Latest news with #LincolnCenter
Forbes
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Chanel Celebrates Five Years Of The BAAND Together Dance Festival At Lincoln Center
The New York City Ballet for BAAND Together Dance Festival Courtesy of CHANEL The Rite of Spring is one of Igor Stravinsky's greatest legacies, yet that nearly almost wasn't the case. Composed for Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes and choreographed by Vaslav Nijinsky, when the show debuted in 1913, it was instantly met with controversy. But when Coco Chanel met Diaghilev, she became his friend and costumer designer, and eventually his patron when he was unable to fund the revival of The Rite of Spring , allowing the show to be revived at the end of 1920. Coco Chanel immersed herself in the world of dance beyond providing financial support, taking dance lessons with Isadora Duncan. Her passion for dance lives on through her maison. Today marks the opening night of the BAAND Together Dance Festival, in which five iconic dance companies come together for the fifth year, a famously auspicious number for Chanel. BAAND Together Dance Festival began in 2021 when the New York City arts scene was starting to return to the stage after being ravaged by the pandemic. The festival marked a new form of collaboration to help spark the return of live performances. The American Ballet Theatre for BAAND Together Dance Festival Courtesy of CHANEL 'Five is a very important number for Chanel, but also it represents five years of coming out of this extraordinary time for this city, out of a pandemic, and what was not just a silver lining, but this development of a real relationship that happened in a very dark time for the city,' says Shanta Thake, Ehrenkranz Chief Artistic Officer of Lincoln Center. 'These five incredible, illustrious companies coming together and making something bigger than the sum of its parts is one of the most inspirational events.' The festival is an ongoing reminder of how powerful it can be when people join forces for good. 'These five dance companies in the middle of the pandemic were leaning on each other in new ways, as many of us were, and thinking about how as running companies of dancers when we're not allowed to be together and near each other, sharing ideas practices and how to move through this time, and they formed this camaraderie,' Thake says. 'Jon Nakagawa, who was on the Lincoln Center team, found out about this and reached out and asked, 'could you imagine actually performing together beyond this conversation?' They took that and ran with it. This idea of coming together in this way was important for all of the leaders of these companies to show what was possible when they came together, and to be able to celebrate together.' Running through August 2, each dance company will perform a program curated collaboratively by the artistic directors as part of Lincoln Center's Summer for the City. The Dance Theatre of Harlem will perform 'Nyman String Quartet No. 2' by Robert Garland, New York City Ballet will perform 'After the Rain (Pas de Deux)' by Christopher Wheeldon, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater will perform 'Many Angels' by Lar Lubovitch, American Ballet Theatre will perform 'Midnight Pas de Deux' by Susan Jaffe and Ballet Hispánico will perform 'House of Mad'moiselle' by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa. BAAND Together Dance Festival has grown and evolved since its inaugural performance, which was held outdoors to accommodate restrictions during the pandemic. 'We're very fortunate to be in the space of our friends at New York City Ballet, at the David H. Koch Theater,' Thake says. 'We moved it indoors because we want to make sure we never have any weather cancelations when we have these companies together. The other thing is the deepening of the relationship with Chanel, who's been supporting this from the very beginning, moving with us—no pun intended—towards all of these choices of how and where we meet the audience. It's become such a fan favorite, staff favorite and dancer favorite, to see all of these companies together because of the depth of these relationships over five years.' Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater for BAAND Together Dance Festival Courtesy of CHANEL For the first time, this season the audience can get the behind-the-scenes scoop on the on-stage collaboration between all five dance companies during a free panel discussion on July 29 at 5PM in the David Rubenstein Atrium featuring the artistic leaders of all five companies, moderated by Thake. 'To actually hear artistic directors in conversation with one another, you see this camaraderie come out in a different kind of way,' Thake says. 'What I love about these artistic directors is that they're also New Yorkers. You also get to see them as people who are so invested in this city, and because dance happens at such a young age, and so many of them grew up here, learning here at these various schools and forums, this idea of what it means to be in New York and dance is going to come through in this panel.' To reach audiences and dance lovers in new ways, free dance workshops will be offered for all ages and abilities. 