Category: News Briefs

In Saturday’s (6/27) Seattle Times, Blythe Lawrence reports, “Seattle Opera has been awarded a $500,000 grant for ‘Amelia,’ a new American opera scheduled to debut in Seattle next year, the Opera announced Friday. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation funding will allow ‘Amelia’ to be produced by two other production companies following its May 2010 debut at Seattle Opera, assuring that the opera will be seen in more cities. ‘Amelia,’ based on a story by opera director Stephen Wadsworth, follows a mother-to-be still mourning the death of her Navy pilot father, killed in Vietnam in the ‘60s. The story, spanning three decades, unfolds in both the U.S. and Vietnam. ‘Amelia’ features a score by New York composer Daron Aric Hagen, who made a special trip to Seattle this week to deliver the completed work to Seattle Opera General Director Speight Jenkins. Poet Gardner McFall wrote the libretto.” The Charles Simonyi Fund for Arts and Sciences has also pledged $300,000 and will serve as production sponsor for the opera.

Posted June 30, 2009

In Monday’s (6/29) Chronicle of Philanthropy, Ben Gose and Caroline Preston report, “Two studies released this week offer fresh evidence that the recession has created havoc for nonprofit groups: Ninety-two percent of the nearly 100 respondents in a survey conducted in May by the Bridgespan Group said they were feeling the effects of the downturn. Eighty percent of charity officials reported that their organizations were experiencing financial stress, in another study conducted in April by the Johns Hopkins University’s Listening Post Project. … Despite the deepening unemployment rate and stagnant stock market, the study found that charity leaders were optimistic about their organizations’ financial picture. Forty-five percent said they expected their groups’ financial outlook to be better in a year. Just 22 percent thought their outlook would be worse. … Only 13 percent of the respondents said they were concerned about their nonprofit organization’s survival. But those numbers rose significantly among people at theaters and orchestras, which were the hardest hit of all charities in the study. Twenty-four percent of orchestra leaders and 33 percent of theater officials reported concern about their groups’ fate.”

Posted June 30, 2009

In Sunday’s (6/28) Atlanta Journal-Constitution, James S. Russell writes, “With its soaring arches and bony ribs, Santiago Calatrava’s design for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra might have become the emblem of Atlanta—its Eiffel Tower, Space Needle or Empire State Building. In moving to a new site with more modest aspirations, should the ASO—and by extension, Atlanta—have given up on its world-class dream? … The costs and complexities of big-name architecture have fueled a revulsion against architectural spectacles in today’s miserable economy—including the engineering acrobatics Calatrava is famous for. Spectacle, in great boulevards and grand buildings, is one of the great pleasures of city living. Still ASO’s leadership looks wise for recognizing that the times are simply not right for Calatrava’s design. … On the other hand, a new site and a new architect should not be a license to lowball. … Atlanta should seek a new design that’s extroverted, not afraid to be theatrical. The strange and idiosyncratic Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis by the Paris architect Jean Nouvel builds anticipation from the moment patrons enter, urging the audience to leave the world behind and engage the performance.”

Posted June 30, 2009

An Associated Press report published in Monday’s (6/29) Miami Herald states, “The executive director of the Miami Symphony Orchestra has resigned, three years after her husband and the symphony’s founder died. The orchestra announced Monday that Sofia Ochoa’s resignation is effective Aug. 31. She cited personal reasons for why she is leaving. The Miami Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1989 by Manuel Ochoa and says it is the only major symphony in the U.S. founded by a Hispanic conductor. It is Miami’s longest established professional orchestra. Manuel Ochoa died in July 2006 because of heart failure at the age of 80. He launched the symphony in 1989 in spite of tepid community interest in the past. A replacement for Sofia Ochoa was not announced.”

Posted June 30, 2009

Friday (6/26) on the Los Angeles Times blog Culture Monster, Mike Boehm reports, “The House of Representatives today approved $170-million budgets for the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities in 2010: a 9.7% increase for each over their current $155 million. The vote was 254 to 173 for the Department of the Interior, Environment and Related Agencies budget bill, which includes the two cultural grant-making agencies. … The issue now: the Senate Appropriations Committee’s budget proposal for the cultural agencies calls for $161.3 million each (President Obama’s budget proposal included $161.3 million for the NEA and $171.3 million for the NEH). So Americans for the Arts, the nonprofit advocacy group that helped lead the charge on Capitol Hill to convince senators that $50 million for arts jobs would have an economically stimulative effect, is again calling on arts lovers to send a message, this time for the $170-million operating budgets.”

