“The largest – and until recently, only – orchestra in Central Africa has played on three continents, to standing ovations, and graced some of the philharmonic world’s most prestigious stages in recent years. But at home, it remains a modest affair. The first trumpeter still spends his days working construction sites. The double bass player is a nurse, and the tubist a pharmacist. One violinist, who is also the repairman tasked with mending instruments warped by the Congolese humidity, runs a small shop across the street, selling eggs and toothpaste.”
Tag: 09.14.15
Ten Years After Katrina, Louisiana Philharmonic Finally Gets Its Hall Back
“After ten years of post-Katrina concerts in other venues, the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra returns to the Orpheum Theater in New Orleans’ Central Business District to open its 2015-16 concert season. Farrar Hudkins talks with Mary von Kurnatowski, one of the Orpheum’s new owners, and longtime LPO musicians Patti Adams and Jim Atwood, to give us the story of this historic homecoming.” (audio)
4,000-Year-Old, Eight-Foot-Long Egyptian Manuscript Rediscovered
“The oldest Egyptian leather manuscript has been found in the shelves of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, where it was stored and forgotten for more than 70 years. Dating from the late Old Kingdom to the early Middle Kingdom (2300-2000 B.C.), the roll measures about 2.5 meters (8.2 feet) and is filled with texts and colorful drawings of the finest quality.”
‘Brokeback Mountain’ To Be Made Into Stage Play
“It started as a short story, became an Oscar-winning film and then an opera, and now Brokeback Mountain is going to be adapted for the legitimate stage. Producer Tom O’Connell has acquired the rights to Annie Proulx’s short story … and the production is expected to premiere in London’s West End in 2016.”
Frank D. Gilroy, 89, Playwright Of ‘The Subject Was Roses’
The 1964 Broadway hit won a Tony and a Pulitzer. “But for Mr. Gilroy, who wrote more than 30 other plays, Roses was his only major theatrical success. And while he wrote the screenplays for 10 feature films (some of which he also produced or directed); three novels; and scores of adventures, westerns and dramas in the golden age of television, none had the impact of his first and only Broadway hit.”
Controversial Winner For The Leeds International Piano Competition
Anna Tcybuleva’s success certainly raised a few eyebrows after her performance of Brahms’s B flat Concerto – the last of the six concertos we heard – in which, for all the fluency of her playing, she often seemed incapable of seeing the overall shape of the work, and her role in projecting it, rather than the detail of each passing moment.
Cincinnati’s Music Hall Closes For $129 Million Renovation
“Officials announced Monday that the historic, 1878 landmark will completely shut down in June for what is now a $129 million construction project. Following an extensive and complex renovation, it will reopen in fall 2017.”
Are Superfans Today’s Equivalent Of Cult Members?
Trekkies. Deadheads. Beliebers. Red Sox Nation. The throngs at ComicCon. Are fan groups like these simply means of social cohesion, or do they eventually take over their members’ lives? Jared Keller gives a glimpse into the mindset of a superfan (he’s obsessed with the ’70s band Tower of Power) and looks at the evidence.
Benjamin Millepied On The Paris Opera Ballet’s New Digital ‘Third Stage’
“The idea of having a third stage that’s a digital platform was really to invite [non-dance] artists to come to the opera and get a sense that they can really create something here: work with the dancers, the music, the architecture, something. … It’ll be totally original content; so far we’ve had many people, from visual artists to directors. I want them to feel they have carte blanche.”
Joffrey Ballet’s Newest Dancers Have More To Think About Than Dancing
“[They] must contend with their own newly emerging public identities almost as readily as they practice their turnout. Last year, Valeriia Chaykina, a dancer from Russia, was cast in an ongoing series from Teen Vogue. In 2011, Colombian-born Joan Sebastián Zamora starred in the documentary First Position, which followed six young ballet dancers preparing for New York City’s Youth American Grand Prix, one of the world’s largest ballet competitions.”