Need a Little Sprezzatura….
What passes for nonchalance is often cruelty, perpetrated by the few who can still afford—and wield enough power—to live easily themselves. But sprezzatura! There is a grace to it, and a calm confidence.
Arts & Letters
Miniature Compositions at an Exhibition
The Unheard-of Ensemble has been taking this collaborative show on the road every summer, from city to city, from year to year, but they had so much fun in St. Louis, were so heartily welcomed by our creative community, and so ably hosted by Stark and Washington University’s Department of Music that they might be back—maybe even to stay. Let us hope so.
How Women, Men, and Barack Obama See Colors
Artist Spencer Finch tiled the colors of Barack Obama’s life. Women will see them better than most men can.
New Music for the End Time
The Collaborative Composition Initiative concluded its week in St. Louis with two sets of premieres: nine new pieces performed by the Unheard-of Ensemble at Dissonant Works on South Jefferson Friday night and nine miniatures inspired by works at the Kemper Art Museum performed by
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Brooklyn Band Starts Classical Music Season Early with Collaborative Composition Initiative
This classical music off-season, St. Louis is hosting something of a classical music talent combine for new composers and the creative musicians who perform their work. Let us call the Collaborative Composition Initiative a summery Spring Training for the classical music season to come.
James Merrill: The Poetics of Place
A lesser poet would never have won a National Book Award with poetry that claimed to be a transcription from the spirit world.
The Making of a Black Role Model
I am the same age as Jayne Kennedy, and her memoir does a wonderful job of recreating how exciting a time it was if—to paraphrase singer and pianist Nina Simone—one were young, ambitious, and Black.
Something I Learned from You: Poise is Too Often Like Pose
I laughed and told my son that the singer reminded me of myself in high school—gawky, skinny, comic not handsome, watching everyone else but doing your own thing a little too enthusiastically.
Winning and Losing at the Great Game of Intimacy
What to call this Anton Chekhov, whom I first encountered in 1988? The Master, perhaps—of vision, decency, modesty, and industry, and, one might hope, in the old game of love.
The Lessons America Has Taught Me
Fox News Channel’s political anchor Bret Baier’s new book, “The Case for America,” is just in time for the 250th anniversary season. It feels a bit hasty in its composition, which gives a reader the sense that it was a book aimed at a ready market: people who want a book that is positive about the United States at this particularly divisive juncture, when many think the country is on the verge of its third political divorce.