Author: Jennifer Melick

New Music USA has awarded a total of $678,000 to 100 organizations through its 2022 Organizational Development Fund, which supports groups nationwide that work regularly with, and support the development of, music creators and artists. The grants aim to help and represent a broad range of applicants across U.S. cities and music genres. All 100 awardees meet the main criteria of artistry, impact, need, equity, and inclusion. Grantees represent 27 states and receive an average award of $6,780. Recipients include orchestras and chamber ensembles as well as the Institute for Composer Diversity, Boulanger Initiative, and more, including dance, opera, and theater ensembles. In announcing the grants, New Music USA said its peer review process for the grants reflects ongoing efforts to dismantle bias. For this round, which attracted 392 applications, New Music USA engaged a panel of 21 artists, creators, musicians, and administrators working from locations around the country, with 76 percent of panelists identifying as women and 38 percent identifying as BIPOC. More information on the grants at https://newmusicusa.org/program/organizational-development-fund/.

“Almost half of 76 staff surveyed by leading workplace consultant Elizabeth Broderick including musicians of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra had experienced some form of bullying, one quarter in the past 12 months,” writes Linda Morris in Thursday’s (8/4) Sydney Morning Herald (Australia). “One-third (34.8 per cent) of female respondents and 23.1 per cent of male respondents said they had experienced sexual harassment…. Very few formally reported incidents of inappropriate behavior, with almost 40 per cent of respondents saying they did not feel safe in speaking up. The figures are included in a summary of Broderick’s findings … circulated to the SSO’s council members on Wednesday…. The chair of the SSO’s board, Geoff Wilson, and interim CEO Craig Whitehead accepted all recommendations.… A series of training workshops on respectful workplace behavior for all staff will be introduced this year as well as regular team surveys…. MEAA’s [Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance] chief executive Erin Madeley said the union had been encouraged by the quick response of SSO management and the board in accepting all recommendations of the Broderick investigation…. Former CEO Emma Dunch cited the Broderick review in an unfair dismissal claim she has filed against the SSO and its chair … [that is] up for mediation on August 22.”

“On Saturday morning, Gustavo Dudamel stood before a large orchestra of young musicians … ready to give the downbeat,” writes Mark Swed in Tuesday’s (8/2) Los Angeles Times. “ ‘Be careful of the level of volume you give me,’ he said with a sly smile…. The exuberant orchestra clearly knew he didn’t mean hold back, just make it glorious. [In] the rehearsal space in the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s new Judith and Thomas L. Beckmen YOLA Center in Inglewood … Dudamel did not tamp it down…. The orchestra, created by the conductor and his wife, Spanish actress Maria Valverde, contains players ages 18 to 26 from 22 countries. It is called Encuentros. The jazzy new piece they were rehearsing, an L.A. Phil commission by Venezuelan composer Giancarlo Castro D’Addona, is titled ‘Encuentro Obertura Festiva.’ … Dudamel [created] his Dudamel Foundation a decade ago…. The modest operation, which he and Valverde co-chair, has the immodest goal of pursuing the dream of his mentor, Jose Antonio Abreu, founder of Venezuela’s El Sistema extensive music education program, which was the model for the L.A. Phil’s YOLA (Youth Orchestra Los Angeles).” Encuentros performed at the Hollywood Bowl on Tuesday, and will take the same program to UC Berkeley tonight.

“Gerard Gibbs on Aug. 15 will become the next executive director of the Abilene Philharmonic,” writes in Monday’s (8/1) Abilene Reporter-News (TX). “He succeeds Kevin Smith, who returned to Florida to take a music-related job with Artis Naples. Smith had been executive director since May 1, 2017…. Gibbs has a background in performance, playing the baroque and classical oboes. He has worked with the Akron Symphony, Reno Chamber Orchestra, Nevada Chamber Music Festival, Duluth-Superior Symphony Orchestra and New Spire Arts in Frederick, Md. As a musician, he performed with baroque orchestras in Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles, Minneapolis and across the northern border with Vancouver and Calgary. He also has played with Waverly Consort, an American early music group. From 2002-14, Gibbs was utility oboist with the Calgary Philharmonic in Alberta. There, he founded the Fort MacLeod International Music Festival with violinist Rivka Golani. Gibbs joins the local symphony led by conductor-music director David Itkin, who will begin his 18th season with an organization entering its 72nd year.”