'Every day of the festival, a different company brings their expertise in education and programming to the David Geffen Hall lobby, where anyone can participate in these dance workshops,' Thake says. 'Another through line of these companies that they all have beautiful, big education programs. It's a large part of what they do. It's not an aside. To be able to make sure that we have room to showcase both of them, and for audience members to be able to come and watch the performance at night, but also be able to dance yourself and join us on the dance floor after the performance, [illustrates] this idea that dance really does belong to all of us. Freedom of movement and the power of being able to use your body in space is one that that we feel is necessary to activate differently in this time.' The performers of the BAAND Together Dance Festival Courtesy of CHANEL A cornerstone of the BAAND Together Dance Festival is making dance more accessible to all, so to honor that effort tickets are available on a choose-what-you-pay basis (the suggested ticket price is $35). 'It's amazing to have audiences walk into that theater and have this experience in one of the best theaters in the world, and choose what you pay ticketing and free tickets, and see these great companies together,' Thake says. 'A lot of people don't think culture belongs to them. It's part of our role as a civic cultural institution to make sure that everyone in the city and beyond knows that art is a public good. We have this opportunity in the summers to open up all of these different culturally rich bridges to anyone that comes through, and to be able to see this height of human expression. We want to make sure everyone has that ability. We also do that through the addition of ASL to performances and performances where we have audio description, making sure that the Lincoln Center is a place for everyone.' Ballet Hispánico for BAAND Together Dance Festival Courtesy of CHANEL As the official partner of the festival, Chanel makes all of this possible. 'Chanel is such an incredibly generous partner for this festival over five years,' Thake says. 'They continue to deepen their relationship to dance and the performing arts, and you see it also in the history of this house, and Gabrielle Chanel's commitment to dance and freedom of movement, and this storytelling around it. When you think of Chanel, you think of this femininity, but also strength. There's a strength associated with the house and you cannot look at the athleticism of the dancers and not think the same thing with these beautiful movements, but also the unbelievable strength of these athletes onstage. Lincoln Center is a long-standing idea and ballet and Chanel is as well, so when you come together around the shared idea of something that's as old as time itself, of people coming together, expressing themselves through movement, it's always a beautiful process.' The Dance Theatre of Harlem for BAAND Together Dance Festival Courtesy of CHANEL Thanks to the BAAND Together Dance Festival, both Chanel and Lincoln Center achieve their shared goal of making dance accessible to all. 'The most rewarding for me is watching this audience come in and maybe they have seen Alvin Ailey before, but they didn't even know that Ballet Hispanico existed, or they are part of the school of Ballet Hispanico, but have never seen ballet with the American Ballet Theater,' Thake says. 'Watching people understand what's available to them in this city, in this world, that there are all of these different forms of expression that are here in this incredible city, I just love that. I love watching somebody come in with a tutu and then stopping by the Alvin Ailey desk on the way out to find out more. The hope is exactly that, that the more people learn about these different forums and companies, the more they continue to expand their own curiosity about humanity at large.'
Zawya
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Zawya
"Shanghai Day" Lights Up Lincoln Center in New York - Art as a Bridge: A Transpacific Cultural Resonance
SHANGHAI, CHINA - Media OutReach Newswire - 28 July 2025 - Co-presented by Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and Center for the China Shanghai International Arts Festival, Summer for the City's Shanghai Day ignited a cultural wave in New York City. From afternoon until late at night, a vibrant array of performances and interactive experiences—fusing classics with innovation, fashion with tradition, and youth with passion—took place across the Lincoln Center campus, drawing an estimated audience of thousands. This spectacular artistic exchange opened a vivid window for New Yorkers to experience the diverse vitality of Shanghai-style culture. Li Ming, President of Center for the China Shanghai International Arts Festival, stated: "We are honored to bring Haipai (Shanghai-style) culture to this global stage at the invitation of Lincoln Center. Through this unique artistic celebration, we hope to showcase the charm of Shanghai and the creativity of Chinese artists to a