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Choosing Your Opening Line

Thursday, April 19th, 2012

By: Edna Landau

To ask a question, please write Ask Edna.

I recently had the pleasure of leading a Professional Skills session at The Academy – a program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School and the Weill Music Institute, in partnership with the New York City Department of Education. The twenty Fellows currently participating in this excellent program represent some of today’s finest young professional musicians. In the question and answer section, violist Margaret Dyer asked: What is an attractive first sentence of a bio? Although I have written about this in an earlier column (Getting to Know You (writing a good bio),  June 2, 2011), I have chosen to address this question again, with a slightly different slant.

It is my belief that the first one or two sentences of a bio should relate information about the particular artist that is central to who they are and that is likely to make you want to continue reading. If there is merit to this statement, the following openings (taken from real artist bios but with names and instruments changed) would not qualify:

Pianist Aristo Allegro’s extensive performance schedule has taken him to the Mostly Mozart Festival, the Prague Spring Festival, the Aspen Music Festival, the Newport Music Festival, the Savannah Music Festival, the Settimane Musicale in Stresa, Italy, as well as appearances at the Ambassador in Pasadena, the Fiddle Fest, at Alice Tully Hall, the 92nd Street Y and Carnegie Hall.

In the space of a few short years, violinist Pavlina Presto has ensconced herself on the international stage, both as a recitalist, and as a guest soloist with many leading orchestras.

Sonja Sordino has established an international reputation for profound musicality and articulate virtuosity at the keyboard. In performances throughout Europe, the United States and Asia, she plays a broad repertoire in a powerful yet elegant style.

Some writers of bios like to begin chronologically. We learn when the artist was born or when they started to play their instrument. As a stand-alone piece of information, this is generally not all that interesting. If the writer of gifted 16-year-old pianist George Li’s bio had taken the chronological approach, he or she would have started out as follows: George Li gave his first public performance at Boston’s Steinway Hall at the age of ten. Instead, that information is relegated to the last paragraph and the bio begins: “Pianist George Li possesses brilliant virtuosity and interpretive depth far beyond his years. Rounding off last season playing for President Obama at a White House evening honoring Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, along with capturing a prestigious Gilmore Young Artist Award, George Li is well on the way to a flourishing career.” I like the fact that a news item is combined with mention of an accolade that has significant recognition and respect within the field, but I think that “last season” should be replaced with the actual year.

Although I don’t love quotes in bios, it is helpful in the case of young artists to be able to open their bios by referencing critical praise that endorses their special qualities, especially if they are not yet all that well known. Of course, the quote should come from a significant publication. Here is a good example: “Nineteen-year-old clarinetist Narek Arutyunian is a player who “reaches passionate depths with seemingly effortless technical prowess and beguiling sensitivity” (The Washington Post). It is even more effective if the quote is combined with another piece of information that helps to position the artist as someone on the rise. For example: “Elena Urioste, featured on the cover of Symphony magazine as an emerging artist to watch, has been hailed by critics and audiences alike for her lush tone, the nuanced lyricism of her playing, and her commanding stage presence. Elena’s debut performances with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 2010 were praised by three separate critics for their “hypnotic delicacy”, “expressive poise” and “lyrical sensitivity”. (Note that the introductory sentence sets up the little quotations nicely, and the second sentence informs the reader that she has already made a very important orchestral debut and had unanimous praise from three critics. How often does that happen?!)

Awards are also impressive credentials to include in the first sentence of a bio, provided that they are from recognized institutions and/or competitions. It is nice to find a way to frame the information in a way that reveals a quality of the performer, such as humility. The bio might start: Violinist Benjamin Beilman was deeply honored to win both the First Prize and Radio Canada’s People’s Choice Award in the 2010 Montreal International Musical Competition.

