Wash Your Hands Often And Try To Avoid Large Potholes On The Journey Of Life

[Click on image for enlargement.]

Graphic credit: (c) New York Times. Data and analysis from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, Washington, D.C. and the National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Three Western Figurative Paintings: 10th c., 1895, and 1984 CE

Icon of Abgar holding the mandylion, the image of Christ (encaustic, 10th century, Saint Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai).

Thomas Eakins Study for "Portrait of Mrs. Charles L. Leonard"

Georg Baselitz The Abgar Head

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Image credits: Wikipedia. Copyright controlled: Christie's and Artnet.com.

Live From The Shadows Of The Nation's Capital's Culture Palaces (Classical Musicians Practice While Achim Freyer Contemplates Enlarging Wagner's Ring)

“Clifton Williams unbuttons his suit jacket, sits at a baby grand and prepares to conquer composer [Sergei Prokofiev's "Suggestion Diabolique”.]. The night is young and old, depending on your perspective. The clock says 8:47. But it is a school night. The church sanctuary is empty. And there is Clifton, alone at the slightly out-of-tune piano. Eyes closed. Shoulders hunched. Fingers in a painful fury, chasing music. …

A junior at Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Northwest Washington, Clifton has just two days to practice before he travels to Boston, where he will play before a live audience on "From the Top," NPR's popular showcase for the country's best young classical musicians. Washington listeners can hear it at 6 p.m. this Sunday, on classical WETA, 90.9 FM, or watch the video at http://www.fromthetop.org. Clifton recently won a $10,000 scholarship from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, which partners with "From the Top" to aid exceptionally promising low-income students. The scholarships have helped them buy instruments and pay for tuition. Clifton plans to use the money for music school, travel expenses, and a piano.” ...

DeNeen L. Brown “Grand Achievement: Teen Pianist From Southeast [D.C.] Orchestrates an Unlikely Rise” Washington Post April 30, 2009

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Photo credits: Thomas Cole The Voyage of Life (Youth) (c) National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. 2009; (c) Lois Raimondo and the Washington Post 2009; and detail of The Voyage of Life photographed by Elizabeth Roy via Wikipedia Commons.

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Please recall that Sharon Percy Rockefeller's Classical WETA-FM, in the Nation's Capital, does not program American classical music because her WGMS-legacy executives told her not to do so. ['Classical WETA' is the result of a merger of PBS's WETA and WGMS.]

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Achim Freyer is consumed by [the Los Angeles Opera's $32 million] 'The Ring of the Nibelung'

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Cecilia Rouse is a member of the White House's Council of Economic Advisers. She has studied the existence of discrimination in symphony orchestras.

Ominous News First From Mexico City, And Now From Houston And New York City ... (Remember, The Universe Has No Edge And No Center)

"Hello! Ominous news about WQXR. Because of financial problems,there are reports that the New York Times may sell WQXR, and the future of this great station may in jeopardy. There are worries that if it is sold to some other organization, the programming may be dumbed down, or that WQXR might cease to exist altogether. This would be a devastating blow to classical music on the radio in America, and to New York City.

New York without WQXR would be like the city without the Statue of Liberty, the Brooklyn bridge, or the Empire State building. We must hope for the best."

Best regards, Robert Berger, New Rochelle,NY.

Image credits: (c) The Center for Process Studies and View On Buddhism. Copyright controlled.

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Classical WETA-FM, so-called public radio in the Nation's Capital.

In Shadow Of Washington And Los Angeles Focus On Wagner's Ring, National Gallery Exhibits Rare Manuscripts From Its Collection (And Earlier The Getty)

Heaven on Earth ... without Götterdämmerung





The Burgundian illuminated manuscript above is from the Rosenwald Collection of the National Gallery of Art, and has not been exhibited in at least 30 years.

The Italian illuminated manuscript below is from the Collection of the Getty Center and the Getty Villa in Los Angeles, and was exhibited at the National Gallery about three years ago. [Both Museums and cultural conservation and research centers have free admission every day.]

