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☆ 6 wedding traditions that are overrated, according to wedding planners
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-09 | by ( Mykenna Maniece | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Sleeping apart the night before the weddingCouple getting ready in the bathroom. Monkey Business Images/ShutterstockThe tradition of spending one's wedding eve apart stems from marriage's roots as a contractual obligation rather than a romantic one, Brides reported. Keeping the couple apart until the wedding was a way to ensure the bride's virginity and create some mystery before the ceremony, as many unions were arranged. So, with more couples living together before tying the knot, the tradition has lost some appeal. If you like to work out together, go work out," she added.

Persons: Lara Mahler Organizations: Pew Research Center

☆ Is Corporate America in Denial About Trump?
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-07 | by ( Jonathan Mahler | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

“I will be prepared for both,” he said. “We will deal with both.”Dimon presides over the largest and most profitable bank in the United States and has done so for nearly 20 years. Maybe more than any single individual, he stands in for the Wall Street establishment and, by extension, corporate America. With his comments at Davos, he seemed to be sending a message of good will to Trump on their behalf. But he also appeared to be trying to put his fellow globalists at ease, reassuring them that America, long a haven for investors fleeing risk in less-stable democracies, would remain a safe destination for their money in a second Trump administration.

Persons: ”, “, ” Dimon, Trump Organizations: Trump Locations: United States, America, Davos

☆ Why Civil Cases Have Been More Successful Against Donald Trump - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-01 | by ( David Lat | Zachary B. Shemtob | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

For months now, the country has been riveted by the four criminal cases against Donald Trump: the New York state case involving hush-money payments to an adult film star, the federal case involving classified documents, the Georgia election-interference case and the federal election-interference case. The only case with a realistic shot of producing a verdict before the election, the New York case, involves relatively minor charges of falsifying business records that are unlikely to result in any significant prison time. It’s only the civil courts that have rendered judgments on Mr. Trump. For Trump opponents who want to see him behind bars, even a half-billion-dollar hit to his wallet might not carry the same satisfaction. Although not as heralded as the criminal cases against Mr. Trump, civil suits have proved effective in imposing some measure of accountability on him, in situations where criminal prosecution might be too delayed, divisive or damaging to the law.

Persons: Donald Trump, It’s, Trump, Letitia James, Jean Carroll, Jonathan Mahler Organizations: Mr, New, Trump Locations: New York, Georgia, York

NEW YORK (AP) — Michael Tilson Thomas is to conduct the opening subscription program of the New York Philharmonic season, three years after the conductor announced he was being treated for a brain tumor. He has continued to lead an active schedule but with fewer performances: Tilson Thomas led four concerts with the New York Philharmonic in March 2023. He was founder of the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, Florida, and music director of the San Francisco Symphony from 1995-2020. The philharmonic will be without a music director for two seasons. Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra music director Manfred Honeck will lead an opening gala on Sept. 24 that includes Tony Award winner Cynthia Erivo.

Persons: — Michael Tilson Thomas, Emanuel Ax, Tilson Thomas, Jaap van Zweden, Gustavo Dudamel, Dudamel, Kate Soper, Philip Glass’s, Ken, David Masur, Kurt Masur, Augusta Read Thomas, Manfred Honeck, Tony, Cynthia Erivo, Herbert Blomstedt, Brahms, Hilary Hahn, Soprano Renée Fleming, Rod Gilfry, Kevin, ’, Juanjo Mena, Yuja Wang Organizations: New York Philharmonic, New, San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Locations: Miami Beach , Florida

☆ At City Ballet, 2 Sparkling Premieres and Many Moments to Remember
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-08 | by ( Gia Kourlas | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

For a company to unveil a decent new ballet is a strange and marvelous occurrence. To unveil two in one season? Quality choreography that celebrates classicism, that highlights musicality — that even pushes the form into new realms — isn’t the norm. But at New York City Ballet this season, two premieres were worthy of many more viewings — and in the case of Alexei Ratmansky’s harrowing “Solitude,” set to Mahler, endless ones. Inspired by a 2022 photo of a Ukrainian father kneeling before the body of his dead son, the ballet filled the stage with bodies expressing the tangible ache of grief and love.

