Warner Music, the world’s fourth-largest recording company, is preparing a takeover bid for British music giant EMI, and says that the offer will likely be cash only. Warner and EMI have danced around each other for the better part of a decade, with each attempting to acquire the other at various times. “A merger of the firms would create a firm with about 25% of the global recorded music market,” and regulatory concerns could derail any attempt at joining the companies.
Tag: 02.21.07
Pittsburgh Looks To Tax Non-Profits
In most American cities, non-profit groups expend at least a nominal amount of effort asking local government entities for money, which may or may not be forthcoming. But in the fiscally strapped city of Pittsburgh, nonprofits have actually been contributing money to the city government for the past couple of years. Now, the city has tired of the voluntary contribution system, and wants to require larger “contributions” (also known as “taxes”) from non-profits like hospitals that are actually turning large profits.
Nasty Microbe 1, Symphony Orchestra 0
Norway is in the grip of a nationwide flu epidemic, and this week, one of the country’s orchestras actually had to cancel a concert because of it. It’s not that the Trondheim Symphony was afraid of catching the bug from the audience – 30 of the ensemble’s 78 musicians were too sick to come to work themselves.
Bucking The Regional Orchestra Trend
Symphony Silicon Valley, which rose from the ashes of the bankrupt San Jose Symphony five years ago, has announced the second expansion of its schedule in as many seasons. “Bouncing off a $118,000 operating surplus last year, the orchestra has announced that its 2007-08 season will be larger than any of its first five, with eight programs stretching over 20 concerts.”
The Racial Politics Of Art
What does ethnicity have to do with art? It depends entirely on your perspective as an artist and, of course, your ethnicity. “The more people you work with and the more projects you do, your idea of what it means to be Puerto Rican, to be Latin American, to be American, unfolds. You end up not only with an idea of what your culture is but what it could be.”
St. Louis Symhony Prez Quitting
The president of the St. Louis Symphony has announced that he will step down at the end of the current season. In his time with the SLSO, Randy Adams has been credited with turning around the orchestra’s financial fortunes, but he also presided over a long musicians’ strike in 2005. “Adams said he decided to leave now because he wants his successor in place before the orchestra deals with a number of tough challenges.”
Dance Writer Ann Barzel, 101
“She reviewed dance in the 1940s for The Chicago Times and other newspapers, and later for Dance Magazine for many years. She also contributed to many dance journals and encyclopedias. But her films of touring ballet performances — shot from the wings in the ’40s and ’50s, often with a windup camera — proved to be her most important contribution to the field.”
Mostly Mozart Gets Composer Of Its Own
“The festival said on Tuesday that Osvaldo Golijov would be its first composer in residence, although he will not be writing much music for it. Instead, Mr. Golijov, one of the most sought-after composers around, will be something of a programming guru for the 2007 version of the summer festival.”
Mainstream Black Theatre Gets Bigger Playing Field
“As white theatergoers were lining up for ‘Wicked’ at the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center across town, the audience filling up the Lyric, a slightly larger theater, was almost exclusively black, mostly middle-aged women. Many said they had heard about the play through the traditional lines of the circuit’s promotion: radio ads, fliers in local business and church parking lots and an astonishingly effective word-of-mouth network that precedes the show from city to city.”
Corporate Support For Arts Wilts
“Over the last decade, the portion of corporate philanthropy dedicated to the arts has dropped by more than half, according to the Giving USA Foundation, an educational and research program of the American Association of Fundraising Counsel. In 2004, the most recent year for which figures are available, support for the arts was 4 percent of total corporate philanthropy, compared with 9.5 percent in 1994 — part of a general shift in giving toward health and social services.”