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☆ What Makes a Great Performance? Backstage Drama, That’s What.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-02 | by ( Roslyn Sulcas | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

“The classicist who wants to be modern, meeting the modernist who wants to be classical.” So says Elizabeth Taylor, summing up the fractious encounter between the revered Shakespearian actor John Gielgud, and her new husband, the actor Richard Burton. It’s 1964, Taylor and Burton are the most famous couple in the world, and Burton is rehearsing the role of Hamlet for a Broadway production that Gielgud is directing. It’s not going well. That’s the setting for “The Motive and the Cue,” a new play directed by Sam Mendes, written by Jack Thorne, and starring Mark Gatiss as Gielgud, Johnny Flynn as Burton and Tuppence Middleton as Taylor. The play, which opened to enthusiastic reviews in May and runs through July 15 at the National Theater, in London, was an idea born out of the pandemic, said Caro Newling, a co-founder with Mendes of Neal Street Productions, which developed the show.

Persons: Elizabeth Taylor, John Gielgud, Richard Burton, It’s, Taylor, Burton, Gielgud, Sam Mendes, Jack Thorne, Mark Gatiss, Johnny Flynn, Tuppence Middleton, Caro Newling, Mendes, Neal Organizations: National Theater, Neal Street Productions Locations: London

One of the most significant developments in American classical music so far this century has been the ascendancy of the Los Angeles Philharmonic: a showcase of talent, inventive programming and strong finances that has become the envy of other orchestras. First, Gustavo Dudamel, the orchestra’s popular music director, announced that he would leave in 2026 to become the next music director of the New York Philharmonic. A few months later, Chad Smith, the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s chief executive officer, who championed and drove its inventive programming, announced he was resigning to run the Boston Symphony Orchestra. When Frank Gehry, the architect who designed the Los Angeles orchestra’s futuristic steel-clad home, Walt Disney Concert Hall, first heard the news that Smith was leaving, he initially said, quite bluntly, that he was “scared” by the double hit of departures. But he then explained that he remained hopeful, given the orchestra’s track record of successful reinvention.

Persons: Gustavo Dudamel, Chad Smith, Deborah Borda, Frank Gehry, Smith, I’ve, ” Gehry, “, ” Organizations: Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic’s, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Walt Disney Concert Hall Locations: Angeles

☆ How to Be a Star by Not Giving Your All
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-31 | by ( Robert Ito | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

IF NORA IS NOTHING LIKE many of Lee’s previous party-girl characters, neither is Lee herself. She’s a mother, for starters, of two young boys with her husband, Russ Armstrong. On set, “Greta is like a Hunter S. Thompson-meets-Fellini character,” Natasha Lyonne said in an interview. Isn’t this completely wild?”Lee, now 40, was born in Los Angeles and spent most of her childhood here. After high school, Lee attended Northwestern University in the hopes of going into musical theater.

Persons: NORA, Lee, She’s, Russ Armstrong, Greta, Thompson, Fellini, ” Natasha Lyonne, “, “ I’m, ”, ” Lee, Liza Minnelli Organizations: ”, Northwestern University Locations: Los Angeles, American

☆ Lincoln Center Names Conductor for Reimagined Mostly Mozart Orchestra
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-31 | by ( Javier C. Hernández | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Jonathon Heyward, the rising young conductor who this fall will become the first Black music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, has been tapped to lead Lincoln Center’s summer ensemble, a reimagined version of the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, the center announced on Wednesday. Heyward, 30, will start a three-year contract with Lincoln Center next year. His appointment is part of the center’s changes to the revered Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, by giving it a new name, embracing a wider variety of genres and bringing more racial, ethnic and gender diversity to the stage. “It has everything to do with accessibility and presentation.”Heyward succeeds the orchestra’s longtime music director, Louis Langrée, whose contract expires this year. During Langrée’s 21-year tenure, he has helped rejuvenate the ensemble and cement its reputation as an acclaimed interpreter of the music of Mozart and the Classical repertoire.

Persons: Jonathon Heyward, Lincoln, Heyward, ” Heyward, Louis Langrée, Mozart Organizations: Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra, Lincoln Center Locations: Charleston

☆ High Schoolers Get In on an Avant-Garde Musician’s Latest Show
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-30 | by ( Seth Colter Walls | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Pleasant spring weather warmed the grounds of Girard College here on a recent afternoon. But even as classes were letting out for the weekend, some high school students at this boarding school had a few hours of work ahead of them. Inside the gymnasium of the school, which is devoted to children from single- and zero-parent homes who come from underserved communities, five teenagers began to gather around the bleachers. But she quickly broke away to welcome the students as they entered. A few minutes later the composer Tyshawn Sorey conferred with the instrumentalists.