National Gallery of Art, Washington, illuminated manuscripts

Getty Center, Los Angeles, illuminated manuscripts.

Image credits: (c) National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. 2009. Copyright controlled.

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The Rosenwald Collection of graphic art from medieval to contemporary times is "the finest of its kind ever to be formed in the United States by a single individual." -- J. Carter Brown

The Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection is divided between the National Gallery of Art and the Library of Congress.

Renaissance Research 'Conservatory Project' May Day Assignment: Go To Contemporary Classical Concerts, Free or Otherwise, May 1-10, 2009

John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Contemporary Music Week, May 1-10, 2009

FREE:

Ethel, Daniel Bernard Roumain, Ljova and the Kontraband,
Red Light New Music Ensemble, Fuse Ensemble, Mimesis Ensemble, Janus Trio, So Percussion

FEE:

Chapter 1 Bruce Adolphe,
Chapter 2 Julian Anderson,
Chapter 3 Lera Auerbach,
Chapter 4 George Benjamin,
Chapter 5 Harrison Birtwistle,
Chapter 6 Elliott Carter,
Chapter 7 Oliver Knussen,
Chapter 8 Colin Matthews,
Chapter 9 Nicholas Maw,
Chapter 10 Gunther Schuller,
Chapter 11 Sean Shepherd,
Chapter 12 Augusta Read Thomas,
Chapter 13 Joan Tower,
Chapter 14 Mark-Anthony Turnage, and
Chapter 15 Ellen Taaffe Zwilich

Cross-currents details here.

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Header image: Reingold ($32,000,000/ca.4) (c) Los Angeles Opera Website 2009.

"LA Opera has joined forces with Los Angeles’ cultural and educational institutions to stage the first significant citywide cultural festival since the 1984 Olympic Arts Festival.

LA Opera’s new production of Richard Wagner’s Ring Cycle made possible by THE ELI AND EDYTHE BROAD FOUNDATION with additional generous support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and LA Opera’s Friends of the Ring Leadership Council."

Lufthansa (hence the anachronistic airplane in the Ring Cycle?)

Renaissance Research 'Conservatory Project' Harmony Quiz: Did Someone Say $32,000,000? (How Much Would A Conservatory In The Nation's Capital Cost?)

[Click on images for enlargments.]

Photo credits: (c) Lawrence K. Ho and the Los Angeles Times. 2009. Copyright controlled. All rights reserved.

Update: Link To Laotian UNESCO World Heritage Site Luang Prabang Added To Post 'Toward "The Creation, H. XXI:2"'

I knew that something was missing yesterday morning ...





[Click on images for enlargements.]

Buddhist temple Royal Palace at UNESCO World Heritage Site Luang Prabang, Laos, Association of Southeast Asian Nations; and the hasty evacuation of Pripyat initiated after the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster of the last week of April 1986, Pripyat, Ukraine, Future European Union.

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Photo credits: Via Wikimedia Commons. With thanks. Central Intelligence Agency 1996 radiation and exclusion map from the Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection: Belarus Maps, University of Texas via Wikipedia.



[Click on image for enlargement.]

“Rain Drips Through The Roofs On To The Aeolian Pipe Organ”

'Aeolian [1880s - 1985], once the largest music company in America, built residence, self playing organs as well as many other instruments.'

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Photo credit: © Scott Haefner 2009. Copyright controlled. All rights reserved. Via Fortune magazine.

OK ... OK ... Tuesday CD Listening Suggestion

Lewis Spratlan 'When Crows Gather and Other Works' (with soprano Lucy Shelton) Sequitur Recordings Albany Records 2005.

Santa Fe Opera Summer 2010 Lewis Spratlan 'Life Is A Dream" (World Premiere)

Photo credit: New York Empire State Plaza, Albany, New York. Copyright © 2007 EL Civics - All Rights Reserved.

