A SoCal Concert Venue With Better Acoustics Than Disney Hall? Yup.

Mark Swed on the Soka Performing Arts Center in Orange County: "[The] acoustic design comes from [Yasuhisa] Toyota, who most famously did Walt Disney Concert Hall. If anything, the sound here in this more intimate, multi-purpose hall has an even warmer sound. ... [While] the sound can be as large as a composer ordered or a conductor wants, there is an almost unprecedented level of clarity among the instruments." Los Angeles Times 10/05/11

Should Funding Bodies Require Theatres To Provide More Parts For Women?

Julia Pascal, who was the first woman to direct a play at England's National Theatre, recently suggested that the only way to get the country's stages to offer more good roles for actresses is to convince Arts Council England to require it. Lalayn Baluch - and readers - wonder if Pascal has a point? The Guardian (UK) 10/06/11

Audra MacDonald On Gershwin's Bess

"[She's] really struggling with her addictions, struggling to overcome them, really has that vision of herself in Porgy's eyes. For her it's staying away from her addictions long enough so she can walk toward that vision of this whole worthy woman, worthy of being loved." Los Angeles Times 10/05/11

Human Brains Evolved To Hate School

"Mothers and fathers know well that their youngsters would rather pay attention to one another than to the blackboard. But parents may not realize that the reasons children struggle with education lie deep in our evolutionary past." Scientific American 10/06/11

Come On. We Need The Arts On Canadian TV

"In the past few months, two staples of the channel - Bravo!News and Arts & Minds - were abruptly cancelled. Both were magazine-style shows covering the arts - profiles of Canadian writers, interviews with writers visiting Canada, the opening of exhibitions, new opera and ballet productions, the opening of new exhibitions, coverage of many arts awards." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 10/06/11

Supreme Court Justics Stephen Breyer Chosen As Juror For Pritzker Prize

"Pritzker officials said the justice's intelligence, disposition and enthusiasm for architecture made him a good choice to serve on a panel that hopes to expand the breadth of its jurors' experience." The New York Times 10/06/11

BBC To Cut 2000 Jobs, Slash Programming

"The BBC is planning to cut 2,000 jobs and radically change programming in order to cut 20% from its budget over the next five years." BBC 10/05/11

Judge Quashes Last Attempt To Stop Barnes Collection Move

"Judge Stanley Ott of Montgomery County Orphans' Court ruled that the Friends of the Barnes, an organization opposed to moving the renowned collection of Impressionist and early Modernist work from its original home to a new museum on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, had no legal standing to challenge the move." Philadelphia Inquirer 10/06/11

Swedish Poet Tomas Transtroemer Wins Nobel Lit Prize

"Tipped as a potential Nobel prize winner for many years, Transtroemer is the eighth European to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in the last 10 years. He is the first Swede to receive the prize since authors Eyvind Johnson and Harry Martinson shared it in 1974." BBC 10/06/11

Gramophone Awards Announced

The Manchester-based Hallé Orchestra won the contemporary and choral prizes at the prestigious event in London. Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel was named artist of the year. Gramophone 10/06/11

How The Internet Is Killing Publishing

"Where publishing is concerned, the Internet is both midwife and executioner. It has never been easier to reach large numbers of readers, but these readers have never felt more entitled to be informed and entertained for free." The Daily Beast 10/05/11

Colorado Symphony Cancels Half Its Concerts This Fall

"Battling a major budget crisis, the Colorado Symphony Orchestra abruptly canceled half of its 20 scheduled concerts over the next two months Tuesday, but vowed to return to full operations in early December." Denver Post 10/05/11

Mikhail Baryshnikov Packs Up His Life For NY Public Library

"I feel a weight from my shoulders. In the first part of life, you accumulate things. In the second part of life, you get rid of it." The New York Times 10/05/11

Time For TV To Be Everywhere

"Are viewers -- especially older soap opera fans -- truly ready to get their shows from a Web site?" The New York Times 10/05/11

The Essence Of A Copyright Dispute

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. posed the general question in the case this way: "One day I can perform Shostakovich. Congress does something. The next day I can't. Doesn't that present a serious First Amendment problem?" The New York Times 10/05/11

Scottish Opera, Orchestra To Get Revamped New Homes

"Both companies will redevelop their Glasgow headquarters in time for the Commonwealth Games in 2014, with Scottish Opera upgrading its Theatre Royal venue and the RSNO moving into a new building next to Glasgow Royal Concert Hall." Glasgow Herald 10/05/11

The Disastrous State Of Theatre Employment

"The impoverished repertory system can no longer sustain companies or even in most cases casts of more than five or six per play. Paid employment in the form of small TV parts or commercials, or even the glittering gem of a job in the fringe on expenses or even less can hardly give these highly trained equivalents of racehorses the sort of gallop they need." The Guardian (UK) 10/05/11

NY Armory To Get Starchitect Makeover

"So why would the prizewinning Swiss architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron take on the Park Avenue Armory, a project that is more restoration than renovation, more fixer-upper than fresh take?" The New York Times 10/05/11

Miami City Ballet Moves To Lure Non-Balletomanes

The troupe's widely-hailed appearances in New York and Paris this summer gave MCB international cred, but principal dancer Alex Wong's appearance on the TV show So You Think You Can Dance really got the attention of the public. The company is working to capitalize on that exposure, as well as cooperating with local officials to attract cultural tourists to Miami. Miami Herald 10/04/11