Of Music And Architecture "There has always been a close relationship between music and architecture, experimental or otherwise, in terms of structure, pattern and aesthetics, even though sound ultimately describes immaterial space. Plainchant, for example, somehow belongs to Romanesque abbeys, even though its origins are much older, just as Bach is all but synonymous with baroque churches. For better or worse, Wagner conjures images of the fairy-tale, alpine fantasmagoria of Neuschwanstein, the Sleeping Beauty castle built by Wagner's indulgent patron, Ludwig II. The avant-garde music of the 20th century has its architectural counterparts, too>" The Guardian (UK) 06/11/05
Posted: 06/12/2005 10:20 am
Wildenstein Sons To Challenge Court Plan To Liquidate Collection The Wildenstein family has one of the world's biggest art collections, "worth an estimated €10 billion, and connections that have allowed them to broker some of the Louvre's biggest purchases." Now "Alec and Guy Wildenstein, whose father Daniel died four years ago, will challenge a French court ruling in favour of their 71-year-old stepmother Sylvia to break up the huge private collection, believed to include Renoirs, Monets and Manets." The Observer (UK) 06/12/05
Posted: 06/12/2005 10:10 am
Tate Modern At Five The Tate Modern has been a huge success, currently drawing about 4 million visitors a year. With the neighborhood around it growing up, the Tate looks at expansion. But how does the museum stay ahead with its collections? The New York Times 06/12/05
Posted: 06/12/2005 9:25 am
40 Sue Art Storage Company Over London Warehouse Fire Forty galleries, collectors and artists have sued the art storage company Momart over a warehouse fire in London last year that destroyed millions of dollars worth of art. "The list of litigants includes some of the most powerful figures in the industry: the artists Damien Hirst and Gillian Ayres; the sculptor Barry Flanagan; five Royal Academy of Arts trustees, including the celebrated architect Sir Nicholas Grimshaw; and a host of galleries." The Independent (UK) 06/11/05
Posted: 06/12/2005 9:12 am
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An Orchestra Goes For Performance-Based Pay "The Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony, one of Japan's top-tier orchestras, has its own financial challenges, and in its recent negotiations it suggested a radical fix: performance-based contracts, under which musicians' raises and promotions - or, perhaps, their departures - would be based on "objective" evaluations by management. The criteria for judging the musicians are still being discussed, but in addition to straightforward musical performance, they're likely to include attendance, onstage manners, teamwork and helping to publicize the orchestra. Current members can elect to remain in the traditional lifetime-employment system, but about 70 percent have chosen the new contracts. That's no surprise: while poor evaluations could lead to a musician's contract's not being renewed, the top salary under the new system is about $72,000 a year versus $62,600 under the old." The New York Times 06/12/05
Posted: 06/12/2005 9:56 am
Finnish, the Musical Stars Finland has become a hotbed of classical music. "The Finns' recent emergence as a power in classical music is another case in which they have mastered a lingua franca. Defying a trend in many Western countries, where audiences are dwindling and the tradition itself seems in retreat, Finland has in the last 15 years developed first-class classical musicians out of all proportion to its size. Steady investment in music education by the government has created generations of avid listeners and, according to official figures, more orchestras per capita than anywhere on the globe." The New York Times 06/12/05
Posted: 06/12/2005 9:53 am
St. Louis Symphony Still Struggles To Get Past Strike Last winter's strike by the musicians of the St. Louis Symphony left a lot of hard feelings. Months later, relations between the orchestra and its musicians are still a bit raw. But there's also perhaps "an even more significant split between the orchestra's negotiating committee and the officers of the local musicians union." St. Louis Post-Dispatch 06/12/05
Posted: 06/12/2005 9:39 am
Sanctions: Iraq Symphony Plays Under Tough Conditions The Baghdad Symphony is performing, even though life is tough. "The orchestra knows all about survival. The first in the Arab world, it struggled through two wars and economic sanctions under Saddam Hussein. The best talent fled Iraq. Musicians who stayed earned $1 a month and instruments fell into disrepair. Still, the group, somehow, played on. And after Saddam's fall, life — and salaries — improved. There were also gifts of new instruments and a trip to America — all funded by the former U.S. authority in Iraq — highlighted by a concert in Washington, D.C., attended by President Bush." MSNBC 06/10/05
Posted: 06/12/2005 7:54 am
NY Freeelance Orchestras Sign Contract The musicians union has signed a new contract agreement with New York City's freelance orchestras - New York Pops, American Symphony Orchestra, Brooklyn Philharmonic, Long Island Philharmonic, American Composers Orchestra, Riverside Symphony, and Bronx Arts Ensemble. Terms include "an increase in pay from $200 to $225 per concert over the course of the contract and a one-percent increase in pension payments in its final year. All of the orchestras also agreed to ban the use of the controversial Sinfonia system—termed a virtual orchestra machine." PlayblillArts 06/11/05
Posted: 06/12/2005 7:38 am
