“Last March, Grant Dexter cheerfully stepped into the mess that is the North American recording industry to launch MapleMusic Recordings, an independent Toronto record label built on Dexter’s successful music e-commerce portal, MapleMusic.com. At the time, Dexter declared that the label would promote great Canadian pop music to Canadians, and treat artists fairly, spending reasonable time and money developing their music – and their markets.” The music industry was amused at Dexter’s efforts. Now, they’re amazed, after Maple successfully launched two top singers into the upper echelons of recording success in its first year alone.
Blog
End Of The Line For Detroit’s MONA?
Detroit’s Museum of New Art (MONA) has never had an easy road to follow. The very definition of a grassroots arts organization, MONA was founded in an abandoned suburban storefront in 1996, and moved to downtown Detroit in 2001. But the museum has had its share of recent turmoil at the top, and now, it faces eviction from its home in Detroit’s Book Building, amid bizarre charges of vandalism from the landlord, and accusations of mismanagement from several resigned directors.
Chicago Makes Some Subtle Cuts
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, trying to dig out from under a massive deficit, announced its plans for next season this week, and while there will be no ticket price hikes, there won’t be much in the way of innovation or excitement either, says John van Rhein. “Like [Chicago] Lyric Opera, the CSO has had to forgo expensive operatic, as well as choral, projects until the bottom line gets stronger. The Symphony Center Presents vocal series has been suspended indefinitely. There are pockets of repertory adventure in the course of the 113th season, but a lot more that suggests the very thing music director Daniel Barenboim says he deplores — ‘falling into conventional solutions and programs when the financial situation is difficult.'”
Lower Ticket Prices – What A Concept!
The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra is rolling back ticket prices to 1998 levels, and offering a new package of discounts and ticket deals in an effort to get more people into their hall for the coming season. Aside from being simply cheaper, the new ticket plans give subscribers more options to tailor the concert schedule to their own life, a strategy more and more orchestras are adopting. The PSO is running at a deficit, and is also searching for both a music director and a new chief executive.
Lou Harrison: “The Take-Home Pay Is A Melody”
Kyle Gann remembers Lou Harrison, who died recently at 85. “The ‘greatest living composer’ label some pasted on him in recent years was an uneasy fit. He was too one-of-a-kind personally, too multifaceted musically. His works contain passages of aimless wandering that are hard to defend to skeptics, yet emblematic of what we love about him: that he relished life and didn’t believe in hurrying.”
Using Satellites To Catch Graffiti Taggers
A company in Southern California has developed a system of satellites and high-tech sensors to catch graffiti taggers. “TaggerTrap, a graffiti eradication system being tested in several California cities, uses global positioning system technology, cell phones and sensors that recognize the ultrasonic pitch of spray cans to alert police when vandals begin their work.”
What’s Up With These Poets?
Poets have been much in the news of late. Poets are suddenly controversial (again). “Why poetry, why now? The answers might not be particularly mysterious. We are now into the second year of a period when words are being policed with particular vigor, hemmed in by off-the-record advisories as much as by Patriot Acts and Total Information Awareness. But such measures can’t help but suggest that words themselves matter, now more than ever. Poets have been saying that all along.”
Philanthropy Takes A Dive
“The 2002 Slate 60, the annual list of charitable gifts and pledges from the country’s top philanthropists, totaled $4.6 billion, less than half of 2001’s total of $12.7 billion.” The good news is that two of the biggest gifts last year in America were art-related. Walter Annenberg’s bequest of $1 billion worth of art to the Metropolitan Museum led. And “Ruth Lilly, heiress to the Eli Lilly pharmaceutical fortune, came in at No. 2 with a $520 million pledge to various arts organizations, including a $100 million gift to Poetry magazine.”
Broadway Musicians Dispute – Who’s Really Deciding?
Broadway producers say that the number of musicians emplyed for a show “should be left to the composer, lyricist, and musical director of a Broadway musical.” The head of the musicians union agrees: “We agree completely, absolutely 100%. The problem is they’re not the people who make the decision. How do we know? Those people are members of our union. And they say, unless we protect the minimums, they can’t work in the same parameters as they do now on Broadway, because the numbers are dictated to the musical creative team by producers.” Musicians and producers are locked in contract talks.
Emotionally Impressed – Studying Emotion And The Arts
“Emotion has always been at the core of the humanities: Without the passions, there would not be much history, and even less literature. Indeed the very word “philosophy” begins with philos (love). But only in recent years have scholars begun focusing, without embarrassment, on emotion itself, producing a body of work that regularly crosses the line between the humanities and the social sciences, with occasional forays into neurophysiology.”