Persons: Brooke O’Harra, Tyshawn Sorey Organizations: Girard College

☆ The Maestro’s Latest Opus: A Video Game to Save Classical Music
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-28 | by ( Simi Horwitz | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Asked which of his many roles most defines him, Mr. Dubal responded with some drama: “I never want to define myself.” His eyes grew wide. Nietzsche said that.” Like a judge pounding a gavel, he slapped his palm onto his coffee table. Every day.”Mr. Dubal was born around 1944 (he would prefer not to say exactly) and was raised in Cleveland. One day, while sitting in the dentist’s chair, he learned about an opening for the job of music director at WNCN, a classical music station. Despite his dire cultural predictions, Mr. Dubal expresses a quirky optimism and a healthy dose of irony.

☆ Beans and violins - orchestra blends classical roots with modern Nigeria
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/5] Members of Vesta Orchestra and Opera Foundation perform during a concert they organized at the Alliance Francaise de Lagos / Mike Adenuga Centre in Lagos, Nigeria May 20, 2023. It was the latest show staged by the Vesta Orchestra, founded in 2017 by violinist Rosalyn Aninyei, which has enlivened the classical music scene in Lagos by performing new works by contemporary Nigerian and African composers. The music had clear connections with the classical repertoire rooted in Europe, but the choice of the Yoruba language and the story anchored the performance in Nigeria. "I am so happy that there are events like this in Nigeria," said Kayode Oshundun, who was attending his first performance by Vesta. "My flat was actually behind the opera house and it was always a dream of mine to come home ... and discover our own classical music," she said.

☆ Jewelry That Adds Face Value
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-26 | by ( Alexandra Cheney | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Messika, a Paris jewelry brand that held a runway show in September 2022, paired Adidas streetwear silhouettes with its high jewelry, like the Golden Shield lip ring and Rising Soul septum rings. And during the fall 2022 runway shows, Louis Vuitton presented an androgynous shirt-and-tie tailored look accessorized with an oversized septum piercing. “Lips in our society are very important; there’s a femininity and sexuality that you can play with,” said Valérie Messika, founder and artistic director of her namesake jewelry house. “There’s a mood and a personality that you can assume that you can’t with classical jewelry. Prices range from $1,000 to $28,000.

☆ The ‘Succession’ Soundtrack Is Fit for a Concert Hall
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-25 | by ( Joshua Barone | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

And in “Succession,” he evokes a classical music tradition in which a composer doodles at the piano to improvise on a theme, putting it through permutations based on mood and form. This could serve as good parlor entertainment, but also the basis for inventive, kaleidoscopic works; Britell’s soundtrack, in its pairing of piano and orchestra, has an ancestor in Rachmaninoff’s concerto-like “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.” He would do well to adapt his score into a similar piece. With his theme and variations, Britell offers a parallel of the show itself: an idée fixe established at the start — a patriarch’s departure from the top of his business empire is more of a when than an if — and a circular (some would say static) plot about the ways in which three of his children maneuver to take over. It is a premise that carries on even after the father’s death early this season; the most recent episode, about his funeral, demonstrates the psychological hold Logan Roy still has over his children and how, united in grief, they nevertheless continue to scheme.

☆ Ayvalık and Cunda: Turkey's prettiest Aegean coast resorts
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-24 | by ( Feride Yalav-Heckeroth | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

Alongside classic beach towns like Bodrum and Alaçatı, two of the coast’s loveliest spots are the little-known seaside town of Ayvalık and the nearby island of Cunda. Near the Taksiyarhis Memorial Museum, in a beautifully renovated historic house with large arched windows, is Moyy Atölye. For a truly Aegean dining experience inside an olive grove, Karina Ayvalık is worth the 10-minute drive south to the village of Küçükköy. “I can breathe in the Aegean air and feel history as I walk through the old streets with their historic houses. Getting lost on Cunda leads to discoveries – like the Cunda Taksiyarhis Rahmi M. Koç Museum inside a renovated Greek Orthodox church with a collection of antique cars, motorcycles and toys.

☆ Here’s the secret sauce that fueled Palo Alto Networks’ beat and raise despite tough times
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-23 | by ( Jeff Marks | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Bottom line Once again, Palo Alto Networks delivered an upside quarter despite uncertainty related to the slowing and more cost-conscious macroeconomic environment. Palo Alto Networks isn't cheap on a classical earnings basis. The fiscal Q3 results clearly show Palo Alto Networks as a preferred partner despite industry headwinds related to elongated sales cycles. PANW YTD mountain Palo Alto Networks (PANW) YTD performance Outlook For Palo Alto Networks' current fiscal 2023 fourth quarter, the company sees rosy times ahead. Signage outside Palo Alto Networks headquarters in Santa Clara, California, U.S., on Thursday, May 13, 2021.

