Ask a musician who the greatest conductor currently working the international scene is, and it’s likely that the name you’ll hear will be Mariss Jansons. The 62-year-old Latvian has risen to the top of his profession in the last decade, and has done so without any of the maestro’s traditional pomp and showboating. For Jansons, music is all about the emotional connection, and he goes to great lengths to instill this idea in the musicians he conducts. “My philosophy is that I can conduct if I have a relationship with a piece. If I don’t, what’s the point?”
Tag: 03.10.05
Has New Music Made Itself Irrelevant?
Classical music devotees tend to be sharply split over the issue of contemporary music, to the extent that a conductor devoted to the work of, say, Elliott Carter may quickly find himself with a very small core audience. “The problem isn’t just a decline in musical literacy. You don’t have to be able to read a score to ‘get’ a piece by R. Murray Schafer or Einojuhani Rautavaara, just as you don’t need a thorough basis in colour theory and composition to respond to a painting by Frank Stella or Joanne Tod. Without really thinking about it, the broad arts public has decided that the truth of our times is not to be found in contemporary music, or at least not to a degree to make the search worth while.”
Oakland Ballet Back On Its Feet
The Oakland Ballet hasn’t danced in nearly a year, as administrators struggled to balance the company’s books during a planned dark year. But those who feared the demise of the troupe can now breath a sigh of relief with the announcement that the red ink has been eliminated, the 2005-06 season has been unveiled, and a new “fiscally conservative” business model has been adopted.
A Foundation That’s Quick On Its Feet
Getting money from foundations and government is usually a log complicated process. by contrast, the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, a charitable trust established by the banking family that owned M&G takes a simple approach. “The foundation spends more than £5.5 million a year on the arts and heritage. It shows how money can be delivered quickly and productively to places where it can stimulate and support good art without socio-political agendas getting in the way.”
Where UK Arts Funding Goes
The UK government spends 412 million on arts and culture this year. Here’s how it’s spent…
Journalist To Lead Institute of Contemporary Arts
London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts has chosen journalist and broadcaster Ekow Eshun as its new artistic director. “Aged only 28 he was appointed as editor of men’s style magazine Arena. Today he writes regularly for publications including the Guardian, the Observer, the New Statesman and Wallpaper*. He is a founding director of Bug Consultancy and, as a broadcaster, is a regular contributor to Newsnight Review and Radio 4’s Front Row.”
Foster’s To Sell Corporate Art Collection
For years, the giant beverage company Foster’s has collected art. But the company has decided to sell off its collection. “Yesterday, the firm announced that Sotheby’s would auction the about 70 pictures in Melbourne on May 23. The sale is being promoted as the biggest corporate art sell-off in Australian history, with estimates of the likely proceeds ranging from $9 million to more than $13 million.”