Why Harlem Can't Give Up On Its Boys The scandal that enveloped the Boys' Choir of Harlem this year is a serious problem not just for the choir and its school, but for the surrounding community. Since its founding, the school has been one of a handful of institutions which has refused to give up on Harlem's underprivileged youth, and has consistently turned out students who go on to academic and professional success elsewhere. But on top of that, the organization has created a respected musical ensemble where many thought one could never emerge. Los Angeles Times 01/30/04

• Previously: Playing Both Sides In Harlem The embattled Harlem Boys Choir announced yesterday that it has a plan to respond to its board's demand that founder Walter Turnbull be dismissed in the wake of abuse allegations, but the choir's proposal does not appear to include the full severing of Turnbull's ties to the organization. The New York City Department of Education will review the plan, but has already called for Turnbull's firing. Washington Post 01/15/04

ENO's Great Irish Dream "It is easy, when meeting Seán Doran, to grasp why English National Opera sees him as its potential saviour. He only has to open his mouth and you feel he has the gift of the blarney. When you listen to him expounding, in a lilting Irish accent, his visions for the future of opera, the least you can do is nod and agree. That's exactly what the embattled ENO board did last year when it appointed Doran as artistic director and chief executive. The question now is whether he can turn vision into reality." Lately, the ENO has been forced to accept one delay after another in the reopening of its home at the London Coliseum, but Doran remains upbeat about the future. Financial Times 01/28/04

Are 19th-Century Ensembles Ready For 21st-Century Technology? If some technophiles have their way, paper-based sheet music may soon be a thing of the past in the symphony orchestra. The technology for digital sheet music exists, and ArtsJournal blogger Drew McManus wonders if the only thing holding orchestras back from embracing it is their usual tendency to cling to tradition. After all, paper-based scores break down from heavy use, and must be painstakingly updated and edited by hand, whereas a set of virtual parts could be instantly changed at a musician's or librarian's will. And just imagine: no more awkward page turns or out of print works! Still, orchestra librarians, who have arguably the most to gain or lose from such a transition, remain skeptical that the technology will catch on. Adaptistration (AJ Blogs) 01/30/04

A Story To Make Every Violinist Wince You would think that, the more valuable your musical instrument, the tighter you would make your death grip on its case whenever you had occasion to transport the thing. But even great musicians can be distracted, and this week, world-renowned violinist Gidon Kremer, preoccupied with a colleague's cancellation of an upcoming tour, stood up and walked off a train in Baltimore, leaving behind his nearly 300-year-old Guarneri del Gesu, valued at $3 million. The violin was recovered in Washington by Amtrak officials, and transported north to Baltimore in time for Kremer's next performance. Baltimore Sun 01/29/04

Construction Delays Force ENO Cancellation "At a cost of £282,000 in lost ticket sales, English National Opera was forced yesterday to swallow its pride and cancel all performances of its re-opening show, Nixon in China. The Coliseum, its London base, will now open after its £41m rebuild on February 21, a date already postponed by a fortnight, for an as yet undefined 'special event' - which may just be a grand party with a few songs from the stage. The theatre will then close again and the first performances of The Rhinegold, the opening of the first new production in English of Wagner's Ring cycle in 30 years, will probably not happen until early March." The Guardian (UK) 01/29/04

• Previously: Coliseum To Reopen, But Is It Enough? The re-opening of the London Coliseum following a 4-year, £41 million renovation will take place at the end of February, and despite some last-minute technical glitches, "advance word is that the project will prove a big success, restoring the original kitschy splendours of Frank Matcham's 1904 architecture." But Rupert Christiansen writes that even the most successful renovation imaginable will not make the Coliseum a truly great opera house, and London has yet to make good on any of the plans devised over the years to erect one. Still, new opera houses are a tough sell with the public these days, so the Coliseum may be as good as Londoners are ever going to get. The Telegraph (UK) 01/28/04

100 Years of Trumpets, Trills, and Turmoil The London Symphony Orchestra turns 100 this year, a good long run for an ensemble with the LSO's lively history. "The orchestra was founded as Britain’s first self-ruling symphonic institution, and its players, who choose their principal conductor and guest conductors, have been notorious for a snarkiness that has caused more than one eminent maestro to turn tail and run." The LSO has always been ranked among the top orchestras in the world, but Charles Michener believes that they never truly ascended to greatness until just recently, when they chose Sir Colin Davis as their latest principal conductor. New York Observer 01/28/04

Because Arms And Legs Can't Sing, Anyway When bass-baritone Thomas Quasthoff takes the stage at Lincoln Center tonight for a live national television broadcast with the New York Philharmonic, his appearance will be the first thing most viewers will notice, and yet, the announcer will offer not a single word of explanation. Quasthoff, a thalidomide baby, has vestigial arms and stunted legs, and there was a time in his career when he was willing, even eager, to discuss it. But these days, having long since established himself as a top vocalist, he prefers to let his music speak for itself, even if it sends a few thousand TV viewers scrambling for their search engines to dig up his story. The New York Times 01/28/04

Well, The New York Giants Play In Jersey... The Tokyo Symphony Orchestra has a beautiful new concert hall, which features state of the art acoustics, 2,000 "vineyard-style" seats, and a built-in connection to public transit. One caveat: the hall isn't actually in Tokyo, but in Kawazaki City, a suburb across the Tama River from Tokyo. The TSO will not, of course, be changing its name to match its new digs. Japan Times 01/28/04

New Life For Melbourne's 'Second' Symphony The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra is not the only orchestra in Australia's second-largest city, but it very nearly was. Orchestra Victoria, a smaller ensemble which plays in the pit for local ballet and opera companies, and has struggled mightily in recent years, was at risk of folding or being swallowed up by the MSO when its supporters decided to try a new direction in order to save the ensemble. The result is something almost unheard of in the professional music world: an orchestra which performs free concerts, backed by local civic and charitable organizations, and which brings music to its audience, rather than expecting the audience to come to them. The Age (Melbourne) 01/28/04

Coliseum To Reopen, But Is It Enough? The re-opening of the London Coliseum following a 4-year, £41 million renovation will take place at the end of February, and despite some last-minute technical glitches, "advance word is that the project will prove a big success, restoring the original kitschy splendours of Frank Matcham's 1904 architecture." But Rupert Christiansen writes that even the most successful renovation imaginable will not make the Coliseum a truly great opera house, and London has yet to make good on any of the plans devised over the years to erect one. Still, new opera houses are a tough sell with the public these days, so the Coliseum may be as good as Londoners are ever going to get. The Telegraph (UK) 01/28/04

It All Depends On How You Define 'Bad' "Exactly how bad a year did the music industry have in 2003? It depends who's asking. According to Nielsen Soundscan, American labels sold 687 million units (including 19.2 million paid downloads) last year—a drop of less than 1 percent from 2002. A widely cited survey from the Pew Internet & American Life Project suggests that file sharing has plummeted since the Recording Industry Association of America started threatening traders with lawsuits... Of course, it may be more correct to say that half as many Internet users are willing to tell a pollster that they download music—these days, the first rule of File Club is you do not talk about File Club." Village Voice 01/28/04

