Category: music

Anne Midgette on a National Symphony Orchestra concert at Anthem, a new riverfront club in southwest DC: “[Rather than] pander to a younger audience by giving it what they think it wants to hear, … this performance had the orchestra, in street clothes, simply playing the music it does well, including large chunks of this week’s subscription program. Rather than chasing the audience, it introduced itself as it is and let the audience come to it.”

“The Los Angeles Philharmonic’s spring news earlier this year that its longtime president and CEO, Deborah Borda, was departing for New York sent the arts world spinning. Since then, one question has hung – or rung, like a symphonic triangle – in the air: Who would replace her?” We now have the answer.

Following the report that, at the time Halls was fired from the OBF artistic directorship, he was being investigated over claims that he discriminated against women, he wrote in a statement, “I am reading about these complaints for the first time now. At no stage did anybody from the University of Oregon or the Oregon Bach Festival leadership present me – or my attorney – with these documents.”

In response to a news report saying that staff turnover has been high and morale low at the Brisbane, Australia-based orchestra – with sources blaming music director Alondra de la Parra and CEO David Pratt – the QSO section principals released a statement supporting the two, and the board chairman said, “I know that morale is strong under David’s and Alondra’s leadership; we promote a culture of speaking up, of respect and achievement.”

“The announcement of New York’s Office of Nightlife comes not long after the release of an influential report, in March, by the city’s Office of Media and Entertainment, which oversees the city’s music industry. It found that more tickets are sold for live performances here than in any other city in the world (5.4 million in 2015) and that New York can still support additional venues — but that the most at-risk sector is the small local venue that supports artist communities. Over 20 percent of such venues have closed in the past 15 years.”

We gained a lot when albums went fully digital, but we also lost a bunch of stuff along the way. Among the things we lost: Record sleeves, media towers, and Tower Records. We have digital equivalents of all these things, so it’s not like we necessarily miss them. But perhaps the one thing we lost that we’ll never get back is the hidden track. It was one of the few things about an album that couldn’t easily be converted to MP3 or Spotify. … Today’s Tedium analyzes the artform of the hidden track.”

Anne Midgette: “An ultimate test of cultural diplomacy is the question of who controls the narrative. On Monday, the organizers restricted media access to this high-security event. After trying unsuccessfully to reach media representatives before the event, then waiting at the door, I was told that the fire marshal had ruled that no more people could enter the building. Later, the media representative explained that she had promised the fire marshal they would not exceed the RSVP list, and they took that seriously. When I did enter, thanks to the intervention of a cathedral staffer, there was plenty of room inside. Some members of the media, certainly, had been alerted: TASS, the state Russian news agency, ran an article shortly before the event.”

Faced with the almost-certain elimination of his position, Stearns has accepted a buyout offer from the paper after more than 17 years.

“Matthew Loden and Ryan Fleur will share administrative leadership, with the title of interim co-presidents, as the orchestra looks for a successor to … Vulgamore,” who departs Dec. 31. “Fleur and Loden are currently executive vice president for orchestra advancement and executive vice president for institutional advancement, respectively.”

“Twenty-seven full-time and part-time staff have left [the Australian] orchestra in just 21 months, an unusually high turnover rate for the company which currently lists 26 people on its staff. … Orchestra insiders claim that morale at the QSO is ‘toxic’ and an external consultant has been contracted to improve morale and company cohesiveness. Former staff describe scenes of ‘backstabbing, gossip and shouting matches’ among administrative staff and management.” At fault, allege current and former staffers, are music director Alondra de la Parra and CEO David Pratt.