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In Virginia - A Performing Arts Center Is Derailed A year ago there was much excitement in Richmond, VA, as a campaign to build a new $168 million performing arts center kicked into gear. But the project has bogged down and "what so many had hoped would become Richmond’s saving grace — a grand music hall that would complete a renaissance on East Broad Street — has been derailed. For the arts center, the going won’t get easier anytime soon. If fund-raising was already difficult in part because of negative publicity, as the foundation asserts, it promises to get worse as Wilder continues his assault on the business community, making the performing arts center his personal punching bag of taxpayer waste. StyleWeekly (Virginia) 06/08/05
Posted: 06/12/2005 8:05 am
New Jersey Finds A Hole In Its Cultural Funding Plan Two years ago New Jersey passed a dedicated hotel-motel tax to provide stable funding for arts and culture. Arts supporters rejoiced. But the amount the tax has collected has fallen far short of predictions and "although funding for the arts council is at an all-time high, overall cultural funding is down because the tax does not fully fund the cultural trust, a public-private endowment started in 2000." The Star-Ledger (Newark) 06/11/05
Posted: 06/12/2005 7:44 am
Philly In Full Fundraising Mode What's $150 million here, $500 million there? Philadelphia's trying to do it all, with some major fundraising projects that challenge the city's big money to make serious commitments... Philadelphia Inquirer 06/12/05
Posted: 06/12/2005 7:23 am
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Spacey Pulls Out Of Old Vic Production, Fans Protest Kevin Spacey suddenly pulled out of a production at London's Old Vic, which he has run for the past year. And ticket-buyers, who had gobbled up £1.2 million worth of ducats "for the cash-strapped Old Vic - a figure almost unprecedented for a straight play in the West End - are unhappy. Still, "espite his critically unsuccessful first season on the South Bank, with unenthusiastic or bad reviews for the first two plays he staged, Cloaca and National Anthems, a recent poll suggests that his support remains solid." The Observer (UK) 06/12/05
Posted: 06/12/2005 10:14 am
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A Wonderful Romance - Gay Romance Novel Looks For Success Is the gay male romance novel coming into its own? It's "a world where there are never cowards, only condoms; each of the heroes has a brain, even if it takes until the end of the story for one of them to use it; and the abs, if not tin, most likely resemble iron." This month, encouraged by successes so far, publisher is "aiming for the big time, with 12,500 copies of 'Hot Sauce' in print and fervent hopes that with gay marriage in the news -- and legal in their own state -- gay men may be more willing than ever to claim their inner Cinderella and read up on Prince Charming." The New York Times 06/12/05
Posted: 06/12/2005 10:32 am
Da Vinci Code Spurs Interest In Cracking CIA Sculpture "The race to find the secrets of Kryptos, a sculpture inside a courtyard at the CIA's heavily guarded headquarters in Langley, Virginia, may be reaching a climax. And interest has soared since Dan Brown hid references to Kryptos on the cover design for his bestselling novel The Da Vinci Code, and suggested it might play a role in his next novel, The Solomon Key." The Guardian (UK) 06/11/05
Posted: 06/12/2005 10:25 am
Europe Gets Into The Crime Wave Where once crime fiction came from downtown Los Angeles, or the east end of London, these days the best are from Europe. "Traditionally, British readers have a horror of translated novels. Europeans have always bought up our crime writers, from PD James to Ian Rankin, but we're a nation for whom the words 'French exchange' still have the power to instil terror. Yet sales of translated European crime fiction have increased fivefold in the past four years."
The Guardian (UK) 06/11/05
Posted: 06/12/2005 10:22 am
The Big-Box Bookstore Dilemma "A new bookstore such as the latest Barnes & Noble behemoth -- 36,000 square feet spread out across two floors -- that opened a week and a half ago in the Chicago Loop neatly encapsulates the 21st Century booksellers' problem: Is it all about the classics -- or the cappuccino? And how can an establishment that sells books -- each one a rectangular homage to intellectual independence -- be cogs in a bland, homogenous corporate machine that has been accused of mashing smaller independent bookstores into goo?" Chicago Tribune 06/10/05
Posted: 06/12/2005 7:49 am
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Minnesota Flunks Couch Potato Test Minneapolis/St. Paul has consistently lower TV viewership than other major metropolitan cities. "Only 59 percent of us tuned in during weeknights last month, compared with 68 percent in top-ranked Philadelphia, according to a study by Nielsen Media Research. Why? Our region is too wealthy, too well-educated, too wired and too white, researchers say." The Star-Tribune (Mpls) 06/12/05
Posted: 06/12/2005 11:32 am
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Don Quixote - Recreating A Work In Progress Suzanne Farrell takes another look at Balanchine's Don Quixote. The piece hasn't been performed since 1978. "During the 13 years of its life, Balanchine made numerous changes to the ballet, adding dances, taking out divertissements, cutting sections. There never was a true "finished" version, so she has had to decide what to keep, what to cut, what to preserve." The New York Times 06/12/05
Posted: 06/12/2005 9:32 am
ABT's Male Eloquence American Ballet Theatre has some great male dancers these days. But none act as well as Marcelo Gomes. "The danseur (male ballet dancer) often treats parts of his body as means to an end. We notice the legs, for example, only insofar as they propel him into the air, or around and around. Gomes' legs - like his arms, his hips, his neck - speak with the eloquence of a ballerina's, though at a masculine pitch." Newsday 06/12/05
Posted: 06/12/2005 7:15 am
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