Category: music

The Metropolitan Opera has responded publicly to a lawsuit by the estate of a Texas oil heiress which claims that the company has been misusing funds donated for specific purposes. Met Opera president Joseph Volpe issued the standard boilerplate denials, and assured the press that the Met would be fighting the suit in court. Harrington had her run-ins with Volpe and the Met in life, as well, and was reportedly a donor who expected to be granted a considerable role in the creative decision-making process in exchange for her generosity.

Some people respond to horror and tragedy by turning to music. To others, pain is best dealt with in silence. This spring, as the US and the UK marched off to a war opposed by a large percentage of the public, John Woolrich asked several prominent composers to do what composers so rarely do these days: write a piece in direct response to current events. “What should we sing in the dark times? There are as many musical reactions to public events as there are composers… ranging through music of anger, defiance, loss, remembrance, near silence, transcendence, nostalgia and mourning.”

Not everyone in the record industry views downloading as the apocolyptic end of an era. Peter Jamieson, executive chairman of the British Phonographic Industry, looks at the success of pay-per-song download services and sees, among other things, the potential for the revival of the “singles” chart. Jamieson also believes that, if current trends continue, downloading (the legal kind) could become more popular than CD-buying within five years.

Last month, the Philadelphia Orchestra nearly had to call off a series of free “neighborhood concerts” for lack of sponsors. A last-minute sponsor stepped in, and all was well, but Peter Dobrin has a question. Shouldn’t we be able to expect that an orchestra, which spends a good amount of time asking for financial and moral support from the community, be committed enough to its home city to put on a few free concerts every year, regardless of sponsorship? “Maybe it’s too easy to interpret this situation as one of those rich-sticking-it-to-the-poor episodes, but what the orchestra has done with this year’s cancellation interlude, intentionally or not, is to reinforce the old cliche that classical music is something only for the wealthy.”

Orchestras and their music directors part on less-than-perfect terms more often than not, but generally, industry tradition insists that all sides keep up a show of mutual respect, no matter how bitter the split. But in Fairbanks, Alaska, the former music director of the local orchestra has filed a lawsuit seeking $1 million in damages for her dismissal in 2001. Madeline Schatz claims that members of the Fairbanks Symphony Association deliberately undercut her authority and defamed her to the dean of the college which sponsors the orchestra. Schatz had been accused of throwing chairs and music stands during a youth orchestra rehearsal, and a petition of the musicians had called for her removal.

“A member of a German orchestra has been fined more than £300 for fighting with a colleague who failed to hit the right note. The Beethoven Orchestra in Bonn was holding a rehearsal in front of members of the public at the Beethoven Hall in the city when one of the first violinists played the wrong note. A fellow musician pointed out his colleague’s mistake but when the violinist failed to hit the right note for a second time a fight broke out.”

These days, when you think of Stratford, Ontario, you probably think of the town’s famed Shakespeare festival. But the Stratford Festival was originally supposed to be a multi-disciplinary gathering, and John Miller, the creator of the three-year-old Stratford Summer Music Festival, is convinced that the town has room for more than just plays. Rather than compete with the theater crowd, Miller schedules his concerts around the Shakespeare, and treats the unusual showtimes and locations he must use as selling points rather than detriments. In return the Stratford Festival has been quite supportive of its new “little brother,” with organizers of the theater fest donating money and equipment to the cause.

The Kapell Piano Competition gets underway in Baltimore this month. Competitions are a time-honored tradition of the classical music landscape, and it is almost unthinkable for a promising young soloist to skip the competition circuit. But do the juries at such high-pressure events actually award the top prizes to the best musicians? Some think not, pointing out that “the process of judging with numbers can result in a neutral person getting the best score. If a pianist does something extreme, chances are someone on the jury will disagree with it, and you end up with a very low score. Solid and straight playing then wins instead because it doesn’t offend anyone.”

The estate of a Texas philanthropist is suing the Metropolitan Opera, claiming that the Met misappropriated and misused part of a major contribution. Sybil Harrington donated at least $27 million to the Met in her lifetime, and her estate gave an additional $6 million after her death. The suit “alleges Met representatives have made false claims concerning the status of funds Harrington donated to the Met and disposition of other contributions after Harrington’s death in 1998… The suit also seeks an accounting of all funds donated by Harrington and a special trust created for further contributions after her death.”

“About 30 teaching artists employed by Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts’ Metropolitan Opera Guild went on strike Tuesday, demanding pension and health benefits.” The teaching artists train classroom teachers in opera education, and also teach children about the genre. They are seeking to have their status at the Met upgraded from independent contractors to full employees, an issue they say that Met Opera officials have refused even to discuss. They also wish to be represented by the American Federation of Musicians union local, a right granted to many other Lincoln Center employees.