MEET THE COMPETITORS: The first notes of the 14th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition are still a few days away. But tonight, the competitors will learn the order in which they will perform during the annual draw party. If you want to go ahead and pick someone to pull for, you can learn all about each player through Theater Jones’ player profiles.

TALKING CRITICISM: Late last month, a panel of local arts writers convened at CentralTrak for a discussion called Art Writing & Art Criticism in Texas. Our own Jerome Weeks served as moderator for the chat, which also featured Frances Colpitt, Charles Dee Mitchell, Peter Simek and Charissa Terranova. If you missed it, the crew over at Art This Week rolled tape, which you can now watch on the site.

WORTH THE RISK: American symphony orchestras are constantly looking for ways to reverse the long-running trend of declining ticket sales. That’s not the newsy part. What is news is that all that fear over programming modern music may be flawed. A new study shows that potential concertgoers are not turned off by contemporary music. Which is not to say that the standards don’t boost ticket sales. Rather, programming a modern work is no more risky than programming a lesser known older work. All good news for the living, breathing composer.