Where the art is

Straz Center Blog

• Celebrate the Scores That Enhance Our Favorite Films

  First, a clarification: A movie’s score and a movie’s soundtrack are not the same thing. A soundtrack is a collection of songs old and/or new that tie in (or don’t) with the film’s storyline. Whether the soundtrack is good, bad or indifferent, it’s essentially merchandise, like a T-shirt or a tote bag. That’s an important distinction to keep in mind as we observe National Film Score Day on April 3.

• Teach Music Week: A Reminder of Arts Education’s Benefits

  Every child should have the opportunity to play music: That belief is the foundation of the nonprofit Keep Music Alive, and International Teach Music Week is one of the ways it spreads the word. Husband and wife Vincent James and Joann Pierdomenico founded Keep Music Alive in 2014 to promote the educational, therapeutic and social benefits of playing music for children and adults.

• Instruments With Big Reputations Have Price Tags to Match

  Spinal Tap may be fictional but the ’59 Les Paul is real. The prices it sells for are real, too. Really, really real. A ’59 owned by Journey’s Neal Schon sold at auction for $350,000. A Stradivarius violin recently sold for $11.3 million. The instrument, known as the Joachim-Ma, actually underperformed – it was expected to draw between $12 million and $18 million. Another Stradivarius, known as “Lady Blunt,” remains the most expensive violin sold at public auction. It went for $15.9 million in 2011. Rare violins can fetch $20 million in private sales.