Two years ago the music establishment was deriding composer Anthony Payne as a vandal for daring to complete Elgar’s unfinished Third Symphony. But since its debut, the piece has been performed more than 100 times and the critics seem to like it. – The Globe & Mail (Canada)
Tag: 12.06.00
A STRANGER AT HOME
Craig Armstrong is, internationally, the best-known Scottish composer of his generation, and he’s scored countless high-profile films. So why is he relatively unknown to his fellow Scots? “It’s partly me. I’m bit of a hermit. I don’t like to be known.” – The Herald (Scotland)
NOT SO FREE
After a year of legal battles, MP3 is back online with two new levels of service. “For no charge, members can store up to 25 CDs. That service will be supported by advertising. For an annual fee of $49.95, members will be able to store up to 500 CDs and enjoy more features and less advertising.” – Orange County Register (AP)
BEATING UP ON UNCLE SAM
At an international conference in Ottawa on arts issues, delegates slam “the Uncle Samming of the world, noting that movies and TV have now displaced aeronautics as America’s number-one export industry. America’s trade negotiators are less likely than ever to understand that culture, for most nations, is about identity, not dollars. Bill Ivey, head of the National Endowment for the Arts, and Jonathan Katz, the well-informed head of the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, let it be known that they were feeling a little beaten up.” – The Globe and Mail (Canada) 12/06/00
LEARNING TO GIVE
In this unprecedented age of philanthropic generosity (a recent study found US arts donations up 43% last year), Europe still lags way behind the US in private support of the arts. “There are two indigenous deterrents. The first is a woeful lack of professionalism in the field of fund-raising. The second, more serious, impediment is the composition of the boards that govern arts institutions.” – The Telegraph (UK) 12/06/00
THE ARTS COMPLEX
“As an architectural expression, the Canadian arts complex is an expression of madness. Envisage the entrance to the National Arts Centre in Ottawa – or rather, try and find it. I can’t. I have performed for paying audiences at the NAC intermittently for 25 years, and I’ve never been able to figure out how they get in. No sign. No lights. No visible box office. To a stranger, the NAC might be the American Embassy, where every visitor is a potential terrorist.” – The Globe and Mail (Canada) 12/06/00