It has long been known that Lorin Maazel would not be staying long as music director of the New York Philharmonic, and speculation as to who might replace him at the end of this decade has been rampant ever since Maazel took the job in the first place. Now, Maazel has made it known whom he believes his successor should be: former Chicago Symphony MD Daniel Barenboim.
Tag: 11.29.06
Baltimore To Get A Cool Million (That Could Become Two)
The Baltimore Symphony has received an $1 million challenge grant from a longtime benefactor, which will match any contribution above $5000 that the orchestra can raise between now and the end of the 2007-08 season. The grant comes as the BSO attempts to bolster its endowment (which was tapped to pay off existing debt earlier this year) and restore itself to balanced budgets.
Still, You Know It Had To Be A Tense Room
As anyone who’s ever tried to co-write anything can tell you, collaboration can be more trouble than its worth. So why would anyone even try to write a play with four other people? “The playwrights were initially wary… Two things, however, won them over. Firstly, there were the social opportunities, [and] secondly, there was curiosity to see how other people write.”
Worst-Case Scenario
“When Catherine Hewgill suddenly found her legs slipping from under her in the car park of the Sydney Opera House, her instinctive reaction was to protect her 300-year-old cello.” She succeeded in that, but the principal cellist of the Sydney Symphony shattered something even more precious to a musician in the fall – her wrist. Doctors were convinced that her career was over. Fortunately, they never shared those convictions with Hewgill.
Critic To Artists: You’re All Idiots
A UK Art Fair recently polled 500 artists, asking them who their ten favorite artists of all time might be. The result was an eclectic list that left at least one critic distinctly unimpressed. “The artists’ artist Top Ten consists entirely of painters, and errs towards the splodgy and the splashy type much beloved by those who revel in the craft of oil painting… This is the Top Ten of an artist who thinks conceptual art is a con and that the ability to balance illusion with a love for gooey paint is paramount… It is the taste of an art student stuck in 1962.”
Chilean Dance Pioneer Dies
“Lola Botka, renowned dancer and co-founder of The National Ballet of Chile, died Monday at age 96, weakened by a serious battle with pneumonia. Botka and her husband, Ernst Uthoff, were important figures in the modern dance movement in Chile.”