Madison, Wisconsin’s new performing arts center is having trouble making ends meet, and has announced a wave of impending layoffs among its staff. “Management also is looking at programmatic cuts as part of an array of plans for putting the center on better fiscal footing.”
Author: sbergman
Former City Opera Exec To Head Brooklyn Phil
“A refugee from the abortive Gerard Mortier era at New York City Opera has landed on her feet. Jane M. Gullong, the company’s former executive director, has been appointed president of the Brooklyn Philharmonic… Mortier eliminated Ms. Gullong’s position at the opera, where she had worked since 1994.”
Rochester Philharmonic To See Big Salary Gains
The economy may be in the tank, but the musicians of upstate New York’s Rochester Philharmonic have to be happy with the new contract they’ve just approved, which will give them a 14% salary bump over the next three seasons. “Ticket sales are 21 percent higher than expected for concerts so far [this year.] Additionally, there has been no decline in corporate giving.”
Yet Another Surplus In Toronto
“The Toronto Symphony Orchestra chalked up its third consecutive surplus last year, beating past box-office records and playing to 10,000 more people than in 2006-07… The orchestra ended the year with a modest surplus of just over $28,000, even though it spent $1.7-million more on concert production. Buoyant fundraising allowed the TSO to transfer $4-million to the the orchestra’s endowment fund.”
Changing The Culture Of Perpetual Crisis
“The Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony needs to come up with new ways to raise money rather than relying on ‘crisis fundraising,’ says the orchestra’s executive director… The history of the symphony has been one of crisis,” but leaders are hoping that a more systemic approach will enable to organization to address its problems without constantly seeming to be on the verge of bankruptcy.
EuroCulture Goes Digital, Immediately Crashes
“Europe’s heritage went digital Thursday when the European Union launched an online library putting famous works such as Dante’s “Divine Comedy” and Beethoven’s 9th Symphony just a mouse click away.” Naturally, the servers crashed shortly after launch, due to the 10 million people per hour attempting to access the service.
Union vs. Union At La Scala
La Scala’s gala opening is being threatened by a strike for the second year in a row, as the union representing the famed opera house’s choir and orchestra members balks at a new contract offer. But in a sign of how fractious such arrangements can be, all of La Scala’s other unions have already agreed to the deal, and are protesting the musicians’ union’s holdout.
Clive Barnes, 81
“Clive Barnes, who as a critic in Britain and later for The New York Times helped bring dance to a broad audience with an exuberant, highly personal style in his reviews, died early this morning… His death, at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Manhattan, was caused by complications of cancer.”
Ashes To Ashes, Dust To… Paint?
Memorializing the dead has always led to some creative thinking, but using ashes to create art? The artist offering the service “paid his way through Philadelphia’s Hussian School of Art by working as a gravedigger at a local cemetery.” Now, he mixes cremated remains with his paints to create textured paintings for grieving families.
Canadian Auctions Start Tonight; More Carnage Ahead?
Canada’s art auction houses are bracing for the worst in the wake of disappointing fall auction sales in the US and Europe. “Artprice predicts values will drop 40 per cent by year’s end.” But some have hope that the market for Canadian art will not fall as far or as hard.