In my opinion, there is room for artists to take greater chances with the opening sentences of their bios and to entice us to get to know them. It is fine to say: Adele Andante spends many of her waking hours dedicated to the pursuit of her two passions in life: playing her cello and advocating for the preservation of our natural resources. Or: Dedicated to sharing his love of classical music with audience members who might otherwise not experience it, flutist Sean Scherzo has made the commitment to set aside one day a month each year in which he will offer free performances to schoolchildren as well as the elderly who cannot leave their senior residences. These opening sentences should certainly segue into more particular information about the artist that helps to establish their credentials and inform us of their artistic accomplishments but it is refreshing to be introduced to the person first. I would love to hear from our readers who may have encountered other opening lines of a refreshing nature.

To ask a question, please write Ask Edna.

© Edna Landau 2012

Posted in Ask Edna, Publicity and Promotion | Comments Closed

Do We Need ASCAP/BMI Licenses?

Wednesday, April 18th, 2012

By Brian Taylor Goldstein

Hello Law and Disorder,

We have met numerous times at conferences, (I love going to your sessions!) and you have been very helpful with questions about our presenting contracts. We also rent our facility and I now have a question about that side.  We recently received a letter from BMI stating that a few of our rental clients have not paid their licensing fees and that we are now responsible for the fees. Can they do that?  We have it stated in our rental contract that the user is responsible of ASCAP/BMI fees, is that enough to get us out of it? If BMI can hold us accountable for the artist fees how do we protect our self in the future? I appreciate your advice, thank you.

Thanks for coming to our sessions! As for your question: Yes, they can do that! As the owner/operator of a performance space/venue, it is your legal responsibility to ensure that necessary rights and authorizations have been obtained with respect to all copyrighted music which is publicly performed in your venue. (Actually, your legal responsibility is not limited to performance rights, but extends to dramatic rights as well as any other required rights and licenses which pertain to music, images, trademarks, recordings, images, or other protected rights or materials being used or performed in your space.) In other words, while there is certainly nothing wrong with requiring your “users” to be responsible for ASCAP/BMI fees, that will not relieve you from ultimate responsibility if they fail to do so. In fact, there is no contract, release, or any other document which will protect your venue from liability should one of your users fail to obtain the necessary authorization or licenses they need for their performance. However, there are several things you can do to better manage your liability and minimize your risk:

First, you’ll not only want to ensure that your contract states that the user is responsible for all licenses and authorizations, but you’ll also want your contract to state that the user will “hold harmless and indemnify” your venue if they fail to obtain the necessary licenses and authorizations. In essence, this means that the user will have to reimburse you for any costs and expenses you incur if you are required to pay for licenses, incur legal expenses, or suffer any other damages or losses because your users failed to obtain the rights and licenses they were supposed to. (They’d probably have to do that anyway, but an indemnification and hold harmless provisions makes that obligation explicit.)

Second, there are many venues which require users to produce “proof” that they have all of the required licenses prior to the first performance date as a condition of being allowed to use the space. This gives you a chance to assess whether or not the appropriate licenses have actually been obtained.

Third, you should obtain your obtain your own blanket licenses directly from ASCAP and BMI, as well as from SESAC. These three organizations issues blanket licenses directly to venues such as yours to ensure that any music from their catalogs is properly licensed for public performances. While this will require you to keep a running account of all music publicly performed at your venue as well as to incur the license costs yourself, you can pass the costs along to your users through your rental fees. Its also the best and only way to ensure that your legal responsibility as the owner/manager of the venue is being met, at least with regard to performances licenses. You’ll still need to make sure your users obtain the other right and licenses they may require for their performances.

Lastly, I would consult with other venues of similar size and nature to your own and see if they already have licensing policies and procedures that you might be able to adopt for your own use. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel where others have already rolled it up the hill—just beware of any venue that tells you either: “We just ignore all of that stuff and haven’t been caught yet!” or “Those rules don’t apply to non-profits.” Run away!

_____________________________________________________________

For additional information and resources on this and other legal and business issues for the performing arts, visit ftmartslaw-pc.com.

