Category: music

A debut performance of an elaborate wedding cantata billed as being composed by Rossini 171 years ago has angered some Rossini experts who dispute its authenticity. “The performance will take place in his name despite calls from some Rossini experts – who doubt the work’s authenticity – for the piece to be billed as by Anon, writing in the style of the composer best known for The Barber of Seville.”

With an annual budget of $10 million, the Florida Philharmonic is the state’s largest performing arts institution. But after failing to raise $20 million in emergency funds by last Friday, the orchestra could go out of business at the end of next week. Friday the orchestra gave itself a one-week reprieve, saying it had to raise $4 million by then to remain open. The prospects are not good.

The St. Lawrence String Quartet is one of chamber music’s rising young stars – the group has a prestigious residency, a recording contract, and plenty of concerts. But when its founding cellist decided to quit, the search for a replacement was arduous. Now, a year after taking in a new player, the group is beginning its search all over again…

The Florida Philharmonic didn’t make its self-imposed deadline of raising $20 million by Friday; it came up with only $3 million. So is it filing for bankruptcy, as threatened? Not quite. The orchestra has stopped selling tickets for concerts after next weekend, said it needs to raise $4 million to keep going instead of $20 million. And it extended a self-imposed deadline for a bankruptcy filing. “The Philharmonic’s board has authorized management to shut down the symphony `as early as May 10 . . . unless there is a groundswell of public support providing immediate commitments of at least $4 million’.”

Attendance for the Milwaukee Symphony’s pops concerts seems to be waning. Partly, its a problem of headlining stars who are getting older and appealing to fewer people. Many younger music stars just don’t seem right for the pops. Tom Strini proposes not getting rid of the pops, but reforming how the concerts are mounted…

The St. Louis Symphony, which earlier this season said it was in danger of collapse if a major emergency fundraising campaign wasn’t successful, says it has raised three-quarters of the $40 million it needs to survive. “With $30 million pledged or in hand, the Symphony has 20 months left to bring in the remaining $10 million. But to be really healthy, the Symphony needs more than the $85 million to $90 million in endowment that it will have by the end of the campaign – somewhere more in the neighborhood of $150 million.”

The Florida Philharmonic is $17 million short of its fundraising goal, and its deadline for the money is today. “Philharmonic executive director Trey Devey said the group raised about $3 million of its goal of amassing $20 million in 10 days, which ends today. The money would have put the perennially cash-strapped orchestra on the road to financial stability, orchestra officials said. Without the $20 million, the 52-member board must choose from three options…”

Opera Australia is cutting its season in response to lower funding. “The number of operas in next year’s autumn season will drop from five to four, reducing its length by about three weeks. It used to do six.”

Are the financially-ailing Rochester and Buffalo Philarmonics discussing a merger? That was the indication this week from Buffalo Mayor Anthony Masiello. “There have been conversations between Buffalo Philharmonic and Rochester Philharmonic about joint ventures or merging. Those are some difficult issues.” But the orchestras say nothing’s in the works.

“As jazz settles into its second century, the number of musicians who qualify as living legends diminishes each year. Even in the 1970s — when the music was arguably at its lowest commercial ebb — many of the greatest names in its history were still rumbling around the five-star circuit. Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Goodman, Charles Mingus: all commanded the biggest stages. Today, it is harder and harder to find those living links with the past. The recent death of the showman Lionel Hampton was another reminder of how few titans are still with us.” Is the era of the jazz concert coming to a close?