Yet another venue hit by fallout from the financial crisis: the Dr. P. Phillips Performing Arts Center, budgeted at $408 million and scheduled to open in 2012 in downtown Orlando. “While supporters have been able to raise $86 million in pledges, they are still short by $45 million. The center needs to raise $25 million by 2010 and another $20 million after that. […] [D]onors typically pledge money over a three to five year span. So the center has had to borrow money to get the new facility off the ground.”
Tag: 11.25.08
Pinchas Zukerman Adds Another Gig To His Portfolio
“Renowned violinist and conductor Pinchas Zukerman will join the London-based Royal Philharmonic Orchestra as principal guest conductor starting in January, but will remain the National Arts Centre Orchestra’s music director. Zukerman will continue to live in Ottawa and will honour his 16-week commitment to the NACO.” (Or so he says.)
Platinum Blonde Bassist Found Dead In Apartment
“Kenny MacLean, a Canadian musician who shot to fame with the 1980s New Wave band Platinum Blonde, was found dead in his Toronto apartment and recording studio on Monday… Police aren’t treating the death as suspicious and found no evidence of drug use.”
Vancouver’s Ballet BC Lays Off Everybody
All 38 of the company’s staff members, from artistic director John Alleyne to the administrative assistants, have lost their jobs as the company reels from declining subscriptions and ticket sales. But the company’s chairman says that if 7,000 tickets to next month’s Nutcracker can be sold (2,000 have been purchased so far), the 2009 spring season can be saved. He also says that “In no way does it mean Ballet British Columbia is going out of business. We anticipate emerging from this current situation as a stronger company.”
Mondavi’s Food-Wine-Arts Center Closes Abruptly
COPIA, the center for food, wine and the arts founded by Robert Mondavi in downtown Napa, California, closed its doors without warning on Friday and is “suspending operations” while it tries to raise cash. The center, which in September reduced its schedule from seven days open to three and laid off 24 of 80 staff members, “has lost at least $4 million a year since it opened in 2001.”
Tennessee Company Calls Off All Opera For Next Season
“The Chattanooga Symphony & Opera Board of Directors voted today to suspend opera productions for the 2009-2010, citing losses of more than $1.1 million on 11 opera productions over the last six years, according to a news release.”
Gerald Schoenfeld, Broadway Titan, Dies At 84
“Gerald Schoenfeld, the longtime leader of the theatre-owning powerhouse known as the Shubert Organization and a man routinely referred to as the most powerful man on Broadway, died Nov. 25.”
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt ‘Temporarily’ Halts Acquisitions
“Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, the publisher of authors including Philip Roth, Jonathan Safran Foer, Günter Grass and J. R. R. Tolkien, has temporarily suspended acquisitions of new manuscripts, a company spokesman said Monday.”
Brits To Design Libya’s Museum Of Conflict
“A Museum of Conflict in Libya? Not before time you might say. The London-based Metropolitan Workshop … has won a closed competition to design this very building close to the Hall of the People in Tripoli’s west end.”
What Are You Reading, Mr. President? (It’s An Old Question)
The rush to books about FDR that Barack Obama set off follows a tradition among American presidents. JFK turned Ian Fleming into an overnight best seller, and Bill Clinton changed Walter Mosley’s career.