When Ben Heppner made his much-anticipated return to Toronto last week, his voice faltered and he cut short his performance, causing some critics to declare that his much-touted comeback from vocal injuries is already a failure. But the reality is that many concertgoers hadn’t even noticed Heppner’s faltering until he apologized for it, and Kate Taylor thinks that the whole episode is being way overblown. “We continually parrot the cliché that in a live show anything can happen, but most of the time, at least from the audience’s perspective, the experience is safely controlled. Heppner has reminded us that the performer is not a machine; he’s a man who can have a great night — or a bad one.”
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Denver Museum Narrows The Field
“The Museum of Contemporary Art/Denver has chosen six internationally known architects as finalists to design a $3.6 million to $4 million building in Lower Downtown.” The finalists range from southwestern specialists to New York glitterati, and include London’s David Adjaye, Tucson’s Rick Joy, New York’s Gluckman Mayner Associates, and Mexican modernist group ‘TEN Arquitectos.’
Banff Gets A New Director
The Banff Centre has announced the appointment of David Hoyt as the new artistic director of its Music & Sound programs. Hoyt’s background is as a musician, and he has most recently been artistic director and resident conductor of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. Banff hosts one of North America’s best-known summer music festivals.
Maryland Public Television Faces Scrutiny
A state audit has uncovered multiple examples of what the auditor says are questionable financial practices at Maryland Public Television. Conflicts of interest, contracts awarded without proper bidding process, and deliberate attempts to subvert the state’s rules on project review are among the charges being leveled at MPT, which insists that the report is overblown. MPT is best known nationally for producing the program “Wall $treet Week.”
California’s ‘Arts City’ Is A Suburb?
“Located 25 miles southeast of Los Angeles and 15 minutes from Newport Beach, Costa Mesa has been dubbed the City of the Arts. It’s a magical, art-filled cultural and even shopping mecca – from its Orange County Performing Arts Center and South Coast Repertory theater complex to many outdoor sculptures and its world-class ‘anti-mall.'” And while L.A. may have Disney Hall, it is this Orange County suburb which has come to embody the spirit of the arts as ingrained in a community’s soul. Oh, and it’s not bad for tourism, either.
Nashville Breaks Ground On New Hall
If ever there were a sign that the current North American orchestral “crisis” does not signal the inevitable demise of the form, the Nashville Symphony is it. As other mid-sized orchestras around the country file for bankruptcy, issue general panic alerts, and beg the public for short-term emergency cash infusions, Nashville has quietly and competently gone about raising $100 million of the $120 million it needs to build a new concert hall in the city’s vibrant downtown. Construction begins this week, and the hall, which will seat 1,900 and be owned by the orchestra, is expected to be completed by the beginning of the 2006-07 season.
Looking For A Vision
A longtime Seattle newspaper editor is issuing a call for a newly invigorated vision for the city’s arts scene. Noting that the city’s Bookfest is held at a substandard facility, and that it was forced to charge an attendance fee for the first time this year to make up a deficit, Lou Guzzo thinks that the city needs to make the arts a far greater priority, even if it means using tax dollars to match private contributions. “Taxpaying citizens have an equal share in all the cultural organizations that provide not only a wealth of great programming for the public but also the teachers of their children in every phase of music, drama, ballet and all the rest of the arts.”
What Is It About Texans And Iraq?
Since the end of major combat in Iraq, the Iraqi National Symphony Orchestra has gotten a fair amount of press coverage for its dedication and commitment to continuing to perform, even as the country struggles for the bare essentials of life. Still, while the INSO may be a hard-working bunch, they lack many of the basic necessities of a professional orchestra: most notably, a readable collection of written parts for the players. Hearing of the problem, the orchestral librarians of Dallas and Fort Worth have spent the last few months leading a nationwide movement to supply the Iraqis with sheet music. So far, hundreds of works have been donated, and the librarians aren’t done yet.
Is Cold Weather The Strad Secret?
A mini-ice age that gripped Europe from the 15th to the 19th century may just hold the secret to the spectacular sound of the Stradivarius violin. According to a theory being advanced by two American researchers, the cold weather yielded an unusually dense grade of spruce, which serves as a near-perfect sounding board for the instruments crafted by Italian master Antonio Stradivari.
For Want Of A Theatre
There is a big shortage of mid-size dance theatres in New York. “The Joyce seeks to place dance at the front and center of the debate over how to redevelop Lower Manhattan, and central issue is space; that New York’s dance card is full this year only underscores the demand for it. What is needed, dance producers and company directors say, is a midsize-to-large dance theater (1,000 to 2,200 seats) with stages big enough to accommodate large companies with productions — classics like “Swan Lake,” for example — that require more scenery than a backdrop and a few props.”