Posted June 30, 2009

On June 29, a group of 26 runners—fourteen Boston Symphony Orchestra and Boston Pops musicians, family members, six staff members, and a trustee—began a 150-mile relay across the state of Massachusetts from Boston to Lenox, where the BSO makes its summer home. BSO bassist Todd Seeber and BSO violinist James Cooke, both longtime runners, conceived of the Run to Tanglewood. Each leg was set to be run by one to four participants; with more than 33 legs in the race and an average run pace of 6 miles an hour, runners were expected to reach Tanglewood’s main gate in Lenox on June 30, the day before the BSO’s first rehearsal of the Tanglewood season. Just before the start of the race on June 29 at the main entrance to Symphony Hall, Keith Lockhart led a brass fanfare; he launched the run in the traditional manner by shooting a starter pistol.

Posted June 30, 2009

Photo by Michael J. Lutch 

The Houston Symphony has released its first recording on the Naxos label, a CD of Zemlinsky’s Lyric Symphony and Berg’s Three Pieces from the Lyric Suite. Both pieces were recorded in November 2007 at Jesse H. Jones Hall for the Performing Arts in Houston, led by Music Director Hans Graf. The three-movement Berg work features the composer’s arrangement for string orchestra; soprano Twyla Robinson and baritone Roman Trekel are soloists in the seven-movement Zemlinsky work. The recording, which is being sold at retail outlets including amazon.com, iTunes, and bn.com, was released on May 26. The orchestra’s next recording for Naxos, a continuation of its exploration of the late-Romantic period, is planned for this fall: live performances of Mahler’s Song of the Earth, with mezzo-soprano Jane Henschel and tenor Paul Groves.

Posted June 30, 2009

Hans Graf head shot by Christian Steiner

Photo of Hans Graf leading the Houston Symphony at Carnegie Hall by Chris Lee 

The Chicago Chamber Musicians have announced details of their world premiere of Peter Lieberson’s The Coming of Light, a co-commission by CCM and the Unity Temple Restoration Foundation. The premiere of the work for baritone, oboe, and string quartet is scheduled to take place on September 26 as part of centennial celebrations by the Unity Temple in Oak Park, Illinois. The Unity Temple was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and dedicated on September 26, 1909. Baritone John Michael Moore will join CCM musicians in the piece in the six-movement Lieberson work, which gets its title from a poem by Mark Strand and also features poems by Shakespeare and John Ashbery. Also on the program are Barber’s Dover Beach and string quartets by Cimarosa and Beethoven. The Chicago Chamber Musicians is a sixteen-member ensemble that performs at Chicago’s Gottlieb Hall and the Pick-Staiger Concert Hall in Evanston, Illinois.

Posted June 30, 2009 

Merkin Concert Hall in New York City has announced details of its 2009-10 season, which includes world premieres by Jake Heggie, Nico Muhly, and Paul Moravec performed by a variety of chamber ensembles. In November, flutist Carol Wincenc will perform the world premiere of a commissioned work by Jake Heggie, Fury of Light, with Heggie on piano; the concert celebrates Wincenc’s 40th year as a performing artist. Also on that program are George Crumb’s 1971 work Voice of the Whale for electric flute, electric piano, electric cello, and cymbals. The SIGNAL ensemble, directed by Brad Lubman, will perform the Merkin-commissioned world premiere of a work by Nico Muhly in March; and the Lark Chamber Artists with pianist Jeremy Denk will unveil a new piece by the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Paul Moravec in April. The season also will include the amplified string quartet ETHEL performing on a March program with Dutch “avant-pop” composer Jacob TV; in January the New York Guitar Festival will present four concerts centered around silent films, curated by David Spelman, with guitarists including David Bromberg, Marc Ribot, Bon Iver, Alex de Grassi, Gyan Riley, and James Blackshaw.

Posted June 30, 2009 

Jonathan Leshnoff, composer in residence for the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, has been honored with the Maryland State Arts Council’s 2009 Individual Artist Award in Music Composition. A Baltimore resident, Leshnoff began his association with the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra in February 2006, when the orchestra performed his Violin Concerto, with soloist Charles Wetherbee; the work was recorded and released in February 2009 on the Naxos label. The world premiere of Leshnoff’s Requiem for the Fallen took place in February 2008, with the Handel Choir of Baltimore and Baltimore Chamber Orchestra. Leshnoff’s Starburst, a co-commission from the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Kansas City Symphony, and Orquestra de Extremadura (Madrid), is scheduled for a world premiere by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in April 2010. Leshnoff’s flute concerto, commissioned by The Philadelphia Orchestra, is scheduled for its first performance in the 2010-11 season with Jeffrey Khaner as soloist.

Posted June 30, 2009