As the battle over intellectual property shapes up as one of the most important of the 21st century, classical music aficionados are increasingly finding it difficult to access classic recordings. “Now that the boom years of the compact disc are over, classical music discs often don’t make back their costs. No matter that the discs contain work by some of the century’s great artists – often in live performances never recorded in the studio. Their appeal is often so specialized that purchasers are more likely to find them on specialized international Web sites than in Tower Records.” But those recordings still belong to someone, and that someone has to be paid if someone else wants to listen, and that puts everyone in a difficult position.
Tag: 06.30.05
NAC Theatre Taps Maverick Hinton
“Maverick playwright and auteur director Peter Hinton has been named the new artistic director of the [Ottawa-based] National Arts Centre’s English Theatre… One of this country’s most innovative theatre artists, Hinton has directed more than 70 new plays, classical texts and operas, and championed the works of a range of Canadian playwrights in Toronto, Vancouver and, more recently, Montreal, where he was dramaturge-in-residence at Playwright’s Workshop Montreal.”
Trying To Stay A Step Ahead of the Feds
A new report from Independent Sector, “a Washington, D.C.-based coalition of non-profits,” takes a hard line on executive compensation and other methods of pushing the financial envelope, calling for government intervention in cases where non-profit and charitable organizations are found to be abusing the rules that govern their tax-free existence. Why would a group representing non-profits be so tough on its own members? Maybe because the U.S. Senate is gearing up to pass new rules which would be even tougher than those being proposed by Independent Sector.
ICA Development Chief Jumps To National Gallery
“Paul Bessire, a key figure in the [Boston-based] Institute of Contemporary Art’s new waterfront building project, will leave the museum in early August to take a senior position at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Bessire, 43, has been the ICA’s director of external relations since 2000, overseeing the $62 million fund-raising campaign now underway to pay for a new museum under construction on Fan Pier… Bessire becomes the National Gallery’s chief development officer in September.”
Protecting The Paris Library
The apparent theft of 30,000 volumes from the Paris Libary is making waves in France, and has sparked discussion of the proper way to balance security and accessibility in the nation’s most important archival institution. “‘To turn the library into a locked safe would be easy, but it is not our vocation,’ [the French daily Le Figaro] quoted Agnès Saal, the library’s director-general, as saying. ‘Unlike museums, our documents are there to be consulted.'”
Guggenheim Picks An Architect For Mexican Outpost
The Guggenheim has chosen a conceptual design by Mexican architect Enrique Norten as its choice for a new outpost the museum hopes to build in Guadalajara, Mexico. Norten, a rising star in New York’s architectural scene, conceived of a “largely transparent rectilinear tower consisting of a series of steel boxes of various shapes for flexible exhibition spaces.” Of course, this is the Guggenheim, which means that there’s no guarantee that the Guadalajara museum will ever be built at all, and the next step is a feasability study which should at least answer the question of whether the $180 million project is realistic.
A Building Only A Politician Could Love
The Freedom Tower has become a parody of its own name, says Nicolai Ouroussoff, and we should have seen it coming. “Somber, oppressive and clumsily conceived, the project suggests a monument to a society that has turned its back on any notion of cultural openness. It is exactly the kind of nightmare that government officials repeatedly asserted would never happen here: an impregnable tower braced against the outside world… If this is a potentially fascinating work of architecture, it is, sadly, fascinating in the way that Albert Speer’s architectural nightmares were fascinating: as expressions of the values of a particular time and era. The Freedom Tower embodies, in its way, a world shaped by fear.”
The Design Project That Wouldn’t End
Don’t like the latest Freedom Tower redesign? Don’t fret, says Michael Goodwin: another redo is likely just around the corner. “The big reason why more changes are coming has little to do with the Freedom Tower. The issue is the growing recognition that almost every element planned for the site is a problem waiting to be discovered.”
Baby Steps Working Fine In San Jose
The fledgling Symphony Silicon Valley declared its just-completed third season a success this week, with a balanced budget and a newly created endowment to show for its efforts. “Symphony Silicon Valley formed after the collapse of the 123-year-old San Jose Symphony in 2001. The new symphony has started slowly — 17 performances last year compared with 50 a year for the old symphony — and has survived mostly without city or corporate funding, depending on private donors and ticket sales.” The new endowment will pump $50,000 a year into the budget, and adinistrators hope it will encourage private support for the ensemble.
But No Hurling Barrels At The Viola Section, Okay?
Several orchestras have had success this year programming music from the popular video game, Final Fantasy, and now, the Los Angeles Philharmonic is taking the concept a step further. The Phil is putting on a full concert of music featuring the music from such classic games as Donkey Kong and Frogger as well as from contemporary hits like Halo, and “for a portion of the two-hour video game music concert, the actions of two gamers playing live on stage will actually direct the 105-piece orchestra… It’s a carefully choreographed tribute highlighting the best games and their best features, whether it’s the full choir accompanying Halo or the light show complementing Tron or the montage of archival and future video clips for Zelda.”