Persons: Alexei Ratmansky’s, ”, Mahler, Ratmansky, —, “, Tiler Peck, Francis Poulenc, Peck, Peter Martins, Jerome Robbins, George Balanchine’s, Mary Thomas MacKinnon’s Organizations: New York City Ballet, City Ballet, della Locations: New, Ukrainian, della Regina

NEW YORK (AP) — Andrea Götsch was surprised when she won her audition in 2019 that led to membership in the Vienna Philharmonic. I thought that was too far away.”A male bastion from its founding in 1842 until 1997, the Vienna Philharmonic now has 24 female players among 145 members with three vacancies as it tours the United States this week. And we want the best members, so it was the right decision.”Based since 1870 at Vienna’s Musikverein, the Vienna Philharmonic elects leadership, engages conductors, chooses programs and schedules tours and recording sessions. It selects members from the Vienna State Opera Orchestra and has had a summer residency at the Salzburg Festival since 1922. A year later, she was confirmed for the Opera Orchestra and in 2022 she became a VPO member.

Persons: — Andrea Götsch, ”, “, It’s, Daniel Froschauer, Vienna’s Musikverein, Anna Lelkes, Albena Danailova, Franz Welser, Madeleine Carruzzo, York Philharmonic’s, Stephanie “ Steffy ” Goldner, Helen Kotas, Froschauer, Anneleen Lenaerts, Xavier de Maistre, Michael Bladerer, Strauss ’, Arabella ”, ” Lenaerts, ” Götsch, Johann Hindler, Verdi’s “, Daniel Harding, Götsch Organizations: Vienna Philharmonic, Associated Press, Vienna State Opera Orchestra, Salzburg Festival, Philharmonic, Carnegie Hall, Berlin Philharmonic, York, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, State Opera Orchestra, Mahler, of, State Opera, VPO, Opera Orchestra Locations: Vienna, United States, Vienna’s, Swiss, Brussels, Bolzano, Italy, Mahler’s

☆ The Vienna Philharmonic Tours With a Favorite Conductor
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-04 | by ( Joshua Barone | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Vienna Philharmonic hasn’t had a chief conductor since 1933. But it has had favorite conductors. The violinist Daniel Froschauer, the Philharmonic’s chairman, has said that today, the ensemble not so secretly has two maestros at the top of its roster: Riccardo Muti and Franz Welser-Möst. It takes a lot to win over the affection of the Philharmonic, one of Europe’s finest ensembles, just as it takes a lot to join its ranks. These players — known for their lush sound, their brighter, higher tuning frequency and their distinctly Viennese articulation — can be haughty and stubborn; I have seen them outright defy a conductor in rehearsal.

Persons: Vienna Philharmonic hasn’t, Leonard Bernstein, Pierre Boulez, Herbert von Karajan, Karl Böhm, Daniel Froschauer, Riccardo Muti, Franz Welser, Bruckner, Mahler, Berg, Hindemith, Schoenberg, Strauss, Ravel Organizations: Vienna Philharmonic, Carnegie Hall, Philharmonic Locations: Vienna, Austrian

☆ Review: Alexei Ratmansky Unleashes the Pain of War at City Ballet
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-16 | by ( Gia Kourlas | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Or, worse, when that world is breaking down with such vehemence that the air seems to grow more toxic by the minute? In Alexei Ratmansky’s new ballet “Solitude,” dancers waver and buckle as inner and outer forces wreak havoc on their bodies. Ratmansky’s latest ballet, his first as artist in residence at New York City Ballet, is about war — the devastating war in Ukraine, the country where Ratmansky grew up and where his parents still live. That grief — the solitude of “Solitude” — is apparent from the start. The principal dancer Joseph Gordon kneels before the limp body of Theo Rochios, a young student of the company-affiliated School of American Ballet.

Persons: Alexei Ratmansky’s, Gustav Mahler, Ratmansky, David H, Joseph Gordon, Theo Rochios, Gordon Organizations: New York City Ballet, Koch, American Ballet, Rochios Locations: New, Ukraine, Russian, Kharkiv

NEW YORK (AP) — Gushing after the New York Philharmonic performed Leonard Bernstein’s music, Bradley Cooper talked about creating the film “Maestro ″ in hopes of drawing more attention to the composer and conductor. They were joined by Carey Mulligan, who played Felicia Montealegre, the actor and wife of Bernstein. Nézet-Séguin, a 48-year-old Canadian who is music director of the Metropolitan Opera and the Philadelphia Orchestra, served as a consultant to Cooper on conducting. Cooper, who is not Jewish, also faced scrutiny for wearing a prosthetic nose as part of his transformation into Bernstein, who was. What’s next for Cooper, a biopic of Herbert von Karajan, the iron-willed leading conductor of the second half of the 20th century?

