August 2, 2013   |
| | | Thought of the Day | "Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers." --Alfred Lord Tennyson |
| Quote of the Week | | "Well done is better than well said." --Benjamin Franklin |
| | 92nd St Y Fires Executive Director | 
The 92nd Street Y, behemoth of culture on Manhattan's Upper East Side, has fired its executive director of 25 years for illegal maneuvering and having a sexual relationship with an underling that may have resulted in a kickback scheme. Sol Adler was put "on medical leave" on Friday after being found out. "Mr. Adler entered the hospital very suddenly," the Y board reported in an email, and "we determined not to take action on that day out of concern for him and compassion for his family as we sought to learn the details of his condition." Adler, who is married, was having an "undisclosed long-term personal relationship" with his subordinate and board liaison, Cathy Marto. Marto is the mother-in-law of Sal Taddeo, convicted in 1999 for his role in a Mafia-run Wall Street scam. She hired Taddeo just after he left prison in 2000; he is alleged to have demanded kickbacks from Y vendors he subsequently hired. MA.com subscribers read the full story |
EMI Classics, Virgin Classics Revitalized Under New Monikers |  After much speculation and fear that some of classical recordings' most precious archives might have landed in unsympathetic hands, Warner Music Group (WMG) has announced initial plans for the EMI Classics and Virgin Classics contracts and back catalogs, purchased from Universal for $762 million earlier this year. Universal, it will be recalled, was required by the EU to divest itself of certain properties in its acquisition of EMI from Citigroup. Among them were the two classical labels. This appears to have turned out to be all for the good, since WMG owner Len Blavatnik has said he was prepared to commit serious funds to new classical signings and releases. The plan is for all EMI Classics artists and titles to be issued under the Warner Classics label, and for Virgin Classics to be issued on the Erato label, which Warner purchased in the 1990s. The "EMI" and "Virgin" trademarks are still owned by Universal, hence the need for different names. EMI exec Alain Lanceron, largely credited with the success of Virgin Classics, will be part of the new WMG classical operation.
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| | | | Back to the Alps for the Verbier Festival 2013 |
 | | Martin Frost, clarinetist The extraordinary clarinetist talks about programming and family at Verbier |
The Alpine adventure continues! I am thrilled and honored to be taking part in the Verbier Festival's auspicious 20th anniversary summer. I'll be performing with superb colleagues and interviewing some of the most stellar musicians at the festival. I'm excited to be sending a 2nd Verbier Vlog out into cyberspace via MusicalAmerica.com.
See All of Eugneia Zukerman's Videos |
IMG Artists Loses Another Top Exec | More changes at IMG Artists' executive level. Mindy Coppin [pictured] has resigned as managing director for Asia. Taking over the top position among the now seven staff members at the Singapore office is Meera Vijayendra, listed on the company's website as general manager and director of attractions and touring. According to a source that works regularly in the classical music scene there, "IMG has dropped the ball pretty much irrevocably in China." Earlier this month, Kristin Lancino took over as executive director in New York, the top position in that office, after Alec Treuhaft abruptly resigned as senior VP and director of client management in April. In May Lorna Aizlewood, a lawyer, became managing director and general counsel for Europe. More changes are said to be coming. |
| Seiji Tiptoes Back |  Seiji Ozawa has made good on the promise he made in April to return to the podium, conducting students from the Ozawa International Chamber Music Academy in movements from Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings. Agence France-Presse spotted him in Tokyo on July 31; there were also performances planned in Nagano, although no mention was made of those. AFP reports that he rested and hydrated between movements. Ozawa, 77, has been recovering from surgery for cancer of the esophagus in 2010 and for a back ailment--some reports say a hernia--a year later. Pneumonia further complicated the situation. His next scheduled appearances, also with students, are Aug. 23-31 at the Saito Kinen Festival Matsumoto, which he founded in 1992; he'll conduct Ravel's L'enfant et les sortilèges. The second half of the program, L'heure espagnole, will be led by Stéphane Denève. For now, says Ozawa, he will stick with shorter works. |
