Category: News Briefs

In honor of the 4th of July, Barrymore Laurence Scherer discusses the musical inclinations of one of the country’s founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson, in Thursday’s (7/2) Wall Street Journal. “Jefferson was a true Renaissance man,” Scherer writes. “Music, however, was Jefferson’s particular delight, ‘an enjoyment, the deprivation of which . . . cannot be calculated,’ he declared in 1785. From early boyhood, he pursued this ‘passion of my soul,’ studying the violin with a teacher in Williamsburg, Va. By the time he matriculated at the College of William and Mary in 1760, his playing was so fluent that he was invited for weekly chamber music gatherings with the royal governor of Virginia. … The future president’s musical tastes—which he imparted to his children—were sophisticated and broadly rooted in popular composers from the 17th through the middle-18th centuries. He deemed Arcangelo Corelli his favorite composer, deeply admired Haydn and had a great love for French and Italian opera. … In old age, Jefferson wrote with typical insight that ‘music is invaluable where a person has an ear,’ continuing that ‘it furnishes a delightful recreation for the hours of respite from the cares of the day, and lasts us through life.’ ”

Posted July 2, 2009

Wednesday (7/1) on the Washington Post blog Classical Beat, Anne Midgette writes, “The fact that the classical music, dance, and art critics are not represented in today’s critics’ survey in the Washington Post may give those of us in those disciplines extra reason to worry that what we write doesn’t actually matter. But the whole idea that there should be some kind of correlation between reviews in the paper and ticket sales, or popularity, is fundamentally flawed to start with. … Part of our role is to foster dialogue and debate. That doesn’t mean setting forth judgments of taste in order that readers might fall obediently into line behind us. Quite the contrary: it may mean putting out views that one knows may represent the minority. … The disciplines collectively referred to as ‘the arts,’ commercial or not-for-profit, highbrow or low, offer a lot more than simply the possibility of passive consumption and a thumbs-up, thumbs-down reaction at the end of the exercise. Their very existence is a tacit reminder that there is a lot more out there than this passive consumption, and critics should be reminding people of this fact.”

Posted July 2, 2009

In Thursday’s (7/2) Chronicle of Philanthropy, Suzanne Perry and Grant Williams write, “Top officials at numerous charities nationally have volunteered to reduce their pay to help their organizations cope with recession-induced budget shortfalls. In some cases, top executives donate a portion of their salary back to their charity, while others decline bonuses that are offered to them. Other charities, however, have avoided pay cuts, arguing that top executives are underpaid and are now seeing their workload increase. … Michael Pastreich, chief executive officer of the Florida Orchestra, in St. Petersburg, says he is taking a voluntary cut of 10 percent of his $175,000 salary as the organization attempts to trim $800,000 from its budget of nearly $10-million.” Other staff at the orchestra took 5 or 7.5 percent cuts. “ ‘It was only right that the people who could afford the cuts the most took the largest and the people who could least afford the cuts took the smallest,’ says Mr. Pastreich. He acknowledges that his pay cut and the other steps aren’t a silver bullet that solves all his organization’s budget problems. ‘The total effect of my salary reduction is a drop in the bucket,’ he says. ‘But you find enough of those and they start to add up.’ ”

Posted July 2, 2009

Monday’s (6/29) Orlando Business Journal reports, “United Arts of Central Florida Board of Directors voted to earmark $200,000 for a proposal to keep opera alive in Central Florida, following the Orlando Opera Company’s Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing in early June.” United Arts is a fund-raising agency for arts and science organizations in Central Florida. “The Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra is set to decide Aug. 15 whether it will present a staged concert opera next year, said Carol Conner, president of the organization’s board of directors. Conner told the United Arts board June 25 she views the proposal as a ‘bridge’ to future opera offerings. The goal is for a new opera company to be in place when the $425 million Dr. P. Phillips Orlando Performing Arts Center opens. Construction on that project was supposed to begin this year, with an opening set for 2012. However, plunging tourist tax revenue, which funds a portion of the project, threatens to delay the start of the project by at least two to three years. … If the Orlando Philharmonic decides not to proceed with the plan, the funds will go back into the pool of United Arts funds for area agencies.”

Posted July 2, 2009

A report in Thursday’s (7/2) St. Louis Business Journal states, “The Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra‘s revenue increased 15 percent for the 2008-2009 season compared to last year. SLSO reported revenue of $5.57 million for the season that ended Sunday, up from $4.84 million during last year’s season. Total attendance for the season was up nearly 8 percent to 178,837, compared to 165,865 last year. Per-concert attendance was also up nearly 8 percent to 1,641, which included 12 near-capacity or sold-out performances. Per-concert attendance was 1,522 last year. Fred Bronstein, president and executive director, attributed the symphony’s increase in revenue and attendance to its offering concerts featuring popular music as a way to attract new audiences. … The symphony is increasing its presence on the radio and has partnered with St. Louis’ local classical station KFUO Classic 99 to feature arrangements from the SLSO archives and starting Sept. 26, weekly live Saturday evening broadcasts of the Wells Fargo Advisors Orchestral Series 2009-10 season.”

