Category: News Briefs

In Saturday’s (2/14) Wall Street Journal, John Jurgensen reports, “Many cultural groups, hit hard by the recession, are slashing prices at the box office. It’s a controversial tactic in the arts world, where profits are always hard-won. But by offering low prices on high culture, the new crop of deals provides an attractive access point, especially for casual fans.” Jurgensen surveys the packages presented by several organizations around the country, including the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, among others. “To sidestep a potential pricing trap, the major arts presenters in Portland, Ore., formed a temporary coalition to boost attendance citywide. A ticket stub for a February performance at one of eight local groups can be turned in for a deal at any of the other participating groups. … The idea was hatched by Elaine Calder, president of the Oregon Symphony, who sent an email to her local colleagues last November that detailed her plan to pull in patrons who might be staying home instead of, say, taking a ski vacation.” Although drops in the endowment and donations put pressure on paid attendance, “Ms. Calder says she’s more focused on audience size than margins. ‘Nobody feels good in a half-empty house. Audiences feel better when their decision is validated by the full seats around them,’ she says.”

“Although many arts groups are singing the blues, two New Jersey organizations are trying a new duet,” writes Peggy McGlone in Monday’s (2/16) Star-Ledger (Newark, New Jersey). “Opera New Jersey and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra will collaborate on three productions this July in Princeton and a ‘Carmen’ at three venues around the state next February. The deal, to be announced early this week, represents the cutting edge of a trend in the nonprofit arts industry. Facing hard times, arts organizations are learning they must share if they want to grow. … The two organizations share a common mission but are different in size and history.” The opera will hire the NJSO for three productions this summer. “Next winter, the partnership deepens as both organizations and the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark co-produce Bizet’s ‘Carmen’ in Newark, New Brunswick and Princeton. In past years, the opera has hired professional musicians for its orchestra on an as-needed basis. The NJSO represents a cohesive group of musicians who have developed a distinctive sound through years of performing together. The effort allows both organizations to extend their seasons, reach new audiences and improve their artistic product.”

In an article on the front page of Friday’s (2/13) Rochester Business Journal (New York), Nate Dougherty writes, “As the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Inc. awaits the opening of the renovated Eastman Theatre this year and a further expansion slated for 2010, the organization is undergoing a related period of transformation. Buoyed by the success of a recent three-year strategic plan, the RPO intends to use the theater’s renovation to reinvent the concert experience and gain new revenue. … The RPO in January released its financial results for fiscal 2007-08, the final year of a growth plan dubbed ‘Ensuring a Vibrant Future.’  … During the three-year plan, revenue and support rose from $9 million to $10 million cumulatively. … The success of the current three-year campaign, approved by the RPO board in July, will rely heavily on optimizing the potential of the Eastman Theatre, which will be known as Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre.” RPO President and CEO Charles Owens believes additions such as new box seats in the hall, concessions, and a new gift shop will help increase revenue. “The RPO will put more emphasis into recordings to increase its prominence on the national stage, Owens said.”

In Monday’s (2/16) New York Times, Robin Pogrebin writes about how “arts-friendly members of the House and Senate struggled to preserve $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts in the final version of the recovery package, approved by both houses on Friday. There was a whiplash quality to the action surrounding the arts money. As the week wore on, things weren’t looking good. Although a House version of the bill had included the $50 million, the Senate version approved no arts money at all. The Senate even voted 73 to 24 on Feb. 6 for an amendment ruling out stimulus money for museums, arts centers and theaters. … The challenge for culture boosters in Congress was to convince a House-Senate conference committee that the arts provide jobs as other industries do, while also encouraging tourism and spending in general. … As the details of the final bill were being hammered out, tens of thousands of arts advocates around the country were calling and e-mailing legislators. Arts groups also organized an advertising blitz arguing that culture contributes 6 million jobs and $30 billion in tax revenue and $166 billion in annual economic impact. The tide turned. In addition to preserving the $50 million allocation, the final bill eliminated part of the Senate amendment that would have excluded museums, theaters and arts centers from any recovery money.” 

