“Royal Bank of Scotland is lending its financial muscle to Time Warner’s attempts to improve its performance at the box office by backing a £178m push to produce potential blockbusters… The Edinburgh-based bank has joined the world’s biggest media group in a co-funding deal which will give Time Warner’s New Line Cinema division the wherewithal to make around 20 films over the next two years.”
Author: sbergman
Leapin’ Leipzig!
The city of Leipzig, Germany might seem an unlikely hot spot for the art world. It’s been mired in economic depression for years, a victim of the malaise that settled over so much of the former East Germany after reunification. But in recent years, “the new Leipzig School has coalesced into what Joachim Pissarro of the Museum of Modern Art described… as ‘suddenly the hottest thing on earth.'”
Cincy Sym Agrees To Put Off Negotiations
“Musicians of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra have agreed to a one-year extension of their contract, although with an asterisk: They’ll get a small raise, but generally sit tight while the board of the cash-strapped symphony tries to raise money.”
Kimmel Flooded Again
A faulty sprinkler system sent water shooting into a recital hall at Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts late Tuesday night, forcing the center to cancel several performances. It was not the first time that the high-volume sprinklers caused trouble – the Philadelphia Orchestra was deluged while rehearsing in the center’s main hall in 2002.
Ravinia Gives Conlon Four More Years
James Conlon’s contract as music director of the Ravinia Festival has been extended through 2011. “Conlon is scheduled to complete his multi-year Mahler symphony cycle with the Chicago Symphony at Ravinia in 2011, the centennial of the composer’s death. His other ongoing projects at the festival include a complete Mozart piano concerto cycle and Breaking the Silence, a multi-year series of concerts dedicated to reviving music silenced by the Nazi regime.”
Is UK Classical In Danger?
Julian Lloyd Webber warns that, if current trends continue in the UK, classical music will be driven out of schools and eventually abandoned altogether. “Already 2007 has convinced me that all of us who love and play classical music are far too nice and polite. For the art that we cherish is under attack, and unless we stand up to be counted it will shortly disappear.”
Love Your Work – Here, Have A Guarneri!
“An anonymous patron in Australia has purchased a rare 1743 violin by Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù for long-term loan to the Australian Chamber Orchestra… The unnamed benefactor offered Tognetti a choice between the Carrodus and a 1733 Stradivarius.”
Dallas Taps van Zweden
The Dallas Symphony has a new music director. Jaap van Zweden, a 46-year-old Dutch conductor who has been building his reputation on both sides of the Atlantic, will take the helm in the fall of 2008. “It’s no secret that tidying up the DSO’s violins will be a priority, as well as generally tightening an ensemble that too often played on autopilot for former music director Andrew Litton… Above all, Mr. van Zweden must re-energize the orchestra and get the city excited enough to fill conspicuous swaths of empty seats at the Meyerson.”
Missing The Mix Tape
“In the days before iTunes, when you wanted to impress a girl you lovingly put together a compilation tape from your LPs. Now – thanks to the wondrous choice of digital music – mix tapes and vinyl are dying out. But is some of the mystery and meaning of music also disappearing?”
Chicago Concertmaster Hanging It Up At 73
The legendary concertmaster of the Chicago Symphony, Samuel Magad, is retiring from his position this month at the unheard-of age of 73. He has played in the CSO for 48 years, 34 of them as concertmaster.