POSTPONED DUE TO WATER MAIN BREAK: Next Meeting Of Baltimore-Odesa Sister Cities Committee Today 5:30 PM At Baltimore City Hall, Conference Room #2

[Click on images for enlargements.]

Opera and Ballet Theater 1887, and Philharmonic Hall (Former Stock Exchange) 1898, Odesa, Ukraine, Future European Union.

Photo credits: (c) odessacalling.com 2008. Copyright controlled. All rights reserved. With thanks. Wikipedia Commons. With thanks.

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ODESSA NATIONAL ACADEMIC THEATER OF OPERA AND BALLET OFFICIAL HOME SITE -- PAGEMASTER DAVID VERA GRANT

ODESA PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

design studio DVG

An Engineer's Guide to Baltimore, Maryland




Baltimore City Hall 1875.

Photo credit: (c) John Hopkins University 2009. Copyright controlled.

Renaissance Research 'Conservatory Project' Monday Afternoon Pop Quiz: Who Or What Am I? (Perhaps You Were Expecting A CD Of The Week Recommendation?)

And why is it important to the future of contemporary classical music?

Image credit: (c) Copyright controlled 2009. All rights reserved.

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[Hint: It is not in California or on the East Coast of the United States.]

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With thanks to P.

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Aide memoire:

J. just returned from a 12 day tour from Kyiv, Ukraine, Future European Union, to Krakow and Oświęcim, Poland, Present-day European Union. She was in a group of a dozen sociology graduate students from National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, along with a theater director.

[Kyiv, Krakow, and Oświęcim -- along with Lviv -- are all UNESCO World Heritage Sites.]

In Which Pan Cogito, Once Ostracized, Is Invited To Join In The Second Annual “Bloggers Night” at The Ojai Music Festival, June 12, 2009

Dear Blogger:

Our first “Bloggers Night” at Ojai last year was such a success that we are scheduling another this year, and we hope you will be able to attend.

This year’s “Bloggers Night” features the world premiere of “Slide,” the centerpiece of the 2009 Ojai Music Festival and the newest collaboration between Steven Mackey and Rinde Eckert. This new music/theater piece is based on an actual psychological experiment about the manipulation of the human psyche and features Mr. Eckert as the psychologist Renard, with the instrumentalists—Steven Mackey and the six members of eighth blackbird—doubling as role players.

The performance takes place on Friday, June 12, at 8 p.m. in the Libbey Bowl and opens with the freewheeling members of Tin Hat—Carla Kihlstedt, Mark Orton, Ben Goldberg, and Ara Anderson. Tin Hat combines many genres of music from southern blues to the avant-garde in their performances of chamber music for the 21st century.

The performance will be followed by a reception at the Ojai Art Center follows with hors d’oeuvres and refreshments, including wines from Casa Baranca and an ale-tasting by Ojai Beverages.

Please join us and your fellow bloggers on “Bloggers Night” at the Ojai Music Festival on Friday, June 12. If you would like to attend the performance and reception, RSVP by June 1 ...

Ojai Music Festival June 11-14, 2009 Thomas W. Morris Artistic Director

Header image: Bloggers night in Ojai, California, in the 1880s. Wikipedia Commons.

Toward "The Creation, H. XXI:2"

“In 1985 the German literati made light of the weekly newspaper Die Zeit's editor Fritz J. Raddatz, who had mentioned Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and the Frankfurt train station in the same …

The orchestral introduction 'Representation of Chaos,' which Haydn arranged in only 59 bars, was too much for many of its early audiences. There was much speculation about how Haydn would give shape to the shapeless—composer Siegfried Ochs described it as a "total muddle" as late as 1926, while Georg Feder called it a "deformed sonata movement" with "misguided modulation." Perhaps most fascinating about this superbly refined, harmonious work—the traces of which can still be heard in Richard Wagner's Tristan…”

Source: Sublime, Witty, Enlightened: Thoughts on Haydn's Creation by Jürgen Hartmann (Translation by Christina Connelly)

© Jürgen Hartmann 2009. Copyright controlled.

