The MacArthur Fellows for 2008 have been announced today. These awards, colloquially known as Genius Awards, carry a no strings attached "prize" of $500,000. And it is good to see a couple of our musical/operatic circle are amongst the fortunate few. These are Alex Ross and Jennifer Tipton, as well the extraordinarily gifted young violinist Leila Josefowicz. Warmest possible congratulations to them.
And there is some terrific stuff about Alex on Andrew Patner's blog - as always really worth a visit.
And speaking of the Price of Genius - this is the title of an enjoyable book about Pauline Viardot (right) - daughter of Garcia and sister of Malibran, and closely acquainted with Berlioz and Turgenev to name but two lions of the 19th century. It is long out of print but may be obtainable here. It is well worth taking the trouble to find it. It paints a vivid picture of a remarkable period in the history of music and literature.
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