Conductor Jeffrey Kahane will have some big shoes to fill when he takes over as musid director of the Colorado Symphony next fall. For better or for worse, the CSO has been identified for a decade as Marin Alsop’s orchestra, due in large part to Alsop’s blossoming international reputation over those years. Kahane may not be as outsized a personality as Alsop, but he has some definite ideas about where his new orchestra needs to go. “One thing is the way in which the orchestra is central to the life of a community. That the orchestra is not just there to entertain, although that’s part of what we do, but to provide a sort of spiritual core to the cultural life of the community.”
Tag: 12.17.04
Boston’s Theatre Man Of The Year
Boston’s theatre scene is crowded, yet frequently underfunded and in desperate need of structural upgrade. This year, though, the Huntington Theatre’s Michael Maso “achieved what naysayers said would never happen. He oversaw a capital campaign that has raised nearly $20 million and managed the opening of the Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts… With the new spaces, the Huntington has made a commitment to developing and presenting new plays and new playwrights. And its partnership with the BCA has made the Huntington a champion of that institution’s aim to become ‘an urban cultural village.'”
Partisan & Proud Of It
“Anybody who has paid attention to Mr. Moyers’s 54-year career in journalism would not be surprised by his jeremiad. He is a rigorous journalist, one whose documentaries and television news reports always point to the facts, but when he makes up his mind, he lands hard on his conclusions. And among other epiphanies, Mr. Moyers has decided that the current administration in the White House represents a threat to free and unfettered discourse.”
Report: NJ Symphony Should Have Known Better
A scathing internal report on the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra’s purchase of more than two dozen rare string instruments from now-imprisoned philanthropist Herbert Axelrod has concluded that the orchestra ignored warning signs that the collection was not worth what Axelrod claimed, fast-tracked the purchase in order to meet a deadline that did not exist, and deliberately misled the public and its own trustees throughout the process. The report singles out NJSO president Lawrence Tamburri, who has since jumped to the Pittsburgh Symphony, saying that he kept reports of Axelrod’s legal troubles to himself, and ignored serious questions of authenticity raised by experts engaged by the orchestra.
Talking ‘Bout A Content Revolution
The Federal Trade Commission brought representatives of the recording industry together with purveyors of peer-to-peer file sharing networks last week for a two-day workshop designed to find common ground between the warring factions. There doesn’t appear to be much, but at the very least, such face-to-face meetings take away both sides’ ability to posture, and force everyone involved to consider the logic of the opposing position. Still, peer-to-peer network operators insist that the recording industry isn’t interested in any partnership that doesn’t completely wipe out file sharing, and solutions appear to be a long way off.
Jabba The Art
The shortlist for the fifth annual Beck’s Futures art prize, which honors contemporary UK artists, has been released, and it includes a lifesize sculpture of Jabba the Hutt surrounded by bikini-clad women. The prize is not restricted by medium, however, and the Jabba sculptor will be competing against painters, installation artists, and filmmakers for the pretigious prize.
Now In Pop Culture – The Big Discussion (Literally)
“Discussions about body size are on the upswing, as pop culture – apparently trying to keep pace with news reports about obesity among Americans – is generating entertainment that deals with being fat. From Broadway to books, reality TV to the movies, the lives of the overweight are being mined for laughs and drama – giving a voice to those who typically don’t get heard, and testing the theory that society is becoming more tolerant of bigger bodies.”
Beijing’s National Theatre Faces Money Woes
Beijing’s controversial National Theatre is under construction but facing budget problems. “Shaped like a tear drop, the silvery theater — made of glass and titanium — once sparked controversy on whether such an modern design was appropriate for the center of Beijing. The project met numerous obstacles before finally gaining approval — now it faces budget troubles.”
A Dictionary You Can Add To
The new Collins Online gives readers an opportunity to suggest words for inclusion, as well as debate whether they should be included. “This is a completely new concept which will provide direct contact between the people who compile dictionaries and the end users. It allows us to open up the process of suggesting and selecting words.”
The Depressing Business Of Selling Books
“Anyone who really cares about books is bound to find the way in which they are sold and marketed deeply depressing. To walk into the average high street bookstore at this time of year is to beinstantly assailed by a riot of three-for-two promotions, Christmas catalogues packed out with what Victorian scholars used to call biblia abiblia (“books that are not books”), Robbie Williams, the two motor-cycling actors, and cookery gurus. A glance at this week’s Bookseller chart, meanwhile, discloses that of the country’s 50 bestselling titles, exactly two might possess some kind of literary merit.”