Tag: 04.29.20

‘Ballet Conductors Are The Hidden Heroes Of The Art Form’

Sarah Kaufman: “They can serve as guardian angels of the evening, controlling the musical universe and its atmosphere, smoothing over mishaps and delivering well-timed thunderbolts with a wave of the baton. They can even see the future, reading signs of trouble in a dancer’s hesitancy or hint of fatigue, and adjusting the tempo for what comes next. … Despite quieter profiles, ballet conductors arguably do twice the work of their symphonic counterparts.” – The Washington Post

Barney Ales, Motown’s Master Marketer, Dead At 85

“Mr. Ales was one of [Berry] Gordy’s most indispensable executives throughout the 1960s, when Motown became a ubiquitous force in American pop culture and a prime symbol of black enterprise at the height of the civil rights movement. Officially, he was in charge of sales and promotion. But as a high-ranking white executive at a black-owned label, Mr. Ales was also instrumental in promoting Motown’s music to the white-dominated industry — most importantly the programmers who decided what songs were played on Top 40 radio stations.” – The New York Times

Music That Was Just Made (Or Could Have Been) For The Pandemic

Michael Andor Brodeur: “Lately, my social media feeds are filled with musical experiments that take a head-on approach to the current crisis, or works composed before the outbreak that resonate anew in the context of covid-19. Rather than escape the moment, they arrest it. Here are four works, new and recent, that you can stream (and, in some cases, sing) over the next several days.” Top of the list: David Lang’s Protect Yourself From Infection. – The Washington Post

L.A. May Turn Real Estate Developers’ Arts Fees Into Relief Funding For Arts Groups

“For every private development project of $500,000 or more in the city of Los Angeles, the developer must pay an arts fee to the city based on the square footage of the building or a percentage of the value of the permit. Those funds are then allocated to cultural events such as festivals and other public arts happenings. But with dense public gatherings not possible for the foreseeable future, L.A. City Councilman David Ryu hopes to use those funds as relief grants for arts organizations.” – Los Angeles Times

To Avoid Staff Furloughs, Smithsonian’s Top Execs Take Pay Cuts

“The salaries of 89 senior-level executives — all nonfederal employees — will be cut by 10 percent for 12 months, starting May 24, with Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III and Deputy Secretary Meroe Park taking 15 percent cuts. The senior executives include museum and science directors and officials overseeing investments, security and facilities … The majority of the institution’s 6,300 employees are federal workers and will not be affected.” – The Washington Post

Sarah Palin’s School District Drops ‘Great Gatsby’, ‘Catch-22’, And Three Others

The Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District in Alaska “cited ‘sexually explicit material’ and ”anti-white’ messaging’ in [Maya Angelou’s] I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, … [and] language and sexual references in [F. Scott Fitzgerald’s] The Great Gatsby. … The other books on the list — Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, Catch-22 by Joseph Heller and The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien — were judged to be inappropriate because they contained mentions of rape, incest, racial slurs, profanity and misogyny.” – The New York Times