Author: NY TIMES

Figuring out “Anyway” required about seven weeks of intense studio time, spread over 18 months, along with months of practicing and fund-raising on my part. Such was the complexity of the work that a technician told me it posed one of the more intricate challenges that he had seen in his many years at IRCAM. For all its pyrotechnics, though, the work has arresting moments of stunning weightlessness as detuned strings at the top of the harp interact with overtones from lower metal strings to proffer slow undulations. The subtle accompanying electronics constitute a duet with the harp, playing with…

Cocooned in fuzzy, tonal attire, Simonne Dom exuded a cozy sophistication as we crossed paths in the Marylebone section of London on a Saturday in March. Her soft garments in shades of beige embodied the two-word description she gave for her style: “casual chic.”Ms. Dom, 70, who lives in Belgium, was visiting London with friends for her birthday, an occasion she had planned to celebrate by doing a lot of shopping. When we met, she and her friends had just finished lunch at Carlotta, an Italian restaurant, and were walking to the department store Liberty to browse its selection of…

Auvers-sur-Oise, a village near Paris famed as an artist’s paradise, is also where Vincent Van Gogh spent his final days and it has long drawn tourists to walk in the tortured painter’s last footsteps. But ever since art experts identified his final work before he took his life, there has been strife in the town. Van Gogh’s final painting was disputed for decades, because he didn’t date his works. But in 2020 experts concluded that gnarled tree roots protruding from a hillside in Auvers, as depicted in his “Tree Roots,” was made on the day he died. This finding may…

Augusta, Ga. – Rory McIlroy’s 7-foot hawk putt slides under the Cup in the upper left corner of the 15 stand in Augusta National. At that moment of the day, silent Masters Championship customers were not familiar with the thousands while groaning. However, repeated listening and participation are not easy.A green jacket stands up on a crazy plastic bleach seat.”I can’t do more,” the gentleman said, “He lining up the steep stairs, his sons leaning behind, fumbling about coats that only selected groups can sport on the property.Before it actually happened, McIlroy chased a professional grand slam, and the end…

Even when India was staring down the barrel of a 27 percent tariff on most of its exports to the United States, business executives and government officials saw an upside. India’s biggest economic rival, China, and its smaller competitors like Vietnam were facing even worse.India has been pushing hard in recent years to become a manufacturing alternative to China, and it looked as if it had suddenly gained an advantage.Then India and its smaller rivals got 90-day reprieves, and President Trump doubled down on China, boosting its tariff to 145 percent.The sky-high tax on Chinese imports to America presented “a…

For years, the Chinese government has worked to control the export of rare earths, a group of metals used in an array of products, as common as semiconductors and lights. Now, in its trade war with the United States, China is moving to limit the market for these metals even further, which could have disastrous consequences for American manufacturing and military power. So, what exactly are these metals, and why are they so important?What are rare earths?There are 17 types of metals known as rare earths, which span the periodic table and are crucial to industries like technology, energy and…

The Trump administration took steps on Monday that appear likely to result in new tariffs on semiconductors and pharmaceutical products, adding to the levies President Trump has put on imports globally.Federal notices put online Monday afternoon said the administration had initiated national security investigations into imports of chips and pharmaceuticals. Mr. Trump has suggested that those investigations could result in tariffs.The investigations will also cover the machinery used to make semiconductors, products that contain chips and pharmaceutical ingredients.In a statement confirming the move, Kush Desai, a White House spokesman, said the president “has long been clear about the importance of…

Inside a centuries-old monastery atop a mountain in western Syria, a priest swung an incense holder on a chain, led his flock in melodic chants and delivered a timeless sermon on the importance of loving one’s neighbor.But when the congregation gathered for coffee after the service, their current worries surfaced, about how peaceful Syria’s future would be.Would the Islamist rebels who ousted the strongman Bashar al-Assad in December ban pork and alcohol, impose modest dress on women or limit Christian worship? Would the new security forces protect Christians from attacks by Muslim extremists?“Nothing has happened that makes you feel that…

A new biography and film about Yoko Ono offer more opportunities to assess her contributions to culture. Two pop music critics debate if they’re worthy of their subject.

In past eras, the wealthy tended to attire themselves in the richest of colors: indigo, crimson, the purple of nobilities and kings. We are no longer in that era. These days, the hue preferred by the richest people on earth is that most bland and mousy of non-colors — beige.For Lindsey Woodcock, a luxury travel consultant, the beige onslaught first revealed itself on the terraces and streets of St. Moritz, Switzerland, the exclusive Alpine resort town where she lives part-time.“It becomes something you can’t not see, said Ms. Woodcock, who also has residences in London and Sun Valley, Idaho. “There…