The musicians of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra have agreed to restructure their contract and take a massive pay cut in an attempt to keep the orgaization afloat financially. Individual musicians would see their salaries drop between $22,261 and $26,713 under the terms of the new agreement, which was reached after the CSO’s board refused to announce the next season without major changes to the contract.
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Florida Orchestra Pleads For More Civic Funding
The Florida Orchestra is asking its home city of St. Petersburg to triple its contribution to the orchestra, to $221,000. The request comes as the orchestra prepares to move to a local church for a year as its hall is being renovated. “But the request could be a difficult one for the City Council’s three-member budget committee… The committee also has to weigh requests from at least 10 other agencies, who want a piece of the $797,000 available for fiscal year 2006, which starts Oct. 1. The orchestra is competing with the Festival of States, which wants $100,000; the Pier Aquarium, which wants $92,000; and the Tennis Foundation of St. Petersburg, which wants $60,000.”
SPAC To Grow A New Board From Scratch
As part of its attempt to dig out from under a wave of bad publicity and accusations of fiscal irresponsibility, the Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC) is junking its entire board and starting fresh. The board unanimously resigned last week, and the new roster includes only four members with previous SPAC board experience. SPAC came under fire last year after dropping New York City Ballet from its summer schedule, and was subsequently the subject of a scathing audit which accused the board of willful mismanagement.
London Orchestra Captain Steps Down
“Clive Gillinson has run the London Symphony Orchestra for the past 21 years, seen the orchestra establish itself at the Barbican in London, pioneered orchestral own-labels with LSO Live (or “LSO Clive” as the wags prefer) and fashioned a £17m music education centre at what was the crumbling ruin of St Luke’s church, close to the Barbican. It is a formidable achievement, especially at a time when the recording industry has been contracting. Now Gillinson’s long tenure is coming to an end.”
Louisville To Consolidate Arts Funding
“Louisville’s four key performing-arts groups would get a total of nearly $2 million a year to erase their recurring budget deficits during the next three years under a new plan to combine city, state and private funding. The plan is part of a broader Cultural Blueprint that has just been completed after nearly two years of gathering data in Louisville and Southern Indiana. The intent was to get detailed information on how all regional arts groups could best respond to the market. Much of the effort focuses on the Louisville Orchestra, Kentucky Opera, the Louisville Ballet and Actors Theatre of Louisville — organizations that have largely defined the city’s national and international arts reputation but have struggled to balance their budgets.”
Chimp Art Comes Up For Sale
Congo was a chimpanzee who painted. Picasso owned one of his works, as did Miro. “Now, for the first time, three Congos have come on to the open market and will be auctioned alongside works by Renoir, Andy Warhol and the Chapman Brothers at Bonhams in London this month. The pictures, created with tempera on paper, are from the artist’s most productive period in the late 1950s. They are estimated to be worth between £600 and £800 for the three, but such has been the interest already that they may well fetch much more.”
Legacy Of An Orchestra Executive
Joe Kluger’s departure from the executive directorship of the Philadelphia Orchestra will leave a large void not only in Philadelphia, but in the American orchestra scene writ large. For better or for worse, Kluger was a major player on the national scene, and he led his orchestra through some of its most tumultuous years, including a bitter strike in 1996. The orchestra’s musicians don’t seem terribly sorry to see him go, but the ensemble’s board chair points out that he loved the ensemble enough to take a far lower salary than his peers in the industry. A search for Kluger’s replacement will commence immediately.
Young Named California Poet Laureate
California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has named screenwriter/novelist Al Young as the state’s new poet laureate. “Young, 65, is a two-time recipient of Pushcart Prize for poetry – a national small press award – and a winner of the PEN/Library of Congress Award for short fiction. He has also taught creative writing at Stanford, the University of California at Santa Cruz and the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He has also written film scripts for Sidney Poitier, Bill Cosby and Richard Pryor.”
Former Quebec Premier Weighs In On Montreal Symphony Strike
Former Quebec premier Lucien Bouchard says he’s ready to step in and intervene in the strike at the Montreal Symphony. Bouchard is chairman of the orchestra’s board. “The MSO earned its reputation as one of the top 10 orchestras in the world through touring and recording, but Bouchard says the inflexibility of the musicians’ current contract makes it impossible to keep that up. ‘The proof is in the pudding. For the last five years, we have not been able to tour abroad’.”
Public’s Taste In Art – More Ikea Than Museum?
UK researchers say that public taste in art has gone through a dramatic change. It appears that the public is more interested in designer art than that found in museums. “Indeed, it appears, the popularity of famous artists makes them less appealing because people want their homes to look individual and do not want the same picture as their neighbours. When talking to people, Alison Kidd found being “fresh” and “individual” was more important than fame or quality.