Plain Dealer Cuts Staff by a Third |  CLEVELAND -- The Plain Dealer in Cleveland cut about a third of its newsroom staff Wednesday, months after announcing it was reducing home delivery of the newspaper. About 50 reporters, photographers, page designers, and other Newspaper Guild-covered employees received layoff notices, according to the Guild. Among the casualties was Donald Rosenberg, the music critic who sued the newspaper when he was taken off the Cleveland Orchestra beat because he was too critical of its music director, Franz Welser-Möst. He lost--and so did newspaper journalism--but details of the maestro's character and of his snarky attitude toward wealthy Cleveland patrons were laid plain in the process. Rosenberg reports being the only member of the features department to be pink-slipped. Meanwhile, Zachary Lewis, whom Rosenberg mentored and trained, will continue in the post from which Rosenberg was fired. MA.com subscribers read the full story |
| New Artist of the Month: Baritone from Down Under |  VIENNA -- It was when I first saw Ben Connor in his underwear that I knew he had star quality. (It's not what you think.) It was in an updated production of La bohème at Theater an der Wien in der Kammeroper starring its Young Artists ensemble. Connor played Marcello as a grungy, spoiled brat, master of his domain, and entirely comfortable padding around his apartment in his skivvies. This wasn't the Ben Connor I had seen as the comic relief in Rossini's La cambiale di matrimonio, or in smaller roles at Theater an der Wien. Here, he totally embodied the vain painter with a rare, natural stage presence. He simply was Marcello. On a muggy Viennese afternoon, Connor arrived at my apartment and immediately coiled his rangy six-foot-two frame into an armchair. I have found singers to be somewhat shy in interviews (dancers are easier), but Connor, whose relaxed mood and candor can be somewhat disarming, was happy to relate his life story. |
100 Years Ago...in Musical America: 2 August 1913 | |  AMERICA'S LACK OF MUSICAL APPRECIATION A DISGRACE, SAYS WAGHALTER Highly Unflattering Comparison Drawn Between Artistic Standing of This and Other Countries-" If Lions and Other Wild Animals Are Sensitive to Musical Influence, Why Shouldn't Americans Be?" Why Hasn't Every American City Its Symphony Orchestra and Opera House?-Why Don't Our Millionaires Support Music?-We're Even Behind England in Musical Advancement, According to German Conductor Now Visiting Us METROPOLITAN AIMS LEGAL FUSILLADE AT THE HAMMERSTEINS[Continued from page 2] See the Original Page and Read the Full Story |
| Visa Envy: Why Is Yours Longer Than Mine? | | To submit a question to GG Arts Law write to  I am writing you about a question we have in regards to the length of stay that USCIS grants for O-1B visas. In the past few years, it has been our experience that USCIS will not grant 3 year visas for a time period that has gaps from anywhere to 3 to 6 months between engagements. Therefore, for our artists, we have been applying for month long visas, or three month long visas, etc, which has started to become prohibitively expensive for them, and rather inconvenient and time consuming for us. We were told by an artist that is moving off of our roster that his new manager will be applying for a 3 year visa for him, regardless of the fact that this particular artist has gaps of 6 or more months between engagements, or no engagements at all after a certain point. So our question is, has the USCIS policy changed, or worse, do you think it's possible that the artist's new manager has some kind of connection or agreement with USCIS that we do not? Read the full story |
| Boulez--Complete Works on DG |  From Why I Left Muncie by Sedgwick Clark Pierre Boulez began his recording career in earnest for Columbia and CBS Records (now on Sony Classical) in 1966. In the late 1980s, for Erato, he recorded several of his own works, as well as some by Stravinsky, Schoenberg, and young contemporary composers whose music interested him. Then, in March 1991, he began an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon that resulted in new recordings of most of his Columbia and CBS repertoire, divided between the orchestras of Cleveland, Chicago, Berlin, and Vienna. In addition, he added many new works to his recorded catalogue, including many of his own. It appears that the 88-year-old Boulez's conducting, recording, and compositional careers are over now, silenced by an eye ailment that prevents him from seeing his scores. DG seems to be acknowledging this fact of life with its release last week of a handsome new 13-CD edition of Boulez's complete works, with the composer leading all the works requiring a conductor. To the college student who discovered the Frenchman's artistry soon after his classical-music "Eureka!" moment with Stravinsky's Le Sacre du printemps, this set comes as a shining example of the currently embattled recording industry's good works. We are inundated every day by vanity CDs and duplicate downloads praying for a piece of the pie before oblivion beckons, but here is a testament to a lifetime of accomplishment hailed with the thoughtfulness of classy design, excellent sound, and a 250-page French/English booklet with copious notes and photos. |
| 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 Balletboyz®, added, Opus 3 Artists
Caraman, Emanuel-Cristian, tenor, added, MIA Artists Management
Krause, Rainelle, soprano, added, United Artists and Authors Agency/UNA
Lind, Eva, soprano, added, MIA Artists Management
Phares, Keith, baritone, added, Scott Levine Management |
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