Mannheim Steamroller is a man, a band, and a marketing juggernaut, and no one really seems to understand why. The music is new age pop with just enough intelligence to be slightly more palatable than, say, Yanni or John Tesh. “Mannheim is really just one person, a 53-year-old, bearded, wool-sweatered and slightly rotund former jingle writer named Chip Davis. He lives near Omaha, composing what he calls ‘Elizabethan-style rock’ by himself, recording with hired hands as he needs them, for his own label, American Gramophone. He pockets about $4 for every album he sells. He owns three mansions and a Saberliner jet. He smiles a lot.”
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Kronos At 30
The Kronos Quartet, which revolutionized the chamber music experience and breathed life into a faltering new music movement when it formed back in the 1970s, turns 30 this year. Thirty years is a very long life for any quartet, let alone one which makes its living, as does Kronos, playing exclusively modern music. And while there are probably more daring ensembles about today, Kronos remains a revered original, and none of today’s successful contemporary music groups would deny that they owe much to the San Francisco-based foursome.
Retirement By Increment
Evelyn Hart has been a star with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet for more than a quarter-century, and has been a darling of critics around Canada, and internationally. But now, at the age of 46, Hart is feeling her age, and seems to be on the verge of retirement. The trouble is, no announcement has been made of Hart’s departure, and the ballerina continues to dance with the company when she feels able, which is less and less often. Cancellations by the star are coming fast and furious, infuriating audiences and fellow dancers, and relations between the Royal Winnipeg and its brightest light are said to be extremely strained.
Rock Star In Tails
Back in the 1960s, Thomas Nystrom was the frontman for a nationally known rock band which once opened for the Beatles. These days, Nystrom is a 58-year-old music aficionado who has spent much of his time lately battling colon cancer. But yesterday, the old Minneapolis rocker fulfilled a dream which he swears was every bit as thrilling as opening for the Fab Four. As an audience of friends and relatives clapped, stomped, and cheered, Nystrom mounted a podium at Minneapolis’s Orchestra Hall in full tux and tails, picked up a baton, and led his other favorite band, the Minnesota Orchestra.
“Art Agent” Busted In Florida
A man posing as an agent for visual artists has been arrested in Miami, after scamming several American and Canadian artists out of their work, having promised them cash and publicity that never materialized. Michael Harrison, who operated under a false name that hampered his pursuers for some time, told his ‘clients’ that his brother had been killed in the 9/11 attacks (he hadn’t,) and convinced them to send their best work as a donation to a non-existant foundation in his brother’s memory.
Reneging on the Calgary Phil?
Several Calgary aldermen are discussing the possibility of yanking back a $250,000 pledge to the cash-strapped Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, which filed for bankruptcy protection and suspended operations last fall. The city’s contribution was contingent upon the provincial government of Alberta offering up a like amount, but Alberta offered the orchestra an advance on future grants instead, and that has provided the excuse some aldermen opposed to the bailout wanted to reopen debate. The aldermen insist the provincial contribution is a loan, which does not meet the city’s ‘matching’ requirements. Provincial officials had insisted earlier that the funds were not a loan.
Boston ICA Gets New Leadership
“Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art has hired a new curator, Nicholas Baume, a 37-year-old Australian who has been the contemporary curator at Hartford’s Wadsworth Atheneum since 1998. Baume, who assumes the job in March, replaces Jessica Morgan, who resigned from the ICA in November to move back to her native England, where she is a curator at London’s Tate Modern.”
A Bevy Of Bohemes
One night a few weeks from now, the stars will align and three productions of Pucinni’s “La Boheme” will take to the boards in New York City. That’s “more than 8200 seats to unload on a quiet, midweek evening” on Broadway, at the Metropolitan Oper and at New York City Opera. “Are that many New Yorkers going to be up for an evening of fake snow and chilly, Parisian garrets after five months of their own winter nastiness?”
Kantor Named Editor Of NYT A&E
The New York Times has named Jodi Kantor as its new editor of the paper’s Sunday A&E section. Kanto comes from the online magazine Slate. “At Slate, Ms. Kantor, 27, had the assignment of developing ways to use the Internet to write about the arts, ranging from short, argumentative ‘Culturebox’ essays to online slideshows and a weekly e-mail exchange between professional therapists about developments on ‘The Sopranos.’ In the past, Ms. Kantor has contributed several pieces to The Times Book Review.”
Aboriginal Dance Company May Close
Australia’s National Aboriginal Islander Skills Development Association – a dance training institute – may close after management irregularities and plummeting enrollment rates were discovered. “An internal review has been established after the – discovered it had just 10 students and 28 staff members last year.” Say a board member: “Nobody had told us we had just 10 students practising on a regular basis The board had believed it had close to 80 students enrolled.”