The Cleveland Orchestra has been without a permanent principal trombonist for more than two years now, and at this point, “just about every interested, top-notch trombone player in America — and some from overseas — reportedly has come through Severance Hall with hopes for a future in Cleveland.” So what’s the holdup?
Tag: 05.23.07
Slap Fight Breaks Out Over Tony Telecast
“For the past 24 hours, the Tonys have been plunged into turmoil. Producers and Tony officials have been shouting at one another; the two organizations that oversee the awards – The American Theater Wing and The League of American Theaters and Producers – have been at war; and CBS, which broadcasts the Tonys, is fuming because it has so little control over a telecast whose ratings are always in the cellar.”
The Arts Also Cure Cancer And Make You Beautiful
“Nonprofit arts groups, including museums, orchestras, theaters and dance companies, contributed $166.2 billion and 5.7 million jobs to the U.S. economy in 2005, according to an advocacy group urging more funding for the arts… The economic effect of these nonprofits grew by 24%, or 11% adjusted for inflation, between 2000 and 2005, according to the report.”
Can A Creative Type Be An Effective CEO?
The National Film Board of Canada has looked within itself to find its new commissioner, appointing NFB director-general of English programming Tom Perlmutter to the top post. Perlmutter has been given credit for much of the NFB’s recent international success. “But is it a good thing to have an ideas guy mired in institutional thinking?”
Crack All You Want, We’ll Make More
The rush to create new modes of digital encryption for music and movies has been matched only by the stampede to defeat them. But with legal threats against those suspected of illegal file-sharing proving to be an expensive and controversial strategy, those in charge of protecting copyright have little choice but to work to stay one step ahead of the hackers and pirates through technological means.
Giving At-Risk Films A Place To Call Home
“Oscar-winning film director Martin Scorsese is spearheading a new body aimed at salvaging neglected films… [The World Cinema Foundation] would focus on films from developing countries. Scorsese told reporters he feared seminal foreign films could deteriorate or disappear entirely.”
Dispute Over Büchel Installation Heads To Court
“The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art is pushing to display Swiss artist Christoph Büchel’s massive unfinished installation — which brings indoors an oil tanker, a smashed police car, and a two-story home –against his wishes. After failing to coax Büchel to complete ‘Training Ground for Democracy,’ Mass MoCA filed a civil suit Monday to allow the public to see the work.”
The Naxos Story
Klaus Heymann started the Naxos label almost by accident in 1987, distributing performances by obscure orchestras that failed entirely to impress either the critics or the competition. But 20 years on, Heymann’s scrappy label that could is a behemoth in the music world, and in an age when classical is getting short shrift from nearly every major label, Naxos releases 20 new CDs every month. “In the breadth, depth, ambition and prestige of its repertoire, Naxos has no serious rival anywhere in the world today, even among specialist labels.”
Spoleto Reunification Possible
It’s been nearly 15 years since the acrimonious split between Spoleto Festival USA, based in Charleston, South Caroline, and its parent festival in Spoleto, Italy. But now, there are signs that the two organizations could be ready to partner once again.
On Elgar’s Genius, And Why His Critics Are Wrong
“If we taught music better in schools, we would understand Elgar more, for a case can be made that he and his music are central to that most crucial of understandings: of ourselves, and where we come from. … When you hear Elgar at his greatest – in the Second Symphony, in the Violin Concerto, above all in Falstaff – you hear an English spirit released from the confinement of social and critical disdain. He is proving his detractors – present and future – wrong in the extreme.”