“Four statues of Ganesha, the elephant-headed Hindu deity revered as the remover of obstacles, are to be removed in the next few days from outside Edmonton’s Shaw Conference Centre after adamant objections from Alberta Hindus… Ryan McCourt’s sculptures, which have been on display for 10 months, were placed at the centre under Edmonton’s Art and Design in Public Places Program, a corporate-municipal-non-profit partnership seeking to show large-scale sculptures produced by many artists in the region.”
Tag: 09.20.07
Chicago Lyric Supporters Step Up In A Big Way
“Facing the loss of two major funding sources, Lyric Opera of Chicago trustees have sprung into action and donated, pledged and made planned gifts of some $35 million to the fabled company. Another $1 million came from other Lyric supporters, pushing the fund-raising effort $11 million over its initial $25 million goal.”
Creating Book Buzz In The Internet Age
“The task of unveiling a big book– especially one with great news interest or enormous popular demand — has changed dramatically in recent years as players in an increasingly competitive news media seek to be the first to unveil content, and the Internet makes it more difficult to keep books under wraps. At the same time the delicate publicity dance has taken on a heightened importance as books, like movies, must now explode out of the gates or quickly recede.”
Montreal Adds CEO Position, But Keeps Current Boss
The Montreal Symphony has promoted Madeline Careau, already the head of the organization, to the newly created post of CEO. Careau has been a controversial leader in Montreal, expanding the orchestra’s concert repertoire to include “pops” shows, and presiding over a months-long musicians’ strike in 2005. She has been with the MSO since 2000.
White House To Showcase Lawrence Painting
“In its recent renovation of the Green Room, the White House has given a place of honor to a newly acquired masterpiece by Jacob Lawrence, one of the greatest African American artists of the 20th century.”
Sibelius’s Lost Years
Jean Sibelius was a prolific composer throughout most of his career, but amazingly, he produced not a single significant work in the last 30 years of his life. “It’s a creative silence all but unparalleled in music,” but the Finn never really stopped composing, and the reasons behind his withdrawal are complicated.
Pacific Symphony Okays 41% Musician Raise
“After arduous negotiations, the Pacific Symphony’s management and the union representing the symphony’s 88 musicians announced Wednesday that they have reached a tentative agreement on a five-year contract. The contract – the longest in the symphony’s history – includes a 41.5 percent compounded increase in musicians’ wages.”
Paul Muldoon To Be New Yorker’s New Poetry Editor
Alice Quinn, the poetry editor of The New Yorker, is stepping down after 20 years and will be succeeded in one of the most influential posts in the poetry world by Paul Muldoon, the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet.
NBC To Make Shows Available Free Over The Internet
‘The service, which is set to start in November after a test period in October, comes less than three weeks after NBC Universal said it was pulling its programs out of the highly successful iTunes service of Apple Inc.”
English National Opera Charts A Way Forward
Just how will the English National Opera approach the new season. The past few years have been a mess. “The ‘sudden resignations’ of a general director and chairman, another music director who never arrived, senior managerial appointments made without due process, a restoration project that did nothing to increase productivity, box-office dips, redundancies and asset-selling all contributed to slumps in external reputation and internal morale.”