannes Debus thrilled audiences and musicians alike when he conducted Prokofiev’s War and Peace this fall. Now the company has snapped him up to replace Richard Bradshaw, who died suddenly in 2007. (COC has also announced its upcoming season, which features a new Stravinsky triple-bill staged by Robert Lepage.)
Economy And Stock Market Wallop Indianapolis Arts Orgs
“In the past two months, the Indianapolis Museum of Art has seen its endowment drop by $57 million, causing the museum to implement a raft of cost-cutting measures and project delays.” Both the Indianapolis Symphony and Indianapolis Opera have taken similar measures in the face of falling endowment income and ticket sales.
DG Signs Pianist Yuja Wang
The 20-year-old Chinese-New Yorker has been making a splash in the past few years, including more than one high-profile last-minute substitution. Her First DG release “will feature sonatas by Chopin, Liszt and Scriabin, and two Etudes by Ligeti.”
Jonathan Miller Is Still Quitting Opera
“And here he is, 74 years old on an icy winter’s night, after a 10-hour rehearsal day in Bromley with a bunch of singers hanging on his every word, trying to convince me that nobody loves him, nobody cares.”
Finalists For MIDEM Cannes Classical Awards Revealed
An international jury has selected three CDs or DVDs in each of 15 categories; winners will be announced at the industry’s MIDEM fair in Cannes on Jan. 20. Four awardees have already been announced: Sony Masterworks as Label of the Year, a Lifetime Achievement Award to tenor Carlo Bergonzi, and two Artists of the Year, violinist Julia Fischer and countertenor Philippe Jaroussky.
Austin Symphony Gets $1M For Education
“Austin arts patron James C. Armstrong is contributing $1 million to The Austin Symphony Orchestra to endow its education programs for children… [which include] Young People’s Concerts, High School Concerts and the orchestra’s Building Blocks program, among others.”
How Digital Music Is Reviving The Concert Biz
“The live concert circuit is thriving… While the global economic crisis and the poor Aussie dollar may have some effect on that here in the coming months, it’s the stage performance that is helping to regenerate a recording industry that has been bitten on the bum by digital technology. The digital revolution has changed forever the means of distribution in relation to audio and video product, and the biggest impact of that has been on the music industry.”