Category: music

“Canadian music writer invents contest; Oregon-based Brit wins it; Washington music teacher gets prize, ball gown, Cinderella night. This one isn’t an opera plot. This is a true story. … The magic of opera, indeed.”

We’ve all heard the usual complaints about competitions: they reward safe, boring playing over artistic daring; they thrust talented youngsters onto the concert treadmill too early; it’s ridiculous to rank the first prize winner over the runner-up on the basis of a single performance or two; etc. The Van Cliburn, the most visible of today’s piano competitions, has considered these issues and made some changes.

“The Phoenix Symphony’s musicians, music director and staff agreed to take 17 percent pay cuts over the next three years to stabilize the struggling organization. The musicians’ pay cut, which will save nearly $2 million over the three years and other cost saving measures will allow the non-profit to keep a full-time orchestra and make about 200 performances a year.”

“Lyric Opera of Chicago is in strong financial shape compared with other big-budget opera companies such as the Metropolitan Opera and San Francisco Opera, both of which are facing reportedly serious deficits amid the troubled economy.” Nevertheless, the company, famously careful financially, “is bracing itself for possibly greater fallout ahead.”

In its citation for the 600,000 kroner award (about €80,000 or $110,000 US), the prize committee wrote, “her sound is unique, her technique unsurpassed … and her radiation [sic] like that of Callas.”

“There have been a lot of closings in recent months as the recession exacts its toll on arts organizations across the country. But these closings tend to happen away from the stage, between performances. Seldom do organizations have the luxury of an actual farewell: a final concert that everyone knows is its last.” The Master Chorale got that luxury at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall.

“But by saying that the whole organizational model has failed (again, without evidence of a failure,) and then saying that the solution is for everyone to make less money, you’re making the embarrassing admission that you don’t know what a business model is. What you’re actually proposing is the same business model, only with everyone earning less.”

“As one of the more marketable names in the business, Radiohead was in a position where it didn’t have to give away anything. It had the cachet to charge $10 or more for its music, and rest assured that most of its fans would gladly pay. But it clearly wanted no part of a music industry that labels its own customers as thieves. By declaring, “It’s up to you,” Radiohead made it clear whose side it was on.”

“The 2.5 percent reduction will also apply to ancillary pay and overscale. The annual base salary for a CSO musician will be adjusted to $132,580 in the final seven months of the agreement. Most vacancies on the CSO roster will not be filled before September 2011, and the hiring of temporary musicians also will be reduced.”

“It will require a very different, much smarter business plan, beginning with a re-examination of the single largest line item in any orchestra’s budget: the expense side. That means looking hard at what everybody is paid, from top to bottom of the organization.”