Via the Website of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, D.C.

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Moving Perspectives: Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba/Fiona Tan
March 14–July 5, 2009
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
Washington, D.C.

The lush landscape of Laos is the setting for a series of performances by art students from Luang Prabang in The Ground, the Root, and the Air: The Passing of the Bodhi Tree (2007), a single-channel video by Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba. The work culminates in a dramatic moment that captures the younger generation's struggle to reconcile a rich cultural and religious heritage with the rapid currents of global economic and social change.

Header image credits: (c) Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba "Happy New Year: Memorial Project Vietnam II" (video) (2003) and "The Ground, the Root, and the Air: The Passing of the Bodhi Tree" (video) (2007). Both images copyright controlled. All rights reserved. Via Artnet.com and Gallery Lehmann Maupin, New York City.

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More than 9,000 images from the Collections of the Freer and Sackler Galleries, of Washington, D.C., are now available on-line.

In Memorium, American Classical Musician John King

Photo credit: John King (left) (c) Michael DaSilva 2007. Copyright controlled.

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Joseph Kerman and Gary Tomlinson 'Listen' Sixth Edition Website

Global Perspectives : Glossary of Musical Terms from 'Listen'

Pan Cogito Proposes Inviting Cello Professor David Geringas To Be Honorary Professor Of Music At Kennedy Center’s Proposed National Music Conservatory

Without a Music Conservatory, the Nation's Capital suffers from a stunted musical culture, which is compounded by Classical WETA-FM's refusal to program American classical music. [The former music director of the National Symphony Orchestra, the late Mstislav Rostropovich supported the establishment of a major Music Conservatory in the Nation's Capital.]

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“The Geringas Baryton Trio is made up of cellist and conductor David Geringas, who is one of the leading international performers on the baryton; cellist and former student of David Geringas, Jens Peter Maintz; and violist Hartmut Rohde. All three artists are professors at Berlin’s Musikhochschulen and have been chamber music partners for a number of years. …

David Geringas studied at the Moscow Conservatory, where his teacher and mentor was Mstislav Rostropovich. Since winning the first prize at the Tchaikovsky Competition in 1970, Geringas has performed as soloist with the Chicago, National, and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestras, as well as with many major orchestras worldwide. In addition, he recently made his conducting debut with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra.

Geringas has received numerous awards for his recordings including the 1994 Diapason d’Or, for a recording of chamber music by Henri Dutilleux, and the Grand Prix du Disque, for a recording of twelve cello concertos of Luigi Boccherini. A recording of the cello concertos of Hans Pfitzner was honored in 1994 with the prize of the Deutsche Schallplattenkritik. Geringas received Lithuania’s highest honors for his worldwide contributions to his native country’s music, and German President Horst Köhler awarded Geringas the Verdienstkreuz erster Klasse for his achievements as musician and ambassador
for German culture.

Since 2000 Geringas has taught at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik, and also serves as honorary professor at the Moscow Conservatory and the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, China.”

Source: Music Program of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

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Header photo credit (c) Professor David Geringas's Website 2009. Copyright controlled. All rights reserved.

Renaissance Research 'Conservatory Project' Pop Quiz For The Weekend:What World Premiere Did Paul Hindemith Conduct At The Washington National Opera?

Photo credit: Trillium Erectum. (c) Ramin Nakisa 2009. Copyright controlled. Via Wikipedia Commons. With thanks.

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Washington National Opera

Paul Hindemith

Renaissance Research "Conservatory Project" Pop Quiz For The Weekend: What Opera Did Igor Stravinsky Conduct At The Washington National Opera?

Fruit of the purple trillium, Black Pond, Keese Mills, New York. August 10, 2008.

Photo credit: (c) Mwanner 2008. All rights reserved. Via Wikipedia Commons. With thanks.

