New Music To Sleep By (8-Hour Piece To Be Listened To From Bed)

“Sleep, an eight-hour piece which the the German-born British composer calls a “lullaby for a frenetic world,” will premier in Berlin this September. The overnight performance will go on from midnight to 8am, with audience members in beds rather than seats. It is set to be the longest single piece of classical yet written, and is scored for piano, strings, vocals and electronics.”

The Man Who Midwifed Impressionism (As Well As Some Of America’s Great Art Collections)

Paul Durand-Ruel was the gallery owner who shepherded Renoir, Monet, Pissarro, Manet, Morisot and their peers past the haughty skepticism of the Paris art establishment – and their works into the hands of U.S. collectors. “Do not think the Americans are savages,” he once wrote. “On the contrary, they are less ignorant, less close-minded than our French collectors.”

L.A. Music Center Finds Its New Boss – At ABT

“Rachel Moore, a former dancer and the longtime top business executive of New York’s American Ballet Theatre, will be the next president and CEO of the Music Center in downtown Los Angeles.” The complex, the West Coast’s equivalent of Lincoln Center, is the home of Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Ahmanson Theater, Mark Taper Forum and Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Joffrey Ballet Gets Its First (!) Endowment

“It seems almost inconceivable that although it has been in existence since 1956, the Chicago-based Joffrey Ballet has never had an endowment, concentrating instead on making its operating budget. But a $500,000 challenge grant from the Rudolf Nureyev Dance Foundation, the match for which was exceeded by the company, has resulted in a new $1.5 million endowment for the company.”