What Good Is Music If You Can't Mount It On Your Wall? "At 11 a.m. today, in a midtown Manhattan music studio, a handful of record industry veterans will huddle around a reel of tape they say is an original master from the historic 1954 recording debut of Elvis Presley. Then, after a brief introduction, the tape will be chopped to pieces." Why would anyone do such a thing to an undeniable piece of American musical history? For the merchandising money, of course. The bits of tape will be mounted on handsome plaques and sold for $495 apiece to the type of memorabilia-obsessed cretins who honestly believe that a mangled piece of magnetic tape is more valuable than the music which used to be on it. Washington Post 01/27/04

Cutbacks In Philly Opera Company of Philadelphia announced its new season with something less than the usual fanfare this week. Citing financial constraints, OCP is cutting one of its five annual productions, and has adjusted its planned repertoire to add more crowd-pleasers and eliminate an expensive Tchaikovsky production. The company, which has historically operated in the black, ran a small deficit last season, and could lose as much as $200,000 this year. "Subscribers have declined from 11,568 last season to 9,233 this season, with a drop in total ticket revenue from $4.46 million to a projected $3.9 million." Donations have been flat as well. Philadelphia Inquirer 01/27/04

Success Is The Best Rebuttal Ever since the Detroit Opera House opened eight years ago, Michigan Opera Theatre has faced serious questions about the long-term financial sustainability of the venue. But now, with MOT in the final phase of a $20 million fund drive, and a major expansion of the opera house about to get underway, founder and director David DiChiera is firmly in the driver's seat, and no one is doubting his dream-big style anymore. Detroit News 01/27/04

Don't Label Us! "Rock veterans Peter Gabriel and Brian Eno are launching a provocative new musicians' alliance that would cut against the industry grain by letting artists sell their music online instead of only through record labels." The point is to encourage musicians to break free of traditional recording agreements enforced by profit-driven corporations and tradition-bound unions, and to see for themselves wich aspects of new technology are useful, and which are not. Wired 01/26/04

Exit Järvi... Neeme Järvi's last season with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra is unveiled, and it plays like nothing so much as a summing up of the 15 years of artistic growth which the Motor City has enjoyed under the Estonian maestro. There are crowd-pleasers (Carl Orff's Carmina Burana,) and critic-pleasers (Ned Rorem's Third Symphony,) but mostly, there is the enthusiastic personality of Järvi himself, capped off in the final three weeks of the 2004-05 season, when Järvi the father will be joined, on stage, by his three children: flautist Maarika, and conductors Paavo (of the Cincinnati Symphony,) and Kristjan. Detroit Free Press 01/23/04

• ...Enter Wigglesworth? Handicapping a music director race is always a dicey proposition, since symphony orchestras tend to treat such matters with the secrecy normally reserved for international war plans, but one of the best ways to distinguish the front-runners from the also-rans is to note carefully which conductors keep popping up unexpectedly during the time that the search is ongoing. In Detroit, current conventional wisdom says that 39-year-old Mark Wigglesworth, a talented Briton who has been making the rounds in North America for the last several years, may be high on the DSO's list to replace Neeme Järvi. Detroit Free Press 01/23/04

The Day The Music Died The Bottom Line, the legendary New York venue which showcased acts from Joan Baez to The Police, officially shut down last week after losing a financial battle with its landlord, New York University. "For a music lover the place always seemed too good to last. The Bottom Line was a grand anomaly among clubs: a place where the music came first. In the end, it seemed, its owners weren't greedy enough." The New York Times 01/26/04

Desperation Tactics The Louisville Orchestra is changing the way it does business, it says, but it's difficult to tell exactly what that means, or how it will improve the fortunes of the financially distressed ensemble. Louisville fired its music director largely because of poor ticket sales, and is loudly declaring to anyone who will listen that it is going to give its audience whatever it asks for. That sort of marketing strategy is bound to backfire, says Andrew Adler. "The orchestra is so afraid of anything that smacks of elitism that it's hurtling headlong in the opposite aesthetic direction: celebrating small-d cultural democratization to the exclusion of more challenging repertoire." Louisville Courier-Journal 01/25/04

Why Crossover Singers Almost Always Sound Stupid From the first time the Three Tenors stepped up to a microphone and began belting Broadway tunes, discriminating listeners have known that there is a serious disconnect between the vocal styles of classical musicians and, well, everyone else. In fact, the real failure of the "crossover" genre is not that it has dumbed down the classical market, but that the singers almost always sound like fish out of water, says Richard Dyer. "Too many opera singers have had the wrong tonal quality, the wrong diction, the wrong rhythm -- and the wrong arrangements. There is a kind of arrangement that knows no period; Las Vegas lies in a land beyond time and place, and that's where the hearts of too many arrangers lie." Boston Globe 01/25/04

Sony Not-So-Classical Casey Stratton is a talented singer-songwriter from Michigan, who recently got himself a record deal. But the record company he signed with is Sony Classical, which has never marketed a pop singer before, and observers have been left wondering exactly what Stratton and Sony think they're doing. The truth is, of course, that classical labels are willing to try anything to stay afloat these days, and if that means trying to balance the books on the back of a talented non-classical performer who would never have been given a chance by the increasingly risk-averse pop labels, then so be it. Boston Globe 01/25/04

Blaming The Audience If classical music is really dying, or at least becoming a culturally irrelevant fringe entertainment, we have no one to blame but ourselves, writes Bernard Holland. "An implicit contract has been signed but is not necessarily being honored. It states that if I understand a piece of music, I'm likely to like it, too. This is not true. No amount of experience and analysis can by itself induce the stab of communication between art and its beholder... The consumer, it would seem, bears the fault. The product is rarely held accountable." The New York Times 01/25/04

Why Not Anne? The idea of a woman conducting an orchestra is no longer revolutionary by any stretch, but there still has never been a woman who has approached "major" status in the profession. Generally, the top candidates to bust through the glass ceiling are said to be those who promote themselves most skillfully, but the quiet competence and determination of Anne Manson makes her an attractive candidate as well. In fact, in a profession still plagued by sexist notions of women's abilities, Manson is a calm and non-threatening rebuttal. Her unwillingness to be cutthroat may hurt her career in the short term, but in the long run, it may just be what vaults her to stardom. The New York Times 01/25/04

Hard Work and Lofty Goals: The Vänskä Vision When the Minnesota Orchestra appointed Osmo Vänskä as its new music director, there were approving nods from orchestras around the world, and many murmurs to the effect that the famously stoic and hard-working Finn might just nudge the Minneapolis-based ensemble closer to the top of the American orchestral heap. But no one in Minnesota seems to be interested in nudging. In fact, in only Vänskä's first season, the orchestra is recording a complete Beethoven cycle, paying a visit to New York's famously skeptical critics, and embarking on an ambitious 20-day tour of European musical capitals. Andrew Clark sees a distinct strategy in play: "a concerted push for promotion to the orchestral super league." Financial Times 01/23/04

Making Sense Of Jazz Jazz is perhaps the ultimate "melting pot" style of music. It is a serious and difficult genre, steeped in intellectual tradition, and yet it often seems to absorb the best (and, some would say, worst) of popular culture in order to stay fresh and evolve. This mixed bag of musical ideas makes for a great many divisions in the jazz community, and the annual conference of the International Association of Jazz Education functions simultaneously as a way for gripes to be aired, and for the past, present, and future of the genre to be documented and discussed. The New York Times 01/24/04

