Artistic Paneling One year after abandoning the practice of using an expert advisory committee to select American participants for international art exhibitions, the National Endowment for the Arts and the U.S. State Department are reconstituting the panel. The new committee will be made up of nine diverse curators, museum directors, and artists from across the U.S., and is expected to be in place within months. The New York Times 02/25/05
Posted: 02/25/2005 6:49 am
Designs Submitted For New NYC Rail Hub New York City's seemingly Quixotic quest to build a major new train station in midtown Manhattan has finally become a reality, and three developers are competing for the right to design it. "The design proposals all incorporate what has playfully become known as the potato chip - a shapely glass and steel canopy that will encompass the new station's entry lobby. That canopy, designed by David M. Childs of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, would envelop a series of concourses that slip under the post office building, letting light flow onto the train platforms below ground." The new station would replace New York's dilapidated and congested Penn Station. The New York Times 02/25/05
Posted: 02/25/2005 6:38 am
Museum Bests Preservationists In Columbus Circle Suit "After being delayed more than a year by litigation, the plan to reclad and recreate 2 Columbus Circle as the new home of the Museum of Arts and Design is poised to proceed after a court decision in its favor yesterday. A five-judge panel of the Appellate Division of State Supreme Court unanimously upheld the earlier dismissal by Justice Walter B. Tolub of a lawsuit against the reconstruction project by three preservation groups - Landmark West, Historic Districts Council and Docomomo." The New York Times 02/25/05
Posted: 02/24/2005 8:42 pm
On The Waterfront, An Ephemeral Museum Like "The Gates" in Central Park, an exhibition of large-scale photographs on Pier 54 in Manhattan is not aimed at procrastinators -- and neither is the new museum built to house it. After a three-month run, the show and the museum, designed by Shigeru Ban, will head for California. "The entire museum is to be packed in 37 of the 148 cargo containers that form its checkerboard walls. The temporary structure is composed largely of recyclable materials: the roof and columns are made of paper tubes, the steel containers stacked 34 feet high are used, and a handmade curtain to be suspended from the ceiling is made of one million pressed paper tea bags (used, with the tea leaves removed)." The New York Times 02/24/05
Posted: 02/24/2005 8:19 pm
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Strike Settled In St. Louis The 8-week strike by the musicians of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra is apparently over. One day after the SLSO management played its trump card, winning a ruling from the National Labor Relations Board that declared the strike illegal on a paperwork technicality, the two sides returned to the bargaining table and hammered out a tentative agreement. Details of the deal will be unavailable until the musicians vote to ratify it, but it is believed to be a three-and-a-half year contract. St. Louis Post-Dispatch 02/25/05
Posted: 02/25/2005 7:08 am
Merged Utah Group Looks To Save Itself "Pay cuts for staff, expense reductions and donation increases to $10,000 each from all 40 members of the Utah Symphony & Opera Board of Trustees are part of a three-year financial recovery plan approved Thursday by the board... At stake are 'structural' deficits in fiscal years 2003 and 2004 of $1.7 million and $3.3 million and a forecast structural deficit for fiscal year 2005 of at least $3.2 million." The board also voted to release details of an independent audit which had previously been kept from all but a handful of top executives and board members. The study cites anger and disillusionment over the recent merger of the symphony and opera as a major reason for a precipitous drop in donations. Deseret Morning News (Salt Lake City) 02/25/05
Posted: 02/25/2005 5:40 am
- Previously: Bad News? Really? Quick, Hide It! Last summer, during contract negotiations, the Utah Symphony & Opera's musicians became suspicious about ballooning deficits, and requested an independent audit of the group's finances. The results of that audit are now in, but the company is refusing to share the information with its full board, despite indications that the audit placed the organization near bankruptcy. Deseret Morning News (Salt Lake City) 02/24/05
The Not-Quite-Live Recording "Next month sees the release of one of the most eagerly awaited classical recordings of modern times. Simon Rattle’s interpretation of Mahler’s 'Symphony of a Thousand' rounds off his EMI cycle of all nine Mahler symphonies, an achievement matched only by a handful of conductors. The CD will be marketed as 'live'. What no one will mention is that two long patching sessions, under studio conditions, were needed to complete it. Patching has become standard practice with so-called “live” recordings. Consumers are promised a listening experience that replicates that of the concert hall. The reality is a collection of edited highlights from different performances and back-up sessions, with all the flaws airbrushed out." Financial Times (UK) 02/25/05
Posted: 02/25/2005 5:36 am
Yet Another Great Violin That No One Gets To Play One of the finest Stradivarius violins ever made is the subject of a furious bidding war in the UK, as the Royal Academy of Music struggles to raise the £1 million necessary to keep it in Britain. The violin, known as the "Viotti" Strad, was recently played in public for the first time in 200 years, and is on display six days a week. "The Viotti is on a par with the 'Messiah', or Le Messie, Stradivarius in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, which, the conditions of its bequest state, must never be played." Belfast Telegraph (UK) 02/25/05