worldwide audience." Mariko Silver, President and CEO of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, said: "We invite New Yorkers and visitors to explore different cultures and deepen their connection to creativity from across the globe here at Lincoln Center. Today's events are such a beautiful example of cross-cultural exchange and artistic discovery for audiences of all ages. We are so glad to be working with the Center for the China Shanghai International Arts Festival." Shanghai Day marked a world-class presentation of Haipai culture. Innovative interpretations of traditional Chinese arts offered immersive and interactive experiences that reshaped global perceptions. Inside the David H. Koch Theater, the Shanghai Grand Theatre premiered its original dance Lady White Snake to U.S. audiences for the first time. Drawing from the Chinese solar terms for musical inspiration, the performance blended traditional Chinese instruments with Western orchestration and electronic sounds. Visually symbolic elements such as clocks and geometric forms illustrated spatial shifts and emotional depth. The performance integrated ballet, classical Chinese dance, and modern dance into a fluid cross-genre dialogue. Artistic director Tan Yuanyuan led an elite team to deliver a stunning fusion of ballet grace, flowing water sleeves, and poetic stage aesthetics inspired by Jiangnan, presenting an ancient legend in an entirely renewed form. In the lobby of the David Rubenstein Atrium, the Shanghai Animation Film Studio's classic The Monkey King: Uproar in Heaven captivated audiences with vivid colors and Chinese mythological charm. In the family zone, the Shanghai Chinese Orchestra presented Stories of Chinese Zodiac using suona, pipa, and other folk instruments, accompanied by water ink animation from Zhang Lelu that delighted children and invited them to engage with traditional instruments. As night fell, the garden transformed into a "Shanghai Cultural Pavilion." Intangible heritage booths offered hands-on experiences: papercutting, knot buttons, calligraphy, traditional qipao, handmade cotton crafts, vegetarian treats from Longhua Temple, and dazzling cloisonné candy boxes from Lao Feng Xiang. A "Guochao Punk" Peking Opera makeup booth was particularly popular, with New Yorkers lining up for custom opera face designs. Nearby, Zi-Ka-Wei Library showcased Shanghai-themed creative products that condensed cultural meaning into modern design. At Damrosch Park, the Arknights Concert—produced in collaboration with globally renowned composers like Gareth Coker—offered an electrifying mix of electronic, folk, and symphonic sounds. Audiences were transported into immersive game worlds through high-impact musical storytelling. Meanwhile, the Dance Floor transformed into a summer dance stage. China's new generation of dancers energized the crowd with breaking, popping, and locking. Their specially choreographed global hit Spread Your Wings sparked spontaneous dancing among the audience. Jazz trumpeter Li Xiaochuan bridged East and West with original compositions reflecting the evolving "Chinese sound." As the evening deepened, a "Silent Disco" allowed hundreds of attendees to dance freely in isolated headphone worlds—blending erhu, pipa, and electronic bass. Throughout the event, the Lincoln Center was imbued with "Shanghai"—from the Lujiazui skyline to Yuyuan Garden silhouettes. "Today felt like being transported to the other side of the world," said Fromm, a New Yorker who had never been to Shanghai. "Every sense—from sight and sound to taste—was immersed in a city that is both historic and modern, Eastern and global." As the lights dimmed at Lincoln Center, the cultural resonance of "Shanghai Day" lingered. From elegant pointe work and traditional music to intangible heritage and immersive beats, this celebration became an invisible bridge connecting hearts across the Pacific. Through the power of art and culture, a moving new chapter was written in the story of U.S.-China cultural exchange and mutual understanding. Hashtag: #ShanghaiEye The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. ShanghaiEye
Malay Mail
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Malay Mail
"Shanghai Day" Lights Up Lincoln Center in New York - Art as a Bridge: A Transpacific Cultural Resonance
Lady White Snake Premieres in the U.S., Presented by Shanghai Grand Theatre China's New Generation of Dancers Electrified the Stage at Lincoln Center SHANGHAI, CHINA - Media OutReach Newswire - 28 July 2025 - Co-presented by Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and Center for the China Shanghai International Arts Festival, Summer for the City's Shanghai Day ignited a cultural wave in New York City. From afternoon until late at night, a vibrant array of performances and interactive experiences—fusing classics with innovation, fashion with tradition, and youth with passion—took place across the Lincoln Center campus, drawing an estimated audience of thousands. This spectacular artistic exchange opened a vivid window for New Yorkers to experience the diverse vitality of Shanghai-style Ming, President of Center for