Category: music

“Concertmaster Emmanuelle Boisvert, 47, first violinist of the DSO for 23 years and known for the refined elegance of her playing and her strong leadership of the string section, will become associate concertmaster of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra in September. Several other DSO musicians have announced plans to leave the orchestra in the wake of the recent strike.”

“With each passing generation, composers fall in and out of fashion, and the core orchestral canon shifts to accommodate changing tastes. But somewhere along the line, we stopped drafting new composers into the mix of regulars, and unless we change that, and soon, it means that when tastes change again, there may not be anything an orchestra can play that will sound remotely interesting to the next generation of listeners.”

“One of a handful of gifted African-American conductors who broke through the glass ceiling in American symphonic music a generation ago, Freeman, 75, has made his orchestra a shining emblem of diversity and inclusion in the field. The concert celebrated his achievements now that he is stepping down from the orchestra he made one of the city’s best since launching it 24 years ago.”

“It was the fifth sold-out or nearly sold-out concert during the season, which produced the best attendance numbers the CSO has seen for the past five seasons. The average number of people attending CSO concerts this season (1,752) shows a marked increase over the 2006-07 season (1,540).”

“You know that feeling where you’re stuck in a codependent relationship for years and then one day it becomes all too clear, so you just decide to get the f*** out without a real game plan? The New York City Opera did just that yesterday, straight up-and-leaving Lincoln Center for a home to be determined later.”

“Earlier this month, EMI Music Publishing announced that it will take back digital licensing rights from ASCAP, the body that collects performance royalties for artists in North America. In the future, all digital licensing of the EMI April Music catalogue, one of the company’s two largest catalogues featuring almost 200,000 of the most popular songs ever written (according to EMI), will be done directly by EMI.”

“The fundraising goal for next year has been increased to $20.6 million, with operating expenses projected at $57.4 million. Lyric has operated in the black for 23 of the past 24 years and is among the few major opera companies in America that is not carrying an accumulated deficit.”

When Leonore Annenberg gave $50 million to the orchestra’s endowment fund in 2003, she and the orchestra signed a donor agreement that happens to include the stipulation that if the orchestra should file for bankruptcy, the Annenberg Foundation may ask for the money to be returned.

“Wherever the company moves, the logistics are daunting and the questions rife. What about old sets that don’t fit? Where can City Opera find theaters with a pit, offstage space and the necessary rigging and lighting? Where will the staff have offices?” And what does Lincoln Center do about all that dark time at the Koch Theater?

The New York Times solicits readers’ ideas about where the company should perform once it leaves Lincoln Center. Suggestions so far include the expected (NY City Center, BAM), the unlikely (a vintage 3,000-seat movie theater in Flushing, Queens), and the intriguing (the Hammerstein Ballroom, originally an opera house where Mary Garden and Tetrazzini sang).