Some 400,000 kids have passed through a Venezuelan classical music program. “The program is the brainchild of Venezuelan conductor José Antonio Abreu, 66, who in 1975 envisioned classical music training as a social service that could change the lives of lower-income, at-risk, and special needs children. From 11 young musicians at the first rehearsal in a Caracas garage, his vision has grown into a national treasure, with 240,000 children as young as 2 — some deaf, blind, or otherwise disabled — now studying and performing in orchestras and choruses nationwide. Hundreds of them tour to international acclaim. The program, which has been funded by every government since it started, has spurred the creation of similar programs in 22 other Latin American countries.”
Tag: 06.22.05
DC: A Tale Of Two Concert Halls
Washington DC now has two concert halls – the Kennedy Center and the new Strathmore in the suburb of Bethesda. Mark Swed takes a side-by-side listen. “The Music Center at Strathmore is probably about as good a hall of its size as you can get for $100 million these days. But, despite the hype, it breaks no new ground acoustically or in any other department. Put on something worth hearing in it, and people will surely come. Situated in the heart of Washington, the Kennedy Center, for all its faults, remains a destination.”
Manhattan’s Misguided Stadium Plan
Why did anyone ever think building a stadium in Manhattan was a good idea, asks Ada Louise Huxtable. “A stadium should never–repeat, never–be built on the midtown Manhattan waterfront; this is a flagrant violation of everything we know about urban land use. It is axiomatic that you do not put industrial-size blockbusters in uniquely desirable locations; they destroy an enormous potential for profit and pleasure while denying access to one of the city’s most valuable amenities. Located next to the convention center, the stadium would have doubled the mass and length of the huge bunker against the river already established by that “lump of black coal”–as essayist Phillip Lopate described its dark bulk in his literary trip around the edges of Manhattan–cutting off views and access with nearly a mile of hulking wall.”
A Plan For Funding Pennsylvania Arts
Pennsylvania state legislators consider tax bills that would provide the arts with stable funding of about $8 million a year. Statewide, that won’t make a huge impact – the mayor of Philadelphia estimates that his city needs income of $50-$100 million/year to stabilize arts needs – but it’s a good start…
Tech Will Propel Entertainment Biz
A new report says that digital technologies are dramatically boosting the entertainment industry. “Worldwide, new ways of buying all forms of entertainment – such as broadband internet – will increase revenues from $11.4bn in 2004 to $73bn by 2009, the report predicted. Wayne Jackson, global leader of PricewaterhouseCoopers Entertainment and Media Practice said the entertainment and media industry could reinvent itself. He described the industry’s “ability to create new revenue streams through innovative offerings that hardly existed as recently as 2000”.
Dethroning The “King” Of Opera
Philanthropist Alberto Vilar’s fall has been startlingly rapid. “There may be an element of schadenfreude behind the speed at which Vilar has been dropped by the arts establishment: an old money distaste for new wealth. Vilar said he was public about his giving to act as an example to others; his hunger for attention rankled with some. Beverly Sills, the former chairwoman of the Met, told the New York Times: “He was not, how shall I say, quiet about his giving. I think that was a turn-off for other members of the board, the fact that he wanted attention. Meanwhile, Vilar continues to insist that everyone who is patient will be paid.”
Dissecting The Guggenheim’s Empire
The Guggenheim continues its expansionist appetite. But former board member Peter Lewis says there is more to expansion than met the eye. “In speeches, it was, ‘We’re the museum of the future.’ It was sold that sort of way,” he says. In fact it was driven by the need for revenue. “The rationale always was, ‘We had a nongenerous, noncontributing set of trustees–therefore we had to have other sources of revenue and capital–that’s why we must expand. It’s not the Guggenheim–it’s the Guggenheim merchandising the Bilbao effect.”
Orchestras – Corrupt As They Wanna Be?
Norman Lebrecht takes a read of Blair Tindall’s tell-all book about life in an orchestra. “It is an unstated axiom of orchestral life that naughty boys are protected by a code of omerta and that civil law is suspended in the rehearsal room. This detachment, dangerous to mental health, aggravates the growing distance between orchestras and worldly reality. It is almost as if we are speaking different languages. Orchestras like to pretend they are part of the living arts, but the composers they play are all dead.”
Royal Opera Takes Vilar’s Name Down
London’s Royal Opera has stripped Alberto Vilar’s name from its young artists program. “The Vilar Young Artists Programme has been renamed the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme in honour of the chair of the Oak Foundation, a philanthropic organisation set up by Alan M Parker, one of Britain’s richest self-made millionaires. The Covent Garden opera house decided to remove Mr Vilar’s name after he stopped paying for the programme in March 2002.”
Senators Call For Removal Of CPB Chief
Sixteen Democratic senators have appealed to President Bush to remove Kenneth Tomlinson as head of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. “We urge you to immediately replace Mr. Tomlinson with an executive who takes his or her responsibility to the public television system seriously, not one who so seriously undermines the credibility and mission of public television,” wrote the senators.