“Sweet are the uses of perversity in the theater. Throw a kink, a curve, a warping twist into a time-honored dramatic formula and tried-and-true suddenly looks eye-poppingly new and unsettling. The spring season in New York is, happily and atypically, plump with demonstrations of such genre bending, with entrancingly wicked shows that extract the profane from the sacred and the rot from the pillars of society.”
Tag: 02.26.06
Training Leaders, One At A Time
Being a concertmaster is a very different job than being a rank-and-file orchestra musician. In most orchestras, the concertmaster must play a double role in the life of the ensemble, consulting with conductors and commanding respect while simultaneously maintaining a collegial connection with the other players, who are unlikely to respond well to dictatorial tactics. It is also a job for which there has never been an official way to train, until now. “The Concertmaster Academy [at the prestigious Cleveland Institute of Music] is intended to groom a person for the specific leadership demands of the job. Unlike performance programs, which one might argue are glutting the marketplace with players, this program has an intentionally tiny enrollment: one per year.”
Philly Breaks New Ground In The Low Brass
The Philadelphia Orchestra has hired a new tuba player. Who is twenty years old. And female. And if you think that’s not a major departure from the orchestral norm, you clearly haven’t spent much time scanning the low brass rosters of prominent ensembles. Still, “if brass players have a reputation for macho banter and a certain amount of antics, Carol Jantsch should have no trouble keeping up. She once won a tuba-throwing contest at a tuba conference in Finland, casting an old instrument into a lake, landing first prize in the women’s division.”
Look Alive, Dammit!
Why do American orchestral musicians always look so unhappy onstage? Are they actually that cynical? Is it merely a desire not to show up one’s fellow musicians? Are the players exhausted from what is admittedly a tough schedule of rehearsals and concerts? Or is the music really so difficult that looking happy to be playing it becomes a physical impossibility? “Classical music, it seems, is the only genre that abides and encourages such affectlessness… Well-intentioned though it may be, this stoic style does nothing to bridge the communication chasm between orchestras and audiences.”
Other People’s Money
An ongoing dispute between the Edmonton Symphony and the family of one of the orchestra’s biggest supporters has taken the form of an ugly public battle over an $800,000 bequest. “Stuart Davis, Edmonton’s philanthropist of the year in 2003, didn’t like lawyers and accountants. He didn’t use their services when he wrote a will giving his millions to local charities and six family members. Charities ended up getting 80 per cent of his $13-million estate.” But the lack of legal advice means that parts of the will are unclear, and Davis’s son says that he cannot afford to be as generous with the symphony as his father might have been.
History vs. Innovation in SoCal
Pasadena, California, is on the verge of a building boom, and fans of daring architecture will likely be pleased by what is to come. “But what’s avant-garde to some could be an assault to others… It’s either a step into the future, or the early stages of an aesthetic identity crisis.”
Nothing’s Changed, Except That You Got Caught
Museums are falling all over themselves to tell the world that, while they may have been taken by surprise when the rules surrounding antiquities acquistion changed recently, they are more than willing to adapt. The truth, says Guy Dammann, is that the rules haven’t changed at all. “What has changed [is] the willingness of the museum to follow them.”
Want More Audience? Ask The Kids
Every arts organization wants to find better ways to get young people in to see their work. The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center has formed a committee of young people to come up with strategies. “Most of the committee members come from prestigious high schools, both public and private. But even if one allows for a certain urban precociousness, the sophistication of their weekly discussions is impressive, and not dissimilar to debates going on at arts organizations around the country.”