Orchestras need to change their image, says Henry Fogel, head of the American Symphony Orchestra League: “It’s for the fur coat crowd. It’s stuffy. It’s too formal. I don’t know enough about music. It’s intellectual, not emotional. I might applaud at the wrong time. I’m, sorry to say that – particularly in the first half to two-thirds of the 20th century – orchestras kind of cultivated that image. Now it’s biting them in the behind.”
Tag: 05.31.05
Racy DVDs Outsell Their G-Versions
“Often racier or more violent than their big-screen counterparts, unrated DVDs usually outperform the less-explicit version. Pouring new life into a movie franchise, they’re a valuable marketing tool — particularly effective with the 18-to-34-year-old demographic, the heaviest home video users.”
That Perfect Little Magazine
Little literary magazines have small readerships – sometimes just a few thousand. But there’s freedom as a writer working for a small publication that cares only for an aesthetic…
Toronto – Looking For A Horn
The Toronto Symphony is auditioning for a new horn player. “In North America, the appointment of a new member of a professional symphony orchestra is a complicated process, full of protocols and safeguards intended to ensure that the selection is fair. Good orchestra jobs come up only rarely, and it’s been decades since the TSO last searched for a principal horn: Fredrick Rizner held the job for 39 years, before retiring last year to Eastern Ontario, to start an antique business.”
Composer George Rochberg, 86
“Rochberg was one of the most successful composers of the 1970s and ’80s. His Violin Concerto was championed by Isaac Stern, who performed it 47 times between 1975 and 1977; his Symphony No. 5 was premiered in 1986 by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Sir Georg Solti and his Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra was premiered in 1996 by the Philadelphia Orchestra under Wolfgang Sawallisch.”
Questions About A Tasmanian Collection
Although the Tasmanian Government will add $4 million to the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery’s annual budget over the next four years, the institution is in danger of becoming a target for dodgy donations according to well-placed art experts.” Case in point: a donated collection of Chinese artifacts that may not be what they seem…
Help Wanted: Museum Director
Eighteen American museums are looking for directors. “As this leadership shift takes place in the museum world, we can expect big changes in how collecting institutions operate. After several years of controversy over what the mission of museums should be and, in some cases, even outright ethical scandal, there’s good reason to hope that trustees will actively seek out directors who make institutional integrity their first priority.”
de Montebello: Why Museums Matter
Why should the public care about museums? Met director Phillipe de Montebello takes a whack at an answer: “The fact is, in the rooms of our museums are preserved things that are far more than just pretty pictures. These works of art, embodying and expressing with graphic force the deepest aspirations of a time and place, are direct, primary evidence for the study and understanding of mankind.”
What The Barnes Will Mean For Philly
The Barnes move to Philadelphia is a coup for the city. Pew Trusts president Rebecca Rimmel: “We had two primary objectives: to make sure the foundation was on secure financial footing and to make sure the art and the education programs were accessible. We could have just given money to solve the first problem, but that would have done nothing for the second…. This is a public asset, something to make Philadelphia even more paramount in art.”
Record Prices For Canadian Art
Record auction prices for Canadian art fuel a brisk market for the resale of Canadian paintings.