England’s Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra has lost a court case it had hoped would allow it to qualify for an exemption from the UK’s Value-Added Tax (VAT, similar to a U.S. sales tax). The court ruled that, because the orchestra has a paid executive on its board, it is not exempt, and the VAT should be applied to its annual income. The case is part of a continuing effort by British charities and nonprofits to gain exemption from the tax – a similar case brought by the London Zoo was successful in the European Court of Justice, which overruled several UK courts on the matter. The Bournemouth Symphony plans to appeal, and eventually to take its case to the European court, if necessary.
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Levine In The Berkshires
The James Levine Era has begun at Tanglewood, which has implications for more than just the Boston Symphony and its fans. Tanglewood is also home to one of the world’s preeminent orchestral training programs for young musicians, a program traditionally overseen by the BSO music director. So far, the center’s administrators and observers have raved about the maestro’s effect on the program, but privately, many of the young musicians have been saying that Levine’s baton technique can be vague and indecipherable. Still, there’s no doubt that Levine is shaking up Tanglewood, and has taken to the role of head mentor.
Orchestras Discriminating Against Men? That’s A New One.
A 29-year-old violinist is suing the New York Philharmonic for employment discrimination after being was dismissed from the ensemble in 2004. Anton Polezhayev claims that he received strong performance reviews but was denied tenure anyway because the orchestra prefers female violinists. The Philharmonic has no official comment on the lawsuit, but orchestra musicians have called Polezhayev’s charges absurd, saying that “he didn’t get tenure because he wasn’t doing his job.”
McManus on Baltimore: It’s The Process, Stupid.
Drew McManus says that some critics, notably the Boston Globe‘s Richard Dyer, are not doing their research before sounding off on the Baltimore/Alsop controversy. “[Dyer] makes it seem as though the players are merely crying sour grapes at being outvoted in the search committee process… As the musician’s statement following the board’s vote on Tuesday said, they will work with any conductor who comes to Baltimore with equal skill and effort. They’re professionals, and that’s what pros do. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean they aren’t allowed to have their own opinions and thoughts about the process their organization should use to determine their artistic leaders. To say otherwise is to reduce their contribution to the organization as a mere cog in a wheel, easily replaced and expendable.”
Critical Conversation: Critics Can’t Fix Everything
Does the classical music industry expect too much from the critics who cover it? “It asks for ‘constructive criticism’ which, in my experience, is merely a euphemism for good reviews. Then there are complaints that music critics here don’t engage with the music as much as they used to in the glory days… but the space for the single-event review has diminished drastically since their days. One can only look with envy at the column inches the New York Times and most of the big-hitting German daily papers still accord to important opera openings or headline concert events. But the fact is, surely, today, that fewer and fewer musical offerings are headline events.”
Chicago’s Architectural Mainstay
“In the vast pageant of Chicago architecture, Holabird & Root is in every scene. From the Beaux Arts to Art Deco, from the era of Louis Sullivan to that of Mies van der Rohe and beyond, Chicago’s most venerable architecture firm has been continually onstage, often in a leading role — rarely flashy but always rock-solid, durable and reliable… Although Holabird & Root was rarely an innovator (except in its pioneering use of materials such as steel skeletons and pre-cast concrete), it had a way of adapting to the prevailing styles of the day successfully enough to produce memorable, even iconic structures — such as the original Soldier Field — that defined Chicagoans’ ideas of what civic architecture ought to look like.”
Griswold To Minneapolis
The acting director and chief curator at L.A.’s J. Paul Getty Museum, who took his name out of the running for that museum’s permanent directorship three months ago, has been snapped up by the Minneapolis Institute of the Arts. William Griswold will take over as president and director of the MIA this fall. “The Minneapolis job is considered to be a plum because the museum, although smaller and less well-endowed than its counterparts in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, has an enviable collection of paintings, drawings and decorative arts that are often sought for loan exhibitions around the world.”
Lapham Vs. Polanski, With Memory In The Balance
Harper’s magazine editor Lewis Lapham has taken the stand in fugitive filmmaker Roman Polanski’s libel case against Vanity Fair, retelling the story that led to the lawsuit in the first place. In the article in question, Polanski was said to have tried to seduce a young actress on the way to his wife’s funeral, offering to make her a star in exchange for sex. In court, Lapham remained firm in his memory of the incident, saying he wa “impressed by the remark [Polanski made to the actress], not only because it was tasteless and vulgar, but because it was a cliché.”
Harry Potter & The Vengeful Nerds
The new Harry Potter book is available in dozens of languages, but J.K. Rowling and her publisher appear to have forgotten to market to one key demographic: technogeeks. The lack of an officially sanctioned eBook version of Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince infuriated some readers, and a pirated version of the book sprang up within hours on BitTorrent, thanks to an impressively coordinated effort by hundreds of readers.
Get Ready To Pay For Your Surfing
At the moment, the internet is a consumer’s paradise, with endless mountains of information and entertainment available to anyone with a connection, absolutely free of charge. But will all that content really stay free? Not likely, say some observers. “The only thing slowing down the move away from free content is the sorry state of micro-transactional software. Once all the bugs are worked out, the free internet gateway in which publications generate revenue from ads will slowly morph into another, more-lucrative business model: gated content.”