Edition No. 47
Arts and Culture
As major orchestras and opera companies take the stage again, one particular small organization is honored for its work in connecting audiences and listeners to overlooked American composers and neglected classical masterpieces.
American Democracy
In a recent article for The Washington Post, national correspondent Philip Bump argues that a widespread inability on the part of Americans to contextualize numbers has become enormously problematic for our politics.
Boston Modern Orchestra Project
Arts presenters and orchestras all over the world are making triumphant returns to the stage after, what was for most, a prolonged closure due to the pandemic. From Broadway to opera, from touring musicians to orchestras, artists are once again, dazzling audiences with the familiar sights and sounds of live performances. One particular ensemble, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, was recently honored with the Special Achievement Award by the 44th Gramophone Classical Music Awards lauding the ensemble’s mission and dedication to elevating the presence of contemporary orchestral and operatic works as well as neglected classical masterpieces in today’s concert halls and recorded music.
In this recent piece featured on Deceptive Cadence from NPR Classical, Andrea Shea, senior arts and culture reporter at WBUR — Boston’s NPR station, shares her insight in an interview with BMOP’s founder and conductor Gil Rose. Listen as Shea and Rose discuss his motivation for founding the ensemble and his vision for changing the classical music landscape.
“Podcast talks about Detroit priest who spread hate in media,”
Detroit Free Press, October 10, 2021
“You know how some neighborhoods have a house all the kids believe is haunted?”
Those are the first words heard on the first episode of “Radioactive,” a new podcast by Detroit journalist Andrew Lapin. In this case, the “house” is the Shrine of the Little Flower Catholic church located at the corner of 12 Mile and Woodward. The podcast chronicles the rapid 1930s rise, and even faster 1940s fall, of Fr. Charles Coughlin the so-called “Radio Priest” who broadcast to a national audience in the millions from Royal Oak.
Coughlin’s time was not unlike our own. America was deeply divided and anxious. Many Americans distrusted the political system. Traditional media was viewed by some with great suspicion. Conspiracy theories abounded and extreme voices were coming to the fore. Into that combustible mix rode Fr. Coughlin who started out crusading against the Klan but became an anti-Semitic, anti-New Deal, pro-fascist writer of fan letters to Mussolini before being silenced by the Church. In 8 half-hours, “Radioactive” tells his story.
For the Freep article, click below:
For the podcast, follow the link below. Episode one tells Coughlin’s origin story in parallel with the story of what Henry Ford was up to in the 1920s. Episode One run a little less than 30 minutes:
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