“The ‘Mozart effect,’ which was first suggested in a study in 1993, showed that listening to 10 minutes of Mozart before a spatial skills test appeared to improve performance. Scientists soon reported a ‘Schubert effect’ and even a ‘Stephen King effect’; hearing lively prose from the author before spatial tests also appeared to improve scores. Now researchers are discovering why the so-called Mozart effect happens, and they are finding that the benefits of music lessons may have been overstated.”
Tag: 08.19.03
Edinburgh’s Golden Summer
This summer’s Edinburgh Festival looks like it will be the most successful edition ever. “With two weeks to go, the Festival has already taken more than £2.38 million at the box office this year – more than the entire sales for last year’s event. And senior figures say the previous record of £2.4 million, set in 2000, should be broken soon.”
Rwanda Project Founder Dies
Theatre producer and photographer David Jiranek died this weekend at the age of 45. Three years ago Jiranek “traveled to Rwanda to bring disposable instamatic cameras to the children in an orphanage founded and still run by a 90-year-old American matriarch, Rosamond Carr, to care for the young survivors of the Hutu-Tutsi genocide. An exhibition of the astonishing images created by the children became the basis for a photography exhibition shown in Rwanda’s capital city and at various galleries in the United States, most recently this summer in New York.”
Aboriginal Artists Vs. The Prince
England’s Prince Harry is under fire for some aboriginal images he included in his paintings. “Some of Australia’s best-known Aboriginal artists have recently become aware of the prince’s paintings of lizard motifs and claim he has stolen their culture. That the artworks have been valued at £15,000 each has compounded the insult to poor desert communities.”
Headless Crime
A burglar breaks into a man’s house and steals his electronic equipment. But he flees in terror when he discovers what he thinks is a human head floating in a jar. When later speaking to the police, the thief tells of his gruesome discovery. When police go to the scene of the crime they discover… an art project.
Recording Industry: We Won’t Pursue Little Guys
The recording industry tells a US Congressional committee that it isn’t pursuing small-time music downloaders to prosecute them. “RIAA is gathering evidence and preparing lawsuits only against individual computer users who are illegally distributing a substantial amount of copyrighted music.”
Arab-Israeli Orchestra To Perform In Morocco
Daniel Barenboim is bringing his orchestra made up of Jewish and Arab musicians to Morocco – the orchestra’s first performance in an Arab country. “Barenboim will conduct the 80-strong group in the city’s Mohamed V Theatre as they perform Beethoven’s Third Symphony and Mozart’s Concerto for Three Pianos.”
Dancing On The Fringe
The fringe Festival of Independent Dance Artists (fFIDA)is the largest dance gathering in Canada. “Throughout fFIDA’s history, one can track the climate of the times. In the early years, Canadian choreographers had a much more feminist and/or political and/or humorous bent. In today’s ‘retreat into yourself’ mentality, the home crowd seems to be angst-driven or navel-gazing or obliquely abstract, with a considerable number of the solos depicting women in distress.”
Taiwan Putting Together Funding For A Guggenheim
Taiwan’s premier has pledged to cover half the cost of a proposed new Guggenheim Museum in Taichung City, and is considering whether to fund another third of the cost.
Scottish Opera’s Ringing Money Woes
Scottish Opera is getting admiring reviews for its new production of Wagner’s “Ring” cycle this summer. But the company is in financial difficulty again. “The company is understood to have already spent its public funds for 2003-2004, despite an additional grant of £750,000 from the Scottish Arts Council Lottery Fund (SACLF) which made its Ring Cycle possible. Twice in the last four years, Scottish Opera has gone to government and left with extraordinary grants of £2.1 million in 1999 and £1.9 million in 2001 to bail it out. However, if the company faces a difficult future, its fate also presents a defining issue for the Scottish Executive’s cultural policy.”