To ask your own question, write to lawanddisorder@musicalamerica.org.

All questions on any topic related to legal and business issues will be welcome. However, please post only general questions or hypotheticals. FTM Arts Law reserves the right to alter, edit or, amend questions to focus on specific issues or to avoid names, circumstances, or any information that could be used to identify or embarrass a specific individual or organization. All questions will be posted anonymously.

__________________________________________________________________

THE OFFICIAL DISCLAIMER:

THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE!

The purpose of this blog is to provide general advice and guidance, not legal advice. Please consult with an attorney familiar with your specific circumstances, facts, challenges, medications, psychiatric disorders, past-lives, karmic debt, and anything else that may impact your situation before drawing any conclusions, deciding upon a course of action, sending a nasty email, filing a lawsuit, or doing anything rash!

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Posted in Arts Management, Contracts, Copyrights, Law and Disorder: Performing Arts Division, Licensing, Music Rights, Non-Profits, Presenters, Venues | Comments Closed

Festtage 2012 as Barenboim Fiesta

Friday, April 13th, 2012

By Rebecca Schmid

The Staatsoper’s annual spring Festtage has become an even more distinguished event now that Daniel Barenboim serves as music director to La Scala in addition to his Berlin opera house. The festival, originally launched by the maestro in 1996 with Harry Kupfer’s Ring, features coveted soloists and premiere productions, as well as correspondingly pricey tickets. The past two seasons have revolved around the first two installments of Guy Cassiers’ new staging of Wagner’s epic cycle (a co-production with La Scala).

The festival has also briefly switched its focus to Berg, with new productions of Lulu this year and a Wozzeck last season as staged by Andrea Breth. The stage director’s cuts to Lulu compelled Barenboim, conducting the opera for the first time, to commission a new third act (more here). He admitted in a press conference that if he were a few years younger he might do the whole thing again with the Paris scene which Breth decided to scratch.

This year’s iteration, which took place from March 30-April 8, also featured the Filarmonica della Scala in concert. The maestro appeared on the podium or at the piano during every evening of the festival’s nine-day run after stepping for an ailing Maurizio Pollini to accompany René Pape in recital (medical testing has since revealed that there is no cause for alarm, and the pianist is scheduled to perform his Perspectives Pollini next season).

Barenboim revisited historically significant territory by conducting Alisa Weilerstein in Elgar’s Cello Concerto with the Staatskapelle at the Philharmonie, one of few times he has performed the work since the passing of his late ex-wife, Jacqueline Du Pré. Weilerstein made her debut under Barenboim in the concerto with the Berlin Philharmonic two seasons ago after only six months’ notice, subsequently traveling with the orchestra to Oxford for a performance that was broadcast live. The visceral intuition which the 30-year-old brings to this work made itself clear as she dug into Elgar’s opening chords, later producing pianissimi that floated like mist.

The Elgar was paired with Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony, an emotionally apt choice. While Elgar was lamenting the necessity of the First World War in his last completed large-scale work, Bruckner added direct references to Wagner in his grief over the composer’s death, “to commemorate my unattainable ideal in such a bitter time of mourning,” as he wrote. Yet Barenboim did not emphasize the heavy, Wagnerian qualities of the symphony, instead allowing its endless melodies to flow in elegiac rivulets.

Barenboim returned to the Philharmonie the following evening in an all-Spanish, or Spanish-inspired, program with the Filarmonica della Scala. He opened the program performing and conducting De Falla’s dusky Noches en los jardines España from the bench. The rapid, cascading arpeggios of the opening En el Generalife testified to an unblemished virtuosity, and he could have hardly found a better match than with the woodwinds of this orchestra—the warmest, most caressing section of its kind that I have ever heard in the Philharmonie. The strings also have a gleaming tone that vividly served De Falla’s tremoli, yet the mood could have loosened in intensity and become dreamier.