the China Shanghai International Arts Festival, stated: "We are honored to bring Haipai (Shanghai-style) culture to this global stage at the invitation of Lincoln Center. Through this unique artistic celebration, we hope to showcase the charm of Shanghai and the creativity of Chinese artists to a worldwide audience."Mariko Silver, President and CEO of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, said: "We invite New Yorkers and visitors to explore different cultures and deepen their connection to creativity from across the globe here at Lincoln Center. Today's events are such a beautiful example of cross-cultural exchange and artistic discovery for audiences of all ages. We are so glad to be working with the Center for the China Shanghai International Arts Festival."Shanghai Day marked a world-class presentation of Haipai culture. Innovative interpretations of traditional Chinese arts offered immersive and interactive experiences that reshaped global the David H. Koch Theater, the Shanghai Grand Theatre premiered its original dance Lady White Snake to U.S. audiences for the first time. Drawing from the Chinese solar terms for musical inspiration, the performance blended traditional Chinese instruments with Western orchestration and electronic sounds. Visually symbolic elements such as clocks and geometric forms illustrated spatial shifts and emotional depth. The performance integrated ballet, classical Chinese dance, and modern dance into a fluid cross-genre dialogue. Artistic director Tan Yuanyuan led an elite team to deliver a stunning fusion of ballet grace, flowing water sleeves, and poetic stage aesthetics inspired by Jiangnan, presenting an ancient legend in an entirely renewed the lobby of the David Rubenstein Atrium, the Shanghai Animation Film Studio's classic The Monkey King: Uproar in Heaven captivated audiences with vivid colors and Chinese mythological charm. In the family zone, the Shanghai Chinese Orchestra presented Stories of Chinese Zodiac using suona, pipa, and other folk instruments, accompanied by water ink animation from Zhang Lelu that delighted children and invited them to engage with traditional night fell, the garden transformed into a "Shanghai Cultural Pavilion." Intangible heritage booths offered hands-on experiences: papercutting, knot buttons, calligraphy, traditional qipao, handmade cotton crafts, vegetarian treats from Longhua Temple, and dazzling cloisonné candy boxes from Lao Feng Xiang. A "Guochao Punk" Peking Opera makeup booth was particularly popular, with New Yorkers lining up for custom opera face designs. Nearby, Zi-Ka-Wei Library showcased Shanghai-themed creative products that condensed cultural meaning into modern Damrosch Park, the Arknights Concert—produced in collaboration with globally renowned composers like Gareth Coker—offered an electrifying mix of electronic, folk, and symphonic sounds. Audiences were transported into immersive game worlds through high-impact musical the Dance Floor transformed into a summer dance stage. China's new generation of dancers energized the crowd with breaking, popping, and locking. Their specially choreographed global hit Spread Your Wings sparked spontaneous dancing among the audience. Jazz trumpeter Li Xiaochuan bridged East and West with original compositions reflecting the evolving "Chinese sound." As the evening deepened, a "Silent Disco" allowed hundreds of attendees to dance freely in isolated headphone worlds—blending erhu, pipa, and electronic the event, the Lincoln Center was imbued with "Shanghai"—from the Lujiazui skyline to Yuyuan Garden silhouettes. "Today felt like being transported to the other side of the world," said Fromm, a New Yorker who had never been to Shanghai. "Every sense—from sight and sound to taste—was immersed in a city that is both historic and modern, Eastern and global."As the lights dimmed at Lincoln Center, the cultural resonance of "Shanghai Day" lingered. From elegant pointe work and traditional music to intangible heritage and immersive beats, this celebration became an invisible bridge connecting hearts across the Pacific. Through the power of art and culture, a moving new chapter was written in the story of U.S.-China cultural exchange and mutual #ShanghaiEye The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
Washington Post
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
Bill Camp is the platonic ideal of a ‘That Guy'