Photo: David Robertson leads the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra.
Credit: Scott Furgeson

Posted July 2, 2009

Tuesday (6/30) on Variety.com, Gordon Cox reports, “The Metropolitan Opera and stagehands’ union Local One have struck a deal, postponing a promised salary increase this summer in exchange for an extra year on the current contract, with the raise to come a year from now. Met general manager Peter Gelb, who has worked to boost the opera’s profile through attention-getting initiatives including a popular series of cinema transmissions, had earlier stated that he hoped to get a 10% salary reduction out of the union in order to help manage costs during tough economic times. Local One, topped by James J. Claffey Jr., argued for a salary freeze versus a cut. In the contract originally set to expire July 31, 2010, union members were slated to get a 2.5% raise along with a .5% benefit boost on Aug. 1. Under the new deal, the raise has been pushed back a year and the benefit increase kicks in Jan. 1. The contract has been extended through July 31, 2011.”

Posted July 1, 2009

“This is a big year for golden anniversaries,” writes Ada Louise Huxtable in Wednesday’s (7/1) Wall Street Journal. “Lincoln Center is marking its first half-century with a year-long celebration and an ambitious rebuilding program, and the Guggenheim Museum is honoring its 50th with a huge show that pays homage to its famous architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, who died in 1959, the same year the building was completed. … Like many performing arts centers of the time, [Lincoln Center] began as an urban renewal site. … By design, Lincoln Center was isolated from its surroundings. In accordance with one of the more faulty modernist practices of the day, it was built on a platform, or ‘podium’ (a favorite buzz word), separating it from the city streets and dedicating it to access by car.” But that’s all changing thanks to revisions by architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro. “The bunker mentality of the podium design is being broken down by ‘chipping away at the edges,’ in [Diller Scofidio + Renfro founding partner Elizabeth] Diller’s words, opening up the buildings and spaces to meet the streets they have ignored for so long, reuniting Lincoln Center with the city and making everything more accessible for public use.”

Posted July 1, 2009

In Monday’s (6/29) Vail Daily, Chris Freud writes, “The Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival made it difficult this year, and that’s a good thing. I am your friendly local sports editor, but this is the time of year when I get to put my music hat on, and write our annual five can’t-miss Bravo! concerts of the season. … There seems to be a bounty of great concerts on the slate for season No. 22, which kicks off Wednesday. Here, with great pain in narrowing them down, are five nights of must-hear Bravo!: Wednesday, Opening night: The Dallas Symphony Orchestra performs Tchaikovsky, Mozart and Brahms. Opening night is always a big one and this year is no exception. We welcome back the Dallas Symphony Orchestra for the first time since 2006. Led by Jaap van Zweeden, Dallas plays Tchaikovsky’s ‘Capriccio Italian,’ quite apropos for the beginning of a season.” Freud’s four other choices are the Philadelphia Orchestra performing Gershwin July 15; the New York Philharmonic doing Mozart, Copland, and Mahler July 24; the Philharmonic’s July 30 performance of Verdi, Mozart, and Beethoven, and its program of Copland and Berlioz the next day.

Posted July 1, 2009

A report Tuesday (6/30) on the CBC News site states, “Dozens of performances by the National Arts Centre Orchestra will be available on the internet for free, starting Canada Day [July 1]. The NACO has chosen more than 150 recordings from its own past for an online project it calls NACO Musicbox. It gives listeners a chance to hear how the orchestra has evolved from its days under Mario Bernardi through to current conductor Pinchas Zukerman. … There are excerpts from the first NACO concert under Bernardi’s baton on Oct. 7, 1969 as well as Franco Mannino conducting the NACO in a performance of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony. Other significant performances include R. Murray Shafer’s East, Madama Butterfly with Leona Mitchell and Richard Margison, Itzhak Perlman performing the Brahms Violin Concerto and Maureen Forrester performing Harry Somers’s Five Songs for Dark Voice. Two six-part podcasts, one in English and one in French, give a history of the orchestra. Renowned writer-broadcaster Eric Friesen, a former CBC host, introduces the English programs, joined by special guests and music superstars Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Yefim Bronfman, Angela Hewitt, Jon Kimura Parker and Anton Kuerti.”

Photo: Mario Bernardi

Posted July 1, 2009

In Wednesday’s (7/1) Newsday, Steve Parks reports, “The on-again, off-again free Philharmonic concert July 18 in Heckscher State Park is off again, thanks to Albany. Lynda Moran, executive director of the Islip Arts Council, which has put on the concert for the past 32 years, said Tuesday that the council came up $20,000 short of the ‘$60,000-plus’ needed to fund the concert, which was to feature the Long Island Philharmonic. … In an e-mail statement Tuesday, Foley said funding for the Long Island Philharmonic concert was due to be voted on in early June but that the ongoing battle for control of the Senate had prevented its approval. … The Town of Islip came up with $5,000 to save the concert and some corporate contributions were promised. ‘But it just wasn’t enough,’ Moran said. The concert was first jeopardized in March, when loss of sponsors forced the New York Philharmonic, which had played the free concert since 1977, to cancel. The Long Island orchestra was invited to play instead, and the concert was back on.”

Posted July 1, 2009