Tag: 04.16.19

Frank Almond Tells The Story Of His Stolen Stradivarius

In 2014, in a parking lot following a solo recital, the Milwaukee Symphony’s concertmaster got zaped with a Taser and had his violin ripped from his hands. (The culprit, it turned out, was an individual named Universal Knowledge Allah.) In an appearance at The Moth, Almond recounts the entire tale, from the mugging to the police response(s) to the recovery. (audio) – The Moth

Modern Library To Release New Low-Cost Series Of Classics By Women Authors

“The Modern Library will launch a new trade paperback series, Modern Library Torchbearers, this May. The series, the publisher said, will ‘honor a more inclusive vision of classic books’ by ‘recognizing women who wrote on their own terms, with boldness, creativity, and a spirit of resistance.’ The books, all previously published, will be repackaged, and each will be introduced by a contemporary woman writer.” – Publishers Weekly

When Actors Smash The Scenery, These Are The Folks Who Clean It Up

Take, for instance, the recent Broadway production of Sam Shepard’s True West and the wreckage Ethan Hawke left behind every show. “How would anyone, save for a skilled team of crime scene cleaners, be able to return this stage to a state of order, especially given the narrow time frame on two-show days? It turns out, as is the case with many things in the theater, the task is more than doable — you just have to rehearse it. A lot.” – The Concourse

Peter Sellars: On Art, On Culture, On The Artist’s Job Description

“The world is moving in a direction that does require intervention and does require comment and does require a shift in direction. That’s the job description for artists. We’re the people who suggest a bunch of that stuff. Nobody needs to vote for an artist. You’ve got nothing to lose, you just put it out there. This is a very important time to be an artist.” – San Francisco Classical Voice

Notre Dame’s Fire Is Tragic. Great Buildings Have Repeatedly Survived Tragedy

Philip Kennicott: “History tells us these things are all too common, even as modern media saturation makes it seem somehow unprecedented. Flip through the pages of any tourist guide to an old castle, church or palace, and there is often a litany of fires, floods, revolutions and occasional bouts of revolution and iconoclasm.” – Washington Post