French pianist Francois-Rene Duchable plans to “destroy two pianos and set his formal recital clothes on fire in a three-concert finale to his professional life, starting at the end of this month. He’ll bring the first program to a close “with a grand piano crashing into Lake Mercantour, the second with his suit in flames and the third, in August, with the explosion of a piano in mid-air.” Why?…
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Classic Promoter
Maria Vandamme is on a crusade to promote Australian classical music. “Founder and artistic director of the embryonic and critically acclaimed – locally and internationally – music label, Melba Recordings, Vandamme has also established the philanthropic Melba Foundation. Her motivation behind the record label is the fact that Australian music is not particularly well known overseas. Vandamme believes our image internationally is skewed, at once bizarre and unbalanced. ‘We are a sporting nation, we have lovely beaches, a few famous movie stars and directors – end of subject. This means that our music isn’t recognised and that needs to be corrected’.”
Indianapolis Latest Orchestra With Money Woes
The Indianapolis Symphony joins the growing line of orchestras in financial difficulty. But then, the orchestra is not alone. The American Symphony Orchestra League reports that “72 percent of the nation’s 25 major orchestras – including the ISO – chalked up deficits in fiscal 2002. The deficits averaged 3 percent of the orchestras’ budgets last year. The ISO’s deficit is less than 2 percent.”
New deYoung Museum Rises In SF
San Francisco’s new deYoung Museum, designed by Herzog & de Meuron, and scheduled to open in 2005, is rising. “The structure of the $200 million city-owned museum, made with 2,122 tons of steel and 2,500 tons of rebar, is nearly complete. In the next few weeks, the twisting concrete tower that will afford panoramic views of the city, the Golden Gate Bridge and the ocean – a nod to the signature tower of the old Spanish-style de Young, demolished 14 months ago – will take shape.”
Jazz Sales Up In Canada
Sales of jazz and blues recordings in Canada have gone up, says a new report. But all other genres of music have experiences declining sales. “Sales of recordings by Canadian artists totalled $138-million in 2000, down 10.4 per cent from 1998. Canadian artists continue to represent about 16 per cent of the market, by sales, a situation Statistics Canada said has remained a constant since the mid-1990s.”
French Strike Cancels, Disrupts Arts Festivals
French show unions say they’ll go ahead with a strike during the Avignon Festival. “The strike by actors, dancers, filmmakers and technicians has already cancelled dozens of artistic events throughout France during the summer festival season. In some cases, artists didn’t call off shows but merely disrupted them, blasting fog horns or bursting on-stage to explain their demands. Some festival organizers have waited day by day to see if performers would return to the stage.”
Arts-Based Schooling Spreading
A program that infuses teaching the arts into all aspects of the school program has been a big success in North Carolina, and the program is expanding elsewhere in America. “In the schools’ first four years, they have performed at least as well as the rest of North Carolina’s public schools on the state’s school and student performance tests, known as the ABCs. That’s especially notable, evaluators said, because A-plus students are not “taught to test” – and the schools have a larger percentage of minority students, who typically score lower than other groups on the tests.”
Eliminating Arts Funding Will Damage California
California is considering eliminating its state arts funding. John Killacky writes that the idea is shortsighted. “Should the arts be held exempt when funding for human services, libraries, road repairs, affordable housing and education is being slashed? Of course not, but the intellectual and social capital the arts contribute to the vitality of life in California must not be underestimated. Multiculturalism and innovation are essential elements in making our state’s economy among the largest in the world.”
The Royalty Hunter
John Hichborn is a one-man royalty tracker. “Royalty tracking, as an industry, has become increasingly important in the electronic age, when well-known songs are sampled for commercials, thrown onto cheap CD compilations, and even used for video games. There can be considerable money at stake. A publisher is supposed to be paid 8 cents per song for each copy sold. The writer then receives his share from what he has agreed to as part of the deal. That can add up. ‘The record industry is a swamp of disappearing money’.”
School Daze: Creativity Beyond The Classroom
So maybe school isn’t for everybody. A surprising number of creative and accomplished people were expelled or dropped out of high school. Some find school rejection “catastrophic in the worst way. They start to think of themselves as worthless. Others see it as a challenge. The curtain hasn’t dropped on their creativity and emotional development. They say to themselves, ‘So be it. Adults don’t think very much of me. I’m going to prove them wrong’.”