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- <text id=93TT0130>
- <title>
- July 12, 1993: From The Publisher
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1993
- July 12, 1993 Reno:The Real Thing
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- FROM THE PUBLISHER, Page 4
- </hdr>
- <body>
- <p> For his colleagues, the sight of Michael Walsh striding down
- the corridors of TIME's New York City offices can mean one of
- two things. Either there's a major new production imminent at
- the Metropolitan Opera. Or it's dealmaking time in his baseball
- Rotisserie league. Walsh, TIME's classical-music critic and
- author of this week's story on American orchestras, has been
- based in Munich, Germany, since 1989. But he keeps alive an
- impressive array of cross-cultural interests. Besides traveling
- the Continent to cover cultural matters for TIME International,
- Michael is finishing a book on the Nazi era; is midway through
- his first novel, an international thriller; and, during the
- baseball season, checks his computer every morning for the American
- League box scores, all for the stat league he has been part
- of since 1982.
- </p>
- <p> Michael spends nearly a third of his time on this side of the
- Atlantic as well, keeping abreast of the U.S. musical scene.
- He finds the dual citizenship stimulating. "What I want to do
- is bring to our musical coverage the European perspective that
- culture is a part of life, not just something one buys a ticket
- to." Living in Europe has made Walsh more appreciative of the
- high standards of music performance in his home country. This
- week's story reflects his opinion that American orchestras are
- the best in the world and his confidence that they can survive
- the recessionary hard times. "There is nothing wrong with U.S.
- orchestras that a few managers with vision and a few conductors
- with innovative repertories couldn't fix," he says.
- </p>
- <p> A military brat born on the Marine Corps base at Camp Lejeune,
- North Carolina, Michael did not discover classical music until
- age 15. He taught himself orchestration, studying Beethoven
- string quartets that he checked out from the library, and attended
- the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. Walsh was
- classical-music critic for the San Francisco Examiner before
- joining TIME in 1981. His passionate, sharply reasoned reviews
- have been informed by his eclectic musical tastes, which range
- from '60s rock to Broadway melodist Andrew Lloyd Webber, about
- whom he wrote a 1988 TIME cover story as well as a book, Andrew
- Lloyd Webber: His Life & Works (Abrams). "Classical music suffers
- from an image of snobbism," says Walsh. "I've always tried to
- make it approachable--to present it to the reader, not as
- a rarefied art form but as something everybody can participate
- in."
- </p>
- <p> Elizabeth Valk Long
- </p>
-
- </body>
- </article>
- </text>
-
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