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Washington National Opera

Igor Stravinsky

Away In Mountains Celebrating Earth Day

Photo credit: (c) Steven Erat and www.talkingtree.com. Copyright controlled. With thanks.

President Obama Again Speaks Out In Support Of Palestinian Statehood And A Two-State Solution, Rejecting Future Israeli Control Of Non-Israeli Lands

[Click on maps for enlargements.]

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"[Today] Obama said he remained committed to pushing for a two-state solution: separate Israeli and Palestinian states existing side-by-side in peace."

Associated Press "Obama Invites Middle East Leaders to White House" Washington Post April 21, 2009

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Map credits: First map prepared by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency via Wikipedia Commons. Second map derived from United Nations materials in the public domain via Wikipedia Commons.

Did You Miss Steve Reich’s Double Sextet Last Year At The Kennedy Center? … If So, Don’t Miss John Adams’s Phrygian Gates and Gnarly Buttons Tomorrow

Encounters: A John Adams Snapshot

The Post-Classical Ensemble

Wednesday, April 22 at 7:30pm
The Harman Center for the Arts. Lansburgh Theatre
450 7th Street NW
Washington, D.C.

David Krakauer, clarinet
Benjamin Pasternack, piano
Angel Gil-Ordóñez, conductor

"A rare opportunity for DC audiences to hear two cutting-edge compositions by an indispensable American original. Phrygian Gates, early Adams, is a landmark of keyboard minimalism, a 30-minute kaleidoscope of swirling colors and textures. Gnarly Buttons, late Adams, is a sizzling clarinet concerto distilling swing, blues, and jazz. Both works will be performed for the first time by two great American instrumentalists."

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Header credit: Philip Guston Ladder 1978. Gift to the National Gallery of Art by Edward R. Broida.

(c) Estate of Philip Guston and the National Gallery of Art 2009. Copyright controlled.

"An exhibition of work by American artist Philip Guston (1913–1980) inaugurates an ongoing series of shows in the National Gallery of Art's East Building Tower Gallery focused on developments in art since 1970. For more than five decades, Guston explored ways to paint, from the mural art of the Depression through mid-century abstract expressionism to a raw new imagery beginning in 1968."

Links to images of Philip Guston in the Collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (Video also available.)

Renaissance Research "Conservatory Project" Pop Quiz: "The Ability To Channel An Initial Burst Of Energy Into A Large-Scale Musical Event"

What major new work of American classical music displays 'an ability to channel an initial burst of energy into a large-scale musical event, built with masterful control and consistently intriguing to the ear'?

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'Trochenbrod or Trochinbrod in Russian (Ukrainian: Трохимбрід, Trokhymbrid) was a Jewish shtetl (village) with an area 1,728 acres (6.99 km2) once located in what is now western Ukraine but which used to be a part of Poland, about 30 kilometers northeast ... of Lutsk, Ukraine. It was also known as Sofievka or Zofiówka in Polish, named after Sofia, a Russian princess who donated land for the Jewish settlement. [Several places in Poland and Ukraine share this name].' It is in the general vicinity of Ustilug, Ukraine, where Igor Stravinsky, and his family, maintained a summer dacha, and where the composer conceived of several early works including his early Firebird ballet. [Ustilug was founded in 1150 C.E., while Trokhymbrid was founded in 1835 C.E.]

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Photo credit: Trochenbrod/Trochinbrod/Trokhymbrid/Zofiówka. (c) Ryszard Lubinsky via washingtonpost.com. Copyright controlled.

Renaissance Research Post Easter-Time “Conservatory Project” Assignment: Write An Essay Comparing Vivaldi’s “Motezuma” and Handel’s “Hercules”

Write an essay comparing Antonio Vivaldi’s “Motezuma” [1733] and George Frideric Handel’s “Hercules” [1744-45].

Extra credit: Expand your discussion to include Frederick II "The Great" of Prussia’s libretto and Carl Heinrich Graun’s music for “Montezuma” [1755].

