Category: music

Plenty of observers have penned fiery columns containing ideas for how orchestras could work to shake off stuffy stereotypes and drop their elitist sheen, but one UK orchestra executive says that such screeds miss the fact that most orchestras are already working overtime to accomplish these goals. “Modern orchestras play a huge part in reaching out to communities, music lovers and young people – with performances held everywhere from concert halls to hospitals, schools and bedsides.”

“Neither side gave ground this week when contract talks resumed between the San Antonio Symphony’s management and musicians.” The current contract expires this weekend, and musicians have already authorized their leaders to call a strike at any time after that. In the short term, it appears that talks will continue, but little progress is evident.

The Charlotte Symphony will likely announce a balanced budget for the 2006-07 season soon, but the good news comes with a footnote. In order to cover its costs, the orchestra borrowed $700,000 from its endowment fund, with the intention of repaying the money once an ongoing $83m endowment drive is complete.

18 months ago, the Philadelphia Orchestra’s ambitious $125m endowment drive was ahead of schedule, nearing the finish line, and renewing hope that the orchestra could find a sustainable long-term economic model. But less than $5m has been brought in since, and the campaign appears to have stalled a half-mile short of the finish line. Still, the health of the existing endowment has been improving steadily.

“Facing derision, and other inflamed passions, is part of life at the festival. You either give yourself over to the fanaticism of the place or miss the point, Bayreuth virtually requiring complete sensory immersion. There is the music to hear and the staging to witness, of course, and also the sublime opera house to experience, with its unearthly acoustics, not to mention the bratwurst at intermission. But then there is also the Villa Wahnfried, the Wagner museum, with piped-in snippets of historic performances swelling in the library, rows of seats laid out there like pews for rapturous supplicants.”

“The campaign would pay for renovations at Symphony Hall and Tanglewood, and would boost the organization’s endowment, which, at about $400 million, is already the biggest in the orchestra world.”

There are rules if you want to have a career as a concert pianist. Simone Dinnerstein doesn’t follow any of them. She even produced and released her own recording. “People were very discouraging when they heard the idea. But I thought, somebody’s going to hear it, and they’re going to hear what is different about this recording, and it’s all going to work out.”

“According to the Renew Our Music Fund – one of a number of charities helping musicians get back on their feet – of the 5,000 full-time, professional musicians who lived in the city before Katrina, about 3,000 are still displaced.”

“Effective immediately, prices will drop an average of 20 per cent, with some titles reduced as much as 33 per cent, HMV reported in a press release.”

Two years after Katrina, it isn’t easy. “Historically, musicians have been taken for granted here because it’s so common and pervasive. It’s such an intrinsic part of our culture that, when we hear a brass band it’s just another day.” And yet, New Orleans’ musicians are suffering…