In honor of Bernard Haitink’s 80th birthday, the Dutch broadcast networks AVRO and Radio 4 are offering free downloads of the conductor leading the Royal Concertgeobouw Orchestra. Each weekday from March 9 to 15, one recording will be available at www.radio4.nl. (Repertoire has not yet been announced.)
Tag: 02.17.09
Ballet BC Hires Interim Executive Director
Andrew Wilhelm-Boyles, former executive director of the Greater Vancouver Alliance for Arts and Culture and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, will help steer the company through its post-bankruptcy restructuring.
It’s Dangerous Being A Violin Teacher
“A 13-year-old schoolboy stabbed his music teacher with a kitchen knife, leaving the blade stuck in the teacher’s back as he made his escape. The pair had just finished a private violin lesson at a middle school near Venice… Fabio Paggioro, 36, had reportedly told the boy, ‘See how you manage to do well when you put the effort in’.”
John McGlinn, 55, Conductor and Musical Theatre Historian
“In 1987, he helped bring to the public’s attention the incredible discovery, in a Seacaucus, NJ, warehouse, of the original versions of the scores of many Broadway shows [such as Show Boat, Anything Goes, Brigadoon, Annie Get Your Gun and Kiss Me, Kate]. Many of these original versions had been presumed lost.”
No Live Music For Madison Ballet Next Season
Two weeks after canceling the remainder of its 2008-09 season, Madison Ballet has decided to save $100,000 by doing without live accompaniment by the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra for next season’s Nutcracker and Cinderella. Artistic director W. Earle Smith said, “I feel very confident this is a one-year thing.”
To Symbolize Peace, A Building With Bomb Shelters
“With all the ironies crushing down on it, it’s amazing this building is still standing. Opening shortly after a devastating conflict, the Peres Peace House is a venue for propagating peace and improving ties between Israel and its neighbours. Furthermore, this smart new piece of architecture is named after Shimon Peres…. While the Peres Centre arranges for the treatment of injured Gaza children in Israeli hospitals, Peres publicly defends the military attacks that put them there.”
Lawyer: Dreamspace Artist Could Not Have Foreseen Deaths
“A jury should clear the creator of an inflatable artwork that blew away killing two people, because the prosecution had not offered enough evidence to convict him of manslaughter, a court heard today. Dreamspace artist Maurice Agis, 77, could not have predicted the conditions that saw his 164ft by 164ft (50m by 50m) PVC creation flip into the air after a gust of wind lifted it from the ground, his barrister told Newcastle Crown Court.”
Cinemas Sued Over Lack Of Captions For Hearing-Impaired
“Captioned showings remain rare, and existing technology that would allow attendees to read along at their seats is rarely used. Now, a small group of Washington residents hopes to change that through a lawsuit filed earlier this month in King County Superior Court. As others have around the nation, the lawsuit’s proponents claim that most King County theaters are violating disability laws by failing to make the movies accessible to people with limited hearing.”
Envy Is To Schadenfreude As Hunger Is To Eating
“It is a vice few can avoid yet nobody craves, for to experience envy is to feel small and inferior, a loser shrink-wrapped in spite. … Now researchers are gleaning insights into the neural and evolutionary underpinnings of envy, and why it can feel like a bodily illness or a physical blow. They’re also tracing the pathway of envy’s equally petty foil, the sensation of schadenfreude — taking pleasure when those whom you envied are themselves brought down low.”
Their Target Gone, Billionaires For Bush Disband
The fallout of Obama’s inauguration has been particularly harsh for the satirical group Billionaires for Bush, whose raison d’être was skewering the last president. “The group might have recast itself as Billionaires for Obama. But that would have required ‘irony we can believe in,’ said Andrew Boyd, who sometimes goes by his Billionaire name, Phil T. Rich. ‘Here’s the conundrum,’ Mr. Boyd said. ‘Can you point out that the emperor has no clothes when you like the emperor — and his clothes?'”