This afternoon the U.S. House of Representatives approved its final version of the Economic Recovery bill by a vote of 246-183. The $789 billion package includes $50 million in direct support for arts jobs through National Endowment for the Arts grants; the Coburn Amendment language, banning certain arts groups from receiving any other economic recovery funds, has been removed. According to the advocacy group Americans for the Arts, the inclusion of arts funding was the result of efforts from arts supporters including more than 85,000 letters sent to Congress, coverage in print and online media, blogs, and in op-ed pages. The Senate is scheduled to have its final vote tonight, and President Obama plans to sign the bill on Monday, Presidents’ Day.

In Thursday’s (2/12) Daily Telegraph (London), Geoffry Norris notes H K Gruber’s enthusiasm over becoming the BBC Philharmonic’s composer/conductor. “Ideas about what he can do when takes over from James MacMillan in the autumn at the BBC’s Manchester base tumble from his lips. Projects with children, neglected composers, open rehearsals, recordings, composer portraits, encouraging composers to conduct their own works: as he says, he has enough plans to last him for the next 40 years.” Gruber’s most famous work, Frankenstein!!!, “was sparked by the anti-authoritarian student movement in Austria in the late Sixties, when Gruber was in his mid-twenties, and uses children’s rhymes by H C Artmann that conceal political statements and which Gruber weaves into a fantasy of anarchy. ‘We wanted to say no to the dictators of Darmstadt,’ he booms, referring to the hard-line group of atonal composers who dominated musical thinking in Germany and beyond after the Second World War. … ‘I don’t see my function,’ says Gruber, ‘as being somebody who just takes care of his own music. I am a composer/conductor, and I am very interested in the music of colleagues—dead or alive, it doesn’t matter.’ ”

In a Wednesday (2/11) post entitled “Arts Jobs Are Real Jobs” on the Los Angeles Times website Culture Monster, Christopher Knight writes, “One puzzlement in the debate over congressional stimulus bill has been the inability—or the perverse refusal—of many to include jobs in the culture industry as a legitimate concern. Politicians of various stripes, from California Democrat Dianne Feinstein to Oklahoma Republican Tom Colburn, seem blind to the simple reality. … I chalk it up to celebrity culture. Funding for theater? Tim Robbins doesn’t need money! Funding for art museums? Jeff Koons is rich! Funding for concert halls? Yo-Yo Ma is a superstar! The glare of the celebrity spotlight obscures our view of the ticket-taker at Robbins’ play trying to make ends meet, the preparator at Koons’ museum exhibition struggling to put a kid through college, or the education program coordinator at the concert hall where Yo-Yo Ma performs who has a pile of medical bills. Their jobs are at risk. But they are anonymous, faceless.”

At the “Talk to the Newsroom” page of the New York Times website from February 9 to 13, Anthony Tommasini, the Times’ chief classical music critic, has been answering reader questions. “You ask about how I prepare for reviewing something,” writes Tommasini in response to one question. “In a way, my preparation is ongoing, a lifetime spent immersed in music. I bring that to everything I cover. But I also have to inform myself as best I can about what I’m hearing, especially if it’s a new artist or a new work…. A review is a mix of reactions and descriptions, part opinion piece and part news report. The mix is not necessarily 50-50. Sometimes I have a strong opinion. Sometimes I don’t, so I stand back a bit and focus in my review on the news, describing what I heard. No matter the mix, the news reporter component of reviewing is crucial. When I review the premiere of a new symphonic work, or a new production of a Verdi opera, I have a big responsibility: I have to describe in the most vivid way I can what I heard and place it in the context of the news of the event.” Tommasini also gives extended answers to questions including the definition of rubato, whether classical music is treated too sensitively by critics, why the Times reviews the first performance of a multi-performance run, and who is responsible for educating audiences. Other Times staffers who previously have answered reader questions in the column include Bill Keller, the executive editor; Bill McDonald, obituaries editor; and Sam Sifton, the culture editor.