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June 8,
2012  |
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Thought of
the Day |
There
is a woman at the begining of all great
things.
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Quote
of the Week |
A
man must make his opportunity, as oft as find
it.
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Graham
Vick's Godunov Strikes a
Nerve |
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 ST.
PETERSBURG -- British director Graham Vick's first
collaboration with the Mariinsky Theater, his 1991
staging of Prokofiev's War and Peace, premiered
exactly one month before the fall of the Soviet Union.
It's a bit early to make any such predictions about his
new Boris Godunov, which opened this year's Stars
of the White Nights festival, but after two performances
(the first on May 25 conducted by Valery Gergiev, the
second the next day conducted by Pavel Smelkov), this
new production has created quite a stir of its
own.
Until
now, no one directorial vision has ever been given much
room to tamper with the country's musical icon. What has
generated the most public comment so far is precisely
how much Vick's modern realization of a
16th-century tsar resembles the Russian
leadership today. A scene in which demonstrators
are held back by a line of riot police clearly evokes
recent protests over Vladimir Putin's administration. A
balding Boris makes his final case ostensibly to the
boyars (seated in a modern parliamentary chamber) but
really to the television cameras. Bright red graffiti on
the back wall, presumably written in blood, reads, "The
people demand change."
MA.com
subscribers read the full
story
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 Composer
and educator Bruce MacCombie died after a long illness
on May 2 at his home in Amherst, MA, according to his
publisher Schott Music. He was 69.
A
self-taught popular musician who started off as the
pianist in Taj Mahal's blues band, the Providence, RI,
native first studied composition with Philip Bezanson at
the University of Massachusetts, where he earned a
bachelor's degree in 1967 and a master's in music in
1968. He joined the Yale School of Music's composition
faculty in the mid- '70s and in 1979 was awarded one of
the first Goddard Lieberson Fellowships by the American
Academy of Arts and Letters. The citation read, "Mr.
MacCombie composes polished gems of musical
understatement."
As
an educator, his most recent position was professor of
music and associate dean of the College of Humanities
and Fine Arts at the University of Massachusetts,
Amherst. From 1992 to 2001 he was dean of the School of
the Arts at Boston University, and from 1986-1992 dean
of The Juilliard School. From 1980 to 1986 MacCombie was
director of publications for G. Schirmer and Associated
Music Publishers.
MA.com
subscribers read the full
story
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Van
Walsums Get Back in the
Business |
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 Joeske
and Rachel van Walsum, veterans of the business, have launched
a new music management firm/arts consultancy called "Maestro
Arts." Its primary focus will be guiding conductors'
careers, but it will also operate an artists' gallery of works
for sale out of its headquarters in the Riverside quarter of
London.
This
is by no means their first venture. Joeske, 63, founded his
eponymous artist management firm some 35 years ago and served
as its chairman until it was purchased by
Stephen Wright late in 2008. At the time, Rachel, 48
was serving as the firm's managing director. The original plan
was for the couple to stay on as artist managers, but in
December of 2009, they stepped
down saying they were going to "leave the agency
business altogether."
Apparently,
they just couldn't stay away.
MA.com
subscribers read the full
story |
Bloody
Despots, Then as Now |
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 LONDON
--"I'm still alive," shouts the evil emperor in the closing
pages of Detlev Glanert's Caligula, leaping to his feet
after being murdered by his people, a neat reminder that
bloody despots are as much a fact of 21st-century life as they
were in ancient times. The UK premiere of Glanert's work was
given by English National Opera at the London Coliseum on May
25.
The
theme is that power corrupts, absolute power corrupts
absolutely. At the opening the emperor is mad with
despair at the death of his sister and lover Drusilla. A man
who is banging his sister before the curtain rises is clearly
up to no good, and so it proves. Faced with a dodgy economy
(as if we needed more contemporary references), the evil one
comes up with a simple plan: the proceeds of all wills will be
donated to the state. So will savings. And just to speed the
process along, let's start killing the
citizens.
Detlev
Glanert's score for all this is lyrical, sparse and effective,
with particularly imaginative use of percussion. There is a
good "spot the composer" game to be had and Glanert struggles
to keep the momentum in the final act, but as a study of
dictatorship in action it is mostly taut and
gripping.
MA.com
subscribers read the full
story
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Detroit
Symphony "Resolves" Bank Loans |
 DETROIT --
The Detroit Symphony Orchestra announced Thursday that it has
resolved $54 million in loans owed to five banks on a real
estate deal for the Max M. Fisher Music Center, allowing the
125-year-old orchestra to more confidently move ahead in its
financial recovery.
The
settlement was announced Wednesday; details were not
disclosed.
"The
settlement had a very tight confidentiality agreement,"
orchestra executive vice president Paul Hogle told the
Associated Press Wednesday afternoon.
Resolving
the loans enables the orchestra to move forward with its
strategic recovery plan and follows several years of financial
troubles, including a contentious six-month strike by
musicians who in April 2011 agreed to major contract
concessions.
MA.com
subscribers read the full story
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Do
Competitions Need To Withhold Taxes On An Artist's Prize
Money? |
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To
submit a question to FTM Arts Law write to LawAndDisorder@MusicalAmerica.com
We
hold a piano competition where artists, some from abroad, pay
their own way to come here to compete. If they win any prize
money, do we need to withhold taxes?
For
artists who are nonresidents of the U.S., I'm afraid you are
required to withhold taxes! The general rule is that any
payment of "U.S. income" made to a nonresident of the U.S. is
subject to the 30% withholding requirement. In effect, 30% of
the gross income paid to the artist must be withheld by the
payer and deposited with the U.S. Treasury. This deposit will
be credited toward any taxes the artist may owe at the end of
the year.
Read the full
story |
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 Musical
America
is helping presenters keep up with its advertisers! Managers
whose rosters appear in the 2012 edition of the Musical America
Directory should write to listings@musicalamerica.com
with the names of artists and attractions that have been
either added or removed, and please be sure to indicate
"added" or "removed."
NEW
THIS WEEK
Baldini,
Christian,
conductor, added, Victoria Rowsell Artist Management
(worldwide)
Hilley,
Clay,
tenor, added, Alpha Artists
Management
Krasovec,
Kathryn,
mezzo-soprano, added, Alpha Artists
Management
Peter,
Mauro,
tenor, removed,
Artistainternational
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