Kansas City’s plans for a massive downtown performing arts center are in danger of being scrapped or severely scaled back if new funding cannot be found. Organizers announced last week that they are suspending the PAC’s official capital campaign, and business leaders in the city say that the center cut off all contact with potential donors last fall after a proposed bi-state tax failed at the polls.
Tag: 03.06.05
Conductor Sergiu Commisiona, 76
“Sergiu Comissiona, the elegant Romanian-born conductor who transformed the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra from a little-known ensemble into a nationally respected orchestra, taking it to Carnegie Hall and Europe and winning for it the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, was found dead yesterday in his Oklahoma City hotel room. Maestro Comissiona apparently died of a heart attack, hours before he was to serve as guest conductor for the Oklahoma City Philharmonic.”
“Gates” – Does New Public Art Have To Be Banal To Succeed?
The Central Park “Gates” are gone now, attracting upwards of 3 million people. “Give the artists credit for creating a spectacular public event. Yet as the 7,500 orange panels began to come down Monday, I couldn’t help but wonder: Does public art now have to be bad to be effective, accepted, even loved? Because as art, the big-footed, 16-foot-tall “gates” – gallowslike frames hung with pleated fabric panels that arched over 23 miles of park walkways – defined banality. Yet the $20 million installation inspired what amounted to a worldwide pilgrimage to see the latest creation by the world’s most famous wrappers of buildings and girders of islands.”
Low-Carb Opera
It’s called the “Atkins Diet Opera.” “”Opening in Oxford on Friday, the production – which extols in rhyming couplets the virtues of avoiding carbohydrates – is one of the high-spots of an annual tour of Ig Nobel award-winners, given as ironic counters to Nobel prizes for those who carry out research ‘that should never be repeated’.
SF Classical Station – Success Among The Critics
San Francisco critics have been complaining about classical station KDFC. But the station seems to be a hit with listeners. “The station is advertised with such slogans as ‘Relax. You feel different here.’ KDFC has been the top-rated music station in the Bay Area several times in recent years, and the most successful classical station in the country. No other major-market classical station reaches even the Top 20. Listenership, has increased from about 300,000 a week in 1997 to almost double that number today. So, are the letter-writing critics just a snobbish, demanding minority?”