Persons: Leonard Bernstein’s, Bradley Cooper, Maestro ″, don’t, Lincoln Center’s David Geffen, Leonard Bernstein, ” Yannick Nézet, Séguin, Cooper, Bernstein, Carey Mulligan, Felicia Montealegre, Maestro ”, Mulligan, Taylor Swift, ”, “ Bradley Cooper, Jamie, Nina, Alexander, Bayoh, “, Edward R, Murrow, Stevie Sondheim, —, Cooper didn’t, hadn’t, Gounod’s “ Roméo, Bernstein’s, Lenny, ” Cooper, What’s, Herbert von Karajan Organizations: New York Philharmonic, Lincoln, Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall, Associated Press, Venice, Metropolitan Opera, Philadelphia Orchestra, “, England’s Ely Cathedral, Lincoln Center, philharmonic Locations: New York City, America, “ Chichester, England’s

☆ A War-Haunted Choreographer Steps Into a New Role at City Ballet
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-10 | by ( Marina Harss | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For the choreographer Alexei Ratmansky, the last two years have brought an uncomfortable intermingling of life and art. “My parents in Kyiv are awoken at night by explosions,” he said in an interview at Lincoln Center. “It gets harder and harder and heavier because no one sees any light. Ratmansky, 55, has kept the image filed away, part of a mental gallery of the horrors of war. Now it has found its way into a dance, his first for New York City Ballet in his new role as artist in residence.

Persons: Alexei Ratmansky, “, ”, can’t, Gustav Mahler Organizations: Lincoln Center, New York City Ballet Locations: Ukraine, Kyiv, Kharkiv

☆ The Cost of Streaming
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-15 | by ( David Leonhardt | More About David Leonhardt | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Streaming technology has allowed people to spend much more time watching entertainment than they did in the past. Normally, a big increase in the use of a product also increases the profits of the companies that make that product. Disney’s stock price has fallen more than half from its 2021 peak, and the company fired its C.E.O. Shares of Paramount Pictures’ parent company are worth less than they were 25 years ago. Warren Buffett recently described streaming as a particularly difficult environment in which to make money.

Persons: Warren Buffett, Jonathan Mahler — Organizations: Paramount Pictures, Times Magazine, Warner Brothers, Hollywood Locations: Hollywood

Killing an all-but-completed movie would alienate the people Zaslav — or at least Hollywood — needed most: the people who made the movies. Under fire, Zaslav defended the decision in an earnings call with analysts, saying he shelved “Batgirl” to protect the DC brand. More quietly, Zaslav also sought cover in the authority of Bryan Lourd, the powerful co-chairman of Creative Artists Agency and a leading arbiter of Hollywood mores. As Zaslav told it to several associates, Lourd had supported the decision, observing that it wasn’t in the interest of C.A.A. “We have made unpopular decisions because they were necessary.”Hollywood was in trouble before David Zaslav came to town.

Persons: Zaslav, Wiedenfels, Batgirl ”, Michael Keaton, ”, Adil El Arbi, Bilall Fallah, Walter Hamada, Courtenay Valenti, Bryan Lourd, Lourd, Leslie Grace, “ Bryan Lourd, ’ ”, David Zaslav, “ Organizations: DC Comics, Hollywood, DC, Warner Brothers, Creative Artists Agency, Discovery, McKinsey, W.B.D Locations: Scotland, New York, Hollywood, W.B.D

CNN —The annual Twin Cities Marathon has been canceled due to record-breaking heat in Minneapolis and St. Paul, marathon organizers announced Sunday morning. The event, slated to begin at 7 a.m. local time, was expected to draw 300,000 spectators, according to the organizers. “The latest weather forecast update projects record-setting heat conditions that do not allow a safe event for runners, supporters and volunteers,” organizers said in a statement. “Extreme heat conditions can tax both runners and our emergency medical response systems.”The organizers had been monitoring weather conditions for several days as the heat continued to rise, Mahler said. I think there are others that think it’s in all in your head and I can run in these difficult conditions,” he said.

Persons: Paul, ” Charlie Mahler, CNN’s Omar Jimenez, Amara Walker, “, Mahler, ”, ” Mahler, Matt Anderson, Anderson Organizations: CNN, Twin Cities, National Weather Service, WCCO Locations: Minneapolis, St, Paul

☆ Rupert Murdoch completes the real-life 'Succession' story. Here's how his son Lachlan rose to the top.
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-21 | by ( Madeline Berg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Rupert Murdoch announced he is stepping down as the leader of Fox and News Corp.His elder son, Lachlan, will take over both companies, ending a decades-long family drama. She quit the family business years ago. AdvertisementAdvertisementThat left Lachlan and James, who have passed the title of successor between the two of them over the decades. For much of the 2000s and 2010s, it seemed as if James would eventually take over the family business. AdvertisementAdvertisementMeanwhile, Murdoch's favorite son, Lachlan, has been a Roman Roy-esque wild card, with the same right-wing politics as the "Succession" character.