☆ A DeSantis-appointed board made this college ground zero for his education agenda. In less than 6 months, the college eliminated its diversity board and will now accept a Christian-focused SAT-alterna
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

In January, DeSantis made new appointments to the New College of Florida's board of trustees. His target: New College of Florida, a liberal arts school with less than 700 students, outside of Sarasota, Florida. In January, DeSantis appointed six conservative education leaders to the school's board of 13 total trustees. New College of Florida is the first public school in Florida to accept the CLT as an alternative to other standardized tests. Representatives for Governor DeSantis and New College of Florida did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment.

☆ Fire Guts Manila’s Historic Post Office Building
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( Jason Gutierrez | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The Manila Central Post Office, one of the Philippine capital’s most historic buildings, was all but destroyed by fire overnight, officials said on Monday morning. The shell of the neo-Classical-style structure, which was built in 1926, was still standing. But Postmaster General Luis Carlos said the building had been completely gutted, “from the basement to the ground floor all the way up to the fifth floor.”“The structure is still there, but its ceiling has fallen down,” Mr. Carlos told reporters. Fire officials said they were trying to determine the cause of the blaze, which began in the basement on Sunday night. At least one person was hurt in the fire, investigators said.

☆ Opinion | Classical Crescendo
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-20 | by ( Maureen Dowd | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

WASHINGTON — The orgasm heard around the world was reported by Magnus Fiennes, a composer and music producer who is the brother of Ralph Fiennes. Some in the audience tweeted back, wondering if the moaning was due to a medical condition. But the woman, who stayed with her smiling partner for the whole concert, has not come forward to clear it up. — it seems that classical music is getting hotter. Albert Imperato, a New York music promoter, says the idea is breaking through that classical music is not supposed to be safe and relaxing.

☆ 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.)

☆ 6 essential tips for surviving long flights, from a former Air Force pilot who now flies one of the longest commercial flights in the world
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( Claire Turrell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Emirates pilot Yusri Abu Bakar used to be in the Singapore Air Force before switching to commercial. He now flies an A380, piloting one of the longest flights in the world from Dubai to New Zealand. A former Republic of Singapore Air Force pilot, Yusri Abu Bakar pivoted from flying an F-16 fighter jet to an A380 as a commercial pilot for Emirates airline out of Dubai, where he is based. Yusri flies this long-haul flight two or three times a month, in line with regulations regarding how many hours a pilot can fly a month. Pack noise-canceling headphones and an eye maskPacking a well-thought-out carry-on can improve your long-haul flight experience, Yusri said.

☆ Nerja Caves: Europe's oldest 'tourist' site
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Julia Buckley | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

The Cueva de Nerja, or Nerja Caves, are a three-mile series of caves near Nerja in Malaga province, southern Spain. Today, visitors can take a 45-minute tour of the “public gallery” to see fantastical formations of stalactites, stalagmites and other speleothems – shapes and structures caused by mineral deposits. So far, 589 prehistoric paintings have been discovered in the caves (modern visitors cannot visit those areas for conservation reasons). Prehistoric visitors mostly burned one type of pine to light their way, the carbon analysis revealed. “I think the magnitude and geological beauty of the Nerja Cave must have overwhelmed its prehistoric visitors, just as it overwhelms us today,” she said.

☆ Her Novel Became a Best Seller. The Trouble: The Manuscript Was Stolen.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Amal El-Mohtar | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

If this reads as a quite on-the-nose critique of contemporary conversations about race and appropriation, that’s because it is. It is in fact so obvious that it makes one wonder why Kuang uses the device of an unreliable narrator at all. Instead, June’s methodology is consistently to tell the reader her trespasses and offer flimsy justifications for them. These moments suggest the kinds of layers and intrigue the book could have maintained if it weren’t so committed to showing its hand. “Yellowface” is a kind of Art Monster story, but one that can’t allow room for ambiguity or revelation without rushing in to fill that space.

☆ How 2 dancers built TikTok side hustles and how much money they make
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Shriya Bhattacharya | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Dance trends helped TikTok gain traction when the app first exploded in early 2020. TikTok has also helped several trained dancers earn income through brand deals and land jobs. TikTok has revolutionized the dance industry, helping professionals like Mahale earn more money and changing the fabric of choreography itself. From January to March, she made $1,500 in paid brand deals, according to documentation viewed by Insider. TikTok has also helped Mahale get more opportunities as a professional dancer.