NEW YORK — There is this moment Bill Camp chases. Finding it is rare. But it's beautiful. It's the elusive high. It's the drug itself. It's nearly impossible to reach intentionally, but it's also the point of his craft. 'You can feel it in a theater sometimes,' Camp says. It's difficult to describe because it is difficult to define. No one can. For all its estimated million-plus words, the English language doesn't have one for the feeling he chases, the one when 'the audience, someone onstage, the circumstances have just sort of aligned in such a way that everything goes …' Camp makes a sound with his lips meant to convey some spiritual convergence. 'The air changes,' he says. 'It's fleeting. It doesn't last. But it's electric, man. I don't know what it is. It's vibrational.' 'Just as humans, we're suddenly together,' he adds. 'I don't know how to describe it. It's pretty trippy.' Spending time with Bill Camp is pretty trippy — after you've seen him in seemingly every movie and TV show you can think of. (An overstatement, yes, but a slight one.) He's delighted and excitable and caught in currents of nostalgia on a sunny May afternoon, as we wander around his old stomping grounds — Lincoln Center, where his wife, Elizabeth Marvel, would perform that evening; Juilliard, where he and Marvel fell for each other while training to be actors; Central Park, where he performed Shakespeare and played softball in those early days and dreamed of what he has now. Even if you don't know his name, you probably know Bill Camp. Even if you don't know you know him. He's the embodiment of a That Guy. He's the That Guy. (That that guy?) During the past two decades, the 60-year-old has become one of the most reliable actors in the business, appearing in just about anything and everything from highbrow films (Alejandro González Iñárritu's 'Birdman,' Steven Spielberg's 'Lincoln,' Yorgos Lanthimos's 'The Killing of a Sacred Deer') to prestige TV (HBO's 'The Night Of,' Netflix's 'The Queen's Gambit,' Apple TV+'s 'Presumed Innocent,' the David E. Kelley show for which Camp was just nominated for an Emmy). 'I always think of Bill Camp,' Kelley says when he considers casting his shows. ''Could Bill do this? Could Bill do that?'' Kelley asks himself. 'You know he's going to deliver. He's going to show up. He's going to be prepared. He's going to make the other actors better.' In the past few months alone, Camp appeared in Netflix's 'Sirens' and HBO's 'The Gilded Age.' He's recently filmed alongside Will Ferrell and Zac Efron in Atlanta for an upcoming comedy, and he's in two highly anticipated movies later this year: A24's 'Huntington' and Kelly Reichardt's 'The Mastermind.' This isn't even a full list of his screen work, not to mention the Tony-award nominated actor's decades of stage work. He's the ultimate character actor. And, no, he does not find the term insulting. 'It means I play the character well. And that's the highest compliment. It's my job. It's like saying, 'He does his job well,'' Camp says. 'It also implies, I think, that I can play many different parts. That makes me happy, because that's what I strive for. That's what interests me the most: Telling all sorts of different people's stories.' And to think, once upon a time, he quit. Wait, there was a time when Bill Camp, probably the most reliable screen presence around, the working actor's working actor, the anchor of good shows and the elevator of weak ones — there was a time when this guy wasn't acting? Camp graduated from Julliard in 1989 with no real-world experience: the school discouraged students from working while in training. He immediately appeared in two Shakespeare in the Park productions — 'Titus Andronicus' and 'Twelfth Night' — and landed a small film role, in 1990's 'Reversal of Fortune.' Acting wasn't yet a career. It was 'just a thing I was doing,' he says. And that's more or less how it remained throughout the 1990s. He was learning, particularly onstage, but he wasn't progressing to a point where it felt like a career. 'I was going to places and hanging out for six months, doing a couple of plays,' he says. 'Basically, taking everything I could learn from these actors that had done five times as many things as I had.' After a decade of stage work, he followed his then-girlfriend Marvel to Los Angeles, hoping to break into what he calls 'commercial work,' but … 'I couldn't find a foothold there and got very frustrated by the whole deal and stopped.' Hollywood is not Broadway. He didn't know how to audition and get a part. 'I was like f--- this place,' he says. And so he f---ed off from it. And life piled on. He moved back to New York. He worked random, nonacting jobs: landscaper, cook, mechanic, security guard on the graveyard shift. He f---ed back to Los Angeles. He and Marvel broke up. Life rarely plays out the way movies do. Most of us don't get that one phone call that alters the trajectory of our lives. We don't make that one decision that changes everything. But before quitting, Camp had lived a decade of his life embodying people who did have those moments, so perhaps it should come as no surprise that he did receive one of those fork-in-the-road calls. It was from playwright Tony Kushner. He wanted Camp to perform in 'Homebody/Kabul.' 'I really was like, 70-30, nah,' Camp says. 'I wasn't sure I wanted to pursue this anymore. I wasn't sure what I was getting out of it anymore. I felt like I was spinning my wheels. I was a mouse on a wheel.' But. 'But then, it was Tony Kushner. And it was a part I really loved, and …' If that's true,' that I brought him back, Kushner says, 'then at least I know that I've done one really good thing for American theater, film and television because I think Bill is one of the great actors of our era.' 