Picking The Carcass Clean It didn't take long for the vultures to descend in South Florida, where the now-defunct Florida Philharmonic auctioned off its salable assets yesterday, with many items going for far less than their actual value. When the final gavel banged, the Phil had raised only $170,000 from the sale of instruments, music stands, and other musical detritus. Miami Herald 01/23/04

• Will Florida Learn From The Phil's Demise? The Florida Philharmonic's bankruptcy auction marked the final humiliation for an orchestra which, for any number of reasons, never found its niche. In fact, orchestras across the Sunshine State are in similarly dire straits, and many observers fear that Florida is losing whatever tenuous commitment it once had to creating a respectable arts scene as a result. St. Petersburg Times 01/23/04

PhilOrch Official Heads To Jersey Months after losing its executive director to Pittsburgh, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra has plucked its next chief executive from Pennsylvania's other major city. 40-year-old Simon Woods, currently the artistic operations manager of the Philadelphia Orchestra, will take over the business operations of the NJSO in March. The announcement completes the transition to a new management team in Newark, where the NJSO recently announced the appointment of Neeme Järvi as its next music director. Philadelphia Inquirer 01/23/04

Grand Opera, Tinseltown-Style Now that the Los Angeles Opera has its performance space all to itself, the company is determined to set about revitalizing the genre for a new generation of Angelenos. "While opera may be a tough sell in the shadow of the international movie factory, tapping the city's entertainment industry is an obvious move," and artistic director Placido Domingo hasn't been shy about his desire to give LA Opera's productions a touch of Hollywood glitz if it will bring in the crowds. The Christian Science Monitor (Boston) 01/23/04

• Previously: LA Opera Expands With Room To Grow Now that the Los Angeles Philharmonic has moved across the street to Disney Hall, LA Opera is expanding its season. A $48 million budget will finance a season of "premieres, revivals and stars." Los Angeles Daily News 01/17/04

Carmen, In Her Natural Habitat This fall, the Spanish city of Seville will stage an outdoor production of Bizet's Carmen. You opera buffs already see where this is going: the famous opera is set in Seville, and the city plans to stage it in the actual locations called for in the libretto, with the entire production (and the audience, naturally) picking itself up and changing locations between acts. The ambitious project is the feature attraction of the First Seville International Music Festival, which will also boast appearances by cellist Mstislav Rostropovich and the New York Philharmonic. The Christian Science Monitor (Boston) 01/23/04

Is Self-Producing The Future Of Classical Recording? With the major record labels continuing to downsize or eliminate their classical imprints, an ever-increasing number of orchestras have been taking their recording business in-house. Now, violinist Gil Shaham, dumped two years ago by Deutsche Grammophon in favor of the more photogenic Hilary Hahn, has started releasing independent albums as well, and the movement towards classical independence very likely represents the future of classical recording. As Shaham puts it, "I think of a chef opening his own restaurant. You may take on the risk, but with risk comes an unbelieveable freedom -- you can put as much garlic in the hummus as you like." Boston Globe 01/23/04

Turnbull To Stay On At Harlem The New York City Department of Education has reached an agreement with Harlem Boys' Choir founder Walter J. Turnbull, under which Turnbull will be allowed to continue as artistic director with the ensemble, despite charges that he covered up an incident of child molestation by an employee. Turnbull will resign as the choir's chief executive, but his presence at the helm of the choir's artistic operations "was deemed essential for the survival of the world-renowned singing group." The New York Times 01/23/04

• Previously: Betrayal and Backlash in Harlem The Harlem Boys Choir is in crisis, with a $30 million lawsuit alleging sexual and physical abuse at the hands of trusted employees threatening to tear the organization apart, and the choir's founder under pressure to step down. But Walter Turnbull insists that he did nothing wrong, and cannot imagine the choir, which has changed the lives of countless underprivileged kids, going on without him. Moreover, he is still incredulous that an employee with whom he trusted his choir of young boys implicitly could have turned out to be a child molester. Washington Post 01/14/04

Daniel Barenboim & The German Sound The Berlin Staatskapelle is not the best orchestra in Germany, but it may be the definitive German orchestra. Under the baton of Daniel Barenboim, the Staatskapelle has again become an international force in the music world, and its distinctly German sound is an immediately recognizable beacon, in an era when many orchestras are beginning to sound alike. But what is a "German sound," and are German orchestras really any more equipped to play German music than orchestras based in the UK or the US? Barenboim believes in the sound, and can explain it right down to the special German method of attacking a note. The New York Times 01/23/04

Live, Local, And Immediate "As other technology companies scramble to match the success of Apple's online music store, iTunes, which sells songs for 99 cents each, a different online-music economy is emerging around the sale of recordings of live performances - often with no restrictions on how they can be played or shared." Jam band Phish and mainstream rockers The Dave Matthews Band are two of the first big-name acts to have jumped on the live-performance-record bandwagon, and at the heart of the movement is the belief by the artists involved that the recording industry is shooting itself in the foot by trying to restrict consumer usage of available music. The New York Times 01/22/04

Dissecting The Theme Most classical music fans would quickly recognize the Paganini theme that Rachmaninoff expanded into one of the most familiar piano concert-pieces in the repertoire. But most listeners have probably never considered what actually goes on in a theme-and-variations, where one composer's singular idea is transformed into a wide-ranging and free-flowing work, yet without ever straying too far from the original thought. Rachmaninoff penned 24 variations on that Paganini theme, and Michael Barnes has taken the daring step of actually explaining each one in an American newspaper. The Pop Culture Enforcement Squad is presumably making its way to Austin to deal with Mr. Barnes. Austin American-Statesman 01/22/04

The Most Eclectic Music You'll Ever Hear North of Fargo What with the well-documented financial woes of the Canadian orchestra industry, it's a wonder that the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra's New Music Festival still exists. Now in its 13th year, the festival became one of the surprise industry successes of the 1990s, drawing thousands of fans from across North America with its quirky programs and relaxed style. This year's edition, which kicks off this weekend, will feature a 20-piece electric guitar band made up of teenage musician-composers; a rapper participating in a formal premiere of a Swedish composition; and an appearance by composer Arvo Pärt. Winnipeg Sun 01/22/04

On-Screen Opera - You Have To Admit It's Getting Better Opera on the small (or big) screen has generally been a disappointing experience. But advances in technology have changed things. "With the use of fiber-optic lines, sound-friendly cameras, and any number of things opera people enjoy rather than understand, all roles can be sung on camera while maintaining excellent sonic quality. With that comes a subliminal sense of dramatic truth: You see a singer's musculature creating a musical phrase at the moment you're hearing it." Philadelphia Inquirer 01/21/04

Philadelphia Orchestra Cuts Staff The Philadelphia Orchestra has cut seven jobs from its administrative staff, and more cuts are likely on the way. "I would say only that as we're in the middle of our fiscal year, we have become aware that there have been some unexpected revenue shortfalls, some of it in ticket revenue and some of it in support of the [forthcoming] European tour, and so even though it's the middle of the year we decided to do it now." Philadelphia Inquirer 01/21/04

