Last night I attended the last of several performances by the New York Philharmonic of the second program in the "Hungarian Echoes" festival that is being "curated" by guest conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen. During the first half of the program, they performed Ligeti's "Concert Rom
Saga of an Incredibly Busy Weekend
This was one of those incredibly busy weekends, mixing culture and work, that left me with no time to blog about events individually, so here's a quick summary:
Friday night, I attended a concert at Symphony Space on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, presented as part of the Guitar Plus series organized by guitarist-composer David Leisner. The title of the program was "Bach, Shakespeare and Elephants." I had been drawn to attend by the … <Read More>
Armed Forces Appeal Court Vacates and Remands Article 125 Sodomy Conviction
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces vacated a guilty plea to a charge of sodomy under Article 125 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), finding that the court martial trial judge did not engage in the required colloquy with the defendant necessary for an informed guilty plea. United States v. Hartman, 2011 WL 904218 (March 15, 2011). As a result of the guilty plea, Hartman was sentenced to a bad-conduct … <Read More>
Federal Judge Invites Another DOMA Challenge
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey S. White of the Northern District of California (San Francisco) has invited Lambda Legal to file an amended complaint in Golinski v. U.S. Office of Personnel Management, challenging the constitutionality of Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act, the provision upon which the defendant is relying in its refusal to comply with an order by 9th Circuit Judge Alex Kozinski that Karen Golinski, a lawyer employed by the 9th … <Read More>
NY Philharmonic’s “Hungarian Echoes” Festival
The NY Philharmonic is turning over the podium for several weeks to Esa-Pekka Salonen, the Finnish-born conductor who currently head the Philharmonic Orchestra of London and was previously music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Salonen's assignment was to produce a mini-festival with a thematic link, thus "Hungarian Echoes" and a series of concerts linking the music of Haydn, Ligeti and Bartok. The Haydn link here is a bit tenuous; we usually think of him … <Read More>
The Old City String Quartet’s Debut at Peoples’ Symphony Concerts
Last night, an ensemble of Curtis Institute students, performing under the name "Old City String Quartet," stole the hearts of an enthusiastic audience at Washington Irving High School in a fantastic concert presented by Peoples' Symphony Concerts. These young students — violinists Bryan Lee and Joel Link, violist Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, and cellist Camden Shaw — have been playing together as an ensemble since 2008 and have already achieved significant recognition, having recently won … <Read More>
Alarm Will Sound’s “1969” Show at Zankel Hall
For several years the innovative contemporary music ensemble Alarm Will Sound has been refining a program that puts a spotlight on the musical developments of the late 1960s. Perhaps the program is best explained through the brief note included in the program for last night's performance at Zankel Hall (the chamber music performance space at Carnegie Hall): "Just over 40 years ago, the Beatles and composer Karlheinz Stockhausen arranged to meet in New York City … <Read More>
European Human Rights Convention Protects People Living With HIV From Discrimination
A chamber consisting of eight judges of the European Court of Human Rights announced on March 10 that it had found Russia to be in violation of the European Convention on Human Rights for denying a residence permit to an Uzbeki man on the sole ground that he is infected with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), the pathogen associated with Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS). Ruling unanimously in Case of Kiyutin v. Russia, Application No. 2700/10, … <Read More>
4th Circuit Rules Negligent Employer Could Be Liable Under Title VII for Customer’s Homophobic Harassment of Employee
In an unpublished opinion issued on March 3, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit ruled in EEOC v. Cromer Food Services, Inc., 2011 Westlaw 733814, that U.S. District Judge Henry M. Herlong, Jr. (District of South Carolina) erred in granting summary judgment to the employer in the Equal Employment Opportunity's suit on behalf of Homer Ray Howard, the sexual harassment victim.
As detailed for the court of appeals … <Read More>
Minnesota Same-Sex Marriage Case Loses Round One
State trial judges do not have the authority to overrule decisions by the highest court in their state, so perhaps it is not too surprising that Hennepin County District Judge Mary DuFresne has dismissed a lawsuit brought on behalf of three Minnesota same-sex couples seeking the right to marry. The March 7 ruling in Benson v. Alverson, Court File No. 27 CV 10-11697, relies on the first appellate ruling on same-sex marriage in the United States, the … <Read More>