Posted: 02/25/2005 5:26 am
McManus To Symphonic Execs: Think Bigger Attracting competent managers to the comparatively low-paying orchestra industry is one of the biggest challenges an ensemble can face, and AJ Blogger Drew McManus sees some exceedingly dangerous and short-sighted philosophies among not only the current executives at American symphonies, but the rising young crop of new managers as well. Particularly at risk from bad management are smaller regional orchestras, where a "part-time" mentality can hamstring an ensemble and keep it in the very back of the symphonic pack for years. Adaptistration (AJ Blogs) 02/25/05
Posted: 02/25/2005 5:00 am
La Scala Fires Its Top Exec "Milan's La Scala fired its top executive on Thursday as the world-famous opera house battles to plug a growing budget hole. ... The theater's board sacked superintendent Carlo Fontana, citing 'differences' with temperamental conductor Riccardo Muti." Yahoo! (Reuters) 02/24/05
Posted: 02/24/2005 9:27 pm
Maazel On Maazel, Or: Happy Birthday To Me "When Lorin Maazel bounds onto the podium at Avery Fisher Hall on Tuesday, he will be wearing formal concert dress. But in a certain way, this jet-setting superstar conductor and, to put it mildly, highly self-assured musician will be standing there naked. In a rare event, the New York Philharmonic program will consist entirely of music composed by Mr. Maazel himself." The all-Mazel program celebrates the Philharmonic music director's 75th birthday. The New York Times 02/25/05
Posted: 02/24/2005 8:11 pm
The Oscars And Popular Music: An Odd Disconnect "There are occasional years when the Oscars intersect with popular music culture. Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen have both been past winners. Eminem picked up an Oscar in 2003 with 'Lose Yourself', his compelling theme from 8 Mile. It was the first rap song to win, brushing off stiff competition from U2 singing the 'The Hands That Built America' from (perpetually neglected director) Martin Scorcese's Gangs of New York and, er, Paul Simon performing the theme from The Wild Thornberrys Movie. But that is the exception." Why is the Oscar for Best Song in such a sorry state? The Telegraph (UK) 02/25/05
Posted: 02/24/2005 6:30 pm
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Did Somebody Say "Ignorant Hick"? It's been a banner year in Minneapolis for both the Guthrie Theater, which is preparing to open a huge new riverfront home, and the Minnesota Orchestra, which has been getting rave reviews for its new Beethoven CD and recent European tour. So arts observers in the Twin Cities were stunned last week when State Representative Marty Seifert (a Republican from rural western Minnesota) proposed a bill which would cap the salaries of Guthrie director Joe Dowling and orchestra music director Osmo Vänskä at $115,000, effectively turning both organizations into non-entities on the national and international arts scene. Seifert's bill failed in a landslide, but he's vowed to try again. Minneapolis Star Tribune 02/24/05
Posted: 02/25/2005 7:12 am
The Ticket Racket "The advent of online ticket buying and automated phone services has made the ticket-selling business more cost-effective for the likes of Ticketmaster and easier for the consumer than ever before. Yet those pesky tack-on fees aren't getting any lower. Like fees to use automated teller machines, ticket fees might be taken for granted. But what seems like petty change in the grand scope of things can really start adding up." The Record (New Jersey) 02/25/05
Posted: 02/25/2005 6:23 am
Philly's Kimmel Center Looks Nervously Forward Philadelphia's Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts has managed to stay in the black in its second year of operation, but there's still plenty to worry about. The center's hoped-for endowment is still incomplete, and media mega-giant Clear Channel Productions is preparing to mount some serious competition to the Kimmel's moneymaking Broadway musical series. On top of that, the Philadelphia Orchestra recently released a report saying that the center's main concert hall needs a complete acoustical overhaul. And finally, with multiple big arts organizations in the city already in the midst of major fund drives, the Kimmel risks "donor fatigue" if it asks for too much too quickly. Philadelphia Daily News 02/25/05
Posted: 02/25/2005 5:47 am
- Less Than Meets The Eye The Kimmel Center has an impressive list of board members, all with money to burn and a desire to dupport the arts. So shouldn't the center's finances be all too stable? Actually, it's a lot more complicated than that: "Many of the Kimmel board members serve on other boards, which also tap them for time and money... No less than nine Kimmel board members are also members of the [Philadelphia Orchestra's] board." Philadelphia also is home to far fewer big corporations than some other major cities, limiting what the center can reap from that potential revenue stream. Philadelphia Daily News 02/25/05
Posted: 02/25/2005 5:40 am
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An Unexpected Ouster In Chicago "The resignation of Eileen Mackevich as president and executive producer of the Chicago Humanities Festival, where she had worked as a founding force for 16 years, came as quite a surprise," and not just to outsiders. Many inside the Festival's organization were unprepared for the announcement, and Mackevich herself has admitted that she didn't expect to be leaving at this exact moment. But conflict with the Festival's board chair and disputes over the direction of the organization apparently sealed Mackevich's fate, even as the Festival continues to thrive in Chicago. Chicago Sun-Times 02/25/05
