The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
Monday, January 25, 2016 — 5A

ACROSS
1 ’90s game disc
4 Infield fly
9 Invites home for
dinner, say
14 007 creator
Fleming
15 Banish
16 Unable to sit still
17 *Game where
one might have
an ace in the
hole
19 Actor __ Elba of
“The Wire”
20 Liability offset
21 Settle in a new
country
23 Young Simpson
26 “Coulda been
worse!”
27 Biblical beast
30 Least fatty
33 __-12
conference
36 *Financial page
listing
38 “__ creature was
stirring ... ”
39 Team in 
40-Across
40 Arch city: Abbr.
41 Ship carrying
fuel
42 Iowa State city
43 *Only woman
ever elected
governor of
Alaska
45 Very quietly, in
music
46 Artist’s paint
holder
47 Farm pen
48 Gave the nod to
50 Payroll IDs
52 Became
partners
56 To date
60 Ed with seven
Emmys
61 *Stack of
unsolicited
manuscripts
64 “I’ll do it”
65 Gum treatment,
briefly
66 Former president
of Pakistan
67 Relaxed
68 “500” Wall St.
index ... and a
hint to the
answers to
starred clues
69 Reheat quickly

DOWN
1 Leaning Tower 
of __
2 Stable diet
3 Bearded
antelopes
4 Coaches’
speeches
5 Losing tic-tac-toe
string
6 Water__: dental
brand
7 Title beekeeper
played by Peter
Fonda
8 Make waves?
9 San Francisco
street that
crosses Ashbury
10 Netman Agassi
11 *Informal surveys
12 “__ just me?”
13 Financial page
abbr.
18 Budding socialite
22 __ dixit: assertion
without proof
24 Sales agent
25 Like ankle bones
27 Songwriters’ org.
28 “Put __ here”:
envelope corner
reminder
29 *Touchy topics
31 Saltpeter, to a
Brit

32 Flashy displays
34 Took the loss,
financially
35 Sideshow barker
37 Music store buys
38 Actress Peeples
41 Workplace where
union membership
is optional
43 DWI-fighting org.
44 Growth chart nos.
46 Looked carefully
49 Krispy __
doughnuts

51 Soak (up)
52 Hardly healthy-
looking
53 Out of port
54 Snail-mail
delivery org.
55 Formal petition
57 Antacid jingle
word repeated
after “plop, plop”
58 Et __: and others
59 Harvest
62 Barista’s vessel
63 Rocker Vicious

By Mary Lou Guizzo
©2016 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
01/25/16

01/25/16

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

RELEASE DATE– Monday, January 25, 2016

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

xwordeditor@aol.com

Classifieds

Call: #734-418-4115
Email: dailydisplay@gmail.com

DOMINICK’S HIRING FOR spring 

& summer. Call 734‑834‑5021.

2016‑17 LEASING 
Apartments Going Fast!
Prime Student Housing
761‑8000
www.primesh.com
Efficiencies: 
726 S. State 1 Left $785 
344 S. Division $835/$855 
610 S. Forest $870 
1 Bedrooms: 
508 Division $925/$945
2 Bedroom: 
 1021 Vaughn (1 left) $1410
 
*Fully Furnished 
*Parking Included 
*Free Ethernet 
(* Varies by locations)

ARBOR PROPERTIES 
Award‑Winning Rentals in Kerrytown, 
Central Campus, Old West Side, 
Burns Park. Now Renting for 2016. 
734‑649‑8637. www.arborprops.com

THESIS EDITING, LANGUAGE,
organization, format. All Disciplines.
734/996‑0566 or writeon@iserv.net 

! NORTH CAMPUS 1‑2 Bdrm. !
! Riverfront/Heat/Water/Parking. !
! www.HRPAA.com !