“With a more than 60-year history and ties to one of great cellists of the 20th century, Pablo Casals, as well as his namesake annual festival, the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra has become one of the most important classical institutions in Central America and the Caribbean Basin,” writes Kyle MacMillan in Tuesday’s (8/2) Chicago Sun-Times. “The orchestra remains little-known in the continental United States, but its profile will no doubt get a boost Aug. 6 when it presents a concert in Chicago’s Orchestra Hall…. Said music director and principal conductor Maximiano Valdés, … ‘People don’t know about us, so this is a good occasion to show what we do.’ Not only will the appearance mark the 68-member orchestra’s debut in the Windy City, but it will also be the ensemble’s first performance on the U.S. mainland since 2004…. The concert is presented by [Chicago’s] National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture…. Valdés, a former music director of New York’s Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, … estimates that about 98 percent of the players in this ensemble come from Puerto Rico…. The ensemble will highlight its homeland in Chicago, presenting … a program of popular and classical works by composers associated with Puerto Rico.”

On October 22, North Carolina’s Wilmington Symphony Orchestra will present a concert at Cape Fear Community College’s Wilson Center with The Queen’s Cartoonists, who perform music from classic cartoons and contemporary animation, with performances synchronized to projections of the original films. The Wilmington Symphony concert will be guest conducted by Dominic Talanca. The Queen’s Cartoonists are a touring comedy-themed troupe of professional musicians, based in Queens, New York, who perform with orchestras and at events including this month’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. The group’s six members are listed on their website as Joel “Sweet Sauce McKinley” Pierson (piano), Rossen “Chock Full” Nedelchev (percussion), Drew “Dranka” Pitcher (woodwinds), Greg “Eggs and” Hammontree (brass), Mark “Dingo” Phillips (woodwinds), and Malik “M” McLaurine (bass).

“William Hudson, a pianist and conductor who led the Fairfax Symphony Orchestra for 36 years, establishing it as a leading regional orchestra in the capital area, died July 12 at his home in Vienna, Va. He was 89,” writes Tim Page in Tuesday’s (8/2) Washington Post. “In 1971, Mr. Hudson, then a new member of the conducting faculty at the University of Maryland, won an audition to take over a struggling, unpaid, 60-piece occasional orchestra … founded 14 years earlier…. The appointment of Mr. Hudson turned things around quickly. For the first time, auditions were held to select the musicians in the orchestra. By 1977, the FSO was made up of 110 musicians … and players were paid for every concert…. In 1990, the FSO moved to the 1,850-seat Center for the Arts at George Mason University, where it remains today, under the direction of Christopher Zimmerman. William Lee Hudson … received a bachelor’s degree in 1957 from the University of Pennsylvania and a master’s degree from Yale School of Music and did conducting studies at the Tanglewood music festival in Massachusetts. In 1970, he joined the University of Maryland faculty, where he remained until his retirement from teaching in 1999. He has no immediate survivors.”

“When legendary British singer Sting visits Pittsburgh, he’ll be playing with local talent,” writes Jeremy Reynolds in Tuesday’s (8/2) Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “For two nights in January, the 9th and 10th, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra will welcome the former singer of The Police to Heinz Hall for a pair of concerts celebrating his greatest hits, ranging from ‘Roxanne’ and ‘Next To You’ to ‘Every Breath You Take’ and ‘Fields of Gold.’ … Sting has been experimenting with orchestra reimaginings of his catalog since a 2008 collaboration with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He has toured since 2010 with these symphonic interpretations of his hits. January will mark his first collaboration with the PSO. ‘Sting’s charisma and utterly unforgettable hits reimagined with symphonic orchestrations will make for an irresistible combination with the brilliant musicians of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra,’ said Melia Tourangeau, symphony president and CEO, in a release.”