June 28, 2013   |
| | | Thought of the Day | Everybody gets so much information all day long that they lose their common sense. --Gertrude Stein |
| Quote of the Week | | Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it. --Mark Twain |
| | Airline Breaks Wu Man's Pipa | Pipa virtuoso Wu Man's instrument, worth $50,000 and made specifically for her by "the top instrument-maker in China," according to Wu, has been badly damaged by a US Airways flight attendant, apparently without apology. On a connecting flight from Philadelphia to New Haven, Wu was attempting to store her precious instrument in the overhead compartment. This being a 35-seat plane, the pipa did not fit, so the flight attendant offered to put it in the coat closet. And then dropped it, fulfilling Wu's worst nightmare. Instead of apologizing, she gave Wu an ultimatum: "She told me I should put the [broken] instrument in cargo or get off the plane. So I got off the plane." Wu Man is Musical America's 2013 Instrumentalist of the Year. MA.com subscribers read the full story |
New Jersey Symphony Fills the Executive Suite |  The New Jersey Symphony has come up with a double-barreled solution to filling the administrative void at the top, hiring its acting principal oboe of the last two years as the new president and CEO, and its acting CEO as the new COO, a position created especially for her. She is Susan Stucker, 46, a near 25-year employee of the NJSO who has worked her way up the ladder since arriving in 1989. He is oboist James Roe, 45, whose appointment coincides with the end of his orchestra contract and whose experience in arts management includes being artistic and executive director of the Helicon Foundation, a chamber music series in Manhattan. The duo succeeds Richard Dare, who resigned in January nine days after starting the job, due to questions about his business and personal life. MA.com subscribers read the full story |
| | | Stravinsky Was 'Ambisexual' |  Was Stravinsky, known for his extra-marital affairs, gay? Robert Craft, the composer's assistant for some 30 years, says as much in his new book, Stravinsky Discoveries and Memories. Craft claims his boss went through an "ambisexual phase" between 1910 and 1913--the time when he was working with gay ballet impresario Sergei Diaghilev on The Firebird (1910), Petrouchka (1911), and The Rite of Spring (1913). Among his lovers, claims Craft, was Andrei Rimsky-Korsakov, son of Stravinsky's famous teacher Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and to whom Stravinsky dedicated The Firebird. When Andrei failed to show up at the work's premiere, Stravinsky, disappointed, moved on to French composer Maurice Delage. Craft further claims that Stravinsky sent Delage a nude photograph of himself after their holiday together. |
| Nashville Symphony Pulled Back from the Brink | 
Just days before a foreclosure auction of Schermerhorn Symphony Center, the Nashville Symphony has struck a deal with its creditors to settle an $82.3 million debt from the construction of the seven-year-old structure.
Terms of the deal see the symphony making a lump-sum payment to the lenders including Bank of America the lead bank among several. As to what or who was behind the 11th-hour rescue, billionaire businesswoman and symphony board member Martha Ingram is believed to be among the saviors. However, she also stated, "It is clear now that the symphony organization has work to do to improve its operating results and develop increased annual support." |
Help Wanted at the Berlin Philharmonic |  Perhaps it is mere coincidence, but the number of positions open at the Berlin Philharmonic, three of them principal chairs, seems high, given the scarcity of orchestra jobs in general. At the top of the list is the concertmaster; Guy Braunstein, in the job for 12 years, leaves at the end of the current season to pursue a solo career. Next is tutti viola, followed by first principal cello, vacant since George Faust's exit. Also vacant is principal horn, open since 2009, when Radeck Baborak left. The job of high horn is also seeking candidates. Finally, principal flute Andreas Blau will retire at the end of next season. Six openings in all--three for principal, one for first principal, two for section players. MA.com subscribers read the full story |
| The Hip-Hop Charleston |  From The Torn Tutu by Rachel Straus "Shucks!" Clark grunted. "Do you good to step out. You don't have to dance--just get out there on the floor and shake." --Tales of the Jazz Age (1922) Three years after F. Scott Fitzgerald typed this dialogue, he immortalized America's obsession with free spirit-ness in The Great Gatsby. Though Fitzgerald made no specific mention of the ultimate free-spirited trot--The Charleston--it was this dance that became synonymous with the "Roaring Twenties." And it is the Charleston's kinetic craziness that film director Baz Luhrmann channels in The Great Gatsby (2013). Read the full story |
| Who's Responsible For Performance Licenses? | | To submit a question to GG Arts Law write to LawAndDisorder@MusicalAmerica.com Dear Law and Disorder: In all of my artist's booking contracts, the presenters are required to obtain ASCAP, BMI and SESAC licenses. I recently received a contract back from a venue in which they crossed out that language. They told me that their policy is not to get these licenses and that the artist is responsible for obtaining them. It was my understanding that it was always the venue's or presenter's responsibility to obtain the performance licenses from ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC. Am I wrong? |
| Musicians' Airline Blues |  From Why I Left Muncie by Sedgwick Clark The friendly skies appeared less so the past week, especially to musicians. The prelude was Diane Sawyer showing a YouTube video on ABC Nightly News of airport workers unloading cargo in, shall we say, a less than careful manner. Then, on Sunday (6/23), a report appeared on Musical America's Web site about our 2013 Instrumentalist of the Year Wu Man's favorite pipa being damaged two days before, while en route to a performance. The $50,000 instrument would not fit in the storage compartment of her commuter plane, so the flight attendant offered to store it in the coat closet up front. (Due to the pipa's weight, I was informed by Wu's publicist, it was in a soft carrying case.) Carelessly handled, it was damaged, and Wu was given the option of having it stored in cargo below or getting off the plane. She disembarked, of course, located another pipa, and her show went on. Now she has to hire a lawyer to deal with U.S. Airways. Read the full story |
| Latest Roster Changes |  Musical America is helping presenters keep up with its advertisers! Managers whose rosters appear in the 2013 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 Irrera Brothers Duo, violin/piano, added, Parker Artists
Meers, Harold, tenor, added, Scott Levine Management |
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