“The two great advantages of a royal association are publicity and trust. ‘For smaller organisations, the biggest advantage is publicity because it can be very difficult to draw attention to yourself. For larger organisations, the publicity benefit might not be so obvious unless you’re staging a big event, but trust is a big issue at the moment, and if you have a royal patron there is an assumption that there’s a royal stamp of approval and that you will have been thoroughly vetted.”
Tag: 05.15.18
Tom Wolfe, 87
In his use of novelistic techniques in his nonfiction, Mr. Wolfe, beginning in the 1960s, helped create the enormously influential hybrid known as the New Journalism. But as an unabashed contrarian, he was almost as well known for his attire as his satire.
Soprano Nina Stemme Wins $1 Million Birgit Nilsson Prize
“The Prize is established on a substantial endowment left at her death in 1997 by another Swedish soprano, the legendary Birgit Nilsson, who was born a hundred years ago this month on a farm near Malmö. Stemme’s voice and personality may be very different in character from Nilsson’s … but they both excel in the same repertory. Previously the Prize has been awarded to Plácido Domingo, Riccardo Muti and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.”
Guitarist-Composer Glenn Branca Dead At 69
“Even among the many underground artists, musicians and misfits who populated downtown Manhattan in the 1970s and 80s, he stood out as one of the weirdest. His music – with its stark sheets of minimalism and overwhelming guitar-oriented symphonies – filtered into rock and noise, and it’s hard to imagine bands such as Sonic Youth and Swans without him. Originally trained in theatre, with no formal musical education, he brought intense drama to experimental music.”