Category: music

“In the two years of Jeff Melanson’s tenure, total expenses at the orchestra increased by almost a third, administration costs by 80 per cent. In previous years, the TSO’s expenses had either stayed flat or declined. The TSO did not see an accompanying increase in revenues in the last fiscal year. Ticket sales declined slightly in fiscal 2015-16, as did government support. Thus the organization’s surplus was created, in the first instance, by having the Toronto Symphony Foundation, the organization’s long-term funding support, make a contribution to the orchestra of almost $5-million in fiscal 2015-16, more than double its usual contribution.”

“The musicians voted on Wednesday to approve a new labor agreement with orchestra management that includes a pay freeze for the first two years and modest pay raises in the last two years of the four-year contract.”

Oh yes, it was booed, and not only by the professional claques. There are some big differences from the revised version Puccini eventually published – especially with the character of Pinkerton, who was originally much more craven as well as more caddish.

“Now it has emerged that one of the two experts who refused to authenticate the score later tried to persuade the owner of the piece to part with it for just €900 (£757), less than one per cent of the value put on it by the auction house.”

“One positive story the classical music field has to tell is a multi-tiered membership approach developed by The Cleveland Orchestra. Instead of building a one-size fits all membership program, the Cleveland Orchestra team identified distinct audience segments that fell through the cracks of their existing loyalty programs. Then, they went about crafting a targeted membership initiative for each of those groups: college students, young professionals, and “gap audiences” that hadn’t responded to traditional subscription offerings.”

The figure for last season was up 15% over 2014-15 and is the fourth increase in a row. Total attendance was down slightly, and there was a $561,000 deficit after three years of surpluses; both decreases can be blamed on (yes, really) the weather.

Executive director Andrew Kipe says that the 29-year-old music director has
“really changed the conversation about the orchestra and its mission and direction. He has wanted the orchestra to do more than be in the concert hall giving concerts.”

And not just in the contemporary category, either. Jennifer Higdon’s Cold Mountain and John Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles are up for best opera recording (Higdon’s up for best new composition as well). Among other nominees are the Seattle Symphony doing Dutilleux, Leila Josefowicz acing John Adams, Salonen and the LA Phil zinging Zappa, Third Coast Percussion banging out Reich, and Mason Bates performed by both MTT/San Francisco and Muti/Chicago.

“In a year that lacked some of the breakout narratives that have marked the jazz category in recent years – see Gregory Porter, Cecile McLorin Salvant – Grammy voters once more leaned on veteran or otherwise familiar talents for the bulk of the nominations field.”

Okay – so we don’t quite know how Solange beats out Beyonce’s Lemonade for best album of the year. But the bigger question is how this eclectic hodgepodge of styles and genres gets sorted out into a big list that features Barbara Hannigan, Miranda Lambert, Rihanna, Chopin mazurkas, Kaytranada and Christopher Rouse. Just what is the aesthetic through-line here?