Few regular concertgoers would likely be able to recognize more than a few members of their home orchestra. After all, there are nearly 100 musicians on stage for most orchestral works, and apart from the concertmaster and a few select wind and brass principals, most of the musicians seem fairly anonymous. But being a section musician in a major orchestra is hardly a low-pressure job. “Section players such as violinists or cellists play the same music everyone else in their section plays. Regardless of their individual approaches to their instrument, they are required to perform as an ensemble, not as 10 or 20 individuals. They are essentially willing cogs in a big music machine.”
Blog
The World’s Toughest Job Interview
So what’s it like to audition for a job with one of the world’s great symphony orchestras? In a word, terrifying. The process involves multiple rounds of competition, with candidates performing the most difficult excerpts of the orchestral repertoire one after another, before a committee hidden behind a screen. One slip-up, one wrong note, one skipping bowstroke, and the months of preparation and hundreds of dollars in travel expenses can all be for nought.
When Personal Taste Trumps Objectivity
Richard Dyer is intrigued by John Rockwell’s recent analysis of two prominent pianists with distinctive styles, one of whom Rockwell adores, and the other of whom drives him up the wall. “Many of the greatest artists overturn convention and provoke controversy; most of us would rather hear a risk-taker than someone who’s playing it safe.” Still, the unique qualities that make a performer worth hearing are the same ones that will cause many members of a given audience to turn up their noses at a performance that sounds substantially different from what they’re used to hearing. Dyer: “All of us have artists whose work we enjoy; all of us have encountered performers who fail to leave us begging for more. But every listener has to be open to surprise.”
Budget Woes For Boston’s Wang
When Boston’s Wang Center announced last month that it was severing ties with the perpetually strapped Boston Ballet, and that it would replace the company’s Nutcracker performances with a touring Rockettes show next season, it was seen as a severe blow to the ballet company. But upon closer inspection, it may be the Wang Center which is in the more serious fiscal hole: “It has steadily been beaten out for marquee productions by for-profit Broadway in Boston, a division of Clear Channel Entertainment… And the Wang’s attempts to invest in productions such as last month’s Thoroughly Modern Millie have so far resulted in losses.”
How Much Should Competence Cost?
“Josiah Spaulding Jr., the president of the Wang Center for the Performing Arts, isn’t just well paid. He’s among the highest-paid leaders of a nonprofit performing arts center in the country, earning more than the directors of a range of institutions that, budgetwise, dwarf the Wang Center. Spaulding’s compensation package for the fiscal year ending in May 2002, the most recent available, was $536,159 a year. This figure was the first thing a group of nonprofit experts noticed when they were asked to review the Wang Center’s Internal Revenue Service filings.”
Why European Conductors Prefer European Orchestras
Josh Kosman ponders why conductors such as Simon Rattle prefer to lead European orchestras than American bands. “The crucial distinction is that American audiences still need to be sold – constantly, repeatedly, and with tireless effectiveness – on the very premise of orchestral music. No conductor of an American orchestra, not even in the bastions of old-world Europhilia along the East Coast, can ever entirely take for granted the importance of what he’s doing. For many music directors, especially the Europeans who still constitute nearly the entire conductorial population of the United States, that uncertainty can rankle.”
Hey, Wait, I Own That Painting!
“Art auctioneers are only human or so it’s said, and they and their staff are as prone to making mistakes as the rest of us. But how did the international saleroom Christie’s manage to list a painting by Ray Crooke for its art auction tomorrow night that it sold in August to Australia’s biggest-spending dealer, Denis Savill?” The new catalog lists the painting with a different title than the one it had when Savill purchased it, but all sides agree that it is the same work. This isn’t the first time that Savill has had a problem with Christie’s: the auction house “previously ‘mislaid’ three paintings he had bought at various auctions, and… recovering them took nine months in one instance and two years in another.”
Twyla Tharp – Beyond Dance
“In the last 35 years, Twyla Tharp has created 126 dances, choreographed 5 movies (including Milos Forman’s “Hair” and “Amadeus”), won two Emmys for her television special “Baryshnikov by Tharp,” written an autobiography, worked on four Broadway shows and, this year, won a Tony for “Movin’ Out,” a narrative ballet set to Billy Joel’s music. Now she has completed her second book, “The Creative Habit.” And she wants to be very clear that it is not about dance.
Bringing Culture To Big D
Dallas may be better known than Fort Worth, but until recently, if you wanted to see great art in the Texas Metroplex, you had to head west, to Fort Worth’s impressive museum district. But that was before Raymond Nasher decided to keep his extensive sculpture collection at home, and put it to good use in downtown Dallas. “As I strolled through the Nasher’s light-filled galleries, this new urban shrine to modern sculpture seemed remarkably understated, unusual in image-conscious Dallas… Finally, Dallas can claim, without the braggadocio the city is famous for, that it too is an art destination.”
Progress In Edmonton
Eighteen months ago, the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra was in serious trouble, running deficits it couldn’t afford, and facing a revolt from its own musicians after the board dismissed music director Grzegorz Nowak. Since then, the ESO has brought its finances under control, added several orchestra players to its board, and this week, the musicians ratified an extension of their current contract, which will keep the orchestra on a slow but steady path to recovery.