Category: music

Being a singer is not a good career choice these days. “The expansion of higher education conflicts exponentially with the contraction of the classical music business, leaving more aspirants chasing fewer opportunities and smaller budgets. Fees have barely shifted in the past decade, and what might look quite good on paper – £500-£1,000 per performance – is pitiful when you’ve deducted all the expenses, including 15 per cent agent’s commission. And even if you do make it big, time is short: if you manage 20 years, you’re doing better than most.”

One of the theatre’s biggest sponsors has quit the company’s governing board. “His resignation follows a decision to hand over the running of the new theatre, the Teatro degli Arcimboldi, to the local authority, the commune of Milan.”

“We live in a world with too much music. And the din is only increasing. Stop and listen for a moment. Hear that tune on the radio in the cubicle next to you? Hear that jingle on the TV ad? Or the Kanye West ringtone on your cell phone, clashing with the music being played by the band in the corner of the bar? Maybe you don’t hear any of that because you’ve got your iPod earbuds in, or your home stereo cranked. Music is everywhere these days. And with the proliferation of ever-smaller electronic devices packed with ever more music, the supposed nirvana of having any song available at the push of a button seems ever closer.” Are we losing our ability to really listen?

The new Miami Performing Arts Center (anxious to sign up tenants) has signed up (read: merged) with the Concert Association of Florida. “Most obviously, the partnership strengthens the Miami Performing Arts Center’s status as the dominant cultural force in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, even before the center opens in fall of 2006. In addition to its signing of the Cleveland Orchestra as resident ensemble for 10 years, presenting Florida Grand Opera performances and bringing Drucker’s events under its authority make the Miami Performing Arts Center the most powerful presenter of classical music in the region.”

Denver’s new opera house isn’t getting rave reviews from disabled concertgoers. “The Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition was invited to tour the opera house and found that lifts designed to carry people in wheelchairs to the lower orchestra level were slow and difficult to navigate. Also, lower-level seating near the orchestra is on a slope instead of being level for wheelchairs.” Opera House execs say that they will work with the coalition to address the problems, but some observers say that the problems needed to be corrected in the design phase, and may not be tweakable.

David Robertson has officially arrived as the new music director of the Saint Louis Symphony, and the city may never have seen a conductor more eager to get started. “On Monday, Robertson threw out the first ball at the Cardinals game… On Tuesday, he heard auditions. On Wednesday, he held his first rehearsal as music director, and then charmed the audience at a ‘town hall’ meeting in [suburban] Des Peres.” Robertson’s biggest task may be restoring the orchestra to its place among the top American ensembles after years of crippling deficits, high-profile labor disputes, and organizational malaise.

Toronto is a year away from the opening of its new Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, and William Littler says that the long wait for a true opera venue in Canada’s largest city may turn out to be worth it in the end, especially if the center properly reflects its main inspiration, Munich’s spectacular Nationaltheater, home of the Bavarian State Opera.

“The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra had a rocky prelude to the start of its new season this month. First a local newspaper suggested over the summer that the 111-year-old orchestra be downsized. Then its administrators, on the heels of a $500,000 expected deficit, were forced to pay a huge raise to its players because of an unusual contract clause. Plans for a European tour in October were abandoned for lack of a sponsor. And the accidental popping of balloons shattered the mood during its gala opening program on Sept. 10, giving a new definition to the term pops concert.” But behind the scenes, the PSO is tackling its challenges with an unconventional approach, making a concerted push to expand their subscription base and market the orchestra itself, rather than high-profile conductors and soloists.

The musicians of l’Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal have now been on strike for 18 weeks, the second-longest work stoppage by a North American orchestra in 40 years, and there doesn’t appear to have been a single measure of progress towards reconciliation. So what’s taking so long? Unfortunately, the OSM strike is just the most visible battle of a continent-wide war between two mindsets in the classical music industry: that which claims that the market is saturated, and only a significant scaling back of ambitions can put things right; and that which insists that the only crisis in the orchestra world is a crisis of leadership in the boardroom, and holds fast to the notion that top orchestras can still pay top dollar and be financially viable. Both sides in Montreal are firmly dug in, and there’s no end in sight.

Two years ago, the San Antonio Symphony was in dire financial straits, and came perilously close to shutting down completely. Today, as the SAS launches its second full season following a tumultuous period in bankruptcy, things are looking up, and the orchestra is seeing a sharp uptick in ticket sales as well as philanthropic giving. “The symphony already has $2 million of its almost $6 million budget for the 2005-06 season,” and officials are confident that the ensemble will be able to operate without a deficit this year.