“Nothing in the organization’s history has roiled the Vallejo Symphony like the board’s decision last summer to fire music director David Ramadanoff, 71, at the end of the current season. He had served in the post for 31 years and was credited by many observers” – and most of the musicians – “with bringing a new level of professionalism to what had begun as a spirited but ragtag ensemble.”
Tag: 04.14.15
Can The Earth Be Conscious? Have We Built Teilhard de Chardin’s ‘Noosphere’?
Evolution, he claimed, was taking us toward what he called the Noosphere (“nous” is greek for mind) – a global unity of consciousness, a ” ‘thinking’ sphere circling the Earth above the biosphere, which [would comprise all] human reflection, conscious souls, and love.” But “a funny thing happened on the way to the New Age. Humanity ended up building an actual Noosphere (or at least its first draft). It was called the Internet.”
Mexico Repeatedly Slashes Arts Funding As Economy Falters
“As the US economy has picked up steam in the last few years, falling oil prices and a stronger dollar have left the peso floundering. Last month, the Mexican currency hit its lowest value since 1993 … The tumble has the federal government here drawing blood from public funds, especially the arts and culture sector.”
A Syrian Civil War ‘Romeo And Juliet’, Performed Via Skype
“Under the eaves of a hospice for Syrian refugees in Amman, Jordan, a wounded young Romeo reaches out to the blurred image of a girl on a screen. From the besieged and bombed-out city of Homs, Syria, Juliet gazes back. Her head is covered because of her religion; her face is masked to protect her identity from the watchful regime of Bashar al-Assad. This is Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, performed by young people separated by war and reunited, in real time, via Skype.”
What David Hallberg Is Doing While His Foot Is Healing (A Lot)
The ABT star, the first American to become a prncipal at the Bolshoi Ballet, star may still be recovering, but he’s not resting. He tells WNYC’s Leonard Lopate what he’s up to. (audio)
Unconventional: How A String Of Bad Publicity Helped Create An Audience For This Broadway Show
As “Finding Neverland” has developed, so have conflicts that on any other show would likely have remained backstage. The spats, which ranged from battles with journalists to staff conflicts, have kept Mr. Weinstein and the show in theater headlines over the past three years.
What’s Wrong With Classical Music Marketing (Lots) And Musicians (Too Many And Too Narrow), Per Eastman School’s Former Director
Robert Freeman: “We’ve always imagined the elitist part of society were the people who’d patronize that, so we’ve marketed ourselves into a dumb corner of our own making.” (includes video)
Browsing In Bookstores And Then Buying Online Is A ‘Genteel Form Of Shoplifting’, Says David Nicholls
The author of One Day and Us also says, “the debate between digital and physical has had a kind of gladiatorial flavour … Cavaliers versus Roundheads, or perhaps more accurately, for someone of my age at least, Betamax versus VHS, with only one survivor allowed. All too often in this debate I’ve felt like the proud owner of a vast collection of Betamax.”
Günter Grass’s Final Interview: Humanity May Be ‘Sleepwalking’ Into World War
“We have on the one side Ukraine, whose situation is not improving; in Israel and Palestine things are getting worse; the disaster the Americans left in Iraq, the atrocities of Islamic state and the problem of Syria. There is war everywhere; we run the risk of committing the same mistakes as before; so without realising it we can get into a world war as if we were sleepwalking.”
‘I Do Bad Sex Very Well. In Life And In The Novel Form’: Gary Shteyngart Interviews Adam Thirlwell
Thirlwell: “In [my novels] Politics and The Escape, these grand themes of history and politics were mischievously seen as equivalent to more apparently minor problems like sleeping arrangements in a threesome, or premature ejaculation.
Shteyngart: “But premature ejaculation and politics intersect quite a bit.”
Thirlwell: “Well that’s certainly true.”