April 20, 2012  |
| | | Thought of the Day | | Music produces a kind of pleasure which human nature cannot do without.
--Confucius
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| Quote of the Week | | Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils. --Hector Berlioz
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| | Boston Symphony Gets $7.5 Million | | 
The Boston Symphony Orchestra is one of a handful of fiscally solid major U.S. orchestras, largely thanks to its three-pronged business model of the Boston Pops, the BSO at Tanglewood (where it is also a presenter of pop and jazz acts), and the BSO at Symphony Hall. As of this morning, it further cemented its financial solidity with a gift of $7.5 million from longtime trustees Robert O'Block and Stephen B. Kay. The gift is among the largest the BSO has ever received and is virtually unrestricted in that it can be used for endowment support, operational support, and capital projects. In exchange, the newly renovated Hatch Room on the orchestra-level of Symphony Hall has been renamed the "The O'Block/Kay Room." Robert O'Block is an executive with McKinsey & Company; Stephen Kay is a senior director at Goldman Sachs. The two men served as co-chairs of the BSO board of directors from March 2010 to August 2011. They are now vice-chairmen. MA.com subscribers read the full story |
Domingo to Conduct Mega Turandot | London's Wembley Stadium is to be the site on June 23rd of a grandiose production of Turandot staged by Chinese film director Zhang Yimou, he of the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics. The London Times reports that this "most ambitious opera ever staged" in the UK will be conducted by Plácido Domingo and feature a cast of 600 before a potential audience of 45,000. Domingo and Zhang last collaborated on Tan Dun's opera The First Emperor in 2006; the conductor/tenor/baritone/opera-company manager sang the role of the Emperor Qin Shi Huang. Promoting the event is Live Nation, known for presenting arena rock concerts and such. The production, which Zhang first staged in 1998 in Beijing's Forbidden City, is essentially the same as the one in the Bird's Nest in 2009, where the budget was £120m and top ticket prices were £800. MA.com subscribers read the full story |
| | | Holocaust Violins in Special Exhibition | | 
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- When a musician plays a violin long enough, the instrument is imprinted with its owner's way of making sound. If someone else picks it up, they learn to play it in a way that honors its history. So when David Russell places a violin played in the World War II concentration camp of Auschwitz under his chin, he lets the violin tell him how to do it.
The Auschwitz violin and 17 others with connections to the vanished world of Europe's prewar Jewish communities are part of a new exhibit and performance series called Violins of Hope. "When the violinists in Violins of Hope play these instruments and they find how to make these instruments sound their best, they're actually bringing back patterns from the former performers who used to play them," said Russell. All the violins were restored by master violin maker Amnon Weinstein, 73, who says they provide a way to teach young people about the Holocaust. MA.com subscribers read the full story |
Shostakovich with a Sense of Froth | | 
CHICAGO -- What are the Russian words for "zany," "light-hearted romp," "that old razzle-dazzle"? Whatever they are, they're not usually associated with Dmitri Shostakovich, he of the darkly jagged string quartets and turbulent symphonies. But Chicago Opera Theater's effervescent new production of his long-forgotten operetta Moscow, Cheryomushki bubbles with onstage froth and more. Unveiled April 14 at the Harris Theater in downtown Chicago, the opera is a comic tale of young lovers looking for rooms of their own amid the frustrating maze of the Soviet housing system. Cheryomushki, written in 1958, has had a checkered history. In the post-war era, Soviet audiences adored operettas and Broadway-style musicals, whether live or on film. A cross between the Technicolor ebullience of Singin' in the Rain and the sentimental magic of It's a Wonderful Life, Moscow, Cheryomushki was an icon, the go-to film for Soviet families during the New Year holidays. COT's crack musical and production teams have refurbished Moscow, Cheryomushki from top to bottom without damaging its underlying charm. MA.com subscribers read the full story |
Beijing Wades Boldly into Wagnerian Waters | BEIJING -- At a time when even the Metropolitan Opera has scaled back its physical productions with a comparably minimalist esthetic, one can take heart that somewhere in the world, opera still looms large. How large is Giancarlo Del Monaco's new production of Der Fliegende Holländer that opened the National Center for the Performing Arts' fourth annual Opera Festival last week in Beijing? The Dutchman spends much of his time singing aboard a life-size ship that rocks on stage. Audiences are visually pummeled by massive moving images of choppy waters, with 12 projectors creating the furious storm of Wagner's score. Motion sickness is a constant threat to cast and audience alike. This is visceral Wagner for the IMAX generation, less of an opera than a Pirates of the Caribbean theme park, though one could hardly think of a better showcase for the NCPA's formidable technical staff, now numbering over 400. |
