A Musician Without An Orchestra

Nick Dargahi is a cellist. Or, rather, he was. Or maybe he still is. It’s hard to tell these days. When you are an orchestral musician, and your orchestra is suddenly pulled out from under you, it becomes difficult to know what you are for sure. Dargahi has left the music business, at least temporarily, and is training to be an engineer. Author Richard Florida thinks that stories like Dargahi’s are an unnecessary tragedy, and says that orchestras need to redefine their mission and reenergize the public to prevent a sustained crisis.

What Happened To TV Arts Programming…

The BBC will attempt to launch new arts programming later this year. Good, but “why should arts television need relaunching? Whatever happened to the arts on television? What happened was, in part, a loss of nerve. This has taken various forms. First, expelling the arts from the main channels. We have seen the almost complete disappearance of the arts from BBC1.” Second, the tone of TV arts shows in recent years has shifted dramatically. “The heyday of arts television was the product of an era with different values and assumptions, reflected in several great landmark series.”

The Music Critic Problem – Hearing It On Radio Is Better

What’s wrong with contemporary music criticism? “The customary practice is that anyone can be approached for his or her opinion on the latest film, play, novel or exhibition. Behind the convention is an ideology: that the less you know about the subject in advance the better, since your ignorance connects you to the audience.” On radio, however, one can hear and compare the music and be guided by someone who knows what they’re talking about…

Looking For Canadian Art

Sarah Milroy goes looking for what’s new in Canadian art across the country. “Art schools in Canada pump out more than 23,000 graduates a year, and a zippy, techno-friendly bunch they are too. After a few days on the trail, though, I started to realize that most of the best artists I spoke to, or heard about, shared a common tendency: an interest in the disposable, the futile, the abject, the slightly unravelled.”

Florida Philharmonic Ceases Operations

The Florida Philharmonic has laid off “all but five of their 111 employees and suspended operations Friday, saying the symphony had run out of money. The Philharmonic’s 80 musicians and the rest of the orchestra’s employees received their final paychecks Friday, two weeks before the scheduled end of the season. Eight concerts were canceled.”

Where Are The Romantic Leading Men?

“Romantic comedy used to mean grown-up sex appeal, dazzling wit and fizzy, sparring dialogue, typically delivered at a breakneck pace.” Not anymore. And why not? A lack of male actors who are good at it. “Few seem to want to risk playing romantic leads, and one suspects few could pull it off. In part, this is because film acting styles have changed over the past 30 or 40 years. The long shadow of Method acting hangs over actors today. Men need to look deep inside themselves to plumb their characters’ motivation; it’s a serious business, and hard to square with classic romantic comedy, which calls for deadpan devilry, a barely controlled madness, and a willingness to don a tuxedo and look suave and silly simultaneously. Who’s up to it?”

Increasingly – TV Execs Negotiate With Themselves For Shows

Increasingly, American TV networks buying shows are the same people who produce the shows, and the complicated relationship is changing the rules of the business. “Such incestuous discussions are increasingly common in the industry, where a handful of giant companies occupy both sides of the negotiating table, produce much of the programming on the air and increasingly play financial hardball to offset their ratings losses. The squeeze is being felt not just by talent but also by the agents and managers who represent them. Independent producers, meanwhile, have been pushed to near-extinction. Only 11% of last year’s new prime-time programs came from companies other than major studios – and most of those were low-cost reality shows.”