Category: music

“Some artists without ‘must-see’ status may find touring difficult this summer, or be forced to make extra concessions. The economy is forcing fans to make choices about how they spend their music money.” It’s a problem because “in the past decade, when radio airplay and record retail revenue – formerly the biggest sources of income for musicians – have all but disappeared due to Internet downloading and the iPod revolution, music acts have come to rely almost solely on live performances for their livelihood.”

“The biggest problem a band has is getting its music heard. For years, the music industry was confined to four multinational corporations that dominated the revenue stream of 70% of the music coming in, and four or five radio conglomerates that controlled what music was going out. Now all that has been broken up into millions and millions of little pieces and subcultures and niches that are serving small, really dedicated communities of music lovers.”

“When you have minority artists, instrumentalists and singers in the national and international spotlight, what they go through that’s extra-musical is tremendous… No one considers what people of color have to go through before they even have a chance to walk onstage.”

“The layoffs, which [orchestra president Michael] Pastreich said yielded savings of about $250,000, included the comptroller, a data base manager and a ticket center coordinator, leaving a full-time staff of about 20. The pay cuts start with the president” and continue, at progressive rates, through the entire administrative staff.

In his two decades as the Symphony’s executive director, the 71-year-old Pastreich “shepherded an extensive expansion of the orchestra’s budget and endowment, oversaw the construction of Davies Symphony Hall, … and helped establish the Symphony as one of the nation’s leading orchestras.” His and the Philharmonia Baroque board’s goal “is to increase our presence in other markets.”

Stephen Pettitt: “[I]t comes as quite a shock to compare a late Haydn symphony played by a period-style orchestra like the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment with the same work conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham. They aren’t worlds apart.”

“Austrian-born Pereira, 62, will take over from current chief Juergen Flimm in 2011 and his contract will run for five years … Salzburg was on the look-out for a new chief after Flimm, 67, announced late last year that he would not renew his contract beyond 2011.”

“U.C. Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau named Matías Tarnopolsky as the new director of Cal Performances. Tarnopolsky, now vice president of artistic planning at the New York Philharmonic, takes over from outgoing director Robert Cole on Aug. 10.”

“The Charlotte Symphony’s work to overcome its financial troubles became more urgent and more difficult today when the [Charlotte-Mecklenburg] Arts & Science Council cut more than $1 million from its support to the orchestra – and said the orchestra won’t even get the reduced amount unless it delivers a restructuring plan the ASC deems viable.”

“Christophe Laudamiel, … a French fragrance designer who has created perfumes for Clinique, Estée Lauder, Ralph Lauren and Michael Kors, is collaborating on a ‘scent opera,’ a new performance art that pairs music with a carefully orchestrated sequence of smells, some pleasant and some real stinkers. … In a darkened theater, audiences will be bombarded with smells, blasted in six-second sequences by a scent ‘microphone’ attached to each seat.”