What's To Be Done With Scottish Opera? So Scottish Opera is once again in financial crisis. And support for bailing it out is waning. What's a company to do? "Critics calling for wholesale changes at the opera have suggested either the Scottish Chamber Orchestra or the Royal Scottish National Orchestra could play in the pit at opera performances." But the company's director dislikes the idea: "We currently do 130 performances a year and we couldn’t do that and play for the opera at the same time. It’s a very extreme solution. What they need is breathing space, rather than drastic cutting."
The Scotsman 01/21/04

Orchestras As Fun Machines A number of symphony orchestras are experimenting with their concert formulas to "lighten up" and "have more fun." Tim Smith isn't much impressed: "While I applaud the determination of orchestras to fight for their lives, I'm not convinced that any amount of bells and whistles attached to such a tradition-crusted activity as a symphonic concert can bring to the box office previously uninterested listeners. And if you did manage to reel someone into the concert hall because of assorted "enhancements," aren't you setting yourself up for greater expectations - not for the actual music, but for more enhancements?" Baltimore Sun 01/20/04

Unstoppable Digital - CDs' Days Are Numbered "In a week when it was repeated that cassettes will no longer be sold because CDs have so secured the market, the predator that will soon swallow the compact disc flashes its teeth again. On Monday, Coca-Cola launchesmycokemusic.com, a legalised music download website for Britain, imitating Apple's iTunes online record-shop, which itself plans a spin-off here." The Guardian (UK) 01/17/04

Self Over Music "Why do so many pianists these days insist on emphasizing their own personalities over that of the music they play? "Once a pianist, however technically gifted, forgets that he or she is the servant of the music, then any aspiration to greatness is in vain." The Spectator 01/04

LA Opera Expands With Room To Grow Now that the Los Angeles Philharmonic has moved across the street to Disney Hall, LA Opera is expanding its season. A $48 million budget will finance a season of "premieres, revivals and stars." Los Angeles Daily News 01/17/04

Clamoring For John Cage (Who Knew?) Who could have predicted that last weekend's London festival dedicated to the music of John Cage would be a hit? But it was. "Surely three larger factors counted for more. Cage's wide reputation, even posthumously, as a witty, pawky, down-to-earth maverick (though he was no real subversive); the fact that this was another BBC-Barbican weekend which promised a grand, enlightening survey of one composer's work, like others in past years; and above all the super-intelligent programming of the main concerts, which surrounded a few key Cage pieces with comparable and enticing works by his "maverick" American contemporaries." Financial Times 01/20/04

Scottish Opera's Emergency Bailout - Layoffs To Come The cash-strapped Scottish Opera has received an emergency advance of £4 million of its 2004/2005 budget and "been forced to turn to the Scottish Arts Council for an emergency hand-out to pay staff salaries." It seems likely the company will have to make job layoffs - with 80 employees at risk of losing their jobs. The Scotsman 01/20/04

Music - Increasingly, We're Hearing It Live Sales of recorded music might be down in some places, but there was a lavish surge in concert-going in 2003. "I think that a lot of people have had enough of non-performing acts. A lot of the music of the 1990s was not real live performance music. The trend for real music is great news for us and great news for the industry in total."
The Guardian (UK) 01/20/04

Tenor Walks Across England Singing American tenor David Pisaro is walking 200 miles across England. "He will stop each evening to perform Franz Schubert's Die Winterreise in 13 venues along the route including village halls, shops and churches with pianist Quentin Thomas. The song cycle traces the physical and emotional journey of a rejected lover travelling away from home and Mr Pisaro says he hopes his trip will bring the music to life." BBC 01/19/04

Buy The Music You Like A Silicon Valley entrepreneur was tired of the contemporary music she was hearing. So she decided to buy some that she did like. She started a commissioning project, but she's a hands-on patron... San Francisco Chronicle 01/18/04

London Symphony In Debt The London Symphony has much to be proud of, and it's held up as a shining success. Oh, one problem, writes Charlotte Higgins: "the LSO is mired in financial troubles. It is facing its first deficit in years, despite, to other organisations' frequent exasperation and envy, being the best-funded symphony orchestra in the country.' And all about a building? The Guardian (UK) 01/16/04

Springer Opera Picks Up Olivier Noms Jerry Springer the Opera has been nominated for eight Olivier Awards in London. The nominations include an unusual commendation: "The 20 actors in the line-up of the sell-out show at the Royal National Theatre were jointly shortlisted for 'best performance in a supporting role in a musical' in the final stage of the contest to be concluded on February 22." The Guardian (UK) 01/16/04

Will European Noise Regulations Kill Beethoven 9? European Union noise regulations for workers might mean that symphony orchestras will have to quiet down. "The intriguing issue, though, is whether the directive will impose changes in the repertoire itself. The London Symphony Orchestra says that this is a real possibility. Loud works like Stravinsky's Rite of Spring and the symphonies of Bruckner and Mahler may have to be scheduled more rarely and surrounded by quieter pieces. Look up the European commission's website and you will find a section mocking the idea that Beethoven's Ninth symphony - the EU's anthem - might even fall foul of the noise at work directive. But the idea is not so far-fetched." The Guardian (UK) 01/17/04

How To Win That Elusive Orchestra Job In any given year there are few jobs that open up in full-time professional orchestras. Winning one of those jobs is a matter of determination, discipline, and sometimes, a little luck... Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel 01/18/04

Dance Of The String Quartet How do members of a tring quartet keep from arguing? How do they stay togeter year after year? "Lurking behind the first question is an idealistic vision of a quartet as a non-stop idyll of glorious music-making with your friends, a working life as fulfilled and perfect as the Beethoven quartets we play. The implication of the second question is that this long and intense menage à quatre must be some sort of Strindbergian dance of death, endured by a species of subtle masochists. The truth, of course, lies somewhere in between - although some groups veer towards one extreme or another, especially if they last for decades." The Guardian (UK) 01/17/04

Surge In Music Downloading The number of people downloading music off the internet has surged again after several months of decline after the recording industry began suing consumers. "The number of U.S. households downloading music from peer-to-peer networks rose 6 percent in October and 7 percent in November after a six-month decline, according to a study of computer use in 10,000 U.S. households conducted by The NPD Group. In a separate, bimonthly survey, 12 million individuals reported getting music on the free networks in November, up from 11 million in September." Wired 01/18/04

BBC Broadcasts "Silent" Work The BBC has broadcast John Cage's 4'33" - his famous work that includes no instrumental notes. "Despite having no notes to play, the musicians tuned up and then turned pages of the score after each of the three "movements" specified by the composer. The silence was broken at times by coughing and rustling sounds from the audience, who marked the end of the performance with enthusiastic applause." BBC 01/18/04

Vatican Orchestra Concert For Peace A concert at the Vatican featuring the Pittsburgh Symphony and an international cast of performers was performed for the Pope with the purpose of fostering understanding between the world's major religious faiths. "The inter-faith theme of the concert was echoed among the performers - a mixed choir consisting of singers from the London Philharmonic, from Turkey, from the Pope's own home town of Krakow in Poland and from Pittsburgh in the United States. The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra was under the baton of Gilbert Levine, an American who used to direct the Krakow Symphony Orchestra and who is a personal friend of the Pope." BBC 01/18/04