| Do We Need ASCAP/BMI Licenses? |  To submit a question to FTM Arts Law write to LawAndDisorder@MusicalAmerica.com Hello Law and Disorder, We have met numerous times at conferences, (I love going to your sessions!) and you have been very helpful with questions about our presenting contracts. We also rent our facility and I now have a question about that side. We recently received a letter from BMI stating that a few of our rental clients have not paid their licensing fees and that we are now responsible for the fees. Can they do that? We have it stated in our rental contract that the user is responsible of ASCAP/BMI fees, is that enough to get us out of it? If BMI can hold us accountable for the artist fees how do we protect our self in the future? I appreciate your advice, thank you. Read the full story
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| Choosing Your Opening Line | |  For the answers to the question below, click here. I recently had the pleasure of leading a Professional Skills session at The Academy - a program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School and the Will Music Institute, in partnership with the New York City Department of Education. The twenty Fellows currently participating in this excellent program represent some of today's finest young professional musicians. In the question and answer section, violist Margaret Dyer asked: What is an attractive first sentence of a bio? Although I have written about this in an earlier column (Getting to Know You (writing a good bio), June 2, 2011), I have chosen to address this question again, with a slightly different slant. It is my belief that the first one or two sentences of a bio should relate information about the particular artist that is central to who they are and that is likely to make you want to continue reading. If there is merit to this statement, the following openings (taken from real artist bios but with names and instruments changed) would not qualify: Read the full story |
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From "Why I Left Muncie" by Sedgwick Clark I didn't react favorably to all the works in Michael Tilson Thomas's American Mavericks series, which has consumed this blog for three weeks. But that's not the point: This is the kind of programming that keeps our concert halls vital, and the full houses certainly bespoke wide interest, especially among younger listeners. As I write this (4/19), I look forward to a program tonight at Carnegie Hall of George Crumb's music, courtesy of Leon Botstein and the American Symphony. Among other works, I'll hear Crumb's Star-Child, which I haven't heard live since its premiere in 1977 with Boulez and the New York Philharmonic. Long may these enterprising conductors wave! Partch, Bates, Del Tredici, Harrison (3/29) The music of California composer Harry Partch (1901-1974) is genuinely unique, played only on instruments he himself created. My interest has been known to wander in his longer works, but his 17-minute Daphne of the Dunes (1958; rev. 1967) was an aural delight and never outstayed its welcome. I was struck by the similarity of the work's opening rhythm to the fandango beat in Bernard Herrmann's title music for Hitchcock's North by Northwest (1959). |
| Latest Roster Changes |  Musical America is helping presenters keep up with its advertisers! Managers whose rosters appear in the 2012 edition of the Musical America Directory should write to listings@musicalamerica.com with the names of artists and attractions that have been either added or removed, and please be sure to indicate "added" or "removed." NEW THIS WEEK Briggs, Hope, soprano, removed, ADA Artist Management Carroll, Andrea, soprano, added, ADA Artist Management Gilbert, Angela, soprano, removed, ADA Artist Management Greenlaw, Ian, baritone, removed, ADA Artist Management Heltzel, Sarah, mezzo-soprano, removed, ADA Artist Management Hill, Shana Blake, soprano, removed, ADA Artist Management Hudson, Chuck, stage director, removed, ADA Artist Management Jolly, Katherine, soprano, removed, ADA Artist Management Larkin, Christopher, conductor, added, ADA Artist Management Masters, Nicholas, bass, removed, ADA Artist Management Muni, Nic, stage director, removed, ADA Artist Management Nemzer, Andrey, countertenor, added, Fletcher Artist Management Park, Hana, soprano, removed, ADA Artist Management Ramo, Suzanne, soprano, removed, ADA Artist Management Scotting, Randall, countertenor, removed, ADA Artist Management Slayden, Jason, tenor, added, ADA Artist Management Terrell, Scott, conductor, removed, ADA Artist Management Van Eyck, Jamie, mezzo-soprano, removed, ADA Artist Management Vega, Edwin, tenor, added, ADA Artist Management
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