Page 31 - aruba today

A31
PEOPLE & ARTS Saturday 14 March 2020
Coronavirus compels telecommuting, Pulitzer Prize-winning

travel limits for media composer Charles

Wuorinen dies at 81
By DAVID BAUDER
Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — The Associated Press
Washington Post is encour- NEW YORK (AP) —
aging its staff to work at Charles Wuorinen, win-
home and the Los Angeles ner of the 1970 Pulitzer
Times is restricting air trav- Prize in Music and com-
el, two illustrations of how poser of the operas
news organizations com- "Brokeback Mountain"
pelled to cover the coro- and "Haroun and the
navirus outbreak are bal- Sea of Stories," died from
ancing the need to keep injuries sustained in a fall
employees safe. last September. He was
Both of those directives 81.
went out in memos to staff Wuorinen, who com-
members on Tuesday. CNN posed more than 270
also said that, as of now, its works, died Wednesday
planned Democratic presi- at New York-Presbyteri- This 1970 file photo shows
dential debate Sunday be- an/Columbia University Charles Wuorinen, 1969
Prize-winning
tween Joe Biden and Ber- Medical Center, spokes- Pulitzer composer of
American
nie Sanders is on — though woman Aleba Gartner contemporary classical
it will take place without a said Thursday. music.
live audience. Known for much of his Associated Press
Washington Post Publisher career as an admirer of
the 12-tone system of Wuorinen was 32 when
and CEO Fred Ryan said
the Post was encouraging, composition, Wuorinen he won the Pulitzer for
"Time's Encomium," a
but not mandating, tele- was opinionated.
commuting for newsroom "We have a world in four-channel work for
synthesized sound that
personnel if their jobs or This June 22, 2019 file photo shows the exterior of the New York which the instant re-
Times building in New York. Media companies are balancing
needs for equipment per- the need to cover the coronavirus outbreak with the need to sponse of the untutored became the first elec-
tronic composition to
mitted it. The policy is in keep their employees safe. becomes the sole crite-
place at least through the Associated Press rion for judgment,'' he earn the honor.
told The New York Times His work was cerebral.
end of the month. based on
“It’s a smart thing to do to than 80,000 people have employees this week that if in 1988, ahead of his 50th "Haroun,"
birthday. "A great work a children's novel by
minimize or eliminate what been diagnosed and more they want to work remotely Salman Rushdie and
could go wrong here,” said than 58,000 have so far re- they can do so, “and many like a Beethoven sym-
phony becomes like a with a libretto by James
Cameron Barr, a Post man- covered. have taken us up on the of-
aging editor. The news- The Los Angeles Times said fer,” a spokeswoman said. blob of toothpaste. There Fenton, premiered at the
is the bored orchestra. New York City Opera in
paper had preparedness it was suspending air travel Remote working is not al-
plans in place, and tech- for staff members except ways an option. NBC News, There are the indifferent 2004. It opened with ref-
audiences. They wait it erences to Boccaccio,
nology allows most em- in cases where it is “abso- primarily a television news
ployees to stay connected lutely” required for the job, organization, did not men- through. They applaud. Proust, Tolstoy and the
Dead Sea Scrolls. Ac-
remotely. The newsroom according to a memo sent tion telecommuting in a They leave."
won’t be empty, since by Executive Editor Nor- coronavirus memo sent Just two years ago, he tions that befuddle were
decried the awarding of called "P2C2E" — "a Pro-
some editors and other man Pearlstine on Tuesday. to staff Tuesday. The net-
staff will remain. Those who do have to fly work said it was stepping that year's Pulitzer Prize cess Too Complicated to
in Music to hip-hop artist Explain." The chorus sang
Ryan said the newspaper will be asked to work from up cleaning of its facilities
would continue to operate home for two weeks after and making more sanitiz- Kendrick Lamar, telling out: "This is minimalism,"
the Times that signaled prompting the audience
at “full scale” despite the their flight, he said. ers available. Bloomberg
dispersed employees. Exceptions will likely include News said it is requiring its "the final disappearance to a laugh.
of any societal interest in "Brokeback," based on a
For most people, the new coverage of sports teams employees in China, Hong short story by Annie Proulx
coronavirus causes only or presidential campaign Kong, South Korea and high culture."
Born in New York on about two cowboys in
mild or moderate symp- coverage, said a senior Italy to work from home,
toms, such as fever and editor at the newspaper and recommending that June 9, 1938, Wuorinen's love, was first adapted
into a movie and then
cough. For some, especial- who spoke on condition its workers in Seattle, Wash- father, John, was chair- an opera. It was com-
ly older adults and people of anonymity because the ington, do the same. Other man of Columbia Univer-
sity's history department. missioned by New York
with existing health prob- person was not authorized employees who want to
lems, it can cause more se- to discuss the plans public- telecommute must make Wuorinen received a City Opera but moved
bachelor's degree from to Madrid's Teatro Real
vere illness, including pneu- ly. Some reevaluations are arrangements with their su-
monia. The vast majority of taking place; this week- pervisors, a spokesperson Columbia in 1961 and and premiered in 2014
a master's in music two after City Opera filed for
people recover from the end’s debate will likely be said. The Associated Press bankruptcy.
new virus. According to the covered off television in- said it expects its employ- years later.
He won the New York "It is very beautiful, as
World Health Organization, stead of by a reporter on ees to come to work but is
Young the film shows," Wuorin-
people with mild illness re- site, the editor said. dealing with individual con- Philharmonic's Award en told The Associated
cover in about two weeks, Staff members have been cerns on a case-by-case Composers'
while those with more se- given the option to work basis. AP journalists are not when he was 16 and Press, "but it is definitely
premiered a choral work not sentimental. It is not
vere illness may take three from home if they can, sub- expected to go to hospi-
to six weeks to recover. In ject to their manager’s OK, tals or the homes of people "O Filii et Filiae (Sons and a romantic landscape.
Daughters)" at Town Hall It's a deadly one — it's
mainland China, where the the Los Angeles Times said. infected by coronavirus, a dangerous." q
virus first exploded, more The New York Times told its spokeswoman said.q in 1954.