Category: News Briefs

In Tuesday’s (3/3) USA Today, Andrea Stone writes, “The downturn walloping the entire economy has hit non-profit arts organizations especially hard. With millions of people scrambling to pay for food and other basics, a night at the opera can seem frivolous. So museums, symphonies, theaters, ballet companies and opera companies have cut staff, canceled performances, shortened seasons and, in some cases, shut down. The worst may be yet to come. Jesse Rosen of the League of American Orchestras says season subscriptions to performances, which are sold a year ahead of time, mask the full impact. ‘It’s the second year when it catches up,’ he says. … As foundation grants and private donations dry up, arts groups become more creative.” Stone notes that in a troubled economy, many see the arts as less important or legitimate than other sectors, an attitude which Robert Lynch of Americans for Arts calls, “ ‘uninformed and perhaps disingenuous.’ His group estimates that non-profit arts organizations generate $166.2 billion each year in cultural and related spending such as restaurants and parking, and they produce $30 billion in tax revenue and 5.7 million jobs.”
Posted March 6, 2009

Photo: Symphony Hall, Boston
Credit: Stu Rosner

In Wednesday’s (3/5) New York Times, Jim Dwyer writes about a new opera company in New York, founded by Bryce Smith and Rebecca Greenstein, both singers with non-musical day jobs. Last year, when the two “were performing in a children’s cabaret, they realized that their summer calendars were wide open. So just as terms like ‘credit default swaps’ were becoming part of the language, they created the Opera Manhattan Repertory Theater, a company for young and emerging singers. This week, Opera Manhattan is staging its first full production, an adaptation by Shawn E. Milnes of Johann Strauss’s Fledermaus that is set not in 19th-century Vienna, but at the masked Black and White Ball engineered by Truman Capote in 1966. … The show runs from Thursday to Sunday at the Players Theater in Greenwich Village.” The director, choreographer, stage manager, conductor, and all singers are working doing the show for free. Smith is financing the up-front costs of the theater rental and musical accompaniment with a loan from his savings account.
Posted March 5, 2009

On NBC’s March 3 Today Show, Al Roker interviewed Daniel Handler about his new book The Composer Is Dead, which he wrote under the pseudonym Lemony Snicket. Handler has been touring nationally, presenting a concert version of The Composer Is Dead with a wide variety of orchestras. The book, which includes a companion CD with music by Nathaniel Stookey performed by the San Francisco Symphony, introduces readers to the different instruments of the orchestra through the story of an investigation into the mysterious death of the “composer.” Joining Handler during the interview was Majid Kalik, musical director of Change for Kids, who provided dramatic violin accompaniment. To view the video segment, click here.
Posted March 5, 2009

“As arts organizations across the country cut costs and trim their schedules, Washington is getting a new orchestra,” writes Anne Midgette in Thursday’s (3/5) Washington Post. “The D.C. Philharmonic held a news conference yesterday to announce its maiden concerts April 9-10 at the Music Center at Strathmore—an ambitious program of Michael Torke’s ‘Bright Blue Music,’ Samuel Barber’s ‘Knoxville: Summer of 1915’ and Gustav Mahler’s towering Second, or ‘Resurrection,’ Symphony. Denyce Graves and Harolyn Blackwell are the featured soloists. And according to John Baltimore—the 30-year-old conductor who in a mere few months has brought this fledgling organization to life—the ensemble will represent a new model for orchestras, funding itself by turning to a market he describes as ‘untapped.’ ” Baltimore says he believes “wholeheartedly that Washington in particular has this unique demographic of educated, upper-class, recession-proof government wage-earners that, if this music was marketed to them and they could see that this music is for them, they would be supportive of it.” Among the ranks of the new orchestra are musicians from the National and Baltimore symphony orchestras.
Posted March 5, 2009
 

“At a time when some South Jersey restaurants feel like playing taps, many of the eateries in Collingswood are humming ‘Ode to Joy,’ ” writes Beth D’Addono in Wednesday’s (3/4) Courier-Post (Collingswood, New Jersey). “Thanks to a grassroots effort mounted by Symphony in C, Dine Out for Music is scheduled in Collingswood Sunday through March 12. Designed to drive business to Collingswood’s restaurant row during typically slow weekdays, the promotion will also raise money for local music groups. … Modeled after the national AIDS/HIV fundraiser Dining Out for Life, the promotion provides for 10 percent of each restaurants’ proceeds be donated to music groups, large and small. … Eleven of the town’s restaurants will take part in the program’s debut, which also showcases the vocal and musical talent of local artists who will perform everything from chamber music to opera during dinner.” Symphony in C is based in Camden, not far from Collingswood, and was known as Haddonfield Symphony until the fall of 2007.
Posted March 5, 2009

