“Today, the 20th century’s most successful musical “ism” has got its repetitive, beat-based tentacles in every part of musical culture, from film scores to pop albums, jazz riffs to contemporary classical soundscapes, and a musical movement that began in lofts, galleries and collective spaces in New York and San Francisco in the 1960s has become an international phenomenon. If its big idea is that less is more, then minimalism has done more with less than pretty well any other musical movement in history.”
Tag: 11.24.11
IN UK – A Plan To Make It Possible For Every Child To Play Music (On A Budget)
“The National Music Plan, jointly set out by education secretary Michael Gove and culture minister Ed Vaizey, aims to give every child, regardless of where they live or how well off they are, the chance to learn to play a musical instrument. “Hubs” will be created to provide music education locally. But they will do so on vastly reduced funding.”
Would Liverpool Really Give Up Heritage Status Over A Bland Development?
“More than hearts may be torn if the city gives the go-ahead to the titanic and controversial £5.5bn Liverpool Waters project proposed by property developers Peel Holdings. Unesco is so angry with what its inspectors have seen of the designs that it has threatened – and not for the first time – to strip Liverpool’s city centre of its World Heritage Site status.”
Art And Money – Is There A Viable Future Together?
“Last month, as Italy’s new technocratic government struggled to its feet, 100 financiers, entrepreneurs, collectors, curators, dealers and academics gathered at the Palazzo Strozzi in Florence for a private conference on the future of art and finance.”
Pittsburgh Symphony’s New Old Leader
“A native of Cumberland, Md., James Allan Wilkinson has been a familiar face at Heinz Hall since 1976, when he settled a musicians strike. Since then, the experienced arbitrator has negotiated a dozen three-year contracts on management’s behalf.”
London’s Olympic Architecture: Practical Rather Than Flamboyant
“Thanks to old-fashioned British reserve and concerns about avoiding the white-elephant syndrome that has plagued many if not most host cities — and also to the sober realities of the economic moment — next year’s Olympics promise to be an exercise, more than anything, in architectural restraint.”
Rock On – Transporting Giant Rock To LACMA Proving A Tough Haul
“If only the rock could really levitate. Moving it is turning out to be tougher than expected, and the museum, which was supposed to take delivery in August, now says the rock likely won’t leave the quarry until the end of December.”
Higher Education: Best Of Times, Worst Of Times
“Is the higher education bubble about to pop? I don’t know. The more thoughtful writers warn against monocausal explanations.”