Category: music

“Like a persistent virus, the economic downturn continues to infect musical organizations across the country. No immediate cure is in sight… The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s projected deficit for the current fiscal year has gone from $515,000, estimated last November, to $806,000 as of this month. Underlining the troubling financial picture is the fact that BSO management has unexpectedly opened up negotiations with the musicians, even though their contract, approved three years ago, doesn’t expire until 2005. Neither side will provide details of these discussions, but it’s clear that the orchestra is looking into every option, including possible financial concessions from the players, to stop the flow of red ink.”

Major orchestras don’t lose their principal musicians very often. After all, these are the plum jobs of the music industry, high-salaried and high-profile. But this year, the Cleveland Orchestra will lose no fewer than three of its principal players, and the scramble for their jobs is on. Two of the three principals are retiring, and the other, who had moved up from second chair, is returning to his old position after not being tenured at the principal position.

Members of the troubled English National Opera – threatened by layoffs – have some hope that their fortunes will improve. “Their cause is further boosted by the company’s comic inability to communicate information in a timely, orderly and credible fashion. Statements are sent out and swiftly recalled; press briefings verge on the farcical. The verifiable fact that ENO is living beyond sustainable means is lost in transmission.” But will striking save company jobs? No, writes Norman Lebrecht, “the grim truth about strikes in the arts: they never work.”

Boston Lyric Opera cuts its season from four operas to three. “We are operating from a position of strength, and we do not want to lose that in the current difficult economic climate. We can’t do four operas for the price of three, and we do not want to compromise the quality of what we do. Large five- and six-figure gifts are coming in smaller and slower. We wanted to present a world premiere, but we have had to postpone that again because the donors who are helping us with that are not in a position to give what they would like to.”

Any doubt that opera is the high-art form of the moment? “The Czech National Theater said on Monday it was working on an opera to commemorate the surprise gold medal victory of the Czech men’s Olympic ice hockey team in Nagano in 1998. ‘It is a kind of modern Czech legend and operas have always been based on legends. We know it is an unusual motif but it is quite interesting and able to carry some kind of a musical form’.”

The English Arts Council is meeting to discuss the fate of the troubled English National Opera. How much money will it take to save the company, which has been plagues by cutbacks, strikes and defections? “We are not going to give them any money as long as we think it is going to be bad money after good. What ENO must do is take their own destiny into their own hands.”

Pretty much everyone agrees that digital copying of music isn’t going to stop any time soon. And there’s a growing consensus that the recording industry needs to “loosen up” if it wants to emerge with a viable business in the “rip, mix, burn” era. Finally tech companies and recording producers are getting together to explore nw ways of distributing and selling content.

Tony Legge, the company’s head of music, resigned after plans for shrinking the company’s staff and repertoire were announced. Legge’s decision was a shock to company members. “People looked to him as having artistic integrity. We only have to assume he didn’t want to be part of what the future holds.”

As musicians gathered last week in Austin Texas for the South By Southwest Festival, there was a common theme running through the proceedings. “In panels and seminars, in casual conversation and passionate addresses, many insiders at SXSW seemed to be looking to the past for the values and integrity – in both making music and doing business – that will lead to a brighter future for an industry in decline.”

Where are the new anti-war songs? “We’re in an age now when the record companies groom you not to say anything that [ticks] anybody off. The debate over activism and music is growing louder, with Friday’s furor over Dixie Chicks singer Natalie Maines’ remarks on President Bush. Earlier this week, she told a London concert audience she’s ‘ashamed’ that Mr. Bush is a Texan, but late Friday she apologized after some radio stations decided to boycott the Chicks’ music.”