Experience Music Project Cuts 129 Jobs The Experience Music Project in Seattle lays off 129 employees, among rumors of further downsizing. "It is the third time that the museum at the foot of the Space Needle has eliminated employees in January - 46 people were cut last year and 124 were laid off in 2002." The $240 million museum devloted to music, designed by Frank Gehry, has only been open since 2000. Seattle Post-Intelligencer 01/17/04

Country Music Sales Down 10 Percent In 2003 Sales of Country Music declined in the US last year by a whopping 10 percent. That compares to an overall decline in music sales of one percent. "Country album sales fell from 76.9 million to 69.3 million units - a 9.8 percent drop, according to figures released Monday by Nielsen SoundScan, a group that monitors music sales." Music executives blame the lack of new blockbuster releases in 2003. Dallas Morning News (AP) 01/14/04

Boston: What, No Tchaikovsky? James Levine is taking over the Boston Symphony next season. And he's taking the orchestra in a direction it hasn't been. "What is new in Levine's programming for the orchestra is an emphasis on the whole of the 20th century, not just the first third. Stravinsky, Schoenberg, and Bartok appear, as they have for decades -- but so do midcentury figures as diverse as Gershwin and Messiaen, and such late-century masters as Ligeti, Lutoslawski, and Elliott Carter. The 21st century is represented on Levine's programs by new works from Milton Babbitt, Charles Wuorinen, and Boston's John Harbison." Boston Globe 01/16/04

Orchestra To Perform Silent Cage On Radio For the first time in the UK an orchestra will be performing John Cage's silent work 4'33" on the radio. "Cage’s seminal work, 4’33”, which consists of four minutes and 33 seconds of silence, will be the highlight of a concert on Radio 3 at 7.25pm. In readiness for the performance, Radio 3 bosses will have to switch off their emergency back-up system – designed to cut in when there is an unexpected silence on air." The Scotsman 01/16/04

The Meaning Of Cage As a major festival of the music of John Cage begins, musical luminaries talk about Cage's influence on music. "I do believe the future, let's say 25 to 50 years from now, will place Cage as the most important composer of the 20th century. This is not sticking my neck out." The Guardian (UK) 01/16/04

Death Of The CD Single? Experts predict that within three years CD singles will no longer be made. "With broadband becoming far more common, it is easier to simply download a track than go out and buy it, the industry argues." BBC 01/16/04

Trading Salary For Stability In Detroit For the third time in the last 15 years, the musicians and staff of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra have agreed to temporary furloughs and pay cuts in an effort to help the organization stabilize a precarious financial situation. The deal is somewhat complex, as negotiations to redo the musicians' contract were focused on enabling the DSO to save money in the short term without sacrificing its position as one of the top American orchestras in the long term. Over the next two seasons, the musicians will accept several weeks of furlough and allow four open positions in the orchestra to go unfilled, but will be guaranteed a return to a competitive pay scale in the 2005-06 season. Detroit News 01/15/04

• Previously: A Big Job In Detroit Whoever becomes the Detroit Symphony's next executive director will have a lot of work to do. Not only is the orchestra searching for a new music director, "the DSO has run operating losses of about $3 million the last three years, including a $1.8-million shortfall in 2003, its largest deficit in more than a decade. A $1-million transfer from its endowment two years ago leaves the accumulated deficit at $2.2 million." Detroit Free Press 12/24/03

Playing Both Sides In Harlem The embattled Harlem Boys Choir announced yesterday that it has a plan to respond to its board's demand that founder Walter Turnbull be dismissed in the wake of abuse allegations, but the choir's proposal does not appear to include the full severing of Turnbull's ties to the organization. The New York City Department of Education will review the plan, but has already called for Turnbull's firing. Washington Post 01/15/04

• Previously: Betrayal and Backlash in Harlem The Harlem Boys Choir is in crisis, with a $30 million lawsuit alleging sexual and physical abuse at the hands of trusted employees threatening to tear the organization apart, and the choir's founder under pressure to step down. But Walter Turnbull insists that he did nothing wrong, and cannot imagine the choir, which has changed the lives of countless underprivileged kids, going on without him. Moreover, he is still incredulous that an employee with whom he trusted his choir of young boys implicitly could have turned out to be a child molester. Washington Post 01/14/04

Cutting, But Not Slashing Like countless other arts organizations, the San Francisco Opera is going through some tough economic times. Unlike many other orchestras and opera companies, the company is refusing to hit the panic button, even after budgetary concerns forced it to trim the number of operas it would present in 2003-04. Berlioz's massive "Les Troyens" was postponed several years to save the company $1 million, but "although much of the season's repertoire is comparatively traditional, seven of the nine productions are new to the company," including a daring (and not terribly accessible) 1978 opera by György Ligeti. San Francisco Chronicle 01/15/04

Selling It In what is likely to be a controversial move within the classical music industry, London's Philharmonia Orchestra will "rebrand" itself this week, with the assistance of a top UK marketing firm. The 'new' Philharmonia will stress accessibility (think Classic FM as opposed to BBC Radio 3) and attempt to attract "the type of people [who are] currently visiting Tate Modern," and to do so without alienating its core audience. The orchestra will also look at ways to begin offering downloadable music online, and generally make a concerted push to pique the interest of a younger, more technologically savvy demographic. Andante (Design Week) 01/15/04

Betrayal and Backlash in Harlem The Harlem Boys Choir is in crisis, with a $30 million lawsuit alleging sexual and physical abuse at the hands of trusted employees threatening to tear the organization apart, and the choir's founder under pressure to step down. But Walter Turnbull insists that he did nothing wrong, and cannot imagine the choir, which has changed the lives of countless underprivileged kids, going on without him. Moreover, he is still incredulous that an employee with whom he trusted his choir of young boys implicitly could have turned out to be a child molester. Washington Post 01/14/04

• Previously: Harlem Boys Choir Leaders Under Fire To Resign An explosive memo concerning leaders of the famed Boys Choir of Harlem and how they handled a case of abuse against one of the choir's boys, threatens to result in the ouster of the choir's founder. "The accusations against the Turnbulls have dealt the choir and its academy a painful blow at a time when both are struggling with their finances, as they have on and off for many years. The crisis could signify the end of an era for the group, which has performed from Yankee Stadium to Tokyo, and the beginning of a decidedly shaky future." The New York Times 01/09/04

The Power of Bach A weeklong conference on the music and legacy of Johann Sebastian Bach is going on in Toronto, and William Littler finds himself wondering what it is about Bach that continues to so fascinate and inspire musicians, audiences, and scholars across the generations. "Perhaps it is the very ability of Bach's music to survive a variety of approaches that provides a clue to its universality. As [conductor Helmuth] Rilling put it, a bad performance of Bach is still Bach, but a bad performance of Handel isn't very good." Toronto Star 01/14/04

Between The Pope and The Publicity This weekend, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra will perform for the pope in Vatican City, the first American orchestra to do so. But the honor of being part of such an event is only part of what makes this trip so important to the PSO, says Andrew Druckenbrod. "It is crucial for the future of this organization that it is able to put itself on the big map as it has with this Vatican affair, even if it means the slight subordination of the music to the 'event.'" Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 01/14/04

