Monthly Archives: November 2010
The Elder
The cuatro is enjoying indisputable prosperity. The recent North American and European tour of C4 (a core of three cuatristas – Glem, Molina and Ramirez – with prestigious guests) has rocked the halls, reaping the well-deserved fruits of an initiative launched … Continue reading
Havana Wynton
The second request from the New York Philharmonic to go to Havana ran into administrative obstacles. The United States denied a first trip last year, arguing that the orchestra’s millionaire benefactors wanted to travel with the musicians just to drink daiquiri … Continue reading
Mondo Exotica
The most entertaining thing about recommending books is imagining the acrobatics that bibliophiles are obliged to perform in the Venezuelan desert of foreign currency in order to obtain foreign works. (Currency control has existed here for nearly eight years and … Continue reading
Form and Silence
In art, the formal value of presentation is taken very seriously. Frames, white walls and empty spaces exalt the significance of the contemplated object to the point that after Duchamp’s urinal, almost any trash that falls on a pedestal is … Continue reading
Uncertainty
For years I explained to my cello students the art of overcoming uncertainty on an instrument whose bowing and fingering parameters don’t seem to have precise boundaries. The bowed instrument beginner should anticipate the geometry of hand-position shifts within a … Continue reading
