Opening night may yet be weeks away, but a packed house got a chance this week to hear the first full test of the acoustics of Toronto’s new Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. “It was immediately clear that music is truly front and centre in this space. The singing from the stage and playing from the orchestra pit sounded clean and mellow. The lyrics were clearly intelligible.”
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Philly’s Brass Section Looking Considerably Less Male
Hot on the heels of having hired one of the few female tubists in the professional orchestra world, the Philadelphia Orchestra has hired another prominent woman as its new principal french horn. Jennifer Montone, who has been principal horn of the St. Louis Symphony, will become the first female principal horn of any of the so-called “Big Five” orchestras in nearly sixty years. Orchestras have been hiring women for decades, of course, but the brass sections of many ensembles have remained overwhelmingly male.
Charleston Sym Expects A Significant Deficit
South Carolina’s Charleston Symphony is on pace to end the current season $211,000 in the red, even after extra contributions to the orchestra’s endowment fund by the outgoing board chair and his wife. There are also concerns about advance ticket sales for next season, which are down from previous years.
Europe’s All-Star Chamber Orchestra
A chamber orchestra can be a tricky ensemble to maintain – there aren’t many that qualify as full-time employment, and that can hurt the ability of the orchestra to attract the best players. But the Chamber Orchestra of Europe has found a unique model which has attracted (and kept) some of the best musicians in Europe coming back season after season for what is sometimes described as the world’s best pickup band.
British Agents Cheating Their Clients
Theatrical agents in the UK are being accused of charging aspiring actors thousands of pounds in fees in return for securing work that never materializes. “New laws from April 2004 made it illegal to charge up-front registration fees, although did allow agencies to charge a ‘reasonable’ sum to include someone in a publication or directory. But [a report in a UK trade magazine] made clear that the majority of performers were unaware of the new laws from the Department of Trade and Industry. Moreover, the rules were being flagrantly breached by many agents.”
The Good Luck Symbol That Dare Not Speak Its Name
“The swastika’s recent marginalisation is undeniable. Where it was once an ancient symbol of love, laughter, joy, peace and good luck for cultures across the world, the days when an innocent civilian or institution could display a swastika willy-nilly are now long gone since Adolf Hitler appropriated the symbol for his Nazi party, which ended up taking control of Germany and systematically murdered at least 9 million people and caused a war in which 50 million more died. Since Hitler, things have been quite difficult for the swastika. This reality has been particularly hard hitting for the branch of [a London bank] which, it turns out, has two of the provocative symbols on display in mosaics on the floor of its entrance.”
A Museum’s Savior, A Shameless Self-Promoter, Or Both?
When Marine Reservist Matthew Bogdanos led an improvised mission to recover the thousands of artifacts looted from the Baghdad Museum of Art after the American invasion, he quickly acheived not only success, but fame in the art world, fame which he has savvily leveraged into a lucrative career as a public speaker, even as he continues to pursue stolen art. “With this high profile has come criticism — from some museum officials, archeologists, and soldiers in other branches of the military who served in Iraq.”
The Forgotten Composer
John Foulds is best remembered these days as a footnote in the history of early 20th century music, but if conductor Sakari Oramo and critic Malcolm MacDonald have their way, Foulds will soon join the ranks of the century’s best composers.
Ottakar’s Final Chapter?
Ottakar’s is a quirky and offbeat chain of UK bookshops beloved by its clientele. “Writers, publishers and readers have been in a state of high anxiety since last autumn when it was first mooted that HMV (which owns Waterstone’s) wanted to take over Ottakar’s for some £97 million.”
Can Rich Guys Ever Be Good Artists?
There are plenty of examples throughout history of artists who wound up making a pile of money from their work, but Jonathan Jones suggests that when extravagant financial success comes too soon, an artist can quickly lose his/her edge, or at least the perspective needed to relate to the audience.