'If we lived in a real, actually civilized society, Bill Camp would be as famous as any actor you could think of,' Kushner adds. During the production of 'Homebody/Kabul,' Camp's character goes through a woman's suitcase and pleasures himself with her underwear. Camp took things a notch further by putting the panties on his head during the scene, a directive that does not appear in the script — and probably shouldn't appear in this newspaper — to mirror the main female character, who wears a burqa. 'I immediately said, 'Please, can I steal that and put it in the script?'' Kushner says. 'It was like the whole play in a nutshell, and the audience, you could feel, got it. It was so outrageous and kind of gross. The two polar opposites of the way women are treated.' 'That kind of invention from an actor is everything to a writer,' Kushner says. In most professions, doing such a thing might not earn you the label 'true professional' nor would it win you an Obie Award, but in Camp's world, it did. His other collaborators echo Kushner's praise. They call him a 'positive role model' on set (Kelley) and describe him as 'rock solid,' 'a pro,' 'no bulls---.' (Jeff Daniels). 'When the casting director puts out his list, he's probably on it almost every time,' says Kelley, who worked with him on 'Presumed Innocent.' Camp can do drama. He can do comedy. He can be wry or serious, sentimental or cold. 'He's so versatile,' Kelley adds. 'He's like a toy for a writer.' Daniels worked with Camp on 'The Looming Tower,' 'American Rust' and 'A Man in Full.' In these Camp 'played three different people. And they were always fully realized on take one.' Daniels credits this, in part, to Camp's theater background. 'Coming out of the theater, you've got weeks of rehearsal to get ready for an audience,' Daniels says. 'Well, the audience is the camera, and there is no rehearsal.' And Camp is always ready. 'It's as if he goes through six weeks of rehearsal to get to take one on day one, all on his own. Which is what theater people do. We come in ready. Choices have been made.' 'And that's gold.' Gold that almost went undiscovered. Camp first acted in 1973, in a fourth-grade production of the new musical sensation 'Godspell.' Even now, he'll claim he wasn't the best in the room, saying, 'There were some very talented people in my class who could have probably had better careers than myself that went on to do other things, like become a vet or go into finance.' He didn't get the bug. He didn't think about it all that much. 'I had fun,' he says. 'It was a blast. But it was equally as fun as playing baseball or playing soccer or hockey or the other things I did as a young kid.' In high school, he did a couple of plays after breaking his leg and giving hockey a rest. He went to college at the University of Vermont, where it quickly became clear he probably wouldn't graduate. He majored in just about everything for a minute — Environmental studies! Classics! Undeclared! — while working in the theater department as part of his work-study financial aid. He used his carpentry knowledge to become a stagehand, a job that took him to plays and rock shows around the state. He didn't know what he wanted to do with his life, but he knew he liked theater people. 'We're of the same sort of cut,' he remembers thinking. He liked the communal creativity. Then he spent a summer working as a carpenter at a Shakespeare festival and found himself fascinated by the language. He put the pieces together. College wasn't working, and the theater felt like home. At 20, he decided to go for it. 'My parents were happy that I had made a choice,' he says of enrolling in the Juilliard School. 'I was really focused for the first time. I was really sure this was the right thing I was doing.' He graduated in 1989 and quit acting about a dozen years later. After Kushner nudged him back into acting, he finally began getting consistent screen work beyond the occasional 'Law & Order' appearance, and he had to learn that unlike on the stage, 'replication is not necessarily the goal,' he says. 'I felt like I had to be extremely consistent because I didn't want to f--- anything up. I had this understanding like 'This is how they really want it.'' 'I didn't need to be a Swiss watch all the time,' he says. It worked. Since his return to acting in 2004, he's racked up more than nearly 100 roles in TV and film, while continuing stage work. Jobs began dovetailing and overlapping, which puts him at some ease. Having all these various parts and differing roles and types of performances, which he compares to 'the film version of being a theater actor in a company,' is comforting. 'That kind of thing is delicious to me, as an actor,' he says, as he finishes a sandwich in Central Park and returns to the present. He has to get home soon to feed his dogs: A French bulldog named Butters after the 'South Park' character and a dachshund-miniature pinscher mix named Houdini. 'There were days I'd be doing 'Sirens,' and then I'd wrap and get into the car and drive to shoot the next morning as J.P. Morgan' in 'The Gilded Age.' 'I love it. I think it's great,' he says. 'And if I wasn't a character actor I wouldn't be able to do that sort of thing.' 'And if it stops tomorrow,' he adds, 'I'll be fine.'