IDEAL SMALL OFFICES/STUDIOS
2nd Flr UM Campus‑ Short or Long 
Term Leases. Call 860‑355‑9665
campusrentalproperties@yahoo.com

TEMPORARY RETAIL SPACE 
Street level store front, on EU by SU, 
UM Campus. Call 860‑355‑9665 or 
campusrentalproperties@yahoo.com

5 BEDROOM APT Fall 2016‑17
$3250 + $100/m Gas & Water + Electric 
to DTE, 3 parking spaces no charge 
1014 V
aughn #1 ‑ multilevel unit w/ carpet
CALL DEINCO 734‑996‑1991

WORK ON MACKINAC Island 
This Summer – Make lifelong friends. 
The Island House Hotel and Ryba’s 
Fudge Shops are looking for help in all
areas beginning in early May: Front Desk, 
Bell Staff, Wait Staff, Sales Clerks, 
Kitchen, Baristas. Housing, bonus, and
 discounted meals. (906) 847‑7196. www.
theislandhouse.com

HELP WANTED
FOR RENT

SERVICES

SUMMER EMPLOYMENT

Zwilich concerto 
evokes emotions

USO to perform 

classical program at 

Hill Auditorium

By DAYTON HARE

Daily Arts Writer

Classical music has long been 

justifiably accused of being the 
genre of dead white men. It 
comes out of 
a 
European 

tradition, and 
like almost all 
professional 
fields, it has 
historically 
been 
domi-

nated by men. 
But over the 
past 50 years 
or so, classi-
cal music has 
been 
diversi-

fying, mirror-
ing the overall 
transforma-
tion of society. This certainly 
isn’t happening quickly or eas-
ily — the classical music world 
is notorious for its intransigent 
and traditional nature — but 
more and more women and 
minorities have started landing 
jobs in major orchestras and 
taking the stage as featured 
soloists.

One area of classical music in 

particular that has been slow to 
evolve is the field of composi-
tion. With a few notable excep-
tions — Barbara Strozzi, Fanny 
Mendelssohn, Clara Schumann, 
Ethel Smyth, Nadia Boulanger 
— there have been nearly no 
famed female composers until 
very recently. Today, numerous 
female composers of great tal-
ent and skill are active — such 
as Joan Tower, Shulamit Ran, 
Augusta Read Thomas, Kaija 
Saariaho, Julia Wolfe and many 
others — but there is still a 
noticeable disparity between 
the number of male and female 
artists in the public eye.

Another 
such 
success-

ful woman composer is Ellen 
Taaffe Zwilich, who — along 
with Joan Tower — is one of the 
earliest contemporary female 
composers to establish a large 
reputation. Still active today, 
Zwilich will have her latest 
work, Concerto Elegia — for 
flute and string orchestra — 
performed on Wednesday by 
flutist Amy Porter and the Uni-
versity Symphony Orchestra 
under the direction of Kenneth 
Kiesler. Also on the program 
will be Verdi, Wagner and 
Ravel.

“I’ve been a musician since 

I was — I don’t know — old 
enough to climb under the 
piano bench,” Zwilich said in 
a phone interview with The 
Michigan Daily. “I had the very 
good fortune to go to a high 
school that had a wonderful 
music program … I was a trum-
pet player and a violinist, and 
wrote music for the band to 
play ... it was quite a wonderful 
high school music experience I 
had, and I lament the fact that 
that’s not available to all kids 
today.”

Zwilich began her collegiate 

musical studies at Florida State 
University — where she is now 
a professor — and following 

her graduation, moved to New 
York.

“One of my big reasons [for 

moving to New York] was to get 
better as a violinist … shortly 
after I got [to New York] I began 
to work as a violinist,” Zwilich 
said. “I had seven years in the 
American Symphony Orchestra 
under Leopold Stokowski — 
which was quite interesting — 
and at one point I really wanted 
to go further with my composi-
tion … I had never quite written 
a piece I was satisfied with.”

Zwilich then began pursu-

ing a degree in composition at 
the Juilliard School, studying 
with the renowned compos-
ers Elliott Carter and Roger 
Sessions. In 1975 she became 
the first woman to ever earn 
a doctorate in composition 
from Juilliard, an event which 
marked the beginning of her 
many triumphs as a composer.

“Eight years later I had an 

overnight 
success,” 
Zwilich 

said, alluding to her winning of 
the Pulitzer Prize for her Sym-
phony No. 1. She was the first 
woman to win the prestigious 
prize, and her ensuing popular-
ity allowed her to compose full-
time, secure in the assumption 
that commissions would be 
regular enough.

