Orchestras across America are struggling to stay in business. And it’s going to get worse, says Henry Fogel, president of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. “The great economy and high stock market of the ’90s helped mask some of the problems orchestras are now facing. And watch out – Fogel predicts that ‘next year will be the worst year for orchestras, which by then will have suffered three bad years in a row’.”
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The Savannah Symphony’s “Death Spiral”
The Savannah Symphony’s demise was awhile coming – the orchestra has made a series of mistakes over a number of years. “Unable to make payroll, $1.3 million in debt, demoralized by dwindling audiences and backstage squabbles, the orchestra first canceled several weeks of concerts while attempting a “rescue” fund-raising drive. When no major patrons answered the SOS, the season was declared over. In hindsight, the SSO’s death spiral started on two paths: budgetary promises made and later broken, and a triangle of acrimony within the organization.”
The Poetic Politics Of Poet Protest
As thousands of poets protest a war with Iraq, some wonder why poets have taken a lead on the issue and what effect their art might have on the issue. Robert Pinsky: “What poetry does have is the ability to speak memorably in the breath of each reader. Poetry’s strength was the inner universe. The power of poetry has to do with its intimacy and human scale. The poems that were presented to the President were an idiosyncratic mix: wildly various in content, point of view, cogency, literary distinction… That variety represents a certain power, more than a weakness. It reflects something profound about both American culture and the art of poetry”.
Hickox Promises Diversity For Opera Australia
Opera Australia’s new director, Richard Hickox, says he’s committed to presenting diverse work in Melbourne and building the company’s stature internationally. “There is not an opera company in the world that is not under some sort of pressure and, believe me, the turmoil here is nothing like as great as most.”
One-Stop Media – A Good Idea?
Should media companies be allowed to own newspapers, radio and TV stations in the same market? In America, the Federal Communications Commission is considering the idea. In radio, relaxing limits on how many stations one company can own has resulted in mass consolidation of the industry. Critics are concerned: “I don’t think it exaggerates a bit to say that fundamental components of democracy are at stake when the airwaves belong to the public. This is about how we discuss issues and how we disseminate them.”
Moving Paris’ Art
Paris museums are moving art in their storerooms to a location outside the city for fear of floods. The massive transport of 100,000 artworks is disrupting museums. “The Musée d’Orsay and the Louvre, are sited right on the banks of the river, which snakes through Paris in a series of grand curves. Many others are also having to evacuate their stores: the Musée des Arts Decoratifs, the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux Arts and the Orangerie. The current urgency is particularly unfortunate given that huge underground galleries and stores were built under the Louvre as recently as the 1980s as part of I.M.Pei’s Grand Louvre project. At the time no one was worried about floods.”
Motion: Young Writers Don’t Know The Classics
Students aspiring to be writers have too little knowledge of classical writing, says England’s Poet Laureate Andrew Motion. “We turn out students from schools and into universities who have not been educated in a rounded way. There is incredibly little time allowed for reading. It’s the fault of the structure of the curriculum. They bone up on their texts, thinking they will only get questions on those.”
English Books That Fall Apart
On average, books made in the UK are physically inferior; they discolor, warp and fall apart more easily than American books. Why? “England should be the very last country making bad books. In terms of its capabilities, the British print industry may be the most technologically advanced in the world, having assimilated all the tricks of the computer age by the 1980s, a decade before any of its American counterparts did. If the problem is not a technological one, what is it?”
Millionaire Faces Opera Ball Ban
Viennese high society is looking into how to ban millionaire playboy Richard Lugner from the famous annual Opera Ball next year. He outraged organizers this year by inviting Pamela Anderson and “turning the ball into a cheap PR stunt.” “Lugner makes few pretensions to join the elite social set that wants him ousted from the ball, the highlight of the city’s social calendar. His packed-out press conferences usually revolve around discussions about the ‘great breasts’ of the women he plans to invite.”
SF Asian Art Museum Reopening
The San Francisco Asian Art Museum is one of the largest in the Western Hemisphere devoted to Asian art. Next week the museum reopens in a $160 million new home. “The museum’s move to downtown will allow it to display nearly 2,500 works from its renowned collection, more than double what it could show in its old Golden Gate Park location, in a lavishly renovated landmark that is a destination on its own.”