“It is instead an alternative-universe high school band: a new-music factory that focuses on works written in the last 50 years, with an emphasis on the new alt-classical style. Its musicians, who began studying new music before anyone had told them that it was incomprehensible or unlikable, are thrilled to play it, and their spirit has impressed composers whose music they perform.”
Tag: 03.23.12
Philadelphia’s Arden Theatre Company To Expand
The Old City-based company, arguably the region’s finest, “will expand into a building three doors from its current space on Second Street, just north of Market, where it will focus on its programs for students and children and install an 80-seat theater and rehearsal hall.”
Inside What Makes Choreographer Alexei Ratmansky Tick
“The 43-year-old has a rare gift for limning the quirks and verities of human behaviour through classical steps and it has catapulted him to the world stage.”
Mozart Piece Discovered In Austria
“The piece, thought to have been composed in 1767 or 1768, was found in a notebook in an attic. Researchers recently determined there was strong evidence Allegro Molto is a Mozart composition.”
Women Composers? Who Needs Them?
“I know I’m only one person, but to me, in light of all of these things and in the context of a very long history, it is highly insulting to classify a composer by gender because it perpetuates the myth of a sub-group. It’s even further insulting to imply that our ensembles have made, or should make, programming choices based on gender.”
Time To Stop Shopping At Sotheby’s?
“The collective bargaining of the art handlers’ union is one of the few remaining guarantees of fairness in the art world, and Sotheby’s is doing everything they can to eliminate it.”
The Ubiquitous QR Code Goes High Art
“The objects themselves look interesting, like Mondrians meeting pixellation, but they also point to quirky conceptual phrases. ‘qr.7947423,’ for instance, tells me: ‘I’ve Never Enjoyed the Price of Freedom.'”
Pretty Books, Small Presses Could Be The Future Of Print
“At a time when e-books are making reading practical but not very pretty–with their inflexible line-endings, clunky page-turns and limited typography–we need small presses to publish the best writing in books that are also beautiful objects.”
How To Make James Madison Exciting? Crowd-source, Of Course
Asking scholars – and others – to annotate an online text of James Madison’s Notes of the Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787 means it might become more than something for historians to glance at. “It’s sort of the users manual to the Constitution. You’re not going to make it sing. But can you make it at least speak?”
Playing A New (Well, Rediscovered) Mozart Piece In His Hometown
Want a new Mozart? On Friday, you could have heard one – discovered in a notebook from 1780 in an attic in Tyrol last summer – at Mozart’s home in Salzburg.