Category: music

“We should look at the benefits people should get from giving which are quite circumscribed at the moment in tax terms and see whether that can be improved.”

“Through cinemas and through Facebook we can now reach people directly. We don’t need to rely just on broadcasters. This means there is an audience around the world. When we were in Japan in the summer, it was clear that people there know our companies.”

“Melbourne’s second orchestra, Orchestra Victoria, will shrink in 2011 because of measures taken to avoid bankruptcy.”

“Gone are the days when classical artists could offer high-caliber performances of Mozart and Tchaikovsky and simply expect people to show up. Orchestras, opera companies and presenters must be more entrepreneurial, more risk-ready.”

“That figure, which includes a $6.7 million operating shortfall and about $2 million in pension obligations and debt service on the Max M. Fisher Music Center, amounts to almost 30 percent of the orchestra’s $29.3 million annual budget.”

“The proposal makes activities like chamber music, teaching and coaching voluntary rather than required under the contract. Players who elect to take on the optional work would make an additional $3,800 next season and $7,600 the following year.”

“We sincerely wish we had another message today; over the last year, we worked tirelessly to find a solution that would avoid liquidating. However, we are charged with fiscal responsibility and have no other option.”

This week, 40 musicians representing the old guard (Billy Bragg, Orbital) and the new (the Kooks, Guillemots) entered a London studio and did not play their instruments in a performance of John Cage’s famous silent composition, 4’33”.

“This season, Peter Gelb expects 3 million people worldwide to see the Met’s work at the cinema, and serious money is being made. “The net amount we made last season after covering costs was $15m [£9.5m],” he says, adding that attendances are also up 10% in the Met’s Lincoln Centre base in Manhattan.”

“The Monteverdi Choir directed by John Eliot Gardiner has won the Gramophone magazine contest for the best choir in the world.”