McManus: Musical ‘Oversupply’ No Excuse For Exploitation

Are U.S. and European orchestras facing an oversupply of qualified young musicians? AJ blogger Drew McManus doesn’t think so, since more musicians competing for fewer jobs can also mean a fresh supply of musically knowledgable individuals who might move into other areas of the industry. But “instead of seeing greater numbers of musicians as a benefit to the business, too many people may consider this as an ‘oversupply problem’ and attempt to force established musicians into accepting lower wages or, even worse, begin to establish new ensembles bent on taking advantage of inexperienced, yet highly trained, labor for personal or organizational gain.”

Canada’s Arts Scene May Take An Election-Year Hit

Canada is in the final stages of a tough national election campaign, and arts leaders are not pleased with what they’re hearing, or rather, what they’re not hearing. “Extra cultural funding through the Canada Council that was announced in November by Liza Frulla, the heritage minister in the Paul Martin government, could vanish if politicians refuse to provide campaign assurances they’re committed to it.” So far, none of the leaders of the four major political parties have offered such assurances – in fact, as nearly as anyone can tell, they haven’t uttered the word “arts” at all.

Philly Museum Branches Out Into Korean Art

“Responding to growing involvement from the local Korean-American community and an increasing awareness nationally of Korean art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art has hired its first curator of Korean art. Hyunsoo Woo, 36, formerly of the Japan Society in New York and the Brooklyn Museum, started work Monday as the museum’s associate curator of Korean art – making the museum one of just a few in the United States to have a full-time staffer devoted to Korean art.”

Is The iPod Generation Destroying Music, or Saving It?

A recent British study declared that the era of downloadable music and portable MP3 players is creating “producing a generation that doesn’t seriously appreciate songs or musical performance.” But hasn’t the real impact of music-on-demand been the newfound ability of consumers to bypass an increasingly marketing-driven music industry which insists on promoting style over substance? “Today, discerning music listeners aren’t at the mercy of a few label bosses, marketing gurus and program directors. If they’re willing to invest even a small amount of effort, they can go online, confer with other fans and have at their fingertips every imaginable artist in every imaginable genre. The result is that, more so than generations past, the current one really is appreciating musical performance.”

Did Phantom Make Broadway, Or Vice Versa?

The record-setting run of Phantom of the Opera is getting plenty of press, but the show’s success is about more than just the popularity of Andrew Lloyd Webber and a masked antihero. “Although the price of tickets [on Broadway] has skyrocketed — the top regular price seat is $110, and up to $360 for ‘premium seating’ — Berlind says a booming economy has meant that people are willing to dig deep into their wallets if shows warrant it. And so far, people have been showing up. In the last week of 2005, 20 shows were at more than 90% capacity, with Wicked bringing in an unprecedented $1.61 million.” In other words, Phantom is where it is because of a Broadway theatre scene that has never been more robust, and that shows no signs of slowing down.

Birgit Nilsson, 87

“Ms. Nilsson sang the operas of Richard Strauss and made a specialty of Puccini’s ‘Turandot,’ but it was Wagner who served her career and whom she served as no other soprano since the days of Kirsten Flagstad. A big, blunt woman with a wicked sense of humor, Ms. Nilsson brooked no interference from Wagner’s powerful and eventful orchestral writing.”

Back To School

Critic Julia Keller never liked Jonathan Swift back in college, when his “lofty sarcasm [and] misanthropic superiority” seemed at odds with her vision of what literature ought to be. The wonderful thing about graduating from college, of course, is that you’re no longer required to delve into the work of writers you hate. But Keller is diving back in, auditing a Swift course at a Chicago university in order to “engage in an intellectual arm-wrestling match with Swift, my old nemesis, and report on the results.” Vegas oddsmakers are currently laying 3-to-2 odds on Swift.

Savvy Marketing Or Copyright Infringment?

A copyright dispute appears to have broken out between Boston Globe columnist Alex Beam and the publisher of a collection of “luxury magazines” aimed at high-end consumers in cities across the U.S. Beam first wrote about the company and its magazines last September, and he was more than a bit derisive. But now, the publisher appears to have pulled a few select quotes from Beam’s article to use as promotional material for the magazines, an action which Beam calls “blatant copyright infringement,” especially since the references to Beam’s column “omitted what we call the lead, which referred to [the] magazine as ‘a 352-page doorstop’ filled with ‘puffy, party-oriented proto-journalism.'”

Spoiling For A Fight

It’s always been an article of faith among movie and TV critics that you don’t reveal a big plot twist before the audience has a chance to see it for themselves. But what to do today, in a world of on-demand media in which some viewers will go berserk over a critic’s “spoiler,” even if it comes weeks or months after the show in question first aired? Joanna Weiss is sick of all the whining: “Well, I contend that what happens on TV the night before constitutes news, and is thus fit for a newspaper. That’s not to say we can’t be nice and offer a small grace period… But beyond that, facts are fair game.”