Last week, composer James MacMillan and alternative rocker Alex Kapranos got into something of a public slapfight over the relatve merits of popular music and modern classical works. Unfortunately, what could have been a serious debate wound up being little more than the usual name-calling between artists on opposite sides of the populist divide. “At the end of the day, we’re left with no more than a difference in taste. And that matters, because these disputes feed into a very serious dispute about public funding for the arts.”
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America’s New Two-Orchestra Town
With the new Music Center at Strathmore open for business in suburban Washington, D.C., featuring regular appearances by the Baltimore Symphony, a unique head-to-head orchestral competition is shaping up in the nation’s capital. “Indeed, with the Baltimore Symphony’s incursion into the back yard of the National Symphony Orchestra, the capital area becomes the first metropolis in the country in almost 80 years to present listeners with a choice of programs by two full-size, full-time, regularly scheduled orchestras every week of the season.”
Pay-For-Play In Hartford?
“It was all smiles and handshakes in October when state politicians, town officials and Hartford Symphony Orchestra administrators attended a groundbreaking for a $1.5 million outdoor band shell… But the good cheer has given way to some behind-the-scenes negotiating, as the town’s first selectman is suggesting charging the symphony a fee [for the use of the shell]… Both sides say they are trying to reach an agreement and look forward to working together. But critics question whether the town should charge a cash-strapped nonprofit that brings culture, professional-level music and thousands of visitors to its downtown.”
When Did Philly Get So Tall?
Philadelphia has long been an architectural throwback by American standards – a huge but almost entirely horizontal city of rowhouses and sprawling urban landscapes, with only a few towering skyscrapers marking its colonial-era downtown. But a new round of development is threatening to take the city vertical, and while residents and historians are understandably wary of becoming just another overcrowded concrete jungle, there may be some virtue in the towers now rising in the city center. “The new skyscrapers are a largely stylish and urbane group – especially compared with designs in other downtowns. Despite some clumsy assemblages of historical parts, most have the virtue of clean, sleek lines. A few even aspire to artful design.”
de Waart Takes On Hong Kong
Conductor Edo de Waart has lost no time in diving into the middle of political controversy in Hong Kong, where he is the new chief conductor of the city’s Philharmonic. Protesting the government’s devotion to a HK$40 billion “arts hub” project which doesn’t include money for arts education or a new concert hall for the Phil, de Waart says that the plan severely miscalculates the city’s scale. “For a city with no opera company of its own to build a 2,000-seat theater, it most probably would have to rely on flying in unknown numbers of performance groups because no home group will be able to regularly fill it. It’s promoting glitz – a culture of events, not a culture of continuity. It’s the completely wrong way to do things.”
All That, And They Probably Want A Winning Record, Too
Baseball stadiums don’t generally have the architectural cachet of, say, museums or skyscrapers. But if you consider how many people are directly affected by the design of a building, it’s hard to top baseball parks in the civic impact department. Washington, D.C. has a new baseball team, of course, and will shortly have a new park to keep it in. The question is, how will the design of the ballpark affect the city, and vice versa? “The park represents a giant architectural and planning opportunity for the nation’s capital, a rare chance to build a splendid, 21st-century ‘gateway’ structure near a major bridge and within site of the Capitol dome. And to help revive a river and a section of the city.”
Sculptures Or Subdivisions? Hmmmm.
Sculptor Richard Serra is in talks with officials in Ontario to save a 1972 work of his that stands in a Toronto suburb. “Its ownership is in some doubt, as is its future. According to some scenarios, developers could well chuck it in the dump to add a few more suburban monster homes… Shift, hidden on a patch of farmland just west of Dufferin St. near King City, was commissioned by Roger Davidson, a leading Canadian collector from a family of land developers who were also lifelong supporters of the Art Gallery of Ontario.” Serra has a history of fiercely defending any of his sculptures which are threatened with removal.
Architecture of Urban Exclusion
“First there was the speed bump; now it’s the bench barrier. The former is designed to slow traffic, the latter to stop skateboarders, BMXers, in-liners — and anyone else who would do more than sit upright in the public spaces of downtown Toronto. Although this architecture of exclusion can be hard to notice, much of the civic realm is being quietly altered to eliminate the menace of kids on wheels and, even worse, the homeless, and all those who would use benches, window sills or walls for other than their intended purposes.”
New Boss, New Strategies For PBT
Days after appointing a new interim managing director, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre has decided not to pursue its effort to force the company’s pit musicians to accept an immediate 50% pay cut. The cut, demanded by the company last year, would have necessitated the early reopening of an existing contract, and would have fixed the musicians’ pay well below the per-performance rates required by the venue in which the PBT performs. Both sides now say that they are working towards a new long-term contract for the musicians.
Music Education As Endangered Species: Exhibit 734B
Ask just about anyone involved in classical music about the cause of the genre’s decline in popularity, and you will likely get a speech about the lack of music education in U.S. schools. So the existence (and popularity) of a 28-year-old statewide classical music listening competition in Minnesota has to be considered a positive sign. But the competition is in financial trouble, having lost much of its corporate support this year when Minnesota Public Radio slashed its contribution.