As Sony Entertainment CEO Rolf Schmidt-Holtz announced the appointment of former Decca exec Bogdan Roscic, he said, “Classical music not only remains a vital part of our company’s DNA, but also this is a business we are determined to grow and promote again.”
Tag: 01.27.09
John Updike, 76
“A master of many authorial trades, Mr. Updike was novelist, short story writer, critic, poet – and in each role as prolific as he was gifted… [He] could be brilliant even about his own diligence, writing in his memoir Self-Consciousness (1989) of ‘my ponderously growing oeuvre, dragging behind me like an ever-heavier tail.'”
Philadelphia Orchestra Chairman Exits Early
“In another acceleration of leadership change at the Philadelphia Orchestra, Harold A. Sorgenti will step down as board chairman now. He had been scheduled to do so in September. … [N]o successor has been named.”
SF Opera To Scale Back, Focus On The Tried And True
“The San Francisco Opera’s 2009-10 season will inaugurate the tenure of Music Director Nicola Luisotti just at the moment when financial pressures have prompted General Director David Gockley to cut back on the scope and variety of the company’s offerings. … ‘There’s no question that this season represents a huge belt-tightening for us,’ Gockley said.”
Back Stage Founder Allen Zwerdling Dies At 86
“Allen Zwerdling, a founder of Back Stage, the weekly theater newspaper that is widely considered the casting bible for performers, died on Jan. 12 at his home in Rosendale, N.Y.”
Goya’s Colossus Is Actually His Assistant’s, Prado Says
“The giant, fierce figure of The Colossus as he rises above a fleeing crowd of people, carts and animals is one of Spanish artist Francisco de Goya’s most dramatic and famous pictures – at least it was until yesterday, when Madrid’s Prado museum declared he had not painted it. … Experts at the museum now believe The Colossus was painted by one of Goya’s assistants, whose initials may appear in a corner of the canvass.”
Ministry Of Silly Walks: Artists Get Animals’ Legs Wrong
“The way four-legged animals walk has been well known since the 1880s, when Eadweard Muybridge’s motion-capture photographs revealed the sequence of leg movements.” Many artists, evidently, have not been taking note. “After analyzing more than 300 depictions of walking animals in museums, veterinary books and toy models, the researchers report that in almost half of them the leg positions are wrong.”
TV Ads Seem Cheesier To You? Blame The Economy.
“Wait a second. What’s this? CashPoint, an outfit that makes quick-fix loans, is advertising in . . . prime time? On some of TV’s most popular programs? … It won’t make most economists’ radar screens, but the rise of such ads might be a leading economic indicator.” As bigger advertisers pull out and airtime prices fall, lower-budget operations seize the opportunity.
Budget Cuts At Smithsonian As New Secretary Installed
“The newly installed secretary of the Smithsonian Institution announced yesterday that he has implemented a hiring freeze and eliminated salary increases and bonuses for one class of its highest-paid employees. G. Wayne Clough has also asked several departments to reduce their current-year budgets by 5 percent to 8 percent.” The Smithsonian’s endowment dropped 25 percent last year.
A Great Time For Museums? Yes, Says The Guy In Charge.
Doomsayers won’t find an ally in Michael Conforti, president of the Association of Art Museum Directors, who argues “that this financially perilous period is ‘a great time for art museums.’ They are, he said, ‘bellwethers for people at moments like this. We saw this happen after 9/11. If we are doing our jobs well, we’re the places that people can turn to in times of instability.'”