Persons: Rupert Murdoch, Lachlan, HBO's, Lachlan Murdoch, Murdoch, —, Logan Roy, I'm, Murdoch's, Michael Wolff, — Elisabeth, James —, Murdoch didn't, Jonathan Mahler, Jim Rutenberg, Elisabeth, Siobhan Roy, James, Kendall Roy, Wolff, Kendall, Roman Roy, Fair's Gabriel Sherman, Lachlan weren't, Sherman Organizations: Fox, News Corp, Service, Fox Corp, Fox News, Street, New, New York Post, Fair, New York Times, Wall, Century Fox, latter's, New York Magazine Locations: Wall, Silicon, New York, Roman, Australia

☆ Schubert at the Vast Park Avenue Armory: Intimate, Lonely, Exposed
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-20 | by ( Joshua Barone | More About Joshua Barone | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

But the idea of mounting, say, Mahler’s “Kindertotenlieder” didn’t appeal to Guth. “If you have this huge orchestra, it will be the same structure you have at a normal concert,” he said. “So, how to get this very specific situation of not being in the opera house or concert hall? We thought it would be great to have in this huge hall just this lonely singer exposed.”They arrived at the idea of a song recital. “It’s a thrilling space to put anything in, and in a way it’s your responsibility to do justice to it.

Persons: ”, Guth, Schubert, ” Guth, ” Levine, ” —, gesturing, “, I’ve, it’s Organizations: Armory, Metropolitan Opera

Dudamel was hired in February to become the Philharmonic's music director for the 2026-27 season. As part of the gift, the music director will become The Oscar L. Tang and H.M. Agnes Hsu-Tang Music and Artistic Director Chair starting with the 2025-26 season, when Dudamel becomes music director designate. The 42-year-old Dudamel has been music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic since 2009, a tenure that will end after 17 seasons when he starts in New York. He quit as music director of the Paris Opéra in May, two seasons into a six-year contract scheduled to run through the 2026-27 season. Oscar Tang, 85, has been part of the philharmonic board since 2013 and has been co-chairman with Peter W. May, since 2019.

Persons: Gustavo Dudamel, Oscar L, Tang, Agnes Hsu, Dudamel, L, H.M, Oscar Tang, Peter W Organizations: New York Philharmonic, Tang, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Paris, philharmonic, Reich Locations: New York

☆ Anger gets a bad rap, but it can be an asset, experts say. Here’s what to do with it
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-31 | by ( Madeline Holcombe | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

It might be an unpleasant emotion to experience, and it might be culturally discouraged, but we need anger, she added. While many people may feel the need to resist or hide their anger, these mental health experts are urging the opposite. Anger, they say, is an important tool we should better learn to wield in a kind, healthy and productive way. That is often tied to rage — not anger, Ashway said. But in those cases, “we’re talking about the outcome of unprocessed anger, not anger in and of itself.”Rage, she said, is old, unprocessed anger.

Persons: CNN —, wrathful, ”, Brett Ford, Jaime Mahler, “, Ford, ” Ford, Deborah Ashway, ” Ashway, “ Anger, ‘ something’s, Mahler, Ashway, it’s, ” Mahler, that’s Organizations: CNN, University of Toronto, Toxic Locations: New York, New Bern , North Carolina

☆ To the Conductor Claudio Abbado, the Orchestra Was a Collective
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-23 | by ( David Allen | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Achieving that ideal was no simple task with orchestras of long traditions and routines, though Abbado remade the Philharmonic in his image, and lastingly so. Striving to fulfill that promise led him not only to embrace the energy of youth orchestras, but also to support and found ensembles of like mind: the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and the Orchestra Mozart. The most extravagant was the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, a coterie of colleagues and admirers with whom he gave critically sanctified summer performances from 2003 until just before his death. The breadth is extraordinary — what other conductor was as adept as Abbado in Rossini as well as in Webern and Ligeti? — yet it still excludes records he made for EMI, RCA and Sony, as well as most of his vaunted Mahler from Lucerne.

