The Philadelphia Orchestra needs a new president, and it’s willing to go outside the industry to find one. “A job description being circulated by the orchestra and its search firm outlines a job that offers expanded authority, since the new president will also be the chief executive officer, a title currently held by the chairman of the board.” Orchestra officials say that they are willing to boost the job’s salary as well – former president Joe Kluger earned $285,000 per year, well below the income earned by his colleagues at other major American orchestras.
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The Hard Life Of UK Musicians
The insurance crisis that recently hit British orchestras is threatening to have a profound impact on the players, too. But they’re used to that by now. “These orchestras offer their members no pension schemes, no health insurance beyond in-house benevolent funds and, in some cases, no fixed retirement age. Players in salaried positions with the Hallé and BBC orchestras, for example, have increased stability, but less flexibility and less ready cash. Money was more plentiful in the 1980s; now there are fewer recording sessions, less sponsorship and more competition for work such as film scores and advertising. With house prices high and instrument prices soaring, players are increasingly turning to alternative sources of income: teaching, property development, massage and more.”
As Schools Devalue Music, Outside Groups Step In
With music education in many American schools having long since been whittled down to nothing, students with an interest in the subject have had to look elsewhere for the experience of performing in an ensemble. Youth orchestras have tried to take up the slack in most urban areas, and some ensembles have even begun to allow any child with an interest to join, instead of the traditional method of conducting auditions. Rather than learning about music during the school day, kids with an interest in music now have to give up a chunk of their weekend. Not that they mind…
Out With The Old…
“Scotland’s oldest working theatre faces demolition after the trust that runs it submitted plans to build a new theatre complex, including a restaurant and studio. JM Barrie, Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel have all trodden the boards at the Dumfries Theatre Royal, which was built from money raised in part by Robert Burns, Scotland’s most famous poet. But the trust wants to raze it and build a new theatre.”
Is Political Correctness Dooming British Dancers?
A leading figure in UK dance says that the next generation of British ballet dancers is being cheated of the training they deserve by a politically correct society and the health and safety laws that go with it. Jeffery Taylor charges that “teachers are no longer allowed to touch or manipulate young dancers’ bodies into the correct positions – to straighten their backs, legs or arms – because of fears that they could be accused of sexual harassment… Teachers won’t criticise you. They say all the students are as good as each other, that they are equally wonderful. It’s obviously not true.” Taylor’s comments came as the shortlist for the UK’s National Dance Awards was released – a list that, for the first time ever, included no native Britons.
UK Academics See Danger In New Terror Bill
When Britain’s Parliament begins debate this week on a new bill designed to combat terrorism, the country’s academics and university librarians will be watching closely. Some in the academic world fear that the bill as currently worded would brand the dissemination of some chemistry textbooks (which include basic explosive ingredient lists) as a terrorist act. “The Association of University Teachers says the new offences of encouraging or training for terrorism could effectively outlaw an ethics debate about political violence, or a chemistry lesson.”
No, It Isn’t
Andrew Dickson isn’t terribly impressed with Jeffrey Taylor’s theory that laws preventing dance instructors from touching their charges are killing off the art of dance. “I wonder if laws preventing children from being turned into hobbling wrecks – even artistic hobbling wrecks – are really all that terrible.” And one dance critic says that “People like Jeffrey Taylor would be the first to criticise if dancers at the Royal Ballet ended up injured because they were being pushed too hard.”
That’s Gratitude For You
“Art Exhibitions Australia began 25 years ago with $1 million from government and orders not to come back for more. Charged with bringing international art to Australia, it has staged 57 exhibitions – the latest being Dutch Masters – and attracted more than 10 million visitors. With a total turnover of $130 million, it has raised $42 million in sponsorships, started a million-dollar foundation, and has an enviable $9.5 million in reserves… Naturally, then, it has a cache of variously motivated critics,” and many in the Australian art world say that the AEA has outlived its usefulness.
Looking Back At The Art Movement That Made You Want To Look Away
Dada stands as one of the strangest art movements of the 20th century, rising from humble beginnings to embrace grotesquery as a reflection of the violence and desperation of the era. “When we look at the remains of Dada, we see the 20th century with its skin peeled off. Surrealism was to reject Dada in favour of something supposedly less gestural. Yet Dada spoke the truth.”
Emperor of Islington
In America, he is known almost exclusively as the evil Emperor Palpatine from the Star Wars films. But Ian McDiarmid is one of British theatre’s respected eminences, and he sees his role in one of America’s dominant pop culture phenomena as an interesting sidebar, but hardly the signature moment of his career. Still, the role seems to have grown on him, in all its one-dimensional glory. “I thought Palpatine was a pretty good character. I like the notion that he didn’t have any psychological subtlety or depth, that he was just solidly evil and the dirtiest word in his vocabulary was ‘friend’. I thought that was terrific.”