“I’ve been lucky.” Zwilich 

said. “Writing has been part of 
my life really since I was ten 
years old. I love what I do, and 
it’s a great honor to write for 
some of the people I’ve written 
for.”

Concerto Elegia, the piece 

which 
will 
be 
performed 

Wednesday by the USO, was 
commissioned by a group of 
eleven universities, including 
the University of Michigan. 
It was completed last year, in 
response to a personal tragedy 
which also caused a dry spell 
for Zwilich preceding its com-
position.

“I had a commission for flute 

and string orchestra … and my 
husband [Erik Lamont] died,” 
Zwilich said. “And I was real-
ly not able to write much for 
a time after that, and it really 
just turned into a memorial for 
him.”

The piece is in three move-

ments, the first Elegy the sec-
ond Soliloquy and the last 
Epilogue, to which Zwilich 
affixed an inscription of impor-
tance to her.

“I’ve put in the score a quote 

from [the ancient Greek play-
wright] Sophocles, saying ‘One 
must wait until evening to see 
how splendid the day has been,’ 
” Zwilich said. “ The odd thing 
about it was that this is the next 
piece I was supposed to write, 
and when I wrote the Elegy — 
which was very different from 
all the thoughts I had about the 
piece — I found out after I’d fin-
ished it that in ancient Greece 
the flute was the instrument of 
elegy. It was really quite amaz-
ing.”

Concerto Elegia is a concer-

to, which means that it is for a 
soloist and orchestra. Tradi-
tionally the orchestra has been 
regarded as accompaniment 
to the soloist, but many more-
recent composers — including 
Zwilich — have come to regard 
the form as a dialogue.

“I really love to balance 

the weight of the solo instru-
ment against the weight of the 
orchestra,” Zwilich said. “For 
me a concerto doesn’t mean that 
the orchestra is lying down like 
a doormat. It involves interac-
tion — almost everything that 
moves me in music and what 
I want to write is really a lot 
like chamber music. Where 
there is support and interaction 
between the ensemble and the 
soloist.”

The piece also gives ample 

opportunity for the soloist to 
display their skill, artistry and 
individuality.

“There’s a little room for 

the performer to put their own 
stamp on it,” Zwilich said. 
“And I like that, because for me 
music doesn’t exist until some-
one breathes life into it.”

“It’s a piece left open for 

many chances of interpreta-
tion,” said flute soloist Amy 
Porter, a professor at the School 
of Music, Theatre & Dance. 
“I also feel like because it’s in 
memory of her late husband, 
it’s putting life and death expe-
riences into my performance, 
because I’ve suffered loss as 
well.”

Porter described the piece as 

being extremely fluid, lyrical 
and emotionally engaging. For 
an open listener, the concerto is 
designed to touch strong emo-
tions. When asked if there was 
anything she would like audi-
ence members to know before 
hearing the piece, the compos-
er had some specific advice.

“One of the saddest things, 

in my experience, is when 
somebody comes up to me and 
asks ‘what should I listen for?’ 
” Zwilich said. “And my answer 
is always ‘open your ears and 
your heart and your mind, your 
soul — the whole thing — and 
just listen.”Zwilich said. “And 
my answer is always ‘open your 
ears and your heart and your 
mind, your soul — the whole 
thing — and just listen.”

University 
Symphony 
Orchestra

Wed. 8 p.m.

Pre-concert 
lecture begins 
at 7:15 

Hill Auditorium

Free and open 

to the public

Allure of journalism

HBO

You know what they say about small hands.

By CHRISTIAN KENNEDY

Daily Music & Blog Editor

I love journalism porn. I’m not 

talking about Playboy editorials, 
nor am I talking about the most 
sleekly 
designed, 
well-written 

publications available today.

Specifically, I’m referring to 

the second dictionary definition 
under “porn”: television programs, 
magazine, books, etc. that are 
regarded as emphasizing the sen-
suous or sensational aspects of a 
nonsexual subject and stimulating 
a compulsive interest in their audi-
ence.

