Competing For A Career

Being a young conductor is no great shakes, what with everyone from critics to musicians to the public just waiting to pass judgment on your every move. So how do you manage to create great art, keep your orchestra happy, please the experts, and promote yourself all at the same time? Well, you could start by winning the Leeds Conductors Competition…

Is It Art? Or Is It Just Stupid?

What are we to make of an artist who crafts a bar of soap from fat liposuctioned out of the Italian prime minister, sells it to a collector for $18,000, then claims that his work has no political overtones? “There is something vexing about Gianni Motti and his bar of soap. It could be a neat contemporary commentary on politics, the media, image-consciousness and postmodern portraiture – and therefore worthy of its plexiglass pedestal. Or it could just be a tasteless, overpriced idea that dissolves in seconds, like soap in a hot bath.”

Austin S.O. Ticket Sales Go Through The Roof

Orchestras across America are struggling to fill their concert halls, but in the indie-rock capital of Austin, Texas, residents are apparently devoted to music of all kinds, filling the local symphony’s concerts to such an impressive capacity that some concerts even attracted ticket scalpers. In fact, the Austin Symphony registered a 43% ticket sales increase in 2004-05 over the previous season, a dramatic rise the ensemble attributes to programming decisions and strong community support.

Is Andrew Lloyd Webber Dismantling His Theatre Empire?

“Lloyd Webber is at a crossroads and the path he chooses over the next weeks will redraw the map of London’s theatreland and, it is believed, possibly change it forever. He is London’s biggest theatrical landlord and it has been known for months that he is considering selling his business, but we can reveal that, after this weekend’s festival he will meet his advisers to consider a range of options that include a complete withdrawal from the West End.”

Selling Harry (Not The Merchandise)

While anticipation is high for the new Harry Potter book, there will be less Harry merchandise for sale. The release of “Half-Blood Prince,” the sixth of Rowling’s seven-book fantasy series, should confirm that Harry Potter mania is essentially a celebration of reading, a phenomenon created by children, not marketers. Demand for the book is higher than ever. Scholastic, Inc., Rowling’s American publisher, has announced a first printing of 10.8 million, seven times the first run of Bill Clinton’s “My Life” and 4 million more than for “Order of the Phoenix.”

Why Is Netflix So Popular?

“Netflix has what some people fashionably call a “long tail” business. Its catalogue of more than 45,000 titles means that it can cater to almost any interest. Such a depth of movie offerings, plus online features such as movie reviews and recommendations, increases its popularity. Unlike a typical high street video-rental store, which might get the bulk of its revenue from just a few hundred recent titles, Netflix’s revenue comes from a far broader selection: some 35,000 different film titles are contained in the 1m DVDs it sends out every day.”

Theatre Restoration Reveals Tiffany

While restoring the old Hudson Theatre in Times Square, workers find some hidden Tiffany. “The restoration of the landmark theater, now part of the Millennium Broadway Hotel conference center, began in November. Although the triple-domed stained-glass ceiling in the green marble lobby was known to be the work of Louis Comfort Tiffany, the discovery of turquoise, orange and mauve mosaic tiles by the glass designer around the stage arch, box seats, balconies, and columns was unexpected.”

Another Canaletto Record

Just 24 hours after a Canaletto painting sells at auction for a record price, another of the Italian painter’s works breaks open that record. “View of the Grand Canal from Palazzo Balbi” was expected to fetch up to £8 million, but instead sold for £18.6m – breaking a world record set just 24 hours earlier.

Touring Children’s Theatre Tries To Make It At Home

“Since it began in 1961, Theaterworks/USA has become the largest touring children’s theater company in the country, with as many as 14 shows on the road at a time, traveling to 1,320 cities, towns, villages and hamlets, including Washington and Los Angeles as well as Cando, N.D. (population: 1,372). But now the organization also wants to make it big in its own hometown, which happens to be New York City, where getting noticed is not easy.”

Giving Up On the Avant Garde?

Margo Jefferson has lost interest in the avant garde. “Is a urinal art? Is elephant dung a fit substance for creating art? Can walking be dance? Is sampling or silence or noise music? Are fractured words and stories truer to the shape of our experience than traditional narratives? Will the virtual and simulated realities made possible by the digital age threaten our identities or layer and expand them? At one time all these things were controversial. Now they are familiar. That’s why I don’t really like to use the words avant-garde anymore. I don’t really believe in them right now. They don’t take in enough variety.”