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Header photo and text credits: © Yevhen KRAVS via www.radiosvoboda.org Ukraine 2009. Copyright controlled; and 'Samson and the Lion' by Pinsel. Lviv Museum of Sacral Art, Lviv, Ukraine, Future European Union. Copyright controlled.

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"An important event took place recently at the Ternopil Oblast Regional History Museum. Vira Stetsko, a well-known art specialist and author of more than 200 articles and studies on Baroque sculpture, announced a sensational discovery. Researchers have located the main part of a roadside statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary designed by Johann Pinzel in 1751 and the head of a statue that once adorned the unique town hall in Buchach.

In 1751 Bernard Meretin and Johann Pinzel built the town hall, one of the finest examples of Rococo architecture in Europe, on the central square of Buchach. The building was adorned with 16 statues. Researchers believe that Pinzel thus immortalized the 12 labors of Hercules. Unfortunately, after a fire in 1865 only six statues were left intact. Today, prior to restoration, one of the discovered heads from the Buchach town hall is stored in the museum, where it is being studied." ...

Source

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[Click on image for enlargement.]

Buchach town hall designed by Bernard Meretyn and Johannes Pinzel, Buchach, Ukraine, Future European Union.

Photo credit: Roman Zacharij via Wikipedia. With thanks.

In Which Pan Cogito Contemplates How Architect Gehry Can Both Memorialize Eisenhower And Preserve L’Enfant’s Original Layout For Nation's Capital

Philip Kennicott "For D.C. Debut, Gehry Grapples With Ike Site -- And Himself" Washington Post April 17, 2009

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Photo and map credits: (c) Eisenhower Memorial Commission 2009; and Arches National Park Photos & Multimedia 2009.

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Proposed post-post-modernist ornamentation and color scheme.

Credits: (c) Historical Society of Washington, D.C. 2009.

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(c) Renaissance Research 2009. All rights reserved.

Poll: When Was The Last Time You Heard A Piece Of American Classical Music On Public Radio And Then Visited Your Local Music Store To Buy A Copy?

[Click on Life Magazine covers for enlargements and dates of issue.]

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Poll: When Was The Last Time You Heard A Piece Of American Classical Music On Public Radio And Then Visited Your Local Music Store To Buy A Copy?


• Several times a week, I hear a piece of American classical music on public radio and then visit a local music store to buy a copy.

• About once every week, I hear a piece of American classical music on public radio and then visit a local music store to buy a copy.

• Several times a month, I hear a piece of American classical music on public radio and then visit a local music store to buy a copy

• Several times a year, I hear a piece of American classical music on public radio and then visit a local music store to buy a copy

• Once a year, I hear a piece of American classical music on public radio and then visit a local music store to buy a copy

• I rarely if ever hear a piece of American classical music on public radio because I live in the Nation’s Capital and public radio director Sharon Percy Rockefeller prefers Vivaldi, Telemann, and Frederick the Great of Prussia to American classical music.

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Header photo credits: (c) Life Magazine and the individual photographers 1967. Copyright controlled. All rights reserved. Via www.coverbrowser.com.

Post-Rachmaninoff "American" Classical Music: Still Seeking The Contemporary Classical Music Middle Path After All Of These Years

The classical music premiere showdown in the Nation's Capital, this evening, is between the National Symphony Orchestra performing Daniel Kellogg's 'Western Skys', and the Library of Congress hosting Peter Serkin and the Brentano String Quartet in Charles Wuorinen's new 'Piano Quintet' (as well as Arnold Schoenberg's "Ode to Napoleon", op. 41 for speaker, string quartet and piano, with Thomas Meglioranza; and Beethoven's proto-modern Grosse Fuga).

Here is the link to the NSO program note, by Dr. Richard E. Rodda, for Daniel Kellogg Western Skys world premiere. [Linking has been preapproved by the Office of the General Counsel of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.]