In Defense Of Cell Phones Musicians are becoming increasingly agitated by the plague of ringing cell phones and beeping watches in the concert hall, but composer Gavin Bryars takes a more zen-like view of the uninvited chirps, beeps, and squawks. Having once endured the humiliation of having his own phone ring (with a tone he himself had composed) during a performance of his own music, Bryars has come to accept the unscheduled interruptions as nothing more than spontaneous extensions of the concertgoing experience, and sometimes, as legitimate musical enhancements. The Guardian (UK) 01/14/04

• Previously: Careful Of That Cough - The Musicians Might Attack! Cellist Stephen Isserlis is fed up with audience members who snooze, cough, or forget to turn their pagers, watches or cell phones off. "I do believe that the first step has to be taken by the audience - or rather, by that usually tiny minority who believe that, contained within the right to free speech, is the right to ruin concerts. I should advise them that, if they continue to ignore the warning signals, it is only a matter of time before a musician turns truly violent; and a cello spike or a piccolo placed in an inappropriate orifice could prove to be really quite uncomfortable..." The Guardian (UK) 01/10/04

The Ring Of Sweet Money The fastest growing segment of the music business? Ring tones for phones. "Sales of mobile-phone ring tones, those tiny song recordings programmed into millions of cell phones around the world, jumped 40 percent in the past year to $3.5 billion, according to a study released Tuesday. The worldwide sale of ring tones, which started as a marketing gimmick for music labels and mobile phone companies, is roughly equivalent to 10 percent of the $32.2 billion global music market." Wired 01/13/04

What In The World? What, exactly, is world music, asks Andrew Taylor, and "does it help us to assign categories that cannot be defined? Of course, most would answer that 'world music' is non-European music, or compositions, cultural expressions, and performances from cultures other than the traditional performing arts fare. It's music from the Middle East, China, Africa, Israel, Nepal, and so on. And we categorize it because it makes it easier to talk about it, program it, and present it to an audience - we can have a 'world music' series and everyone will know what we mean. The problem is, such categories seem to cause more problems than they solve - both from a business and aesthetic perspective." The Artful Manager (AJBlogs) 01/13/04

No Child Left Behind Music There seems to be a relationship between learning music and excelling in other subjects. So "if a school is not teaching music as intensively and zealously as it's teaching math and science, then it's not teaching math and science. The decline in music education is a big part of the problem in math and science education." San Antonio Express-News 01/13/04

Digital Improves Recording Company Outlook After a couple of years when music sales were down, 2003 was something of a turnaround. "More than 19.2 million digital tracks were sold online in the past six months, according to Nielsen Soundscan, helping to narrow the music industry's losses last year. Overall, North American music sales were down 0.8 percent last year compared with 2002, while album sales, which includes cassettes and other formats, were down 3.6 percent, according to Nielsen Soundscan." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (AP) 01/13/04

Seoul Philharmonic Fires Conductor For Attendance "When the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra decided to fire its head conductor last month, it resorted to the strict letter of the law. The grounds for dismissal was his attendance record, which showed that Kwak Sung, music advisor and conductor, spent only 60 days out of the 180 required days a year at the Sejong Center of the Performing Arts, the orchestra's administrative home." Korea Herald 01/13/04

Deposed Conductor Hopes For Reinstatement The deposed conductor of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony is hoping that a citizens group will find a way to pressure the orchestra to rehire him. "Speaking yesterday from his home in Berlin, Martin Fischer-Dieskau said it's his ambition to 'be able to say what's happened has been only an interruption in the orchestra's inexorable way to greater achievement. But I can't, at least not for the time being." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 01/13/04

• Previously: Little Orchestra, Big-Time Politics The chairman of the Kitchener-Waterloo (Ontario) Symphony Orchestra has stepped down following a wave of protest over the recent dismissal of the orchestra's principal conductor. However, a group of donors which had gathered 500 signatures opposing Martin Fischer-Dieskau's dismissal, and had called for the entire board of directors to resign, is still angry, saying that the resignation of one man is unlikely to convince the board to reverse its decision. Most of the frustration seems to stem from the board's unwillingness even to explain the reasons for Fischer-Dieskau's dismissal. Toronto Star 01/07/04

ENO Delays Reopening Of Its Home The English National Opera is delaying the reopening of its London home for two weeks after an extensive restoration. "The restoration has adhered to an extremely tight schedule throughout and in these last weeks it is crucial that standards are not compromised during the reinstatement of our technical operation in order to meet the deadline." BBC 01/12/04

The Pop-Star Movie Concert It's the latest thing - pop stars performing at the local movie theatre. Across America, fans pay to see their favorites perform in concert movies. Then they buy the DVD and recordings. "The numbers are impressive. Of the seven music-based events Regal CineMedia coordinated in 2003, the products tied in with the screenings always debuted at No. 1, Regal says. As 2004 unfolds, screenings such as these could become a standard part of a label's marketing approach - radio, TV, Internet, point-of-purchase and the movie theater." Denver Post 01/12/04

Symphony Orchestras - A Refuge From Mundane Reality The symphony orchestra is a remarkable thing, writes Norman Lebrecht. But "economically, it makes no sense at all. A sold-out symphony concert at the Royal Festival Hall yields an average loss of £48,000. It costs £1.9m a year in state subsidy and as much again in private fundraising to keep a London orchestra afloat. And yet, against all rational prognostications, five symphony orchestras and a dozen chamber ensembles flourish in this city of 12 million inhabitants, reaching (at an informed estimate) no more than 30,000 active concertgoers. The noose is getting tighter." La Scena Musicale 01/07/04

Record Concert Sales In UK In 2003 According to new figures, in 2003, "UK music lovers spent more on going to concerts last year than at any time since records began 90 years ago as the rock revival helped to fuel a new hunger for live gigs." The Independent (UK) 01/12/04

Piano - MIA In Orange County Orange County, California has a rich musical life - orchestras, chamber music, recitals. But there's one big thing missing - the piano. Why, wonders Tim Mangan, is there no ongoing series committed to the piano? Orange County Register 01/11/04

Orchestras - Harmful To Your Hearing? Symphony orchestras are loud (and they ought to be). But they can also be harmful to the hearing of musicians. The issue "has bubbled to the surface recently with press accounts of a new regulation imposed by the European Union that reduces the allowable sound exposure in the European orchestral workplace from the present 90 decibels to 85. The problem is, a symphony orchestra playing full-out can easily reach 96 to 98 decibels, and certain brass and percussion instruments have registered 130 to 140 at close range." The New York Times 01/11/04

Careful Of That Cough - The Musicians Might Attack! Cellist Stephen Isserlis is fed up with audience members who snooze, cough, or forget to turn their pagers, watches or cell phones off. "I do believe that the first step has to be taken by the audience - or rather, by that usually tiny minority who believe that, contained within the right to free speech, is the right to ruin concerts. I should advise them that, if they continue to ignore the warning signals, it is only a matter of time before a musician turns truly violent; and a cello spike or a piccolo placed in an inappropriate orifice could prove to be really quite uncomfortable..." The Guardian (UK) 01/10/04

St. Thomas Choir - Where Did The Boys Go? St. Thomas's Choir in Leipzig was once Bach's choir, and it is an illustrious musical institution. "But the number of boys auditioning for a place in the choir has been declining for years. The choice among those boys with good voices is still large enough, but there is no longer a surplus of boys with very good to outstanding voices. And that trend didn't develop just a few years ago." Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 01/09/04

