Cosmic Burst Cafe: August 2012

Friday, August 31, 2012

News From Musical America Worldwide

August 31, 2012

Newsletter Banner 2012 Edition

In This Issue

Kent Nagano to Gothenburg Symphony

LA Phil Principal Flute Out

Florida Grand Opera Names CEO

Santa Fe Opera Chief Conductor Resigns

Van Cliburn Is Critically Ill

St. Paul Chamber Orchestra in Crisis

Eugenia Zukerman's Tanglewood Vlog

Non-Profit and Tax-Exempt: What's In a Name?

Vivat Boulez

Latest Roster Changes

Also This Week on MusicalAmerica.com...

Thought of the Day

The cultured man is an artist, an artist in humanity.

--Ashley Montagu

Quote of the Week

Your successes and happiness are forgiven you only if you generously consent to share them.

--Albert Camus

Quick Links

Advertise

Subscribe to MusicalAmerica.com

Order the 2012 Edition

Feedback

Kent Nagano to Gothenburg Symphony

The Gothenburg Symphony -- the national orchestra of Sweden -- has named American conductor Kent Nagano as principal guest conductor and artistic advisor. As such, he is not exactly succeeding Gustavo Dudamel, who has been its principal conductor for the last five years, but nonetheless filling an artistic vacancy. Nagano will start advising immediately; he'll conduct up to seven weeks a season starting in fall 2013.

Nagano first led the orchestra some 20 years ago in Mahler's Symphony No. 3. They have made one recording together, in 2003, of works for voice and orchestra by several contemporary Swedish composers.

The California native is music director of the Montreal Symphony and of the Bayerische Staatsoper Munich. He steps down from the latter post in June of 2013, having cited cultural differences with the City of Munich.

MA.com subscribers read the full story

LA Phil Principal Flute Out

David Buck, principal flute of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, is to take the same position with the Detroit Symphony as of the new season, which opens Sept. 28. He was appointed in 2010 by the LA Phil's Music Director Gustavo Dudamel. Last season was his first.

Asked for a comment, the Philharmonic said it would not have one.

Buck, 30, is originally from Philadelphia and earned both his bachelor's degree and graduate diploma from The Juilliard School. Prior to Los Angeles, he was principal flute of the Oregon Symphony for four seasons. He began his career at age 20 as associate principal flute of the Honolulu Symphony.

In Detroit, Buck succeeds Philip Dikeman, who had been acting principal flute and then left for a teaching job at Vanderbilt University during the DSO's prolonged strike last year.

MA.com subscribers read the full story

Florida Grand Opera Names CEO

Florida Grand Opera has chosen Sarasota Opera Executive Director Susan T. Danis to be its general director and CEO. She succeeds Robert Heuer, who announced his plan to retire after 27 years in the job in April. Danis starts in October.

FGO reports having received 59 applications for the job; the search was funded by the Knight Foundation.

Executive director of Sarasota since 1999, Danis is credited with growing the budget from $3.2 million to the current $8.3 million; raising the funds for and overseeing the $20 million renovation of the company's theater; restructuring the board of directors; and widening the repertoire range.

FGO Board Chair Jane A. Robinson said she anticipated great success for the company under Danis, "in the tradition of renowned Lyric Opera of Chicago's late general director, Ardis Krainik."

High expectations indeed.

MA.com subscribers read the full story

Santa Fe Opera Chief Conductor Resigns

SANTA FE, N.M. -- Santa Fe Opera Chief Conductor Frederic Chaslin has resigned. He informed the company of his decision Aug. 25, after the season ended, and is now back on his home turf in Paris.

The move was unexpected: Chaslin had been contracted to conduct two operas next summer -- La traviata and Offenbach's La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein -- and now will not. He was appointed in 2010, following a successful debut in 2009 with La Traviata. A search for his successor begins in the fall.

The Associated Press reports General Director Charles Mackay as saying Chaslin resigned because he wants to spend more time on composing and on a recording project with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, of which he is music director.

MA.com subscribers read the full story

Van Cliburn Is Critically Ill

Van Cliburn, 78, who made history in 1958 when he took the top prize in the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, has been diagnosed with advanced bone cancer, according to his longtime friend and publicist, Mary Lou Falcone.

"He is under excellent care and resting comfortably at home in Fort Worth, Texas," she told MA late Wednesday afternoon. "His spirits are high. We ask that his privacy be respected."

MA.com subscribers read the full story

St. Paul Chamber Orchestra in Crisis

In an open letter to St. Paul (MN) Mayor Chris Coleman, Evelina Chao, assistant principal viola of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, asks for help and support. She reports that management is asking America's only fulltime chamber orchestra to take cuts of 57 and 67 percent and to cut back on the number of concerts. The goal, she surmises, is to force the musicians to look for jobs elsewhere; through attrition, then, SPCO would become a part-time ensemble.

The current contract expires Sept. 30.

She writes, "These proposals have caused some musicians to sell their homes, audition for jobs elsewhere, and request leave in order to seek work in another field. We fully acknowledge the financial pressures felt by the management and board and how this weak economy has impacted everyone. We musicians have accepted reductions in compensation that have saved the SPCO more than $2 million over the past 10 years.... Management would have us fall in line with other orchestras it claims are failing because of the economy, yet orchestras in St. Louis, Dallas, Houston, Colorado, Boston, Milwaukee, Buffalo and others have increased donations and reported good institutional health."

MA.com subscribers read the full story

Eugenia Zukerman's Tanglewood Vlog

Ignat Solzhenitsyn, Pianist/Conductor

Recognized as one of today's most gifted artists, Ignat Solzhenitsyn enjoys a brilliant career as both conductor and pianist. His lyrical and inspired interpretations have won him worldwide acclaim. Born in Moscow, he has a particular affinity for the legacy of Koussevitzky at Tanglewood. "The spirit of Koussevitzky is everywhere," he says. "It's amazing how much this man influenced his peers as well as his physical and spiritual environment of the time. He not only had an exceptional musical genius, but also a genius for thinking about music's place in society, about how music can best flourish. It's to Koussevitzky's everlasting credit that he saw what Tanglewood could be, and here we are, 75 years later, and I don't think he'd be a bit surprised to see what it's become." A devoted teacher, Ignat feels that "students have to, at all times, be consumed with the notion that the purpose is to serve the music. I want students to leave here with an enhanced sense of commitment and love for it."

Non-Profit and Tax-Exempt: What's In a Name?

To submit a question to GG Arts Law write to LawAndDisorder@MusicalAmerica.com

Dear Law & Disorder:

What is the difference between a "non-profit" organization and a "tax-exempt" organization? I hear these terms used interchangeably - do they mean the same thing?

Read the full story

Vivat Boulez

From Why I Left Muncie by Sedgwick Clark

It's not often that one can gratefully quote British musical mudslinger (or "gadfly," depending upon your point of view) Norman Lebrecht. But his report on Sunday (8/26, Arts Journal) that Pierre Boulez had begun rehearsals in Lucerne months after "an eye operation that went wrong" was the best news I've heard all year. Boulez had cancelled concerts in Chicago and Cleveland last season due to failing eyesight, and fear among friends and followers was that he would never conduct again because of his invariable use of a score. (He told me in an interview that he never fails to learn new insights from the score during performance.) Lebrecht publishes a photo of the French maestro congratulating Franz Welser-Möst after a Cleveland Orchestra concert in Lucerne on Sunday, commenting that "he looked tanned, relaxed, happy, and far younger than his 87 years." Vivat!

Read the full story

Latest Roster Changes

RosterChanges 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."