Telegraph
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Nicola Benedetti: ‘Classical music is threatened by young people's lack of basic discipline'
One day last week, the violinist Nicola Benedetti was in her office, staring at spreadsheets, when her teenage step-daughter came in. 'She peered at my computer, saw me looking at budgets, and said, 'You know how you started out as a musician... well, how do you feel about this?'' Benedetti tells me, laughing. 'It was 11.30 at night. My eyes were closing, and I knew I was going to be woken up in a couple of hours by the baby. But I've always been very clear about my purpose.' Right now, Benedetti, 38, is applying that sense of purpose to the Edinburgh International Festival, her third edition since becoming its artistic director in 2022. We've met at her office, on Edinburgh's Royal Mile, a fortnight before this year's festival opens, and she is evidently flat out. In May 2024, she had her first child, a daughter, with her husband, Wynton Marsalis – a celebrated American jazz musician 25 years her senior, who also has a teenage daughter and three older sons from previous relationships. 'There's a lot going on,' she says with a wry smile. Benedetti met Marsalis when, aged 17, she travelled alone to New York for the first time, for a concert at Lincoln Center. Over subsequent years, they have performed together many times; he has even written several concertos for her, his first compositions for the violin. A few years ago, rumours started circulating that the pair were in a relationship, which, until now, Benedetti had always refused to confirm. I ask her why she's been so guarded. 'People don't come to my concerts because of who I'm in a relationship with; they come because I play the violin,' she says. 'And I tend not to discuss my private life because I don't think people find it interesting. But there are all sorts of things people could find out – it's not like I'm really secretive.' I suggest that if, in interviews, she were less coy about her marriage to Marsalis, it would at least stop nosy journalists from asking about it. 'I think it's pretty much out there now,' she says, laughing. 'I really don't care any more if people want to write about it or not. I'm certainly not trying to hide anything.' Besides, she's too busy to worry about such things. Within months of the birth, Benedetti was back at work, conducting meetings and dealing with organisational crises with her baby strapped to her chest. 'Luckily, she was asleep most of the time,' she says, 'and because I was able to physically get stuck back into work, I didn't have that [new mother] identity crisis where you wonder who you were before this other person came into the world.' Benedetti, who was born in Ayrshire, doesn't seem like the identity-crisis type. Her sustained presence in the top flight of classical music is testament not only to her precocious talent but also to exceptional resilience. At the age of eight, she was leading the National Children's Orchestra of Great Britain. By the time she was 15, she was making major career decisions for herself, quitting the Yehudi Menuhin School, in Surrey, because she wanted to focus even more intently on her playing than the school's academic schedule allowed. The following year, she won the BBC's Young Musician of the Year competition and signed a £1m, six-album record deal with Universal Music. These days, she is regarded as one of Britain's greatest living violinists, second only, perhaps, to Nigel Kennedy. Her recordings of Shostakovich and Glazunov's concertos are particularly sublime. Yet Benedetti has always regarded herself less as a performer than as an evangelist for the life-changing beauty of classical music. For her, the main attraction of the festival directorship was the fact that it gave her 'the potential to impact hundreds of thousands of people with the arts'. As a result, she says, 'becoming the EIF's artistic director doesn't feel like a departure' from her violin career; rather, it's a natural continuation of her life's mission. The line-up she has assembled for this year's festival is not short on surprises, both musical and otherwise. Highlights include John Tavener's eight-hour mystical song cycle The Veil of the Temple; Figures in Extinction, a collaboration between the Canadian choreographer Crystal Pite, Simon McBurney and Nederlands Dans Theater; and a new James Graham play, Make It Happen, about the role of the Royal Bank of Scotland in the 2008 banking crisis, in which Succession's Brian Cox appears as the ghost of the pioneering 18th-century Scottish capitalist Adam Smith. 'Make It Happen throws a mirror back on to Scotland, so it will be interesting to see Edinburgh audiences debate that, which is exactly what the festival should be doing,' Benedetti says. She stops, as though wary of sounding worthy. 'But I promise there are plenty of other things that will be pure enjoyment from beginning to end. We're not always trying to change the world.' Although Benedetti has a reputation for steeliness, today she is warm and open. Instead of trotting out the usual box-ticking guff about diversity and accessibility, she goes off-message by telling me she thinks older concert audiences are an essential part of the classical-music ecosystem. 'I found myself quoting Tony Benn during a team meeting the other day,' she admits with a laugh. 'I reminded them that each generation tends to fight the same fights over and over again. Yes, we can get excited about being the first people to swap chairs for beanbags in the Usher Hall, probably. Yes, we can push to be the most affordable arts festival in the world, which under my watch is what we want to be. But, let's be honest, there have been promenade-style performances since medieval times; ticketing schemes for younger people are nothing new; and every single person who has run the festival before me was, in their way, trying to make it open-door. So it's good to have a bit of realism and humility about what we're doing.' All the same, few people in the arts have done more than she has to make classical music accessible. Her Benedetti Foundation, established in 2019, has worked with 100,000 people of all ages through its outreach and education programmes. She thinks listening properly to classical music for 15 minutes a day is as important for a child as reading a book, and has complained loudly about cuts to music in schools since the subject became a victim of the then coalition government's austerity policies in 2012. More than a decade since those cuts began to take hold, does she think the steady erosion of music education has had an impact on the amount of homegrown talent graduating from Britain's elite music institutions? 