“With his first-class degree in physics from Cambridge, John Fulljames could have had a brilliant academic career. Instead he chose the rockier path of becoming an opera director… [he has founded] the Opera Group, a lean organisation devoted to small-scale new work and the revival of contemporary classics, which he has built into one of the best of its kind.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Exodus From L.A. MOCA’s Board
“L.A.’s Museum of Contemporary Art, which last week eliminated 20% of its paid staff to cut costs, is now faced with finding replacements for some of its highest-profile board members. Nine of the 35 trustees who were on the board last fall before the museum’s near-collapse have since resigned.”
Madison Symphony Musicians Join National Union
“The vote was 43-36 in favor of joining the [American Federation of Musicians], ending several decades of negotiating independently within the orchestra, which had its own union. The orchestra is 83 years old.”
London Old Vic’s Norman Conquests Headed To Broadway
The Olivier Award-nominated production of Alan Ayckbourn’s trilogy, a hit in the West End, is set to open in New York at Circle in the Square in April. Director Matthew Warchus and the entire London cast are making the transfer.
Shreveport Symphony Cancels Rest Of 2008-09 Season
“Officials have pulled the plug on the remainder of the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra’s 2008-2009 Willis Knighton Master Series, ‘Bringing Music to Life.’ The cancellation finishes a season of no shows as both the symphony board and its musicians continue to be gridlocked in contract negotiations.”
MOCA Detroit Gets Its First Full-Time Director
41-year-old Luis Croquer, the quadrilingual son of a Venezuelan diplomat who comes to Michigan from the Drawing Center in New York, is taking over a two-year-old museum with no permanent collection of its own. “It’s a great privilege to be handed an institution at such an early stage in its life where you’re able to create the program and set the tone for the future.”
Charleston Symphony Faces Big Cuts In ’09-10 Budget
The perpetually strapped orchestra expects to reduce its budget by more than one-sixth next season, from $2.9M to $2.4M. “It’s too early to itemize the exact consequences – but it’s probably safe to say that we can expect a smaller core of musicians (currently around 46) and fewer concerts.”
Portland Symphony Eliminates Staff, Concerts
The Maine orchestra “is cutting jobs, reducing salaries and artist fees, canceling performances and trimming educational programs in an attempt to fill a $220,000 budget deficit for the fiscal year that ends July 31.”
Modesto’s Arts Center Swimming In Red Ink After First Year
The Gallo Center for the Arts, which opened in September 2007, ran a deficit on $2.3 million in its inaugural season. The final figure is lower than the $2.9 million overrun initially reported last August.
Daniel Barenboim Calls For ‘Marshall Plan’ For Gaza
The Berlin-based Israeli pianist and conductor, a longtime campaigner for reconciliation between Israel and its Arab neighbors, wants to see “a new ‘Marshall plan’ under German leadership to rebuild the smashed infrastructure of the Gaza Strip.”