Tag: 02.05.05

Playing Hardball In St. Louis

The St. Louis Symphony strike is proving to be a power struggle between two competing philosophies, with no victor in sight. The musicians of the orchestra are courting public opinion with free concerts and media-savvy public events, in the hope that public pressure will force the SLSO management to back off their demands for pay cuts. But orchestra president Randy Adams is taking a decidedly corporate approach to the stoppage, “[putting] aside the gentlemanly conventions of most orchestra disputes. That has left the musicians in a state of shock, scrambling to come up with strategies… that will help them in this new game.”

All That, And They Probably Want A Winning Record, Too

Baseball stadiums don’t generally have the architectural cachet of, say, museums or skyscrapers. But if you consider how many people are directly affected by the design of a building, it’s hard to top baseball parks in the civic impact department. Washington, D.C. has a new baseball team, of course, and will shortly have a new park to keep it in. The question is, how will the design of the ballpark affect the city, and vice versa? “The park represents a giant architectural and planning opportunity for the nation’s capital, a rare chance to build a splendid, 21st-century ‘gateway’ structure near a major bridge and within site of the Capitol dome. And to help revive a river and a section of the city.”

Sculptures Or Subdivisions? Hmmmm.

Sculptor Richard Serra is in talks with officials in Ontario to save a 1972 work of his that stands in a Toronto suburb. “Its ownership is in some doubt, as is its future. According to some scenarios, developers could well chuck it in the dump to add a few more suburban monster homes… Shift, hidden on a patch of farmland just west of Dufferin St. near King City, was commissioned by Roger Davidson, a leading Canadian collector from a family of land developers who were also lifelong supporters of the Art Gallery of Ontario.” Serra has a history of fiercely defending any of his sculptures which are threatened with removal.

Architecture of Urban Exclusion

“First there was the speed bump; now it’s the bench barrier. The former is designed to slow traffic, the latter to stop skateboarders, BMXers, in-liners — and anyone else who would do more than sit upright in the public spaces of downtown Toronto. Although this architecture of exclusion can be hard to notice, much of the civic realm is being quietly altered to eliminate the menace of kids on wheels and, even worse, the homeless, and all those who would use benches, window sills or walls for other than their intended purposes.”

New Boss, New Strategies For PBT

Days after appointing a new interim managing director, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre has decided not to pursue its effort to force the company’s pit musicians to accept an immediate 50% pay cut. The cut, demanded by the company last year, would have necessitated the early reopening of an existing contract, and would have fixed the musicians’ pay well below the per-performance rates required by the venue in which the PBT performs. Both sides now say that they are working towards a new long-term contract for the musicians.

Music Education As Endangered Species: Exhibit 734B

Ask just about anyone involved in classical music about the cause of the genre’s decline in popularity, and you will likely get a speech about the lack of music education in U.S. schools. So the existence (and popularity) of a 28-year-old statewide classical music listening competition in Minnesota has to be considered a positive sign. But the competition is in financial trouble, having lost much of its corporate support this year when Minnesota Public Radio slashed its contribution.

No Good Deed…

Eyes on the Prize, the acclaimed documentary series focusing on the civil rights movement, has not been seen in more than a decade, due to copyright laws governing snippets of film and music used in the series. “In late January, members of Downhill Battle, a group of four young activists, appalled that there is so little access to the film, made a digitized copy of the series available through its website.” But the activists are now drawing the ire not only of copyright enforcers, but of the filmmakers themselves, who are preparing to renew their expired rights.

Hunter Officially Tapped To Succeed Sills

On the same day that a published report appeared naming Christine Hunter as the frontrunner to succeed Beverly Sills as chair of the Metropolitan Opera, the Met announced Hunter’s official nomination to the post. “She already serves as chairwoman of the executive committee and has been on the board for 22 years. During that time her loyalty was divided between the Met and the Washington National Opera, where she had top jobs from 1974 to last year, including president and chairwoman.”

Gunplay As Art?

“Joseph Deutch, a 25-year-old graduate student at the University of California, Los Angeles, was the last student to perform a final project in a seminar taught by the performance artist Ron Athey on Nov. 29. According to witnesses, Mr. Deutch, wearing a coat and tie, pulled what appeared to be a handgun from a paper bag, loaded it with a single bullet, spun the cylinder, aimed the pistol at his head and pulled the trigger. When the gun failed to discharge, he left the room and, seconds later, the seminar members heard the sound of a shot.” So is Deutch a dangerous individual with suicidal impulses, or can a game of Russian Roulette really be legitimately construed as art? Believe it or not, there is some precedent for this…