The president of South Carolina’s Charleston Symphony Orchestra, which nearly had to shut down mid-season because of financial problems, says that the ensemble should end the year in the black without needing to tap into its credit line. The turnaround is “largely because of the efforts of the Symphony Orchestra League, a fundraising committee.”
Tag: 05.20.07
Baghdad Symphony Plays On Despite Threats
Amazingly, as an increasingly brutal civil war decimates Iraq’s capital city, the Baghdad Symphony is still performing regularly. But even the orchestra, which has been held up many times as a symbol of hope for a broken country, has been sustaining losses. One musician has been killed in sectarian violence, and many others “have received death threats, must practice in semi-secrecy and don’t dare show their faces to our television cameras.” And just to add insult to injury, American and Iraqi soldiers recently raided the home of one of the BSO’s violinists, and smashed his 19th-century violin to pieces.
The Future Of Movie Theatres?
Landmark Theatresis building a new multiplex in Hollywood. It offers a state-of-the-art experience. “The steeply raked, stadium-style auditoriums feature leather seats and ample legroom. Three theaters will be fitted with the latest digital projectors, one auditorium will be equipped for 3-D movies, and guests in some smaller auditoriums will be able to stretch out on sofas and love seats.”
A Kansas City Museum Gets What It Asked For
“Not only are the leaders of the Nelson-Atkins unveiling a $196 million project by a controversial architect, they’re doing it at a moment of reaction in the museum design world. Stung by criticism that high-concept museums such as Frank Gehry’s in Bilbao, Spain, or Daniel Libeskind’s new space in Denver are ill-serving the art they are meant to showcase, the museum world is thinking hard about the virtues of celebrity architecture. But as Nelson-Atkins curators rush to install art in the new space, it’s clear that they have received exactly what they hoped for when they chose Steven Holl over five other architects in a 1999 competition.”
August Wilson’s 20th Century
August Wilson’s cycle of plays spanning the 20th Century is a landmark in theatre. “The worth of the cycle as a whole cannot be underestimated. All the plays echo and comment upon one another (to the point that a family tree might be helpful to anyone reading the whole cycle). Yet each exists as a self-contained drama. And though each is specific to the era in which it is set, none feel cramped by period details.”
And A Dancer Looks Like…
“It is tempting to believe that people’s deeply ingrained expectations about how dancers — like movie stars and models — should look apply chiefly to ballet. But contemporary dancers are also held to rigid physical standards, which generally have little to do with ability or health, let alone art.”
Wanted: A Great Maestro
“When you ask the players of a major orchestra what they want in a conductor, they answer almost as one: a great musician steeped in the heritage and repertory, an interpreter of insight and depth with the technical skill to convey ideas and elicit results. In other words, they want someone who reminds them of the master teachers they revered in music school. Naturally, others in the orchestral circle have their own ideas of what to look for in a music director.”
Why Harry Potter Doesn’t Make Bookstores Wealthy
Think the new Harry Potter will make the book industry rich? Truth is, the book is so heavily discounted, book shops won’t make much. “It’s not a big money earner for us. It’s more of an event for our customers, a way to give them something back without losing too much money. Department stores set prices we can’t compete with, so we have to think of other ways to give back to our customers.”