“Few people think of ballet, a highly structured dance form developed in Europe, as a viable exercise alternative, probably because it has evolved as a performance art that required dedication and early training to achieve mastery. There are a lot of people out there who want to dance. They don’t realize you can have all of the aerobics, abdominal work, stretching and strengthening and get it all in ballet.”
Tag: 02.16.03
Getting To Know You: Art Meets Science
Scientists think like scientists. And artists – well, they think like artists. For scientists looking to think about their work from a different perspective, artists might be a great resource. So take some artists and let them play with the machines of science and see what they come up with. That’s the premise behind a year-long project in Los Angeles. “Artists see things with different eyes and allow us to take a step back and reflect on what we do. Scientific research is supposed to be about everything, but even at universities we are pushed to be quite narrow. We lose sight of the big picture, so this is a good thing for us.”
Daniel Gioia: Poet/Businessman
Who is Daniel Gioia? He’s just taken over as chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts after a career as a poet and businessman. “Gioia has successfully straddled the worlds of art and business. He has published poetry and criticism in top literary journals while rising to the position of vice president of marketing for General Foods, where he was responsible for determining how best to market Jell-O.”
Censorship Or Sensitivity?
A student newspaper at Boston College is being accused of censorship by a theater group at the school, after the paper refused to publish an ad for an upcoming production, because the ad featured a swastika. The play being advertised “is about a fictional university professor who is drawn into the Nazi movement.” The paper suggested to the theater that the ad be edited, with text replacing the swastika, and that version will run in the next edition, but there is still much debate over whether the paper should have run the ad without changes. The paper’s editors point out that they are under no obligation to run every ad submitted, referencing the fact that “the paper doesn’t run ads for abortion clinics, out of respect for BC’s Catholic affiliation.”
Shaky Start For Welser-Möst
The Cleveland Orchestra recently returned from its first domestic tour under new music director Franz Welser-Möst, and while the organization is calling the tour a smashing success, the critics appear to be taking a different view of the ensemble that many have considered to be America’s best orchestra in recent years. Welser-Möst was fairly unknown when Cleveland chose him to succeed Christoph von Dohnanyi, and many arts writers appear to be unconvinced of his talents. While the tour garnered its share of praise, there were also stern reprimands from critics in New York, Boston, and London. Perhaps even more ominous is the fact that the orchestra’s hometown critic seems to agree with the skeptics.
On Shaky Ground – Time To Ban Vibrato In Brahms?
The early music movement changed the way we listened to msuci of the Baroque and earlier. “As audiences, we have already got used to the idea that the music of Monteverdi or Bach is normally played and sung with pure tone, without the use of steady vibrato, a minute fluctuation of pitch intended to make the sound more intense. With the aid of period orchestras we are gradually accustoming ourselves to the same sound for Haydn and Mozart — even, on occasion, for Beethoven. But surely here, on the threshold of the Romantic era, pure tone must be questionable.” Should we ban vibrato in Brahms and Schumann and…?
The Magic Of McSweeney’s
Dave Eggers’ McSweeney’s is a literary magazine with the kind of buzz most publishers can only dream of. “The magazine’s occasionally dense text and quaint line drawings make it look like a nineteenth-century literary journal – with a well-devel oped sense of the absurdly modern. Issue 4 came as a series of booklets in a box, the cover of each booklet designed by its author. Issue 6 was published with its own soundtrack, with songs to accompany each article. The spine of issue 3 contained a short story by David Foster Wallace. Then there is its openness to new writers…”
Discovering The Neglected Demographic (Surprise – Older People Buy CDs)
The success of 23-year-old Norah Jones, singing a traditional mix of jazz, has piqued recording company interest. “Older listeners are gravitating to the authentic, organic sound of Norah’s records. She speaks to a huge group of people that the music business has forgotten and declared irrelevant. The latest sales statistics confirm the relevance of that neglected group. According to the Recording Industry Association of America, consumers 45 years and older now constitute a quarter of the record market and are the fastest-growing group of music buyers.”
New Jersey – Orchestra Of Strads
The New Jersey Symphony has pulled off a deal to buy 30 priceless string instruments – including 12 Stradivari violins – for $18 million. It “is believed by experts to be the first time in history that any ensemble has purchased so many instruments from Italy’s Golden Age at one time – and that includes during the lifetime of Antonio Stradivari himself. Details of the deal are to be released at a press conference in Newark on Wednesday.”
Poets Gather To Protest War
A group of American poets who were to have performed at the White House before the event was canceled, gathered Sunday in Vermont for an event called “A Poetry Reading in Honour of the Right of Protest as a Patriotic and Historical Tradition.” “About 600 people gathered at a church in Manchester, Vermont to protest a war with Iraq.