Here is also the link to the Brentano String Quartet's extensive and beautifully organized library of program notes. It doesn't yet have the note to the Wourinen premiere, but one can prepare by reading notes to string quartets by Schoenberg, Berg, Webern, Ligeti, and many others including arrangements of Gesualdo, Monteverdi, and Bach.

Sergei Rachmaninoff

Arnold Schoenberg

Igor Stravinsky

Lou Harrison


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A History of the Farallon Islands

... "The Farallones were first discovered by the Native Americans who called them the "Islands of the Dead" and refused to set foot on them for spiritual reasons. The first known person to set foot on the Farallones was the explorer Sir Francis Drake who made a stop at the islands on a journey westward into the unknown. Drake coined the rocky outcroppings the "Islands of St. James", but in 1769 the Explorer Juan Francisco de Bodega renamed them "Los Farallones de los Frailes." For hundreds of years, the islands remained unaffected by human interference until 1810 when New England sealing boats spent two years at the Farallones slaughtering more than 150,000 Northern Fur Seals. Following in the New Englander's footsteps, Russian fur traders set up camp at Fort Ross, and spent several years continuing the massacre of the Northern Fur Seal. Finally, when there was no longer a profit to be had, the Russians left in 1841." ...

Header photo and text credit: © 2005-2006 Farallones Marine Sanctuary Association. Copyright controlled. All Rights Reserved. With thanks.

One Of The Two New Krakow Opera House Halls To Stage 'Cesarz Atlantydy i Głosy Holocaustu' ['Emperor Of Atlantis And Voices Of The Holocaust']

Reintroducing the two new, smaller Krakow Opera Halls, Krakow, Poland, European Union

Victor Ullman/David Eddleman double-bill, April 19, 20; May 15; June 15, 17, 2009

Photo credit: (c) Krakow Opera 2009. Copyright controlled.

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Reintroducing the Lviv Opera House, Lviv, Ukraine, Future European Union. [Poland, along with Romania and Bulgaria, is currently a member of the European Union; however, Ukraine is not, and therefore, Kyiv, Lviv, Kharkiv, and Odesa -- unlike Krakow, Bucharest, Sofia [and Istanbul]-- are ineligible for E.U. Cultural Capital of 'Official' Europe funding.]

Photo credit: Lviv Opera House. Wikipedia Commons.

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"Turkey's bid to join the European Union (EU) has received a strong boost following a recommendation by a panel of experts for Istanbul to be the European Capital of Culture 2010, winning over the Ukrainian candidate Kiev [Kyiv] in a contest that was seen as not far from a political race.

2010 will be the last year when a city outside the EU can carry the prestigious title, with EU hopefuls Turkey and Ukraine both keen to scoop the status for Istanbul and Kiev [Kyiv], according to EU Observer website.

After 2010, the number of European Capitals of Culture is to be limited to two at the same time each year, and they will be both within the EU."

Source

'Friendly Globalization' And Socio-Economic Development v. Violence? ...[Marshall Plans In Times Of International Financial and Economic Crisis]

[Click on images for enlargement.]

..."Pakistan, in a Friends of Pakistan ministerial meeting on Friday, is expected to present a wish-list of projects worth $30 billion that it wants to see implemented over the next 10 years.

The projects include hydro-electric dams, roads, and projects aimed at improving security in the violence-plagued northwest.

A U.N. official hoped the talks would lead to longer-term dialogue to support socio-economic development.

"The Friends of Pakistan will show, through their pledges, that they are ready to stand by Pakistan in its development process, that Pakistan is not alone in its struggle," Fikret Akcura, Resident Representative for the U.N. Development Program in Pakistan, told Reuters. "And hopefully this commitment will continue, that it's not short-term effort."

But EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said a 10-year commitment was too long for donors." ...

Reuters "Japan to Pledge $1 Billion to Pakistan Amid Worries" New York Times April 16, 2009

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Header photo and map credits: (c) National Geographic Society 2002. Copyright controlled. International Monetary Fund, Washington, D.C.