So newspapers are shedding their classical music critics. Why is this a surprise, wonders Greg Sandow. “In an age when new arts groups compete for coverage and popular culture keeps getting smarter — why should they expect any press coverage at all?”
Tag: 06.16.07
The Comeback Biennale
Sarah Milroy writes that “most of us who attended the [Venice] Biennale’s three press days last week agreed that this is the best Biennale we had seen in years… Many of the leading nations have made their best curatorial picks in a long time,” and director Robert Storr “is indisputably one of the great curators working today, making exhibitions that display both a high degree of aesthetic discrimination, a depth of historical understanding and an impeccable sense of timing.”
Symphony, Opera, Ballet Thriving In KC
It was a great fiscal year for the performing arts in Kansas City, where the ballet company set records for subscription sales and overall revenue; the symphony saw a second consecutive double-digit spike in revenue and made its first commercial recording in years; and the opera bumped its subscription sales by 16%.
The Oundjian Effect
Guest conductor and artistic adviser Peter Oundjian is having a profound impact on the Detroit Symphony, an orchestra still in search of its next music director. “His sparkling appearances reveal a growing rapport with the DSO, and his willingness to dig into the gritty details of the orchestra’s everyday life is providing a stabilizing rudder during a challenging transition.”
Doing Something About Diversity (Or The Lack Of It)
A Boston program which aims to correct the glaring lack of blacks and Latinos in the classical music world is celebrating its 25th anniversary this month. “Project STEP has graduated only 30 high school seniors because of its high selectivity and the natural attrition of the long training. [But] the program receives huge support from the BSO and the New England Conservatory, which help provide facilities and training.”
The Ever-Evolving Venice Biennale
“Few glimpses are left of [the Venice Biennale’s] imperial past, where it was still believed that culture might be stamped with a national identity – or vice versa. Confronting nationalism now means a walk across the lawn fronting the bone-dry white façade of the Brazilian pavilion, only to be confronted by an impossibly skinny Japanese transvestite teetering around on elevator shoes posing for Egyptian tourists.”
The Secret of Spoleto’s Success
Toronto’s young Luminato Festival may have much to learn about both content and promotion from the success of Charleston’s Spoleto USA fest. “It is challenging for a festival to make a major impact in a sprawling metropolis, as Luminato has already discovered. It is much easier where, as in Charleston, visitors can walk from venue to venue, past historic houses in a postcard-pretty community totally focused on what is happening on local stages.”
Wouldn’t Tasers Be More Effective?
In response to what many perceive as a sharp uptick in talking, phone use, and other distracting behavior, “Regal Cinemas, the nation’s biggest theater operator, is arming random patrons with wireless pagers to silently alert management to trouble during films.”
Assessing Alsop
As Marin Alsop prepares to officially take the reins of the Baltimore Symphony this fall, Peter Dobrin takes the measure of her style and work with the orchestra thus far. “A conductor’s work basically falls into two categories: the time in rehearsals resolving ensemble problems such as balance, intonation, the length of notes; and the visual inspiration and tempo manipulations in performance that bring the craft worked out in rehearsal to a level of art. [There is] more work to be done in both areas.”
Three Replacing One At Art Basel
“Sam Keller, director of Art Basel and Art Basel Miami Beach for seven years, is stepping down to become director of the Beyeler Foundation in Basel. Art Basel organizers announced on Tuesday that he was being replaced” by a triumvirate of directors, who will split the managerial duties into artistic, fiscal, and strategic compartments.