“After 20 months of contentious negotiations, the Louisville Orchestra’s musicians and its management have reached a one-year labor agreement that will allow for a 30-week season beginning this fall, and both sides are optimistic that a long-term deal will be reached by next spring” under binding arbitration.
Category: music
Cologne Opera Director Who Threatened To Cancel Season Resigns
Roughly one day after he threatened to call off the entire 2012-13 season because he couldn’t get funding issues worked out with Cologne’s city government, Uwe Eric Laufenberg announced that he would step down as the opera house’s Intendant at the end of that season (which is presumably proceeding as planned), two years before the end of his contract.
Philadelphia Orchestra To Begin China Residency Next Month
“The orchestra’s May 28-June 6 residency and tour of China, details of which were to be announced Wednesday in Beijing and Philadelphia, was hatched in a matter of months – five full orchestral concerts in four cities, master classes, chamber concerts, many other ancillary events, plus plans stretching five years into the future.”
Louis Langrée Named Music Director Of Cincinnati Symphony
The 51-year-old maestro, currently music director of Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival and chief conductor of Camerata Salzburg, succeeds Paavo Järvi, who left last May. Langrée begins his initial four-year term in the 2013-14 season.
Philadelphia Orchestra Settles Case With Musicians’ Pension Fund
“Resolving the most quarrelsome aspect of its bankruptcy, the Philadelphia Orchestra Association has settled with the national musicians’ pension fund that had threatened expensive and time-consuming litigation over the orchestra’s withdrawal from the fund.”
How The Cuban Music Industry Is Different
“In Cuba, many of the groups are on salary, which really creates a new dynamic. First, in a capitalist society, groups rise and fall based on their popularity and their money making capacity, where in Cuba, this is very different. Some of the groups are sustained because they’re on salary, they survive maybe even when they’re not so popular but they’re still going… because these are traditions that are preserved.”
Tokyo String Quartet To Disband
“After more than 40 years, the members of Tokyo String Quartet have decided they will disband at the end of the 2012-13 season.”
Cologne Opera Director Threatens To Cancel 2012-13 Season
“Intendant Uwe Eric Laufenberg, frustrated by the failure of the city to resolve financing issues, noted that would be the first time any German house cancelled its entire season since the darkest days of the Second World War.”
Jakarta’s Symphony Orchestra Tries To Reboot
“After decades under the control of the government of the capital city, the Jakarta Philharmonic Orchestra has this year taken the bold step of going private. Under the leadership of director Estu Susanto, the Jakarta institution has changed its name (from the Jakarta Symphony Orchestra) and adopted a more professional approach. Now it is seeking to find a whole new audience for classical music, and along the way break down some tired, old stereotypes about the genre.”
How Filming/Streaming Opera Is Changing Opera
“In 1923 the conductor Sir Thomas Beecham warned that concert halls would soon be left empty ‘if the wireless authorities are allowed to continue their devilish work’. Yet there’s still no sign of that happening. Despite all the recording innovations of the last 100 years, people are still drawn to the actual event: the atmosphere, the sense of occasion, the close proximity of the performers – and the risk of it all going wrong.”