“A group of US record labels has started legal action against Russian music download site Allofmp3.com… The record labels say the sites are selling songs without permission. But Allofmp3.com argues it is paying royalties to a Russian licensing body. The music industry says that the Russian licensing group does not have the authority to collect and distribute royalties.”
Author: sbergman
The Full-Contact Critic
Lee Siegel is something of a legend among critics – a blunt, no-holds-barred assessor of other people’s talent and worth, working in an era when most critics restrict themselves to polite asides and gentle rebukes. So it’s not a surprise that Siegel harbors some pretty dark views of the cultural scene in general, using a new book to rail against “an art world obsessed with money; business-savvy cultural producers out for a buck and little else; and a complacent review corps backing the whole thing up by issuing bland, rubber-stamped judgments.”
Against All Odds, Music Plays On In Israel
The Israel Philharmonic turns 70 this week, and longevity alone would be quite an accomplishment for an orchestra that lives and works in what frequently amounts to a war zone. But the IPO hasn’t just survived. “The orchestra is one of the hardest-working in the world, supplying the demands of 26,000 subscribers, repeating programmes across Israel up to six times and spending around 50 days a year touring abroad.”
The Gergiev Effect (All $45m Of It)
Valery Gergiev is famous for his heavy workload and hard-headed dedication to the tasks he sets for himself and his orchestras. George Loomis writes that “his latest accomplishment off the podium is his most visible yet — a $45 million concert hall conceived and constructed in a mere three years, a classic example of turning adversity into opportunity.”
Borat The Jew
“Sacha Baron Cohen’s antics as Borat may have made him and his backers the target of lawsuits and screening bans, but he’s going down very well in one rather unexpected place: Israel. That’s because Israeli film fans understand what the anti-semitic character is saying when he’s supposedly spouting Kazakh – Borat is actually speaking fluent Hebrew.”
Putting His Sales Where His Mouth Is
A UK author is taking a stand on behalf of independent booksellers by demanding that Amazon stop offering his book for sale on their website. “George Walker, author of Tales from an Airfield, was horrified to find that his new title was featured on the site without his permission, following good sales in bookshops.”
The Gavrilov Collapse
Pianist Andrei Gavrilov won the Tchaikovsky Competition at age 18. By age 30, he was a bona fide superstar with a dazzling array of career options. “It’s been all downhill since – a story of abandoned concerts, loss of confidence, the end of the [record] deal, a broken marriage. It was a personal and artistic implosion, though which fed which is hard to say.” Now Gavrilov is attempting a comeback. But will the music world give him a chance?
Rise Up Singing
Choral singing is booming in Norway like never before, and not always in the concert hall. “Companies have also discovered that encouraging song in the workplace can boost morale. Employees who sing in a company choir do a better job, some say, and choirs are seen as a means of fostering creativity among staff.”
SF Opera Reports Huge Surplus
“San Francisco Opera has ended the fiscal year 2006 with a surplus of more than half a million dollars on a budget of more than $60 million. The audited final figure for the surplus is $557,367 on an annual operating budget of $60,401,983. The company’s operating revenue grew by almost 23%, from $24,292,464 to $29,866,346, with income from ticket sales for the core season surpassing $20 million for the first time in four years.”
Outwater To Take Over K-W Symphony
Ontario’s Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, which recently averted bankruptcy, has offered its music directorship to Edwin Outwater. “Outwater, who recently concluded his tenure as resident conductor of the San Francisco Symphony, has accepted a four-year contract with the KWS which begins with the 2007-08 season. He has also agreed to serve as artistic advisor in preparation of plans for the coming season.”