Ravel’s brief but richly orchestrated Rapsodie Espagnole, which inspired De Falla’s idealized portraits of his native Spain, followed as a mirage-like vision through the flamenco rhythms of the castanets, celeste, harp, and the clean brass section of the Filarmonica. The program continued with orchestral versions of pieces from Ravel’s cycle Mirroirs. Barenboim struck an ideal balance between the majestic and the ephemeral in Pavane pour une infante défunte, its wistful melodies once again emphasizing the elegance of the orchestra’s woodwinds. A spirited Alborado del gracioso yielded to a leisurely reading of Ravel’s Boléro, in which Barenboim intermittently leaned against the podium and simply nodded his head in rhythm, but the fiesta did not end there.

As an encore, he led the orchestra through excerpts from Bizet’s Carmen Suite and, upon receiving a standing ovation (a rare event in Berlin), the opera’s overture. At this point, the maestro walked serenely offstage while the audience clapped in rhythm, only to emerge gesturing toward the upper aisles behind a double-bassist. The Filarmonica captured every nuance of Bizet’s score with infectious energy. This was also a more lively crowd than the typical Berlin gathering. The Staatsoper has estimated that one-third of the Festtage audience comes from outside Germany, and there was a conspicuous representation of well-heeled Milanese. Sitting to my left was an Israeli couple on vacation in the German capital.

Next year will be even more momentous with the bicentenaries of Wagner and Verdi in the pipeline. The Festtage 2013 includes the first full performance of Cassiers’ Ring as well as Verdi’s Requiem with the orchestra and chorus of La Scala and soloists including the celebrated Italian mezzo Daniela Barcellona, Anja Harteros, René Pape, and Fabio Sartori.

Stay tuned for a review of the Berlin Philharmonic’s new DVD of Bach’s Matthäus-Passion in a semi-staging by Peter Sellars

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Posted in Berlin Times | Comments Closed

Cavalleria Rusticana: Easter in Rome

Wednesday, April 11th, 2012

“There is no disputing taste,” “fashions change,” “to each his own,” and “vive la difference.” Certain pieces come in and out of the classical music repertory, while others never get a foothold; still others seem omnipresent. Classical music institutions today have to grapple with balancing repertory over the course of years, to make sure everything that must be played is played; new music that stimulates the muse of our most creative composers is given a hearing; that neglected or unknown works from the past are heard.

I have spent the last ten days in one of the cities I love the most: Rome. I have been rehearsing and conducting the Orchestra and Chorus of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, one of Italy’s leading cultural institutions since its inception in 1908. I conducted three concert performances of Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana (“Rustic Chivalry” is the literal translation of its ironic title), an opera that has enjoyed international success since its premiere, in Rome, in 1890. One of the world’s most popular operas (it ranks as the tenth most-performed work at the Metropolitan Opera), it is loved or scorned by musicians and music lovers; on both sides, many are vocal, few are neutral. It is performed so often that its image, as opposed to its substance, has degenerated in the eyes of many. It is a work that suffers from overexposure, under-rehearsal and performances of dubious taste. It has mostly been offered as the first half of “Cav and Pag,” a marriage that has endured, for better and for worse, since the first decade of the bride’s and groom’s appearances. Though a highly theatrical work, the music of Cavalleria stands firmly by itself, as I think was demonstrated this past week. 

One might ask why someone would want to perform this supposedly hackneyed opera for an audience that knows it so well and probably has heard it dozens of times? I have avoided conducting it for exactly thirty years (since leading a series of performances at Covent Garden) because I was not able to pull together all the elements—cast, orchestra, chorus and sufficient rehearsal time. The added prospect of collaborating with such an outstanding chorus and symphony orchestra also appealed to me. 