☆ Sidelined by his old boss, Mike Pence's team is plotting a longshot campaign that pivots away from Trump and instead casts Pence as the next Reagan
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( John L. Dorman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The ex-VP, long tied to Trump, would seek a return to the party's roots in aiming for the White House. "This campaign is going to reintroduce Mike Pence to the country as his own man," Pence ally Scott Reed said. "We have to resist the siren song of populism unmoored to conservative principles," Pence told the newspaper. "This campaign is going to reintroduce Mike Pence to the country as his own man," GOP operative Scott Reed told The Times. "People know Mike Pence.

☆ Opinion | Is Musicology Racist?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( John Mcwhorter | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

Regarding the piano, for example, Ewell thinks it “enforces a commitment to whiteness and maleness,” and thus playing it should not be expected of those who teach music theory. Ewell also believes musicology should entail no foreign language requirements, because Greek, Latin, Italian, French and German are “white” languages. If we are to be maximally un-white about the matter, I am hoping he is referring to music theory work in Swahili, Hausa, Amharic or Twi, but it’d be good to have some specifics. Music theory has traditionally been taught with a major focus on the work of the Austrian music theorist Heinrich Schenker, whom Ewell specifically attacked in his 2019 article. The issue was widely condemned as racist in musicology circles, and Jackson was barred from the journal amid calls for his firing as a professor at the university that supports it.

☆ Hannah Jadagu Turns Small Moments Into Big Pop Songs
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Jon Pareles | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Those melodies turn out to be equally effective whether they’re leaping across distorted guitar chords, suave keyboards or abstract soundscapes. “She’s got an encyclopedic knowledge of all the different ways that music can go,” Kline said in an interview. Jadagu turned away from the church when she was in high school. “Everyone is looking for an explanation/Put your faith and hope in something,” Jadagu sings as the album begins. Then she starts to wonder: “How do you know?”In high school, Jadagu studied classical percussion and joined the school’s drum line.

Former Vice President Mike Pence is expected to soon declare a long-shot campaign for the White House against the president under whom he served, pitching himself as a “classical conservative” who would return the Republican Party to its pre-Trump roots, according to people close to Mr. Pence. Mr. Pence is working to carve out space in the Republican primary field by appealing to evangelicals, adopting a hard-line position in support of a federal abortion ban, promoting free trade and pushing back against Republican efforts to police big business on ideological grounds. He faces significant challenges, trails far behind in the polls and has made no effort to channel the populist energies overtaking the Republican Party. In a sign his campaign will be announced in the coming weeks, a pro-Pence super PAC called Committed to America is being set up. A veteran Republican operative, Scott Reed, who ran Bob Dole’s 1996 presidential campaign and was the longtime top political strategist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, will lead the group alongside Jeb Hensarling, a close friend of Mr. Pence’s who served with him in Congress.

☆ Madonna's 'Sex' photos go to auction for the first time at Christie's
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-12 | by ( Carlie Porterfield | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Prints of photographs from Madonna’s wildly popular 1992 coffee table book “Sex” will be available for purchase for the first time at Christie’s New York this fall, part of ongoing projects to mark the 30th anniversary of the controversial publication. In October, over 40 prints first published in “Sex” will go up for sale as part of a special standalone auction. “Thirty years on, ‘Sex’ is still somewhat controversial, but it still reads as a very body-positive, sex-positive book,” Himes said. “Sex” also featured Madonna’s then-boyfriend, rapper Vanilla Ice, and stars like supermodel Naomi Campbell and socialite Tatiana von Fürstenberg. The prints will go on display at Christie's galleries in London, Paris and New York before the October auction.

☆ How to explore Greece's lesser-known islands like a local
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-12 | by ( Karen Gilchrist | Morgan Awyong | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

But now it wants tourists to get to know lesser-known locations across its thousands of sprawling islands. Currently, Germany and the U.K. represent Greece's largest inbound tourism markets by revenue, followed by the United States, France and Italy. An eco-paradise surrounded by 24 islets, Lipsi forms part of the Dodecanese island collection in the southeastern Aegean Sea. Alonissos, SporadesDivers' delight Alonissos, part of the Sporades group of islands, is a diver's paradise and the site of Greece's first underwater museum. Alonissos, part of the Sporades archipelago in the northwest Aegean Sea, is known for its diving spots, including Greece's first underwater museum, the "Parthenon of the Wrecks."

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