November 16, 2012   |
| | | Thought of the Day | | All great truths begin as blasphemies. --George Bernard Shaw
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| Quote of the Week | | To create one's world in any of the arts takes courage. --Georgia O'Keefe
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| | Interim Prez of Cliburn Quits Abruptly |  Alann Sampson, interim CEO of the Van Cliburn Foundation, has abruptly resigned. Sampson has been a volunteer with the Cliburn since the 1960s, and served as board chairman until last January after seven years in the post. She took over as interim in summer 2011 when David Worters left after only six months in the job. A search for a new chief executive is ongoing. Sampson's timing could hardly be worse: The next competition is in May 2013, and Van Cliburn is critically ill. She had stated previously that she planned to stay through the May event. Stepping in for her will be Jacques Marquis, the founder and longtime CEO of the Montreal International Music Competition, who recently came on the Cliburn staff. Perhaps he is next in line for the job. |
Osmo Vanska Jumps Into the Minnesota Fray |  In a highly unusual move, Minnesota Orchestra Music Director Osmo Vänskä has jumped into the silent abyss between the orchestra's board and its musicians with a letter pleading for them to return to the negotiating table. The two sides have been unable to agree on contract terms; the musicians have been locked out since Oct. 1. "I fear we may be on a path to diminishing greatly, if not destroying, the Minnesota Orchestra," he writes. "While there is no progress in the contract negotiations; while players are unable to rehearse and perform together; while some are obliged to seek jobs elsewhere - I am desperately anxious about the risk posed to the quality and spirit of the orchestra for the future." The Minnesota Orchestra has grown artistically by leaps and bounds since Vänskä's arrival in 2003. His contract expires in 2015. |
| | | November Video of the Month | | |
NY Phil Partners with Shanghai Symphony |  The New York Philharmonic is tapping into the China market big time, announcing today the launch of a four-year program in 2014 that sees the orchestra in a series of teaching and performance residencies in Shanghai, in partnership with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and its music director, Long Yu. Long Yu is the virtual epicenter of western classical music in China, as well as having major connections with Party leadership. In addition to his Shanghai affiliation, he is artistic director of the Beijing Music Festival, music director of the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra, and artistic director of the China Philharmonic. The program begins in fall 2014, with interested Philharmonic members teaching three week-long sessions at the Shanghai Conservatory. The Philadelphia Orchestra last year announced a similar initiative in Beijing. MA.com subscribers read the full story |
Suisse Romande Names New General Manager |  Henk Swinnen is to be the new general manager of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Switzerland's flagship orchestra, effective Feb. 1. Swinnen, 42, succeeds Miguel Esteban, who was forced out in July after only two weeks in the job. There was reportedly conflict between Esteban and musicians, and the administrative staff was said to be "terrified" of him. Swinnen, who is the current artistic director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic, comes with credentials both musical and managerial. The Belgium-born Dutchman is the former principal oboe of the Dutch Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and still plays with the Combattimento Consort of Amsterdam. |
| | Put a Young Audience in Your Seats! 
Click here to watch this amazing Double Concerto David Chesky's double concerto is exciting, rhythmic, sophisticated, and complex, and yet it is still fun to watch and listen to. This will get your next generation of subscribers excited about coming to hear classical music with your orchestra. www.davidchesky.com |
Salvaging Tippett's Midsummer Marriage |  BOSTON -- If you could only save one opera, The Midsummer Marriage might not be the most obvious choice, but it might very well be the most efficient. Sir Michael Tippett's grand, overgrown masque, presented in concert by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project on Nov. 10, is a resolutely atypical opera, but distills the essence of so many other operas and operatic tropes that it seems to anthologize the entire art form. Any synopsis of The Midsummer Marriage seems to spin outward, more wide than deep. In performance, though, the mythological screens fade as characters and conflicts snap into focus. Tippett's juxtaposition of primeval and modern turns out to be a clash not just of eras, but of equals. And the score, as eclectic as it is, grounds everything. Musical nods to everything from Renaissance dance to modernist pointillism are subsumed into Tippett's palpably imposing orchestration, deep foundations erupting into volcanic brightness. BMOP Music Director Gil Rose and the orchestra pumped those colors up to almost overwhelming effect-a wall of brawny, gleaming sound. MA.com subscribers read the full story |
| A Cultural Armageddon? | |  From An American in Paris by Frank Cadenhead "What? America doesn't have a Minister of Culture?," I remember a good friend asking. "How do they manage?" The short answer: they don't. To translate the French words politique culturelle into American English poses problems, since the concept essentially does not exist. It generally refers to the government's policies for the arts but the U. S. government leaves its cultural heritage and its artists to fend for themselves. Do not think for a second that the National Endowment for the Arts has anything to do with anything. Why it appears from time to time in the political dialog is always a source of wonder to me. When you consider the arts budgets of the rest of the modern world, the NEA's annual budget - and its inherent ability to support and lead in the field - is microscopic. It wouldn't cover the cost of bottled water for the ministries of other Western governments, most of which provide the bulk of support for their resident orchestras, opera companies, theaters, poetry retreats, art museums, etc. |
| Not Even God Can Act WIthout A Contract! |  No sooner had Super Storm Sandy begun crashing into the East Coast when my phone started ringing with cancellations. The most common question went something like this: "The presenter needs to cancel, but they already paid a deposit. Do we have to give it back? What the protocol?" The second most common question went something like this: "We booked an artist and paid a deposit. We're being evacuated and need to cancel. Can we get the deposit back? Naturally, I always ask to see the contract. As I suspected, in almost each case, while the contract contained an Act of God clause, it merely stated that either party could cancel "in the event of an Act of God." In an effort to "keep things simple" the parties also kept their contracts fairly worthless!
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| Hearing the Artist's Voice |  From Ask Edna by Edna Landau
For the answers to the questions below, click here. One of the questions I am asked most frequently when I meet with students at music schools and conservatories is: How important is it to have a website? I increasingly tell them that it is very important. The challenge for a musician who is still a student is to generate enough information to fill a website, especially if they have only a few, or even no reviews, and their performance calendar is very sparse. Recently, I had the pleasure of meeting with performance psychologist Dr. Noa Kageyama's Performance Enhancement class at the Juilliard School. The students are all Masters students. In preparation for the class, I asked Dr. Kageyama to give me their names so that I could get to know them a little online before meeting them in person. Only four out of eighteen had websites but one really stood out from the rest. It was created by double bassist Corey Schutzer, whose performance experience to date is largely as a collaborative bassist. He does not yet have a very busy performance schedule and there are no reviews on the website, yet he does have some impressive quotes on the home page, a very interesting and unusual performance sample on the Media page, and a sincerely written page entitled "Teaching Philosophy", which should help him find new students. He generously lists links to resources that other bassists might find helpful. Most importantly, he succeeds in achieving a warm, personal style of communication and he impressed this reader with his expressions of gratitude to all those who have helped him reach this point in his career. 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." Dunn, Scott, conductor, added, Kaylor Management Levi, Yoel, conductor, added, Kaylor Management Ruckgaber, Katharina, soprano, added, Artistainternational Read the full story |
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