In Thursday’s (3/5) Star-Ledger (Newark, New Jersey), Bradley Bambarger writes, “With Neeme Järvi’s last concerts as music director this May, the next season was always going to be a transitional one for the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. The plummeting economy—which has put so much stress on arts organizations dependent on giving from foundations and corporations—has given the NJSO more problems than just finding a new chief conductor. To save money on its 2009-10 schedule, announced today, the orchestra has cut its subscription concerts to 61, down from this season’s 70. … With [NJSO President and CEO Andre] Gremillet insisting that ‘organizational collaborations are the way of the future,’ the NJSO has embarked on a relationship with Opera New Jersey, becoming the company’s house orchestra for its summer festivals. Next February, the NJSO will also co-produce a semi-staged production of Bizet’s ‘Carmen’ with the Princeton-based opera company. The cast will include top mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves in the title role. The NJSO is on a search for its new music director, so next season will bring return visits by some favored candidates (Jacques Lacombe, Arild Remmereit) and first-time engagements for Ludovic Morlot, Lawrence Renes, Giancarlo Guerrero and exciting New York Philharmonic associate conductor Xian Zhang.”
Posted March 5, 2009

A report posted Monday (3/2) on Oklahoma’s NewsChannel 8 states, “The use of cell phones at the symphony is usually frowned upon. But, this week, a local symphony orchestra will actually encourage it. The Bartlesville Symphony Orchestra plans to use the ever-popular social networking site Twitter during its performance of Vivaldi’s ‘The Four Seasons’ Saturday night. How, you might ask? During the performance, those in attendance with phones set to silent or vibrate will receive messages with information about the conductor, the music, etc. Audience members can also get in on the action, by responding with their thoughts of the concert. Saturday night’s soloist is 25-year-old virtuoso violinist Augustin Hadelich, who recently played at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.”
Posted March 5, 2009

In Wednesday’s (3/4) New York Times, Daniel J. Wakin reports, “In its continuing effort to battle financial demons, the Metropolitan Opera said it had decided to put up its celebrated Chagall murals as part of the collateral for an existing loan and to ask for an across-the-board 10 percent pay cut from its singers next season. Peter Gelb, the Met’s general manager, said the Chagall murals would free up cash used as collateral for a loan from JPMorgan Chase. Mr. Gelb declined to release information about the value or purpose of the loan or the murals’ appraised value, but the company’s 2007 tax return—the most recent available—said the loan amounted to $35 million. Mr. Gelb said that the loan existed before he became general manager three seasons ago. The Met’s budget this season is $291 million. The murals, visible from the Lincoln Center plaza, are beloved New York treasures. They measure 30 feet by 36 feet and are called ‘The Triumph of Music’ and ‘The Sources of Music.’ … Mr. Gelb played down the recent Chagall deal, which was first reported in New York magazine. ‘We have no intention of giving up the Chagalls,’ he said. ‘We don’t think it’s a major event.’ ”

Posted 3/4/2009

Wednesday (3/4) on Bloomberg.com, Patrick Cole writes, “Corporations and wealthy individuals are donating less to nonprofits, with arts groups taking the biggest hit, according to two new studies. Of 158 companies polled by the economic-research group the Conference Board in February, 45 percent said they have reduced their 2009 philanthropy budget and 16 percent are considering it. The survey said 35 percent of the companies will make fewer grants in 2009 and 22 percent are thinking about it. When asked what they anticipate as their biggest challenge this year, companies cited an increase in the number of grant requests, inadequate financial resources and declines in the value of corporate foundation endowments. … Arts and culture will see the biggest drop, with 41 percent reporting a decrease in resources. Environmental causes will see the biggest increase, with 28 percent. A Bank of America study said rich individuals—700 people polled had household incomes of more than $200,000 or a net worth of at least $1 million—gave an average of $4,792 to the arts, down 71 percent from $16,465, between 2005 and 2007, the latest data available.”

Posted 3/4/2009

In a story posted Tuesday (3/3) on the North Texas public media organization KERA’s news site Art&Seek, Jerome Weeks writes, “The celebrated violinist Pinchas Zukerman is returning to Dallas this week—for the first time in three years. He’ll be guest-conducting with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and then he and his wife, cellist Amanda Forsyth, will tour with the DSO to Florida for three concerts. But what was meant as a happy occasion has been marked by the financial troubles facing classical music these days. The Concert Association of Florida, which had booked Zukerman and the DSO, filed for bankruptcy last month. The Dallas Symphony’s concerts are unaffected, but some of the presenter’s other shows have been cancelled. … This season, Zukerman has been marking his 60th birthday with 100 concerts in 17 countries. Yet he says that his own income is more or less back where it was 15 years ago. Zukerman sees these same stark facts everywhere in classical music—from the recording industry to non-profit arts groups. … With the Dallas Symphony, things are hardly so bleak. Doug Adams, the symphony’s president, says that they have postponed hiring to fill some positions. But they have not laid off staff or reduced performances.”

Posted 3/4/2009