Another Candidate Pulls Out Of The Race In Cleveland One of the leading candidates to replace Katherine Reid as director of the Cleveland Museum of Art has withdrawn his candidacy. Charles Venable, deputy director for collections and programs at the museum, apparently withdrew from consideration last week, though he hasn't said why. Venable is the second potential director to duck out of the search - in September, the director of Atlanta's High Museum also said he would no longer be a candidate. The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 11/07/05
Posted: 11/07/2005 6:28 am
Indiana Jones Is Out Italy's aggressive push to make claims on art it says was looted has American museums anxious. "The bad old days of Indiana Jones-style museum acquisition no longer fly. Countries have laws regarding the exportation of artwork, and what's legal in one country may not be in another. And even if it's legal, it may not be ethical. Many in the art world say the media blitz surrounding the Italian charges makes this a defining moment." Christian Science Monitor 11/07/05
Posted: 11/06/2005 10:17 pm
Redoing The Getty Villa "The $275-million Getty Villa project stands as Machado and Silvetti's most significant design, centering on the 64-acre property just above Pacific Coast Highway where oil billionaire J. Paul Getty built a loose replica of a Roman country house. The mock villa by the architecture firm Langdon & Wilson was dismissed by some critics as a gaudy concoction when it opened to the public in 1974. 'This folly of Getty, how do you take that building? We could have taken it with irony; we could have taken it with aggression. A lot of architect friends of ours recommended both. We took it very seriously, and I think we made it a better building'." Los Angeles Times 11/06/05
Posted: 11/06/2005 9:53 pm
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Proving, Once Again, That People Love Free Concerts 13,000 people packed the Mall in Washington, D.C. last weekend to watch a simulcast of Washington National Opera's production of Porgy & Bess on a huge, 18-by-32 foot video screen. "When Angela Simpson sang Serena's lament 'My Man's Gone Now,' the applause was thunderous. And the cheers were repeated for almost every song from Indira Mahajan as Bess and Gordon Hawkins as Porgy. And for once, the cheers and the notes weren't trapped by the chandeliers of the Opera House but floated off into the blue sky over the Mall." Washington Post 11/07/05
Posted: 11/07/2005 6:40 am
Is Exclusivity The Future Of CD Retailing? As record companies and retailers struggle to adapt to the new, tech-heavy world of music consumption, a phenomenon has emerged that is gaining popularity in the industry, even as it is decried by consumers. A number of pop music's most sought-after acts have recently partnered with specific corporations for "exclusive" sales deals, wherein consumers can only purchase the new CD at a specific store, at least temporarily. Others have offered retailer-specific versions of a new CD with bonus material unavailable elsewhere. The idea is to drag music consumers away from their computers and back into the stores, and it seems to be working. Boston Globe 11/07/05
Posted: 11/07/2005 6:04 am
Free School? It Can't Come Soon Enough For Music Students. The $100 million gift that is allowing the Yale School of Music to go tuition-free is making waves across the classical music industry, and has the potential eventually to elevate Yale to the ranks of America's elite conservatories. Officials at schools like Juilliard and Curtis have long known the value (and necessity) of making music education as cheap as possible - most professional musicians will never make a great deal of money, and many are driven out of the profession altogether by the need for a steady paycheck. "Half the former art and music students surveyed by college lender Nellie Mae in 1998 had debts bigger than their salaries." Washington Post 11/07/05
Posted: 11/07/2005 5:38 am
Posthumously Rich Helsinki's major daily newspaper has recently taken an interest in how much money Finland's artists and musicians manage to pull down in a year. What it discovered is that the country's wealthiest artist has been dead since 1957. Jean Sibelius, the composer whose music defined Finland throughout the 20th century, is still earning royalties on performances of his music, most of it coming from abroad. Last year alone, Sibelius's heirs received €1.5 million in royalty payments, making the deceased composer Finland's most financially successful musician by far. The continuing windfall is ironic, since Sibelius had a terrible time managing money while he was alive, and frequently struggled to earn enough to take care of his family. Helsingen Sanomat (Helsinki) 11/07/05
Posted: 11/07/2005 5:16 am
Scottish Jazz Thriving Interest in jazz is soaring in Scotland. "What Scotland is doing is developing a very strong scene which has its own identity. A lot of people are fusing or mixing jazz with a Scottish idiom. Colin Steele is taking folk music and overlaying it with a Chet Baker feel but the result is a distinctive sound coming from, influenced and coloured by Scotland. There is very definitely a recognisable Scottish jazz influence now." Scotland On Sunday 11/06/05
Posted: 11/06/2005 10:29 pm
Vienna Phil's Woman Problem It's been eight years since the Vienna Philharmonic let its first woman musician into the ranks. So has the orchestra's integration proceeded? Not quite... Straight Up (AJBlog) 11/06/05
Posted: 11/06/2005 9:59 pm
UK's Opera Hotbed? Look North "A new study shows the north of England's love of the performing arts has surpassed that in the South. Those in the North-west are now three times more likely to attend an opera than those in the South-east, according to the figures. Nearly one in 10 in the North-west named opera as their favourite form of theatrical production, and those in the North-east joined the chorus of approval. Only 3 per cent of those in the South-east spoke of opera as their favoured form of entertainment, despite having two professional houses on their doorstep." The Independent (UK) 11/06/05
Posted: 11/06/2005 9:55 pm
Minnesota's Orchestra Of Conductors This season three players in the Minnesota Orchestra are sharing assistant-conducting duties. "It's tough because you're up there for one week, then you're right back where you were among your colleagues. So I think you just have to keep your eye on the prize, which is getting the program done." The Star-Tribune (Mpls) 11/06/05
Posted: 11/06/2005 9:28 pm
