May 18, 2012  |
| | | Thought of the Day | | I've never known a musician who regretted being one. Whatever deceptions life has in store for you, music itself isn't going to let you down.
--Virgil Thompson
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| Quote of the Week | | A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song. --Lou Holtz
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NEW YORK -- Herbert Breslin, the hard-driving manager who helped propel Luciano Pavarotti to international fame during the 36 years they worked together, has died of an apparent heart attack. He was 87. Breslin collapsed at his hotel in Nice, France, on Wednesday and died at a hospital there, according to his wife, Carol, in New York. His death was reported by Anne Midgette of The Washington Post, co-author with Breslin of the 2004 book The King and I, which detailed Breslin's work with Pavarotti. Under Breslin's guidance, Pavarotti moved beyond opera houses to become an entertainment star who performed at arenas, stadiums, and even Las Vegas. Even before starting with Pavarotti in 1967, Breslin's PR firm represented opera singers Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Joan Sutherland, and Marilyn Horne. MA.com subscribers read the full story |
El Sistema Grad Wins Malko Competition | El Sistema strikes again. A sterling product of Venezuela's program, and a onetime assistant to Claudio Abbado, has won Denmark's Malko Conducting Competition. He is 32-year-old Venezuelan Rafael Payare, principal horn of the Simon Bolivar Orchestra and assistant to its music director, Gustavo Dudamel. Payare took the grand prize Saturday night after six days of play-offs before an 11-member jury headed by Lorin Maazel. Program for the finals concert, with the Danish National Symphony, included the second act of Carl Nielsen's opera Saul and David and the first movement of Tchaikovsky's Symphony Nos. 3, 5, or 6. The grand prize is 20 thousand euros and a huge career boost, consisting of 24 engagements with leading Nordic orchestras and a mentorship under Maazel. MA.com subscribers read the full story |
| | | Sydney Symphony Taps David Robertson | | David Robertson, music director of the St. Louis Symphony, principal guest conductor of the BBC Symphony, has a new podium on the horizon. The Sydney Symphony has announced him to be its chief conductor and artistic director from Jan. 2014 for five years. He succeeds Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor Vladimir Ashkenazy. Robertson, Musical America's 2000 Conductor of the Year, first led the Symphony in 2003 and has been back four times since. The announcement indicates that Robertson, onetime music director of the Ensemble Intercontemporain with a particular penchant for contemporary work, will spearhead some "ground-breaking" projects with his new band. MA.com subscribers read the full story |
Spring for Music. Great Idea. | | 
NEW YORK -- Spring for Music, a Carnegie Hall series of six concerts by regional orchestras now in its second season, has proven to be a really good idea. After all, parochial New Yorkers (and critics) are not about to tool around the country to hear local orchestras, no matter how good, and Carnegie Hall is a legendary sought-after venue. The concerts are broadcast nationally; bandanas are waved, encores are played; everybody's happy.
Imaginative programs and high performance levels of the first two orchestras--from Houston on May 7 and Edmonton (Alberta) on May 8--suggest that the term "regional" can no longer be a euphemism for third-rate. It merely connotes "not from New York" and "not the big five." The Edmonton Symphony and its huge hometown audience in particular seemed to ride along on Music Director William Eddins' infectious enthusiasm. Flash and dash were the order of the evening: the players wore brightly-colored shirts with no jackets and the trumpet soloist, in a green-lined jacket, played a blue instrument. MA.com subscribers read the full story |
Prize Fighter's Story as Opera Fodder | Jazz trumpeter and film composer Terence Blanchard is working on a new opera, his first, to be premiered in June of 2013 by Opera Theater of St. Louis. The new work, co-commissioned with Jazz St. Louis, is based on the true story of prize fighter Emile Griffith and his 1962 victory over Benny "The Kid" Paret for World Welterweight Champion. It was Griffith's third time winning the title, but it was also a tragic episode: Paret, knocked out in seven seconds with 17 punches from his opponent, went into a coma and died ten days later. The intensity of Griffith's attack no doubt was related directly to Paret's having made repeated derogatory comments about Griffith's homosexuality, in a televised interview shortly before the fight. The libretto for Champion, as it is titled, is being written by Pulitzer-Prize winning playwright Michael Cristofer--his first opera libretto. MA.com subscribers read the full story |
| How Do I Draft An Engagement Agreement For My Trio? |  To submit a question to FTM Arts Law write to LawAndDisorder@MusicalAmerica.com Dear FTM Arts Law, I am a manager who will be writing contracts on behalf of a trio. They don't have a corporation and there is no "leader." They just get together and perform together. How do I handle their engagement fees so that I do not look like their employer? None of the three wants to collect the money on behalf of the others. So, that leaves me to disperse the money. I know I must be careful not to appear as a producer or employer, so I want to be sure that I write my contracts properly, as well, handle the payment of fees. So, when writing the actual contract, do I make it out between all three musicians and the presenter? What if one of them is paid to his/her corporation? Does this make sense? Read the full story
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| Transitioning From One Management to Another | |  For the answers to the question below, click here. Dear Edna: I am a young conductor who has been fortunate to have management for the past several years as a result of having participated in a showcase and attracting someone's attention there. While I must admit I have been disappointed with the number of engagements this association has yielded, several of which came through my own connections, I still consider myself lucky. Recently, I made the acquaintance of a manager who handles conductors whose careers are in higher gear than mine. He has shown what seems to be genuine interest in me and I am wondering if you can tell me how artists transition from one manager to another with as little disruption as possible. Thank you.-J.B. Read the full story |
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From "Why I Left Muncie" by Sedgwick Clark I'm off for a two-and-a-half-week safari vacation in South Africa with PK and our favorite traveling buddies. From Cape Town and the wine lands to Kruger National Park to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, it will undoubtedly be a far cry from the MGM back lot and grainy second-unit location images impressed upon me since I was a kid. Whatever I'll encounter, I may be sure it won't be Maureen O'Sullivan, Grace Kelly, or Ava Gardner, although The African Queen and all those shots and malaria pills have made me a bit apprehensive of the smaller wildlife thereabouts. One stop will be outside Cape Town to the Hout Bay Music Project, which teaches string and percussion students. We're taking scores and sheet music from Schirmer Inc., t-shirts from the New York Philharmonic, caps from Lincoln Center, and plenty of CDs I've received over the years. I'll bet the kids especially appreciate three of the multi-CD chamber-music sets released annually by Music@Menlo, which contain 73 works from the baroque to 21st century. But I'm also bringing CDs by Musical America honorees David Finckel and Wu Han, Gil Shaham, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Joshua Bell, and undoubted future honorees. Read the full story |
| 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." Baird, Janice, soprano, added, Encompass Arts Blancke-Biggs, Elizabeth, soprano, removed, Encompass Arts Chambers, Kirsten, soprano, removed, Encompass Arts Gieseler, Jerett, baritone, removed, Encompass Arts Mannino, Angela, soprano, added, Encompass Arts Williamson, Scott, conductor, removed, Encompass Arts Youm, Na Li, soprano, removed, Encompass Arts Read the full story |
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