My colleague Steve Smith has announced on his Facebook page that he is leaving Time Out New York next month. In the thirteen years he's been editing classical-music listings at the magazine — much of the time he has edited the pop listings as well — he has documented better than any other writer the teeming energies of New York's new-music scene. He has also searched out the huge expanse of activity that lies beyond the city's best-known, highest-priced venues. I've learned so much from his work: he's changed and broadened my view of New York musical life. Steve is something of a hero in our world, and whatever publication or institution might sign him up in the future will have made, I believe, a very wise choice.
