Uncategorized: Page 46

I know we don’t have much in the way of government subsidies for the arts in this country, but this is ridiculous: Officials with art and cultural groups in Philadelphia say they are angered by the state’s decision to expand state sales taxes to their businesses. Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance director Peggy Amsterdam said Pennsylvania […]

It appears that nonprofits have been emulating for-profit enterprises in some of the wrong ways: Far from being conservative stewards of their assets, many nonprofits engaged in what some experts call risky financial behavior. “They did auction-rate securities, interest-rate arbitrage, complex swaps — which backfired on them the same way it would backfire on any […]

Buried in a long piece in the New York Times on the “new Met” were the following tidbits: Since Mr. Gelb took over, the Met budget has increased by about $60 million. The box office is up, but meanwhile personal and corporate donations, which the Met depends on to balance its budget, are down, thanks […]

In ICSOM/AFM/Local 802 circles, the New York Philharmonic, Met Opera orchestra, NYC Opera orchestra, and NYC Ballet orchestra are known collectively as the “Lincoln Center orchestras” for obvious reasons. It appears that they’re about to have some company: Call it Cleveland on the Hudson: The Cleveland Orchestra is setting up a multiyear residency at the […]

A recent recent blog post by Philadelphia Inquirer critic Peter Dobrin contains the kind of analysis I wouldn’t want to read about any orchestra, much less one of our flagship bands: It’s a year today since Philadelphia Orchestra president James Undercofler announced his decision to not seek the renewal of his contract, and it’s been […]

I have a Google search for orchestra news that occasionally comes back with some… interesting results.

A Grand Unified Theory of Arts Funding may be unveiled sometime in the medium future in Columbus: A long-awaited and often-promised blueprint for the arts in central Ohio could finally be in the offing. Arts, business and political leaders say an overall cultural plan for the community — outlining new strategies for funding sources, entrepreneurship […]

Dos Equis, the Mexican beer company, recently ran an ad campaign around a character they dubbed “The Most Interesting Man In The World” (my favorite ad was this one). It was, among other things, a take-off on how the press love to anoint individuals, or institutions, as the “best” or “worst” or “sexiest” or pretty […]

My brother-in-bratsche-blogging Charles Noble writes on his Daily Observations blog about an audition that happened in Portland, where he is assistant principal violist of the Oregon Symphony. He’s not happy about what happened to some of his freelance colleagues: There was an orchestral audition that took place this weekend at the local opera company. It […]

Evidently the answer is to build it in a major German city: Into a skyline dominated by the cranes loading and unloading the thousands of tons of goods that pass through its port each day, Hamburg is erecting an ambitious concert complex topped by an undulating clear glass roof.