“An anonymous benefactor has chipped in C$42,000 to give 1,000 children a rare holiday treat while saving Ballet BC from imminent financial collapse.” The donor bought and donated 1,000 tickets for the company’s annual Nutcracker presentation (performed by the Moscow Classical Ballet); the income should ensure that the Vancouver company can rehire its dancers for the spring 2009 season.
Tag: 12.03.08
Amazin’ Alex Wins Again!
MacArthur laureate Alex Ross, whose book The Rest Is Noise, a history of classical music in the 20th century, won the 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism, has just received the £10,000 Guardian First Book Award. “The chair of the judging panel, Guardian literary editor Claire Armistead, said: ‘In some quarters this book has been seen as not having a popular appeal. Our prize – which, uniquely, relies on readers’ groups in the early stages of judging – proves that, on the contrary, there is a huge appetite among readers for clear, serious but accessible books.'”
Why Should AIG Get Federal Money And Not The Iowa Writers’ Group?
Steven Rosen suggests that, if President-elect Obama is going to launch a latter-day New Deal, he should revive the first New Deal’s Federal Writers’ Project. The project could employ some of the countless journalists laid off in the past couple of years; it might update the first FWP’s American Guide series; it could potentially even subsidize some existing blogs and loss-making Web sites that provide useful services to the public.
Julie Andrews Takes Over As Host Of Vienna Phil New Year’s Concert On PBS
“The 73-year-old actress is succeeding Walter Cronkite as anchor of the Vienna Philharmonic’s annual New Year’s Day concert on PBS. Cronkite had been the narrator of the Great Performances telecast in the United States for the past 24 years. ‘He is passing the baton this year and staying home with his family, and they asked me if I would do this special 25th anniversary program,’ Andrews said Wednesday during a telephone interview from Los Angeles.”
Making The Transition From Ballet To Modern Dance
After four years with Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre (and a total of nine years in professional ballet), dancer Christopher Bandy is making the transition to a whole new technique and aesthetic as a member of the modern company Dance Alloy. He feels lazy as a choreographer asks him not to jump so high, but he’s enjoying the relative lack of aches and pains: “Modern dance is a blessing on the hips.”
Frozen River, Rachel Getting Married, Ballast Lead Independent Spirit Award Nominations
“Ballast, an austere drama about a grieving man who forms a bond with a woman and her young son; Frozen River, a somber tale about the relationship between two poverty-stricken women; and Rachel Getting Married, an intimate drama about a young woman confronting her demons at her sister’s nuptials, dominated the nominations for the 2009 Film Independent’s Spirit Awards on Tuesday, earning six each.”
Virginia Symphony Cuts Concerts, Salaries
“The Virginia Symphony Orchestra, which has a $1.5 million debt, is cutting employee salaries by 20 percent and canceling some spring concerts. A reduction in single ticket sales and insufficient donations are largely responsible for the debt, accrued since the fall of 2007.” (Musicians’ pay will not be affected.)
Public Theater Establishes New Production-Sharing Agreement With Broadway
In moving its productions to Broadway, the non-profit home of the New York Shakespeare Festival has had its ups (A Chorus Line) and downs (On the Town and The Wild Party, which helped lead to a severe money crunch). Now, with last summer’s smash hit revival of Hair, the Public has established a new model for commercial runs of its productions. “For the first time, [Public Theater artistic director Oskar Eustis] said, ‘we have structured a deal where not a dime of the Public’s money is at risk,’ and the Public maintains complete artistic control. ‘We are real artistic and business partners.'”
Folk Singer And Civil Rights Icon Odetta Dies At 77
“Odetta, 77, the folk and blues singer whose renditions of civil rights anthems accompanied historic events and made history themselves, died last night in New York. Afflicted for years with heart and lung ailments, she died at Lenox Hill Hospital, which she had entered at the end of October for treatment of kidney failure, according to her manager, Douglas Yeager.”
Alas, Poor Yorick! Skull Booted From RSC Hamlet
Pianist André Tchaikowsky’s dying wish was realized last month when his skull made its debut in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of Hamlet in Stratford-upon-Avon. Now that the news is out, the RSC has retired the skull, saying that it is “too distracting for the audience.”