The Music Center at Strathmore, in suburban Washington, D.C. is very nearly ready for its close-up, and if successful in its mission, it will change the face of the arts in the Baltimore-Washington corridor. “The state-of-the-art building is unique in the way it embraces art from its tiniest beginnings to its loftiest expressions. Five-year-olds learn how to hold a violin correctly; 3-year-olds can take tap dance with their mothers or fathers. When the concert hall opens next month, cellist Yo-Yo Ma will be center stage; later, Sauvion Glover will bring his thrilling kind of tap to the hall.”
Tag: 01.15.05
Jarvi In Newark: Where To Begin?
It was a major coup when the New Jersey Symphony announced that Neeme Jarvi would become its next music director. But what will the legendary Jarvi need to accomplish to put the NJSO on the map? “The [major] task will be to make the woodwind and brass players perform with the polish, subtlety, warmth and cohesiveness of the string players, newly empowered by the orchestra’s acquisition of a cache of valuable string instruments… [Jarvi,] with his obvious taste for Nordic music and with a readily available stable of maestros to extend the Nordic range… seems to be ideally placed to develop a specialty with this orchestra much the way Charles Dutoit did in French music with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra.”
Those Lonely, Lonely Germans
Something about the sight of a lone figure wandering along a remote road was an irresistable inspiration for countless German artists of the mid-1800s. “The early 19th century in Germany was tough on intellectuals; in the wake of the Napoleonic wars and the Congress of Vienna came a fierce persecution of democratic ideas and those who held them, so that to assert one’s ‘German-ness’ as an artist, one’s allegiance to folk culture and local history, was in some ways a radical act.” Inherent in the theme of the lonely exile was “an inwardness, whispering and pleading to be let out.”
Health Care Cut Off For St. Louis Musicians
The work stoppage at the St. Louis Symphony has been remarkably civil thus far, but tempers are beginning to flare over the issue of health insurance, which was cut off to the musicians when they rejected management’s final contract offer. The SLSO had prepaid the musicians’ premium, and received a rebate from the cancellation. Meanwhile, the 2-year-old son of an orchestra cellist had a seizure last week, and his mother found herself stuck with a major hospital bill when her insurance was found to have been terminated. The musicians claim that their health insurance was never affected during previous work stoppages.
Cooperation Ain’t The Way
Cleveland arts groups have been ratcheting up efforts to improve the city’s cultural scene, but many have discovered that joining forces can be the most effective way to compete in a world with seemingly endless entertainment options. “So why aren’t the creators of two significant new Cleveland arts festivals working together?” The Cleveland Play House is planning a theater and arts festival for May 2006, but the creators of a Labor Day arts-and-technology festival will beat them to the punch by nine months. So why not let two become one? Well, for one thing, the Play House’s artistic director thinks that Labor Day weekend is “box office poison.”
MTT at… 60? Really?
The San Francisco Symphony’s charismatic and ever-youthful music director, Michael Tilson Thomas, turned 60 this weekend, incredible as it may seem, and used the occasion to mount a huge onstage party at Davies Symphony Hall. “Like a kid facing a coffee table stacked with big, glittery presents, Thomas raced through the evening’s program, eagerly unwrapping each musical offering… Even among conductors, a famously long-lived and resilient breed, Thomas has always had a preternaturally youthful and even boyish streak. Now, at 60, he seems to be combining that tireless energy and enthusiasm with the ever- deepening mastery that comes with age.”
Are You Ready For Some… um… Orchestral Music?
A staid, refined art form like classical music just can’t compete in a dumbed-down NFL/MTV world, right? Actually, maybe it can. “In an upset of Joe Namath proportions, orchestral music has been thriving in the realm of the football fan, rabid and otherwise. For 40 years, the highly regarded highlights of NFL games airing on such TV programs as ‘Game of the Week,’ ‘This Is the NFL’ and channels such as ESPN Classic and the NFL Network have been accompanied by an orchestra. Based in Mount Laurel, N.J., NFL Films currently has an unheard of two composers on staff — Tom Hedden and David Robidoux.”
Pacific Northwest Ballet Makes Cuts
Facing a $500,000 deficit, Seattle’s Pacific Northwest Ballet has made some cuts. “The majority of cuts will be made by a two-week unpaid leave for administrative staff; the cancellation of two performances for each of the company’s mixed bills in March and April, and the postponement of a new work by Kent Stowell, PNB co-artistic director and principal choreographer, in April.”