Good Morning,
The middle keeps cracking, and what’s interesting is what people are building in the gap. Jeffrey Kahane left the foundering San Antonio Philharmonic in February; today he announced a new orchestra and education initiative to replace it (San Antonio Express-News). Twin Cities midsize theaters describe themselves as “melting” as corporate and civic funding dries up (Minnesota Star Tribune). NPR is reorganizing and offering buyouts after the feds yanked $8 million from its budget (NPR).
The improvisation runs further down. UK music venues are now letting touring bands sleep in the building because the math otherwise doesn’t work (The Guardian). Artists on Instagram are bartering paintings for haircuts and groceries (The Art Newspaper). Meanwhile, Cannes is wrestling with AI as “a tsunami” (AP), and celebrities have started trademarking their own identities to fend it off (The Conversation).
Quieter notes: soprano Felicity Lott has died at 79 (The Guardian), and Herbert Blomstedt, 98, had to be wheeled offstage mid-Mahler at the San Francisco Symphony (SF Chronicle).
All of our stories below.
Doug
