What am I wailing about? I'm wailing over Joshua Kosman's retirement from the San Francisco Chronicle.
I'm happy for him, I really am: after 36 years on the job, writing thousands of overnight reviews and hundreds of features, he has earned retirement! He'll have more time for games and puzzles of all kinds, for going to the theater, for attending musical events that he isn't reviewing. And those are all good things.
But he's been such a constant presence at the Chron and such a reliably interesting and thoughtful writer, whether or not I agreed with his take on a particular performance or performer. I always found something to think about in his reviews, and very often reacted with "Why didn't I think of that?" He's a terrific writer, less formal and with more spice than my own reviews and articles usually have. So, yeah, I'm happy for him and I will miss him.
I've learned so much about how to write a review from reading his reviews, and over the years I've gotten a lot of good advice from him, as well. When Andrew Gilbert, at Mission Local, interviewed Joshua a few weeks ago, he mentioned that Joshua's work mentoring younger writers was not publicly visible. Gilbert talked with Hannah Edgar, now a contributor to the Chicago Tribune, about working with Joshua at the Rubin Institute and elsewhere. She wasn't the only one, I'm sure.
The Mission Local article mentions that he was thinking of starting some kind of a weekly newsletter, and I hope that happens, because here I am, wondering what he thought of The Magic Flute and Innocence at San Francisco Opera, and I can't just open the Chronicle to find out.
1 comment:
Not that we had any illusion that the Chronicle would hire a successor, but I am surprised by how much they have just let this portfolio disappear. With the exception of your review of Flute, and Steven Winn’s review of Innocence, as far as I’ve noticed there have been zero mentions of any classical music event of any kind since JK’s last day. Early days, small sample size to know what they may have in mind long-term, but I sure hope it’s something more than this. It’s almost as though the powers that be at the Chronicle didn’t appreciate the value of Joshua‘s work, or of the art that he was covering.
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