Tuesday, September 20, 2005
The Half Millionaire
I regret to report that I did not get a surprise phone call yesterday from the MacArthur Foundation informing me that an unexpected check for $500,000 was in the mail. However, the news is considerably brighter this morning at Marin Alsop's house. The future music director of the Baltimore Symphony was one of the 25 people (and the first conductor ever) chosen to receive 2005 MacArthur Fellows awards--sometimes called "genuis" awards.
There were two other music related winners: Aaron Dworkin, whose Detroit-based Sphinx Organization seeks to boost the number of young minorities in classical music careers by providing them with affordable instruments, quality training and performance opportunities and Ann Arbor violin-maker Joseph Curtin, whose business, Joseph Curtin Studios, produces world-class violins.
Unlike most fellowships, you can't apply for a MacArthur. The winners are chosen by a panel in secret and bestowed upon unsuspecting composers, painters and sculptors, writers and other sundry artistes for "their creativity, originality, and potential." Sort of a J. Beresford Tipton thing, for those of you who go back that far.
posted by Jerry Bowles
9/20/2005
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