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Crescent City's Arts Scene Slowly Reemerging There's no question that New Orleans' cultural scene has been devastated by Hurricane Katrina. But Harry Shearer sees signs of life from the city's artists, even if the money needed to rebuild the big institutions isn't there yet. "There are messages everywhere of resilience and defiance, of bringing the city back. Live Music is Back!, says one poster. Another announces a series of poetry evenings in a Quarter bistro. When all else is stripped away, the capital-unintensive arts endure, as does the place’s irreducible eccentricity." The Huffington Post 11/06/05
Posted: 11/07/2005 6:47 am
Chicago's Young Humanities Fest Grows Up "The Chicago Humanities Festival turned 16 over the weekend, making it one of the most precocious cultural soirees in America. Spotlighting esteemed authors and virtuoso musicians, innovative actors and visionary scholars, the citywide event has grown up fast. What once was a weekend's diversion now stands as a cultural institution." Chicago Tribune 11/07/05
Posted: 11/07/2005 6:13 am
In Cleveland: A Mayor Who Would Be Better For The Arts? "Members of Cleveland's arts community are wondering which candidate would do the best job as mayor over the next four years. But a lot of them are having trouble deciding. Even those with a leaning lack any real passion about it. Part of the problem is their perception that arts just aren't part of the regular campaign discussion." The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 11/06/05
Posted: 11/06/2005 9:44 pm
What San Antonio Arts Need "Annual public and private support of existing institutions' operating budgets is still several million dollars short of the need, and serious gaps persist in the local menu of professional arts institutions. Moreover, San Antonio can't attain a level of cultural development appropriate to a city of its size without very substantial new investment in capital projects." San Antonio Express-News 11/06/05
Posted: 11/06/2005 9:23 pm
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Mackerras At 80 Charles Mackerras is turning 80, and he's being celebrated. "In some respects the deification of Mackerras is a bit silly. Once a conductor reaches a certain age no one will say a word against him - even though he is palpably the same man who was criticised earlier in his career and is still capable of the occasional dud performance. Age somehow confers the mantle of genius. That says something about the conductor’s role: orchestras want a father figure. They will put up with irascibility and a demanding nature in a way they wouldn’t have done from the same person when he was younger. But Mackerras’s public standing has never been higher." Financial Times 11/04/05
Posted: 11/06/2005 10:22 pm
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Going To War With The Critics Composer Joseph Brooks's newest musical, In My Life, has been running on Broadway for three weeks now, and judging from the terrible reviews and lackluster box office it has attracted, you might expect that it would shortly be folding up its tent and disappearing into the ether. But Brooks is apparently quite a determined sort, and he has taken the unique step of mounting a dizzying blitz of advertising designed to counteract the bad press and build buzz for a show which, to this point, has generated none on its own. Is the massive ad buy working? Well, that depends. Ticket sales are undeniably up, but the show is still losing money hand over fist. The New York Times 11/07/05
Posted: 11/07/2005 5:52 am
Lloyd-Webber Buys Out Theatres Andrew Lloyd-Webber has decided to buy out his partners in owning several West End theatres. "Lloyd-Webber, 57, who co-owned the West End venues, has agreed to buy out his partners, equity group Bridgepoint, for an undisclosed sum. He immediately announced a £10m refurbishment programme for the buildings over the next five years." BBC 11/06/05
Posted: 11/06/2005 10:10 pm
British Theatre In Sound The British Library has compiled a specatular trove of recordings of some of England's most important theatrical performances. "Encompassing stagings by all of the RSC's artistic directors to date, the track listings read like a roll-call of acting luminaries." The Telegraph (UK) 11/06/05
Posted: 11/06/2005 9:46 pm
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The Spoils of Victory The best part about winning a major literary prize is usually the increased sales that go along with the honor. And this year, the candidates for Canada's Giller Prize have even more reason than usual to lick their chops at the prospect of a win. This year's shortlist is jam-packed with authors most of the public has never heard of, and such little-known writers are traditionally the ones who benefit most from the exposure a major award affords. Publishers are gearing up for tomorrow night's announcement as well: the winner will see an immediate additional print run of 20,000 copies, to be on shelves within two days. Toronto Star 11/07/05
Posted: 11/07/2005 6:33 am
Amazon, Random Unveil New Pay Scheme "About one month after reports began to surface that Amazon was developing a pay-per-view program for reading books online, the company unveiled Amazon Pages, a program that will let consumers view parts of a book online for a fee. Amazon provided no details on how it will price the service and no major publishers have yet agreed to be part of the program. In a second initiative, the e-tailer announced Amazon Upgrade, which will allow customers who buy a print book to also buy access to the work online. For its part, Random has put its stake in the ground about how it expects to be compensated for books that are viewed online." Publishers Weekly 11/06/05
Posted: 11/06/2005 10:31 pm
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And For The Second Offense, They Cut Off Your Mouse-Clicking Finger "A Hong Kong man has been jailed for three months for film piracy after he shared movie files over the internet. The authorities say he is the first person in the world to be prosecuted for passing on files using a popular file-sharing program called BitTorrent." BBC 11/07/05
Posted: 11/07/2005 5:48 am
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Crucial Dance Preservation Group Near Collapse "Since it was founded in 1940, the Dance Notation Bureau has been at the forefront of dance preservation, and it has one of the most important collections of dance scores in the nation. But on Oct. 28, it laid off five of its six staff members, including its executive director, Ilene Fox... Dance notation, using a system of symbols called Labanotation and functioning much like a music score, enables dances to be recreated accurately long after a choreographer has died. The bureau's library houses more than 700 scores for dances by choreographers from George Balanchine and Doris Humphrey to Bill T. Jones and Mark Morris... For now, the library remains active and accessible. But the institution is on the ropes." The New York Times 11/07/05
Posted: 11/07/2005 6:01 am
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