Category: music

Is classical music in America a shadow of its Golden Age past? Joseph Horowitz makes his case…

The Winnipeg Symphony has erased a formerly crippling accumulated deficit. “Two years ago, the orchestra was $2.9-million in the hole after several seasons of major losses. The official deficit at the end of the 2003-2004 fiscal year stood at $1.6-million. Of that, $1.3-million has been covered by the province and the rest by private fundraising and a small amount, about $44,000, by a sustaining fee on some ticket sales.”

The New Jersey Symphony has a new contract with its musicians. The contract “cuts their annual salary 10 percent, temporarily reduces the number of players from 76 to 69, and trims the orchestra’s season from 36 weeks to 32 weeks, effective retroactively to Sept. 1, when the previous, two-year contract expired.”

Alan Kozinn puzzles over pop stars’ desires to crossover to classical music. “It seems to be a part of the human condition that having established a specialty, we hanker to do something else. And far be it from me to say that we shouldn’t. But speaking as a classical music critic who also listens to lots of rock – and who wishes that more rock fans found classical music exciting as well – I must confess that I find many of these crossover incursions dispiriting. For one thing, rock stars who become interested in classical music are bizarrely conservative.”

“Instant Live recordings made with Universal labels will be sold at shows, and also made available on the Instant Live Web site, individual band sites, and also via online retailers. The concept of selling recordings of live concert echoes what happened in the 1960s, when the underground bootleg industry, operating outside the auspices of the record labels, started to fulfill fan needs by, for example, offering recordings of concerts they could not afford to attend. In the last couple of years, technology has made it profitable for artists and companies to record and sell instant live recordings to the audience–all through legal means.

Salt Lake’s Utah Symphony & Opera has taken a step back from financial ruin. “In March, managers acknowledged that US&O had run up deficits of $3.4 million after the merger of the Utah Symphony and Utah Opera in 2002. Administrators used private donations to keep US&O from dipping into endowment funds. The US&O board responded with a three-year plan to get back on track. US&O has made progress in cutting costs and raising revenues. The organization ended fiscal year 2005 on Aug. 31 with a deficit of $312,000, beating a target of $571,000 in the red. Revenues from contributions were $6 million, squeaking in at just $500 more than the organization’s goal.”

Since the Savannah Symphony folded three years ago, half of its musicians have left the city. “Of the 38 musicians who made up the orchestra, 19 have left the area. The financially-strapped orchestra succumbed to bankruptcy in 2003.”

Think Sony is abandoning classical music? Naw. The label is advertising in a magazine for children for a new classical band. “Are you the next Aled Jones or Charlotte Church? One of the UK’s biggest record labels is looking for boys and girls aged 10-14 to form the next classical crossover band.”

The Louisville Orchestra is looking for a new music director. What kind of person should lead the orchestra? “People expect more out of a music director now than they did, say, 10 years ago, because the structure of the orchestra has changed. There’s more raising money and less trading on big grants and gifts. By the same token, there must be artistic excellence. There has to be a balance. We cannot have an enigma on the podium, seen only at a masterworks concert. We have to have someone who is in the community representing the orchestra.”

An English court considering who owns the UK rights to some popular Cuban songs has adjourned to Havana. “The case was proceeding in London earlier this year when an attempt to hear from Cuban witnesses via a video link to Havana failed. The presiding judge, Mr Justice Lindsay, then made the decision that justice would be best served if he appointed himself special examiner, went to Cuba, and gathered evidence.”