Posted: 02/25/2005 7:19 am
Groundbreaking Curator Dies "Harald Szeemann, an influential Swiss museum curator whose groundbreaking exhibitions helped redefine his profession, died last Friday in the Ticino region of Switzerland. He was 71. His death was announced by the Venice Biennale and the Kunsthaus Zürich, for which he worked. Mr. Szeemann was often said to be the first independent, or freelance, curator. He invented the curator as art star, a globe-trotting, deal-making, usually male impresario of large-scale exhibitions that bore the imprint of a single vision and succeeded or failed on the strength of site-specific works executed specially for the show." The New York Times 02/25/05
Posted: 02/25/2005 6:47 am
Robert Koff, 86 One of the founding violinists of the Juilliard String Quartet has died. Robert Koff, who was the Juilliard's second violinist from its inception in 1946 until 1958, was devoted to broadening the appeal of contemporary music, and made new works a staple of the Juilliard's repertoire. The New York Times 02/25/05
Posted: 02/25/2005 6:09 am
Howard Stern, Latter-Day Pilgrim? Howard Stern has long cast himself as a take-no-prisoners rebel, but he's had some real targets for his anger since last April, when the Federal Communications Commission fined him $495,000 for indecency as broadcasters around the country cowered in fear that they'd be next. "Now Howard Stern is taking on not just one establishment but two: the FCC indecency cops and the terrestrial radio conglomerates. That makes him not just a vulgarian, but a renegade." As he pulls up stakes for Sirius Satellite Radio, will his quest for freedom of expression -- and his huge fan base -- fuel a revolution? Wired 02/24/05
Posted: 02/24/2005 9:19 pm
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Radio Comedies Making Noise On London Stage "Good radio drama, and especially good radio comedy, liberates the listener in the same way as Shakespeare intended his theatre to 'piece out' a play's 'imperfections' with our thoughts." Classic radio comedy is experiencing a bit of a boom in London, and it's happening not on the airwaves but in Shakespeare's territory: the theater.
The Independent (UK) 02/24/05
Posted: 02/24/2005 7:30 pm
Evangelicals Threaten British Tour Of 'Jerry Springer' Ticket sales went up when a militant evangelical group, Christian Voice, started protesting outside performances of "Jerry Springer -- The Opera" in London, but its tactics may derail plans for a British tour of the musical. Christian Voice, which this month convinced a cancer charity to refuse a donation from the show, is vowing to picket any theaters on a tour. "The group gained notoriety after it circulated the home addresses and telephone numbers of senior BBC figures when Jerry Springer — The Opera was screened on BBC Two last month. Some people on the list received calls threatening them with 'bloodshed'." The Times (UK) 02/24/05
Posted: 02/24/2005 6:49 pm
- Previously:
Charity To 'Jerry Springer': Go To Hell "A cancer charity has refused a donation from 'Jerry Springer - The Opera' after a religious group threatened to protest. ... Christian Voice said it had warned the charity that accepting cash from a show full of 'filth and blasphemy' would be a public relations disaster. The show's star, David Soul, accused the religious group of 'strong-arm tactics' and blackmail - adding cancer was not just a Christian problem." The show's cast had waived their wages for a special benefit performance Feb. 18. BBC 02/23/05
Seoul Is Moving To A Broadway Beat In South Korea, the popularity of musical theater is growing astronomically, even if many of the productions are Korean takes on foreign shows. "The size of the performing arts industry is estimated at 170 billion won, out of which musicals alone account for almost half (80 billion). Total audience numbers at musical dramas during the last year reached 700,000, almost double the 370,000 musical-goers in 2001. The musical industry is recording an average 15 percent annual growth, but experts expect even greater growth in this year." Korea Times 02/23/05
Posted: 02/24/2005 4:18 pm
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Is Hollywood Tired Of Itself? "In the days leading up to the movie industry's most glamorous night, the Oscars, the word heard frequently around Hollywood this year is not glitz, or hype, or excitement. It is fatigue. Strange, perhaps, and unexpected. The same millions of dollars as in years past have been spent on pitched Oscar campaigns, with their color, full-page newspaper advertisements and their earnest television spots. The same publicity muscle has been put into cocktail parties and question-and-answer sessions led by Oscar nominees at the guilds and the movie industry's home for the aged. But the fatigue is palpable nonetheless." The New York Times 02/25/05
Posted: 02/25/2005 6:35 am
Is There An Oscar For Worst Speech? You'd think, given that they're in the entertainment business, Oscar winners would put some effort into making their acceptance speeches less cringe-inducing. "If you are a movie star making $20 million per movie, it's flat out annoying to suggest to people that you don't know how to speak in public," says one media trainer. "A highly paid professional should be able to do this." But how? Experts offer their advice. Christian Science Monitor 02/25/05
Posted: 02/24/2005 6:07 pm
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