“When art brushes up against politics in San Francisco, the results can often seem surreal,” and columnist Ken Garcia has some pointed questions for the mayor’s new arts task force. Balancing the needs of the city’s major arts organizations with those of smaller groups is an ongoing problem, and the task force’s proposal does little to address it, Garcia alleges. “[Also] lost in the funding frenzy was the fact that San Francisco already spends more money per capita on nonprofit arts organizations than any U.S. city, nearly $15 for each of its 750,000 citizens.”
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At Long Last, Audubon Dispute Settled
The feuding members of the Audubon Quartet have finally reached a settlement in their years-long dispute which racked up $1.5 million in legal fees and cost two members of the group their home and (briefly) their instruments. According to the terms of the settlement, the aggrieved former first violinist will receive $500,000 from the other three members of the group. All parties will cover their own legal fees.
Before You Hire A CEO, You Gotta Have A Plan
“Eight months after the abrupt departure of its former president and CEO, Simon Woods, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra has put its search for a new leader on hold… The orchestra’s search committee, having received credible feedback that it might be overselling the position and understating its problems, has suspended the search until the end of the month. During that time, it will develop a three-year plan meant to show it understands its issues and has a concrete strategy for the future.”
Music Under Pressure
Orchestras often try to apply overarching themes to their seasons, but the Los Angeles Philharmonic is taking the idea a step beyond the conventional with its 2006-07 season. “With the U.S. premiere of a new oratorio and a series of concerts devoted to music composed under Josef Stalin, the Los Angeles Philharmonic will tackle issues of art versus politics” and focus on composers under duress from oppressive regimes.
Sheng Premiere Put Off Over Problems With Score
The Philadelphia Orchestra has postponed the premiere of a new work by composer Bright Sheng, apparently at the request of music director Christoph Eschenbach, who announced after going over the score that “we all felt we weren’t ready to perform it in its current state.” Sheng and Eschenbach plan to work together on revisions to the Concerto for Orchestra: Zodiac Tales and the orchestra still plans eventually to give the premiere.
Sydney Hops On The Online Bandwagon
The Sydney Symphony is going digital, striking a deal with Australia’s largest internet service provider to offer streaming audio and video of ten concerts in the 2006 season, beginning with opening night. The videocast, in particular, sounds as if it will beak some new ground, with five cameras in place to record the action. “With no record companies to take a cut… Sydney Symphony could be looking at a lucrative new model for generating revenue from digital recordings.”
My Death, Now In Previews
A prominent Hungarian director who is dying is staging previews of his own funeral. “Peter Halasz, who is also an actor, writer and satirist, is in the final stages of liver cancer, and will begin lying in an open coffin at an art museum in the Hungarian capital Budapest later this week. ‘I’m curious how a funeral looks from the other side’.”
In Scotland: Dance To Get Fit
Scotland is planning to spend £1.2 million over three years to encourage 144,000 children in 800 schools to take up dancing as a way of exercising.
Freedom Of Expression – The Most Important Question Of Our Time?
“The cartoons in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten raise the most important question of our times: freedom of expression. Are we in the west going to cave into pressure from societies with a medieval mindset, or are we going to defend our most precious freedom — freedom of expression, a freedom for which thousands of people sacrificed their lives? A democracy cannot survive long without freedom of expression, the freedom to argue, to dissent, even to insult and offend.”
Bush Budget Slashes Public Broadcasting Money
George Bush’s proposed budget takes a big cut out of money for public broadcasting. “In the president’s 2007 budget request, CPB funding will be cut by $53.5 million in 2007 and $50 million more in 2008. Those cuts don’t reflect others made in funding at the Education and Commerce departments and the elimination of specific programs for digital TV conversion and satellite delivery system. Public broadcasting officials estimate that the entire budget cuts run $157 million over the two-year period.”