
Firefighters attempt to quell the flames consuming Theatre Palisades in Los Angeles’ Pacific Palisades suburb on January 8, 2025.
In Monday’s (1/13) Limelight (Sydney, Australia), Jason Blake writes, “The wildfires consuming entire suburbs in Los Angeles have disrupted the lives and livelihoods of nearly 200,000 people … and have destroyed, to date, in excess of 10,000 structures, homes and business. The impact on the music industry, which has deep and extensive roots in the city, has been considerable, with many musicians losing homes and studio facilities and others left without work with major concerts, recording sessions and gigs cancelled across Los Angeles and elsewhere…. Looming large among the victims of the fires, many of which still burn uncontrolled at time of writing, is the Schoenberg specialist Belmont Music Publisher, which lost its entire inventory in a fire that destroyed its premises in the Pacific Palisades district…. Belmont was established in 1965 to manage the rights to the composer’s works and ensure access to some of the most significant music of the 20th century…. The vast bulk of Arnold Schoenberg’s personal and musical archive is unaffected, having been moved from the University of Southern California to Mödling, Vienna in the late 1990s…. Elsewhere, a number of venues, studios and homes belonging to musicians and music industry workers have been lost … With the list of music industry professionals who have lost homes and places of work numbering over 200, the Recording Academy and charity foundation MusiCares has pledged US$1 million to support artists and music industry professionals.”
The League of American Orchestras’ Disaster Relief and Preparedness site at americanorchestras.org/learn/disaster-relief-and-preparedness/ offers guidance and disaster relief resources.