In this scenario, the keywords/

phrases are “television, books, 
etc.” (film), “sensational aspects” 
and 
“compulsive 
interest 
in 

their audience.” The sensational 
aspects are the dedication, ideal-
ism and honesty of the upward-
looking depictions in my favorite 
Journalism porn go-tos: HBO’s 
“The Newsroom,” the 2015 film 
“Spotlight” and the 2007 FX 
series “Dirt” — more different 
than similar, all three pieces of 
media fluff up the cloudy ped-
estal on which I’ve placed The 
Fourth Estate.

“The Newsroom” is an often-

criticized portrayal of an elite 
newsroom basked in Sorkin-
esque idealism and crisply engi-
neered banter: often-criticized 
in that many media sources find 
the show’s tone preachy and ide-
alistic in the way that it offers an 
otherworldly example of journal-
ism. It pays no attention to balance 
for balance’s sake, gives facts and 
asks only knowledgeable guests to 

weigh in. But in today’s political 
culture where political television 
more often than not resembles ide-
ological MMA fighting rather than 
intellectual discourse, maybe 2016 
could use a little Atlantis Cable 
News. Or maybe I just watch “The 
Newsroom” too much. I don’t think 
that’s anyone’s call to make.

As “The Newsroom” is idealis-

tic, “Spotlight” is raw. “Spotlight,” 
one of this year’s least flashy 
“Best Picture” nominees, tells 
the story of a Boston investiga-
tive journalism team uncovering a 
widespread child sex abuse in the 
Boston archdiocese of the Catho-
lic Church. It shows the grueling 
work — the fact-checking, the 
busy work, the frustration and 
even the anger and shame that 
can accompany aspects of the 
job. “Spotlight” gracefully bal-
ances the heavy content with brief 
moments of humor that didn’t 
detract from the story being told, 
as well as highlighting the often-
forgotten origin of journalism: 
truth. Not because it’s easy or nec-
essarily what people want to hear, 
but because it’s right.

“Dirt” — if the name didn’t give 

it away — is lower brow than the 
aforementioned and puts more of 
its emphasis on the “porn.” The 
short-lived FX drama centers on 
ruthless gossip magazine editor-
in-chief Lucy Spiller (Courteney 
Cox, “Friends”). It’s the epitome 
of guilty pleasure. It’s lurid in its 
portrayal of both journalism and 
celebrity: the nittiest and the grit-
tiest aspects of both played out 
over a season and a half of out of 
control cover stories including a 

beheaded R&B star, fake pregnan-
cies, real pregnancies and (clearly) 
a “Sexxx Issue,” polybagged and 
loaded with celebs’ private mate-
rial.

While the dirtier aspects of 

“Dirt” do offer as much pleasure 
as they do guilt, Lucy Spiller 
offers a moral compass to a rather 
immoral show. Sure, she’s a tab-
loid queen (a business that the 
world would be much better off 
without), but her commitment to 
the truth and always getting “the 
scoop” is not only infection, but 
in some ways it’s reminiscent of 
“The Newsroom.” At D!rt Now, 
they are above publishing lies — 
instead they just do whatever it 
takes to get to the dirtiest truths. 
 

“The Newsroom,” “Spotlight” 

and “Dirt” exemplify the porni-
fication of the journalist. More-
over, these quickly paced, highly 
addicting dramas point to some-
thing bigger. Think of the average 
television drama ... each of them 
has a journalist or quasi-journal-
ist character. “Scandal” is filled 
to the brim, “House of Cards” has 
Zoe, “Orange Is The New Black” 
has Larry (bleh), “Parks and Rec” 
has talk show hosts and many 
more, to name a few.

Journalism is pervasive, rep-

resentationally, in today’s media, 
even if only through the use of 
minor characters. When the media 
elite do take the focus of a project, 
I can only liken that product to the 
most addicting of addictions. Jour-
nalism porn leaves me with what it 
admits to: sensationalism. But sen-
sational is something to aspire to, is 
it not?

NO FILTER
COMMUNITY CULTURE PREVIEW

DO YOU WANT TO 
NETFLIX AND CHILL, 
PROFESSIONALLY?

JOIN ARTS STAFF.

Email ajtheis@umich.edu and 
katjacqu@umich.edu to request 

an application.

