Recent winners of the annual lifetime achievement award from the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts include Mariss Jansons, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Christoph Eschenbach, and Per Nørgård.
Tag: 01.26.17
Highlights From Today’s AJBlogs 01.26.17
Cause for Cautious Optimism? NEA’s Statement on Continued Federal Funding Widespread reports that President Trump has decided to ax the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities may (or may not) be premature. The only hard information on this that I’ve seen is Alexander Bolton‘s … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2017-01-26
What our new audience wants Over and over I’ve said that our classical music world doesn’t feel like the world outside, the world most people live in. Including our hoped-for new audience! Not that I’m the only one saying this. … read more
AJBlog: Sandow Published 2017-01-26
Picturing the President Insect brain, cold-blooded eye, bared teeth of a human predator.Twitter Fingers looks in the mirror.The total obscenity of the American Dream Comes to fruition in Donald John Trump …— Heathcote Williams, from a poem in … read more
AJBlog: Straight|Up Published 2017-01-26
Getting from stage to screen In this week’s Wall Street Journal “Sightings” column, I write about Fences and Manchester by the Sea, and what those two films teach us about the differences between writing for the stage … read more
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2017-01-26
Want To See Everything The NEA Funded Last Year?
“To illustrate just how beneficial the NEA’s work has been, artist and environmental engineer Tega Brain has programmed a website that scrolls through the types of grants the NEA awarded last year alone. Like end credits of a movie, each funded project moves slowly down your screen in bright colors to form a simple but clear message: we really need the NEA.”
Has Ballet Been Co-Opted To Play To Americans’ Body Image Issues?
“As a fashion influence, ballet has come and gone for decades: legwarmers cycle in and out of style, and American Apparel spent years trying to convince hipsters everywhere that leotards are comfortable. Ballerinas from New York City Ballet and American Ballet Theater are currently serving as models for luxe clothing brands like Wolford, Thakoon and Negative Underwear. But ballet’s current mainstream moment goes beyond fashion, crossing over into fitness culture and serving as a revealing reminder of the kind of female athleticism ― the kind of female bodies ― that American culture deems acceptable and admirable.”
A Growing Divide Between America’s Artists And Ordinary Americans?
“This country has some of the strongest art institutions, best-known artists, and the most (and arguably the best) arts professionals in the world, yet the divide between the art community and the American public is something people are constantly trying to figure out. Maybe part of the appeal of American art is the constant desire by artists, curators, and other arts professionals here to expand the audience. What these stats don’t tell us is how we’re going to do that.”
The Man Who Stumbled Into A Thriving Opera Career
Meet Morris Robinson. At 30, in finally attempting to sing professionally, he tried out for the chorus of “Aida” at the Boston Lyric Opera, the biggest company in New England. A week later, the music director handed him music for a solo role, accompanied by a plea: ‘Please don’t screw it up’. “A lot of the purists, they don’t believe my story,” Robinson said. “They don’t believe it until they witness it themselves.”
Anti-Selfie Sentiment Is High (And Rightfully So), But Selfies Fall Into The Tradition Of Art, Right?
“It is easy access to self-portraiture, probably, that makes the educated uneasy about it. The fact that we all carry high-quality cameras and the ability to instantly exhibit our work globally has made every goofball tourist an international artist. It’s embarrassing when they don’t respect sombre memorials to serious things, yes. But resistance to self-promotion generally is mere snobbery.”
Bullish Jacksonville Symphony Extends Season, Gives Musicians A 37 Percent Raise
“With this new contract, the Jacksonville Symphony season will expand from its current 35 weeks to 38 weeks during the 2017-2018 season, 39 weeks in the 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 seasons, and finally 40 weeks beginning in the 2020-2021 season. The symphony is also increasing the number of full-time musicians from 53 to 60. Musicians’ weekly salaries will increase 19 percent over the term of this agreement, and with the added weeks, annual salaries will rise 37 percent.”
‘By All Accounts A World First: Nude Dancers In Front Of Nude Paintings Before A Nude Audience’
Sydney Dance Company and the Art Gallery of New South Wales created a show for which Rafael Bonachela choreographed dances to be performed alongside such artworks as Rodin’s The Kiss and Francis Bacon triptych. Then they took the slowest-selling performance and branded it nude-audience-only; tickets sold out that day. Kate Hennessy went, and she writes about her experience there – as an art-lover and as a female.
A Female Flemish Old Master Gets Her First Modern Exhibition
“Michaelina Wautier is probably the first woman who successfully painted works in nearly all the genres – portraits, history pictures, still-lifes and scenes of everyday life. At that time most successful Flemish female artists specialised in flower compositions.”