Matthias Pintscher: History Moving Forward "Musical notes and actions have been handed down historically; they bear the signs of their use. A composer, and especially a young composer, does not have to know these signs of use. He must feel them, however, for composing also means developing idiosyncrasies and reacting hyper-sensitively. This is possibly the secret of the astronomical success that has set the tone of Matthias Pintscher's musical career for more than 10 years and has showered him with more contracts and prizes than any other artist of his generation." Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 01/09/04

Contemporary Passion - Champions Of The String Quartet "Passionate, unflagging champions of new music, the [Kronos and Arditti string quartets] have, between them, commissioned nearly a thousand works; that achievement alone should earn them a lasting place in music history. They have also inspired a wave of young string quartets that specialize in contemporary music, including Ethel and the Meridian and Flux Quartets in America, and the Brodsky, Keller and Balanescu Quartets in Europe. Not to mention the salutary impact they have had on the classical music scene as a whole, which has become a little less staid and a little more open.
The New York Times 01/11/04

The Recording Police "The Recording Industry Association of America is taking it to the streets. Even as it suffers setbacks in the courtroom, the RIAA has over the last 18 months built up a national staff of ex-cops to crack down on people making and selling illegal CDs in the hood." LAWeekly 01/08/04

New Start In Minnesota The Minnesota Orchestra declared a $2.4 million deficit last month, but there's no need to panic. The orchestra has a popular new music director and a new executive director who arrives with new ideas and a forthrightness that impresses those who have worked with him. Of course, there's a new musicians' contract to be negotiated... The Star-Tribune (Mpls) 01/10/04

Classical Enjoyment - A Cost Barrier Why are there not more young people at classical music concerts, wonders John Rockwell. "The incontrovertible fact remains: classical music, by and large, is ludicrously overpriced. MoMA's $12 is barely more than the $10.25 to which some movie theaters in Manhattan have recently ascended. Rock concerts may be pricey, but songs can be downloaded for 99 cents or less, all the way down to zero." The New York Times 01/09/04

Haitink Gets New Position At Boston Symphony "Bernard Haitink has accepted the Boston Symphony Orchestra's invitation to become 'conductor emeritus,' a new position and title created especially for him. Haitink, who first conducted the BSO in 1971, has served as principal guest conductor since 1995." Boston Globe 01/09/04

Harlem Boys Choir Leaders Under Fire To Resign An explosive memo concerning leaders of the famed Boys Choir of Harlem and how they handled a case of abuse against one of the choir's boys, threatens to result in the ouster of the choir's founder. "The accusations against the Turnbulls have dealt the choir and its academy a painful blow at a time when both are struggling with their finances, as they have on and off for many years. The crisis could signify the end of an era for the group, which has performed from Yankee Stadium to Tokyo, and the beginning of a decidedly shaky future." The New York Times 01/09/04

Restoring The Grand Fenice The restoration of Venice's historic opera house La Fenice is completed. "In the local parlance, this house was realized com'era, dov'era--how it was, where it was. It's as if you are walking into La Fenice for the very first time in 1837 (year after the first La Fenice, built in 1792, was burnt down and redesigned by Meduna brothers). It's a paradox: old yet spanking new." Newsweek 01/08/04

Scottish Opera To Undergo "Fundamental Change" The chief executive of Scottish Opera says that his company will have to endure "fundamental" changes in size, shape and output" because of funding caps by the government. "One authoritative insider last night suggested that the potential job losses in the 'difficult transition' at Scottish Opera could be as much as 80 from its current staff of around 200." The Herald (Glasgow) 01/09/04

British Recording Group Investigates Amazon For CD Sales Amazon.com is being investigated by the British Phonographic Industry for selling cheap CD's acquired outside the UK. "The BPI said it was questioning as routine whether Amazon was selling CDs obtained outside the European Economic Area, contravening UK law." BBC 01/08/04

Changing The Orchestra Paradigm "In a move unprecedented among full-time American orchestras, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra is eliminating the position of music director and replacing it with a handful of 'artistic partners' of international renown. Among the first batch of partners are superstar violinist Joshua Bell and Italian conductor Roberto Abbado." The decision to overhaul the SPCO's business model comes in the wake of a controversial contract, signed last summer, which cut the SPCO musicians' salaries by more than 20%, but also gave them an unprecedented leadership role in the organization. Orchestras around the country will be watching the new St. Paul model closely. St. Paul Pioneer Press 01/08/04

Turmoil At Royal College Of Music The Royal College of Music is one of London's most venerable institutions. But its students and faculty are in an uproar over cuts at the school. "Nineteen salaried staff have been "invited" to reapply for their jobs. The idea is to cut the number of positions, thus saving money, and to weed out those staffers who might undermine the college's attempts to score high in the next research-rating round. Those who aren't reappointed will be offered teaching on an hourly rate or redundancy. The students are said to be "up in arms about their favourite teachers being kicked into touch"." The Guardian (UK) 01/08/04

Why You Can't Understand That Soprano "Three physicists report in Nature today that they tuned into opera and found a perfectly good reason for not being able to hear the words: the louder the song, the greater the resonance frequency of the vocal tract and the more difficult it is to hear a soprano's vowels." The Guardian (UK) 01/08/04

Back And Better Than Ever Ann Arbor, Michigan just happens to be home to one of America's great concert halls, and after nearly two years of construction, Hill Auditorium will unveil its $38.6 million renovation later this month. "The restoration is the first face-lift for the four-story red brick auditorium since it was completed in 1913. Designed by the famous Detroit architect Albert Kahn, Hill is listed on the National Register of Historic Places." Hill is a regular stop for international orchestras touring the U.S., and is renowned for both its architecture and acoustics. Detroit Free Press 01/07/04

Music, War, and Priorities The Gaza Music Institute, in the Israeli-occupied territory of the Gaza Strip, was once a hub of the community, a place where Palestinians of all ages and interests could come to learn, practice, and perform just about any type of music, from traditional regional folk instrumentals to symphonic music. But today, with the Intifada raging, and Israeli restrictions of Palestinian residents growing ever more severe, the Institute has been hit hard. It is down to eight students, and the director is keeping the school running with money out of his own pocket. "Music has many lovers in Palestinian society," he says, "but unfortunately the search for food has become the priority at this point in time." Al-jazeera (Qatar) 01/07/04

Pittsburgh's White Knight? On the list of American orchestras badly hurt by the economic downturn, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra is near the top. But Lawrence Tamburri, a Pittsburgh native and the PSO's new executive director, is eager to turn the organization around, and he believes it can be done without the sort of draconian cuts to the artistic side of the ledger to which some troubled orchestras have resorted. "Tamburri's perspective on the recent financial problems afflicting virtually all American orchestras is refreshingly devoid of hysteria," and he points out that the industry has weathered similar storms in the past. Pittsburgh Tribune-Review 01/07/04