Persons: Abbado, Martha Argerich, Maurizio Pollini, Schell, “, ”, Karajan, Orchestra Mozart, Rossini, Webern, Ligeti, Mahler Organizations: Berlin Philharmonic, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra, Lucerne Festival Orchestra, Deutsche Grammophon, Decca, Philips, Universal Music Group, EMI, RCA, Sony Locations: Lucerne

☆ Gustavo Dudamel in New York: Selfies, Hugs and Mahler
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-28 | by ( James Estrin | Javier C. Hernández | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The violins were tuning, the woodwinds warming up and the trumpets blaring bits of Mahler. Then the musicians of the New York Philharmonic began to whistle and cheer. Gustavo Dudamel, one of the world’s biggest conducting stars, strode onto the stage this month for his first rehearsal with the Philharmonic since being named the ensemble’s next music director. “I will have the opportunity in the next few days to hug everybody,” he told the musicians, smiling and pumping his fist. “I’m very honored to become part of the family.”

☆ Review: Gustavo Dudamel Leads His New York Philharmonic
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-20 | by ( Zachary Woolfe | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Gustavo Dudamel began his reign at the New York Philharmonic on Friday with an ending. The program was planned long before Dudamel’s appointment, but it turned out to be ideal for this moment. Nearly an hour and a half long, Mahler’s Ninth fills a concert on its own. On Friday it provided a long, focused communion between a conductor and the players he’ll be leading in the years to come. (Dudamel’s predecessor, Jaap van Zweden, finishes next season and, because of classical music’s ludicrously slow planning cycles, Dudamel, currently at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, won’t officially start his five-year contract until 2026.)

☆ ChatFished: How to Lose Friends and Alienate People With A.I.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-07 | by ( Emma Goldberg | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

It is enough time to listen to the Spice Girls’ “Spice” album (40 minutes), Paul Simon’s “Paul Simon” album (42 minutes) and Gustav Mahler’s third symphony (his longest). It is enough time to roast a chicken, text your friends that you’ve roasted a chicken and prepare for an impromptu dinner party. Five hours is about how long many workers spend on email each day. It’s a weird thing, workplace chatter like email and Slack: It’s sometimes the most delightful and human part of the work day. It can also be mind-numbing to manage your inbox — to the extent you might wonder, couldn’t a robot do this?

☆ How Randi Weingarten Landed at the Heart of America’s Political Fights
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Jonathan Mahler | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

But Weingarten was friendly with McAuliffe from the Clinton days and was supporting his candidacy on Twitter and cable news, and the A.F.T. By the fall of 2021, America’s public schools were fully open, but mask mandates were still being hotly contested. gave more than $1 million to McAuliffe, and Weingarten even knocked on doors for him in Alexandria. The tabloid, which had been gleefully attacking Weingarten for years — dubbing her Whine-garten — trumpeted the story: “Powerful Teachers Union Influenced C.D.C. Senator Susan Collins of Maine grilled the C.D.C.’s director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, at a committee hearing over what she called the C.D.C.’s “secret negotiations” with the teachers’ union.

☆ The Long Shadow of Covid School Closures
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( David Leonhardt | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

During the early months of the Covid pandemic, Randi Weingarten and the teachers’ union she leads faced a vexing question: When should schools reopen? For years, advocates of public education like Weingarten had argued that schools played an irreplaceable role. Without public schools, their defenders argued, society would come apart. Teachers and parents feared that reopening schools before vaccines were available would spark Covid outbreaks, illness and death. Instead, Covid became an opportunity for her union, the American Federation of Teachers, to push for broader policy changes that it had long favored.

☆ The Boston Symphony Finds Surprises and Strengths in New Music
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Oussama Zahr | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

When orchestras come to Carnegie Hall, their programs typically tell you two things: who they are and what they can do. Or when the Berlin Philharmonic and Kirill Petrenko opened up the complex worlds of Mahler’s Seventh with coordinated virtuosity. And over two nights at Carnegie this week, the Boston Symphony Orchestra and its music director, Andris Nelsons, told their story gradually, one piece at a time, in canonical works by Ravel, Rachmaninoff, Sibelius and Mozart. Among American orchestras, the Boston Symphony’s sound is enviably rich. That opulence was readily apparent in the ceaseless flow of cantabile melodies in Rachmaninoff’s Second Symphony.

☆ China's Xi appeared more relaxed than Putin in first Moscow meeting, experts say
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping attend a welcome ceremony before Russia - China talks in narrow format at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia March 21, 2023. Sputnik/Pavel Byrkin/Kremlin via REUTERSMarch 21 (Reuters) - Body language experts say Chinese President Xi Jinping came across as more relaxed and commanding than his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin at Monday's televised first meeting of Xi's state visit to Moscow. "If you juxtapose it with Xi, Xi is the composed statesman," she said. Putin, 70, is in fact a few months older than Xi, and has been in power more than twice as long. Leong said Xi had offered a sign that he too had been feeling some pressure, blinking unusually frequently during the sit-down.

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