Category: music

Long-time subscribers of the Florida Philharmonic, which filed for bankruptcy last week after several weeks of pie-in-the-sky fundraising attempts, are reportedly furious with the way the orchestra urged and cajoled them to renew expensive subscriptions for a season which the orchestra knew might not be played. Now, the orchestra says it hasn’t decided whether to issue refunds to subscribers. “The Philharmonic has managed to alienate its bedrock supporters. It’s given the appearance of courting donors capable of seven-figure gifts while putting the squeeze on ordinary people who faithfully bought tickets.”

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra has tapped James Conlon to head its summer festival at Ravinia, beginning in 2005. Conlon, an American who has made his name as one of the world’s top conductors while working mainly in Europe, will succeed Christoph Eschenbach. Competition for the much-coveted Ravinia job was stiff, with such rising stars as Marin Alsop, Robert Spano, and Leonard Slatkin in the mix. One musicologist’s description of Conlon would seem to fit well with the style of the CSO’s summer festival: “His highly serious approach to music is offset by an almost childlike delight in performing it.”

“I know it’s wrong. I’m trying to stop. It’s just that the temptation is too great. I love music. And every song I ever wanted is out there for the taking. I am a downloader… I know I’m supposed to just say no. And I know the record industry is cracking down. My attempts to download one popular song led me to a bunch of bogus files; I assume they were part of the record companies’ covert attempts to disrupt the downloading services. I know Big Brother is looking for me… I need help.”

The ailing Louisville Symphony has missed another payroll. “The cash-strapped orchestra missed all of yesterday’s $170,000 payroll and has not said when it expects to meet that obligation. Partial paychecks were sent to orchestra employees last week, and earlier this week the musicians agreed to perform three concerts scheduled for last night and tomorrow.”

The Boston Syhmphony has filed suit against a Connecticut arts group who has been billing its event as the “Jewish Tanglewood.” “A New England Jewish Music & Arts Festival spokesman said yesterday the title was really a nickname of sorts, given to the six-year-old event by a New York reporter who called the two days of music ‘the Jewish Tanglewood’ in a story a few years ago.”

The L.A. Opera is hoping that a few changes in title will spark renewed enthusiasm among its staff and patrons, even without anything much changing in the way of personnel. Placido Domingo, who has been top dog at the company for several years, will now be the ‘general director,’ and Kent Nagano goes from ‘principal conductor’ to ‘music director,’ a move designed to draw him closer to the day-to-day operations of the company. “In many respects, the [Domingo] promotion formalizes a shift in power that became apparent in late 2001, when the opera’s then-executive director, Ian White-Thomson — nominally Domingo’s equal in the company hierarchy — abruptly resigned, complaining that the tenor’s frequent travel made collaboration impossible.”

On the same day that he accepted his new title as general director of the L.A. Opera, Placido Domingo was named to the same job with the Washington (D.C.) Opera, a company where he has been artistic director since 1996. But unlike L.A., no one in Washington seems entirely sure of what, if anything, the change in title will mean for Domingo or the company.

“For its new Symphony Center, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra has approved a risky, radical interior design that departs from traditional concert halls. The unorthodox plan… features surround seating and a ceiling that moves up and down, one of the few of its kind in the world. The center — expected to open in 2008 — is intended to lift the 58-year-old orchestra up from its acoustically atrocious Symphony Hall.”

The Cleveland Orchestra must really like its new music director. Just a year into the Franz Welser-Möst era, the orchestra has extended the young conductor’s contract through 2012, a nearly unprecedented move obviously designed to showcase the organization’s confidence in him. Welser-Möst’s appointment was somewhat controversial, as might be expected when a young and relatively unknown conductor takes the helm of an ensemble widely regarded to be among the top five in the world. But the musicians are reportedly more than happy with Welser-Möst’s leadership, and he is now guaranteed a place in Cleveland for the next decade.

The board of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra has canceled a major European tour planned for summer 2004. The PSO’s continuing budget crisis prompted the move, and the orchestra insists that it still considers international touring to be an essential component of its mission. The PSO estimates it would have lost as much as $200,000 had the tour gone on as scheduled.