Music

A Los Angeles judge overseeing the long-running conservatorship of Britney Spears’s career and personal life declined on Tuesday to immediately remove the singer’s father as the head of her estate, despite her lawyer’s claim that she could not work with him in charge.“My client has informed me that she is afraid of her father,” Samuel D. Ingham III, Spears’s court-appointed lawyer, told the judge, according to The Associated Press. “She will not perform again if her father is in charge of her career.”“We are really at a crossroads,” Ingham added.The lawyer called Spears, who did not participate in the hearing, a “high-functioning conservatee” and said that she had not spoken to her father, Jamie Spears, in a long time.Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Brenda Penny said she would consider further petitions for Jamie Spears’s removal “down the road.” Penny did, however, name a corporate fiduciary, the Bessemer Trust, as the co-conservator of Spears’s estate, as the singer had requested.Since 2008, after a string of public meltdowns, Spears has lived under a unique conservatorship, sometimes known as a guardianship, a complex legal arrangement typically reserved for the old, ill or infirm. For more than a decade, the pop singer went along quietly with the setup, which controlled her finances, as well as aspects of her day-to-day life, like her mental health care, and where and how she could travel.Spears, 38, who has not released an album since 2016 and has slowed down substantially since her early 2000s peak, announced an “indefinite work hiatus” in January 2019, at the time citing the health of her father, who had suffered a ruptured colon. But in August, she moved for the first time to make substantial changes to the conservatorship in court “to reflect the major changes in her current lifestyle and her stated wishes,” according to her lawyer. She also kept open the possibility that she would seek to get rid of the arrangement altogether.Representatives for Jamie Spears have said that his stewardship of her career protected her from financial ruin, turning her estate into a nearly $60 million business, and likely saved her life. In court filings, Jamie said that his “sole motivation has been his unconditional love for his daughter and a fierce desire to protect her from those trying to take advantage of her.”On Wednesday, Jamie Spears’s lawyer, Vivian Lee Thoreen, said in court that Ingham’s comments about the father-daughter relationship were merely hearsay and should not be admissible.Complicating the family and financial drama has been the ongoing presence of an especially vocal, activist wing of fans calling themselves the #FreeBritney movement, who have sought to portray the conservatorship as a money-hungry means of total control over Spears. For years, the Spears family largely ignored those accusations, but recently, the singer has signaled her appreciation for their support, which many have taken as implicit encouragement.Dozens of #FreeBritney fans were present at the courthouse on Tuesday, the A.P. said, and some sat in on the hearing in the courtroom, despite it taking place over videoconference because of the coronavirus.Also present and vocal at Tuesday’s hearing was a lawyer for Jamie’s ex-wife and Britney’s mother, Lynne Spears, who has not held a role in the conservatorship, but was considered an interested party. She called Britney’s relationship with Jamie “toxic,” and said she believed it was “time to start fresh.” The lawyer added that Jamie had referred to his daughter as “a racehorse who has to be handled like one.”“It has broken Lynne’s heart that things have come to this point,” the lawyer, Gladstone N. Jones, said. More

The Brooklyn Academy of Music is looking for a new president.Katy Clark, the violinist-turned-arts-executive who has led the organization since 2015, will leave in January to accept another opportunity, the BAM board announced Monday.“I have accepted a new position where I can have a focused impact on work that is especially meaningful to me, notably in arts education and civic engagement,” Ms. Clark said in a release, adding that her new role would be announced soon.During her five years as president, Ms. Clark led an expansion of the institution’s campus. She oversaw the opening of the organization’s first dedicated visual art gallery last fall and the beginning of construction of the BAM Karen, a three-cinema venue that will also house films from the BAM archives. She also implemented the organization’s diversity, equity and inclusion plan.Ms. Clark, who was born and raised in Wales, joined the organization after serving as the president and executive director of New York’s Orchestra of St. Luke’s. She began her career playing violin in the BBC Symphony Orchestra in London from 1994 to 1999 before turning to arts management.“All of us at BAM sincerely thank Katy for her tremendous contributions over the last five years and wish her the best in her next pursuit,” Nora Ann Wallace, an interim co-chair of the organization’s board, said in a release.The board will consider both internal and external candidates to replace Ms. Clark during her final three months at the helm, according to the release. The organization plans to reopen its stages and screens at some point in 2021.In the meantime, BAM has offered digital programming, including a virtual play in October that honored nurses’ roles in the pandemic and featured Rosario Dawson, Billy Porter and Rosie O’Donnell. The organization also held its annual gala online in May, which featured Annie Clark, better known as St. Vincent, performing her song “New York.”“BAM has remained resolute through floods, fires and pandemics, and we believe that we will come out of this a stronger organization,” Bill Campbell, an interim co-chair of the BAM board, said.But it will no longer be Ms. Clark leading the charge.“I have truly loved the many dimensions of my work at BAM these past five years, and I wish the organization the best as it charts a path forward,” Ms. Clark said. More

Ariana Grande’s sixth album, “Positions,” just debuted at the top of the Billboard album chart.The 27-year-old musician has taken an unusual and singular route to pop stardom: She was a child TV star, then a big-voiced R&B ingénue before becoming something like a full-spectrum pop aspirant. More recently, she’s been a performer and songwriter who pairs intimacy, casualness and rigorous talent.On this week’s Popcast, a conversation about Grande’s unique career, how she expands the range of what a contemporary pop star can be, her relationship to R&B and hip-hop, and more.Guests:Lindsay Zoladz, who writes about music for The New York Times and othersShaad D’Souza, who writes about music for The Fader and others More