Category: music

How did the Colorado Springs Symphony get to the edge of bankrupcty and see its musicians revolt and start their own orchestra? Management of the orchestra says it was a “downturn in the economy, lack of a sustainable donor base and low market demand.” Musicians say it’s been poor management and a string of questionable decisions…

“With traditional sources of revenue falling, the music industry is now desperate to get advertisers to use original pop songs to sell everything from handbags to hamburgers. This trend, which media types call ‘synchronisation’, is leading to another: the decline of the jingle. Once pop songs in their own right (America’s first radio jingle, Pepsi’s “hits the spot”, became a jukebox hit in 1939) catchy jingles are being discarded. Despite the $90,000-plus cost to license a pop song (compared with $15,000 for a customised jingle), advertisers, especially those aiming at younger consumers, think it money well spent.”

After Opera Australia ran up a $2 million debt and botched the PR over not renewing director Simone Young’s contract, the company commissioned a study of audience concerns. Among the findings: “The subscriber’s enthusiasm to “frock up” to go to the opera creates problems. ‘It is about a sense of occasion, as well as going to the theatre. But this cuts across new audience members who might feel intimidated because they can’t pronounce the titles and are not sure how to dress.”

Classical chillout albums are a curious phenomenon. The numerous albums that visit this territory do very well: Virgin’s Classical Chillout was the bestselling classical compilation of 2001, shifting 400,000 units, and those who bought it were younger than the usual classical fans. Chillout as an idea has become as good as a brand. And, as EMI’s research shows, many potential customers associate classical music with, above all, relaxation. More stimulating compilations, such as Euphoric Classics, sell less well.”

“The Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra’s creditors agreed Wednesday to a repayment plan that will give them half of what they’re owed. It puts the orchestra one step closer to being able to perform again, which they haven’t done since mid-October when they asked the courts for bankruptcy protection… The CPO has developed a restructuring plan that required $1.5 million in new money, and that those they owed money to accepted 50 cents on the dollar. With the creditors unanimous agreement and the city and province kicking in $250,000 each, the orchestra is close to re-opening.”

The Calgary Phil hasn’t performed in close to four months. So are there any musicians left to play once the orchestra reopens? Well, yes, but it hasn’t been easy. Some of the Philharmonic’s players have left town, in search of other employment, but many have stuck around, making ends meet by teaching and playing gigs, and hoping that the orchestra that brought them together wasn’t gone forever.

In the U.S., orchestras are in fiscal trouble. In Canada, it’s a full-blown crisis. Orchestras in Calgary, Winnipeg, and Edmonton are all facing uncertain futures, and Toronto narrowly avoided financial catastrophe last year. Robert Everett-Green finds much irony in the dichotomy between orchestras which continue to perform at an admirably high level, and a system of arts funding so inadequate that it might as well not exist at all. “What needs fixing is the whole system, including the relationship between arts groups in the same community, and the chain of responsibility that governs the individual organizations.”

The marketers of classical music have increasingly embraced the ‘sex-sells’ notion that the rest of the music industry bowed to long ago. These days, it’s not just a few crossover artists using their looks to sell their non-visual product, but an industry-wide trend which is dividing musicians and fans down the middle. “It feels increasingly desperate,” says one talent booker, but a publicist points out that “this is one of those issues that seems only to trouble people in classical music… You have to play by the rules of pop culture, to go with the visual orientation of the culture right now.”

Meanwhile, over in the world of pop music, the marketing of sex has never been questioned as a way to sell records, and a new teen-pop act from Russia is provoking howls the likes of which haven’t been heard since Britney Spears first donned a schoolgirl outfit to pout and kick at the camera. But really, hasn’t pop pushed teen sexuality as far as it can go? What’s left to shock us? Well, meet Tatu, the teenage exhibitionist lesbian pop duo. Oh, and they sing, too.

Three pieces by Prokofiev are being performed for the first time, 50 years after the composer died. “They include a Soviet anthem, a march and two movements from a ballet score which have been unearthed by a musicologist working at Goldsmiths College, London.”