#impresarios

George Wein Interviewed

George Wein has been a much-maligned promoter of jazz events. But anyone who knows him, loves him. He is a musician at heart and loves the music and the people that make it deeply. This wonderful WGBH interview tells it all.

-Michael Cuscuna

Twinkle toes ~ Tallis Steelyard

Reblogged from Tallis Steelyard:

Port Naain has a vast array of dance styles. Some are danced by couples, some are danced only by women and some are danced only by men. There are peasant dances, sailor’s dances and in Port Naain at least, ordinary working men will sometimes dance ‘boot dances.’ In these men wear their heaviest working boots and beat out complicated rhythms on the floor. They…

Three Great Impresarios: Emperors of Song by British author Freddie Stockdale, the founder of a small opera touring company as well as a pseudonymous crime novelist, is his historical musical arts figure biography cum business history, free for a limited time courtesy of publisher Endeavour Press.

This was originally published in 1998 by John Murray.

This book presents a joint biography of three colourful musical history figures, Colonel James Mapleson, Oscar Hammerstein I, and John Christie, who were impresarios—private businessmen who established opera companies and employed the great stars of the day—during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as they experienced both spectacular success and spectacular disaster with their assorted ambitious ventures.

Offered worldwide, available at Amazon.

“Creative Altruism”: The Missing Link

I was just on the phone with a friend. The conversation seemed to hover around the merits of letting ourselves have our moments of glory, our “day under the sun,” versus being more concerned with doing our part to somehow raise the quality of the lives of others. My friend suddenly recalled an incredible quote from Martin Luther King, Jr.: Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light…

When There’s No One Else To Share The Vision, “Seduce” Yourself!

Everyone likes an audience. Well, every Impresario, anyway. Audiences grant legitimacy, validation, and the feeling that our message is landing somewhere, that our voice is being heard, that our performance is being witnessed. Perhaps more than this, an audience could at least partially be made up of more hungry people – people the Impresario can connect to one another, and maybe even encourage…

The Impresario as Seducer

Seduction is a field where most of us tread lightly. We look askance and shrug our shoulders, we don’t venture into that forest, because, well, we are afraid. We have a vague idea of seduction being some kind of manipulation, something that is ethically wrong. Seduction is not ethically wrong. In fact, if you are friends with somebody, anybody, it is because you and that person seduced each…

A couple of blog posts ago, I defined the Impresario as someone who engages with life. It can really be anyone, regardless of whether that person identifies with herself as an “Artist” or not. If she is truly engaging, she is an Impresario. OK, what does it mean to “engage with life”? Everyone is at whatever stage they’re at. Built into our human neurology is a drive to become better – to get…

“Dirty Laundry” Or Scented Sheets?: A Personal Life in the Artist’s World

In a conversation with a Duke University PhD student a few days ago, I brought up the question of the importance of a Personal Life in the Artist’s world. I was espousing that nowadays, the Artist is in need of not only a Personal Life, but a venue in which to connect with other Artists, and thus expand his or her Personal Life. I argued that such connection would have to be intimate; that is,…