The Utah Symphony & Opera has named Melia Tourangeau, head of Michigan’s Grand Rapids Symphony, as its new CEO. She seems to have been a bit of a surprise pick, and is not well known among orchestra managers nationally. Tourangeau will report for work in April, shortly after giving birth to her second child.
Tag: 01.15.08
Will Writers Strike Kill Grammys?
“The striking Hollywood writers guild says it will likely not allow its members to work on next month’s Grammy Awards telecast.”
Zaha Hadid To Design Michigan Museum
“The three-level, 41,000-square-foot building, to be named the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum in honor of its lead donors, will have an aluminum and glass exterior, plus an adjoining outdoor sculpture garden.”
Philippine Prisoners Dance Up A Storm
Hundreds of Philippine prison inmates have become YouTube stars for their dances. “Inmates spend up to four hours a day practicing a growing repertoire of more than two dozen dances. In addition, those who signed up for auditions and made the troupe have continued rehearsing their Sinulog choreography.”
US Book Sales Up 7.5 Percent In November
For the first 11 months of the year, bookstore sales were up 0.8%, to $14.65 billion.
10 Overlooked Classics
“Music history is littered with worthy, beautiful, ingenious or simply charming pieces that have never received their full due. Some compositions are too unusual, some too conventional. Some decent composers get overshadowed by their genius contemporaries, while others get overtaken by world events.”
A UK Library Crisis
“Library users in England borrowed just under 269 million books in the last financial year. That is down 34 per cent on the amount borrowed back in 1997. And scare stories about library closures continue to hit the headlines.”
Peter Hall At 77
“The founder of the RSC and the man who led the National Theatre to its new home has not worked in Stratford or on the South Bank in years. His operatic commitments at Glyndebourne have dried up, and he’s never been asked to work at Shakespeare’s Globe. It would be a mistake, however, to assume that Hall’s career is petering out. Directors, like conductors, never retire.”
Excellence In The Arts… Okay, What’s Not To Believe?
UK artists have been buzzing about Brian McMaster’s report on the arts. But Rupert Christiansen is unimpressed. “I confess to finding it a largely bland and woolly document, lacking in hard or original thinking and skating over several vitally important issues. Worst of all is its reliance on the tired and vacuous concept of ‘excellence’.”
The Sundance
“Sundance, the specialty world’s blend of trade show and high school reunion, always brings together an unlikely mix. Partying college students, European directors, swag culture and specialty execs all bump up against one another.”