Jackie K’s symphony seat before she was Jackie O
Oct
24
2010
This snapshot was taken by my colleague Bret at Avery Fisher Hall, where over two evenings, we watched the New York Philharmonic’s young new conductor Alan Gilbert do his thing. Mrs. K/O, in her time, sat in the seat in front of us. The first concert was a mixed bill of Debussy, Sibelius Violin Concerto ...
Back to LA after whirlwind classical music tour of NYC 2
Oct
21
2010
Your humble correspondent is chained once again to her desk in Los Feliz, California, following a 10-day tour of paradise — otherwise known as New York City in scintillating October weather, with the art season in full blast. As a lucky recipient of a fellowship to the NEA’s Classical Music & Opera Institute, I joined a gung-ho group ...
Ornette Coleman, at 80, can still change the way you listen . . . or even scare you 2
Oct
17
2010
Jazz enthusiast Adam Hyman contributes this appreciation of Ornette Coleman to arts·meme: Ornette Coleman, who returns to UCLA Live on November 3, is one of jazz’s few remaining legends to walk among us. He’s usually credited with creating “free jazz.” In fact, a variety of free-jazz experimentations preceded him. What Coleman created, as part of his truly ...
Fear & loathing at the Met: Rene Pape as Boris Gudonov 1
Read this story on The Huffington Post. Opera goers didn’t so much descend the Metropolitan Opera House’s red staircase late Friday night as fled the house after a challenging four-hour encounter with “Boris Gudonov,” Modest Mussorgsky’s sprawling recitative-driven opera from 1869. Valery Gergiev, the Mariinsky Theater conductor whose advocacy for “Boris” may have spurred the ...
Meeting NY Philharmonic conductor Alan Gilbert
Oct
12
2010
As part of the NEA Arts Journalism Institute for Classical Music & Opera, our group of 23 met yesterday with the New York Philharmonic’s talented new conductor Alan Gilbert. Joining Gilbert in the meeting was his composer-in-residence, the Finn, Magnus Lindberg. Also on the panel was Gilbert’s artistic administrator, John Magnum, formerly of the L.A. ...
Le Poisson Rouge = no red herring 1
Oct
9
2010
I arrived in New York last night to attend the classical music arts journalism institute run by the National Endowment for the Arts at Columbia University. The ten-day program, which includes classical music performances, talks, discussion, lectures and writing workshops, kicks off this evening with performance of Kronos Quartet. The program includes works by Clint ...
Upcoming: NEA classical music institute in NYC
Sep
25
2010
arts·meme is proud to announce her participation in the National Endowment for the Arts’s seventh Arts Journalism Institute in Classical Music and Opera, October 9 – 19 at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. The Institute is one of three NEA-funded programs that endeavors to reenforce the role that informed writing/criticism plays in a flourishing arts ...
Hendrix died forty years ago … 2
Sep
18
2010
… on Sept 18 1970. He was 27 years old. “I’m going to sacrifice something right here that I really love.” Watching this mesmerizing video from 1967 in which Jimi does just about everything possible with his guitar (the mentionables include playing blind and playing behind his back), it sets my standard for performance art. ...
First lady of nation recognizes first lady of dance
The freewheeling creativity that flourished in 20th century America spawned three indigenous art forms: film, jazz, and modern dance. The first two on this list (in descending order of magnitude), have functioned relatively adeptly in the market economy. Why? Because entrepreneurs recorded them on celluloid and disc, then packaged, promoted and distributed movies and records. Poor ...
Kyle Abraham makes it or breaks it
“I got really frustrated when a good song got ‘broken,'” says the soft-spoken young choreographer, Kyle Abraham, chatting over breakfast at Jacob’s Pillow this past weekend. “I’d call the station many times to vote in support [of cutting-edge music the audience didn’t like.]” During my three-day visit to the historic summer dance venue, I enjoyed ...