'In terms of numbers, probably not much; there are always people with money who will pay for the education that will put their children on that path,' she says. 'But in terms of who is getting that opportunity, yes, no question about it. 'Across the country today, those who are not from a more privileged background, who are studying an instrument to a high level at college, are often either foreign students who have come here to study, or have been supported by a charity.' However, when it comes to what she calls the 'Mark Simpsons of the world' – referring to the working-class Liverpudlian who became the first person to win both BBC Young Musician of the Year and Young Composer of the Year – 'who have shown talent aged four or five, been picked up by the local council and given free music lessons of a quality that enables them to really progress into a career in music? There is no question those numbers have been significantly depleted and impacted.' Benedetti's own upbringing was privileged. Her entrepreneurial father, who came to the UK from his native Italy at the age of 10, made millions after inventing a revolutionary cling film dispenser. Her Scottish-Italian mother made her and her older sister Stephanie (now a violinist with the group Clean Bandit) practise the violin for three hours every day during the school holidays. Recently, Benedetti has found herself questioning the way she and Stephanie were brought up. 'My daughter is only one, but my sister has two children, aged three and five, and seeing her experience has definitely made me consider our own childhood,' she says. 'But both of us have a realistic, even positive view of our upbringing. It was very strict – we feared upsetting our parents, or doing the wrong thing – but we also knew we were loved to death by our mum and dad.' Benedetti's combination of success, talent and youthful looks soon made her a magnet for attention far beyond the concert hall. By the time she was in her 20s, newspapers were running her picture alongside such suggestive headlines as 'Will Nic Air her G String?' She has also been a target for stalkers; in 2010, one broke into her London flat. But she has never seen herself as a victim of the way she was marketed in her youth, even though her early album covers certainly made the most of her sultry Italian looks. 'While the more time that goes by, the more clearly I see that, I knew what a photo looked like – I knew what I was putting on, I was not a blissfully naive 16-year-old. I was not.' And besides, she adds, 'I always had my dad saying, 'Make sure you are dressed decently.' 'The greater pressure, much more than sexism, was around the sort of music I was being encouraged to play,' she adds. Unlike the singer Charlotte Church, with whom she was sometimes lumped as two fresh faces of classical music, the young Benedetti always resisted demands that she perform 'crossover' pieces in favour of less-commercial classical repertoire. 'It's not something that is treated with nearly enough seriousness in public discourse: the power of really populist, saccharine, overly commercialised music. It's more potent than showing some cleavage, believe it or not. But even there I was in charge of my own choices. And I live by them. They were mine.' Today, she worries that the younger generation lack that toughness and are less equipped for the sacrifices required to become a world-class musician. 'The future of classical music is definitely threatened by the changes to work ethic and mentality. You cannot cheat your way through learning a musical instrument: ChatGPT is not going to teach you the violin. It's impossible to learn music on any level with AI. You cannot fake your way to becoming a musician. Yet I think young people have become used to a lack of basic discipline in their daily lives – and that really worries me.' While, as we saw recently at Wimbledon, it's not unusual now for elite young sports stars to have a psychologist in their entourage, according to Benedetti, in the upper echelons of music, the conversation around mental health remains 'very strange and hushed. You are just meant to get on with it. The psychological vulnerability of musicians is a very real thing. But on the other hand, you also have a choice about where you place your focus'. She's loath to spell it out, but it's clear that she thinks the younger generation have been encouraged to place too much focus on their mental health. 'I have definitely been through a period of time where the wellbeing industry, and I do mean industry, has captured my thoughts and made me believe that my focus needed to be turned inwards on my feelings. And it was the worst possible thing for me. I thrive when I am focused on things that are to do with other people and are for other people, such as performance. Of course, I can only speak for myself. Other people's experiences may be different. But it's a subject everyone is nervous to talk about. You can say the wrong thing and be demonised.' Having a child has made Benedetti think a lot about feelings recently. She wonders, for instance, whether it's right to leave her daughter to scream when she is upset: one school of thought in parenting argues that, instead of being distracted from their rage, screaming children need to have their emotions recognised. 'But distraction from feelings is good, too!' Talking of which, her daughter has also given Benedetti a 'renewed appreciation' for violin practice (perhaps, above all, when she is screaming?): 'There is something rather wonderful about telling your family that this is what you will be doing for the next three hours,' she says. 'Then you go into a room and it's just you, your violin, the notes on a page, and the sound.' The Edinburgh International Festival runs from Aug 1-25 at various venues across the Scottish capital. Details:
