Tom Strini Launches “Culture Desk” at ThirdCoast Digest
Former MJS music and dance critic will take on Milwaukee’s broader cultural scene in new role
August 3, 2009—(Milwaukee, WI) The publishers of ThirdCoast Digest are pleased to announce that former Milwaukee Journal Sentinel performing arts writer Tom Strini is now contributing a new column exclusively for TCD.
Tom Strini
“We’re excited to welcome the extraordinarily talented and highly-respected Tom Strini to ThirdCoast Digest,” said TCD co-publisher Jon Anne Willow. “Strini’s vast knowledge and experience will help establish ThirdCoast Digest as the leading destination for news and criticism about arts and culture in the Milwaukee region.”
“Strini’s Culture Desk” will take on a broader swath of Milwaukee’s cultural scene than his most recent beat at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, which was primarily music and dance. Tom will offer his take on the traditional performing arts – classical music, concert dance, theater, visual art and architecture – while also writing about broader topics including cooking, design, and the unexpected aesthetic moments of everyday life.
“My commitment to covering the Milwaukee arts scene has never been greater,” said Strini. “I am grateful to ThirdCoast Digest for the opportunity to continue doing what I love, and I’m looking forward to helping build this online magazine into Milwaukee’s most important source for news, commentary, reviews and feature stories related to the performing arts, the visual arts, architecture, and to the art of living.”
Tom Strini served The Milwaukee Journal and then the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel as dance critic, critic at large and music and dance critic for almost 27 years. He was one of several Journal Sentinel writers who took a buyout and left the paper on July 31, 2009, as the paper downsized.
Strini holds a bachelor’s degree in music theory and composition from Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville and a master’s in classical guitar performance from SIU-Carbondale. Strini also put in two years toward a doctorate in theory and composition at UC-San Diego, where he studied with Pauline Oliveros, Roger Reynolds and Bernard Rands. He is married to Lee Ann Garrison, an associate professor of art at UW-Milwaukee; they have three sons.
ThirdCoast Digest is Milwaukee’s online magazine for engaging and relevant coverage of art, news and life as it happens in our city. Serving the community since 2002 with the original print VITAL Source Magazine (which went online exclusively in March 2009), TCD is also the exclusive online home of the Outpost’s Exchange Magazine. ThirdCoast Digest is working to help define a new media model, offering a curated blend of authored stories plus articles and blogs of interest from community journalists and other media outlets with whom it partners.
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• Strini’s Culture Desk
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• twitter.com/TCDigest
• twitter.com/TCDStrini
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