Little Orchestra, Big-Time Politics The chairman of the Kitchener-Waterloo (Ontario) Symphony Orchestra has stepped down following a wave of protest over the recent dismissal of the orchestra's principal conductor. However, a group of donors which had gathered 500 signatures opposing Martin Fischer-Dieskau's dismissal, and had called for the entire board of directors to resign, is still angry, saying that the resignation of one man is unlikely to convince the board to reverse its decision. Most of the frustration seems to stem from the board's unwillingness even to explain the reasons for Fischer-Dieskau's dismissal. Toronto Star 01/07/04

• Previously: Patrons Protest Orchestra Conductor's Dismissal "One of the Kitchener-Waterloo (Ontario) Symphony's most generous financial supporters is demanding the resignation of the entire board of directors for the "unjust dismissal" of conductor Martin Fischer-Dieskau." Toronto Star 12/30/03

Columbia House Drops Classical Music Is Columbia House getting out of the classical music business? Greg Sandow writes: "Go to the Columbia House home page, and click the "join the Music Club" link (I can't link there directly to save you that step). You'll see a long list of musical genres to choose from, and classical isn't one of them. Rotten corporate behavior. Columbia House stopped selling classical music, and (as Lang's experience confirms) never even told its members. They even reassigned club membership, without asking permission (something members probably agreed to in advance, without knowing it, by signing off on some fine print when they joined)." Sandow (AJBlogs) 01/06/04

Mexico's New Music "There's a wave of alternative music coming from Mexico that belies the country's tradition-laden and glitzy commercial images, one that provides a soundtrack to a very different - and very modern - world. It's boldly experimental, with antennae tuned around the globe, bringing in electronica, hip-hop, ska, rock, punk and more, sometimes (though not always) mixing it with traditional Mexican genres and spitting it back out in a new Mexican sound. It's music that's open-minded, politically aggressive and sophisticated, music that rattles and echoes with the sound of a culture reinventing itself." Miami Herald 01/06/04

A Musical Who's Who Of Who Died In 2003 Andante records the prominent classical musicians who died during 2003. Andante 12/31/03

Study: Lawsuits Dampen Music Downloading New studies say that music download has declined in the past few months. Recording industry analysts say record company lawsuits against downloaders seem to be having an impact. "Usage of Kazaa fell 15 percent from November 2002 to November 2003, according to comScore. Other peer-to-peer music-sharing sites also experienced usage declines. The drop at BearShare was 9 percent, while WinMX lost 25 percent of its audience and Grokster plunged 59 percent." Wired 01/05/04

Euro Consumer Group Sues Big Music Companies Over Copy Protection A European consumer watchdog group is suing major music companies over their copy-protection schemes. "Belgium's Test-Aankoop said it was suing EMI, Universal Music, Sony and BMG in a Brussels court with the aim of forcing them to abandon the controversial practice of copy protecting CDs in order to prevent them being played on certain devices. It claimed that consumers are being illegally prevented from making back-up copies of their favourite CDs and that they are being deprived of their legal right to play CDs on computers and in car stereos." The Guardian (UK) 01/06/04

Musicians, UK Government Make Truce British musicians have been fighting the government's plans for new licensing of live music. But now, "in a move described by the Musicians' Union as 'unprecedented', the arts minister, Estelle Morris, yesterday announced the formation of a task force whose sole aim was to safeguard the future of live music in England and Wales. Figures from the music industry, the Arts Council, local authorities, owners of small venues and the government will sit on the task force for two years." The Guardian (UK) 01/06/04

(Belated) Encore "Encore, an initiative by BBC Radio 3 and the Royal Philharmonic Society (RPS), aims to hunt down orchestral works which have languished since their debut and give them another hearing - just as the Society of Authors' Encore award promotes second novels that have been overlooked. Simon Rattle has agreed to act as patron for the scheme, which aims to rediscover and perform 15 works over the next four years." The Independent (UK) 01/03/04

Famous Music School In Peril Scotland's Castle Toward, an outdoor centre used by tens of thousands of gifted children since the second world war is being sold, and the school has no place to go. About 6000 children from across Scotland take the trip to Toward, 10km south of Dunoon, each year. The Herald (Glasgow) 01/04/04

Music As Cross-Dimensional Experience At Joe's Pub at Manhattan's Public Theatre, the music lineup crosses an astonishing range of genres, geographies and sensibilities. And it draws audiences, too. "Audiences are much more adventurous than a lot of people give them credit for. People are listening to music from all over the world: from American pop, funk and techno to Asian and European hybrids of the same. This has been happening for 50 years, but lately it has accelerated." The New York Times 01/04/04

Punk Therapy "Musicians from a few different punk-related genres are exploring therapy rock: the up-and-coming "emo" genre, which features hyperdramatic, almost mawkish rock delving deeply into personal upheaval; rap-metal, an aggressive hybrid that has lately turned more introspective; and pop-punk, a slick version of punk that's deceptively up-tempo and not generally noted for its profundity." The New York Times 01/04/04

Opera From The Streets A London opera company that uses professionals and homeless people for its productions is gaining notice. "Matthew Peacock first had the idea of a company that mixed homeless people with professional performers three years ago, when he was an assistant editor of the London-based magazine Opera Now. A former singer with a social conscience, he had begun to do voluntary work for a London night shelter and found that it was taking over his life. 'Some of the people there were what you'd expect - difficult, drunken, drugged. But others weren't. They were ordinary guys just like me, except they'd had a stroke of bad luck and couldn't cope." The New York Times 01/04/04

US Music Sales Hold Steady In 2003 Reversing a trend in recent years, sales of recorded music in the US held steady in 2003. "Figures released by Nielsen SoundScan show annual sales falling just 0.8 per cent from 2002, spurred in part by several hit albums that made their debut in the fourth quarter." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 01/03/04

Where Are The New Rock Critics? "When you think of the kind of writing there was in Rolling Stone 30 years ago and look at magazines now, it doesn't even need to be pointed out. Most writers are writing in the shadows of Bangs or writing bland stuff. No one's been able to get over that and create a post-new-journalism template." Boston Globe 01/01/04

The Download Scam As more and more consumers get used to the idea of paying for music online, a new array of download sites has popped up on the internet. But there's a problem - many of them do not own the music they're selling. Consumers pay the sites for downloading, then discover that the music they've "purchased" hasn't been licensed. The New York Times 12/31/03

May Auld Mismanagement Be Forgot... The San Antonio Symphony hasn't performed in eight months, and despite plans to regroup in fall 2004, some observers aren't sure that it will ever perform again. But if the SAS doesn't make it back from the brink, it clearly won't be for lack of effort: on New Year's Eve, the orchestra's musicians, music director, and audience reunited for a special benefit concert designed to provide some financial relief for the musicians, who won't be paid again until September. The concert was a success, but more than 20 SAS musicians have moved on to other cities and other jobs since the shutdown, which doesn't bode well for the future. San Antonio Express-News 01/02/04

Lebrecht: The Sky Is Falling, And I Mean It This Time Norman Lebrecht has been proclaiming the death of classical music recording for some time, and now, he is confidently predicting that 2004 will be the last year of the classical recording industry's existence as a distinctive branch of the music business. Classical records have become a niche market, says Lebrecht, and haven't even begun to utilize the new technologies available to them. Worse yet, the labels themselves have abandoned any effort to invest in new talent for more than a paltry few albums, thus making it impossible for emerging musicians to develop an international following. La Scena Musicale 12/31/03