It turned out to be sort of a premiere. This great Italian orchestra had never played Cavalleria in public. Its last, and only, contact with the work was more than half a century ago, in 1960! That recording, conducted by Tullio Serafin, and featuring Giulietta Simionato, Mario de Monaco, and Cornell MacNeil, is now historic. But the link with the composer and the city was evident last week. Some nine thousand Romans came to hear the performances, among them Pietro Mascagni (a great-great-grandson) and Domenico Mascagni (a great-grandson of the composer). Seeing them, the distinction between past and present seemed to dissolve for a moment. 

The performances were extremely gratifying. Almost no one in the orchestra had ever played Cavalleria, but it seems to be in each musician’s DNA. That paradox produced extraordinary results. In an age of “international orchestral standards” there is still—thank goodness—a unique affinity that orchestras and choruses bring to performing music of their own cultures and in their own languages. What impressed me along with the sensitivity and depth of the playing was the power of osmosis. Given the surprising absence of performances of this work in the city of its birth, it is clear that these musicians had absorbed this work by other means from the culture into which they, and it, were born. Playing it for the first time, it sounded as if they had been doing so for decades. Conservatory education and professional experience, as essential as they are, do not tell the whole story of the formation of musical artists.

Food for thought: Two things strike me. First, on the assumption that some pieces are overplayed, they actually get ignored. I wonder, in the U.S., how much of our own music we similarly overlook. Do we need reminding that the body of classical music that is North American needs to be performed by those for whom it is an inherited style? Classical music in America is an imported art form. As we continue to develop young musicians on an ever higher technical level, it is important to recognize that, without a parallel commitment to absorbing the cultures from which the repertoire came, we will inevitably drift farther from their essences.

Second, I think it was Miles Davis who said, “It’s not the notes you play, it’s the notes you don’t play.” The resonance of the “unplayed notes” of this supposedly hackneyed opera were deeply evident in Rome last week. Mascagni’s first opera, written at the age of 24, created what was to become a new musical language, while depicting to perfection a specifically Sicilian drama. As Bizet, who had never seen Spain, intuited its essence and expressed it in Carmen, so Mascagni, who never travelled to Sicily, captured a part of its soul, and the late nineteenth century’s consciousness, in this sordid drama. The beauty and pwer of this music is still alive and well in Rome today.

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Posted in A Rich Possession | Comments Closed

American Mavericks, Part 2 (the Tax Man Cometh)

Wednesday, April 11th, 2012

by Sedgwick Clark

I really should be working on my taxes . . . .

Cage, Cowell, Adams, Varèse

The first concert to involve San Francisco musicians in the series, on Tuesday in Carnegie Hall, began with the most anticipated event of the series: Cage’s whimsical 1970 Song Books, with Jessye Norman, Meredith Monk, and Joan La Barbara the unlikely trio of vocalists, and Tilson Thomas miming various actions. Cage provides nearly a hundred numbers to be executed, organized by the performers. MTT chose a half-hour selection for this occasion. Frankly, the So Percussion concert LINK the previous evening provided far more fun in Dan Deacon’s less pretentious Cage knockoff, Take a Deep Breath.

Cage said that Henry Cowell, whose Synchrony (1930) followed, was “the open sesame of new music in America.” Maybe. But except for an all-Cowell concert LINK by the American Symphony under Leon Botstein at Lincoln Center two years ago, performances of his some 1,000 pieces have been few and far between since his death. For all his purported innovations–the most influential being “tone clusters,” in which the piano keys are struck with the fist or forearm–all the works I’ve heard seem to exist more as showcases for inventiveness than cogently structured music. Still, the nearly 14-minute Synchrony begins with a gorgeous three-minute trumpet solo (beautifully played by SF’s Mark Inouye) and contains lovely moments until its abrupt ending.

A lot of people I respect venerate John Adams’s music. His Absolute Jest was composed for this Mavericks tour. It’s a sweet, inoffensive piece inspired by (in the composer’s words) “the ecstatic energy of Beethoven, who was the master of taking the minimal amount of information and turning it into fantastic, expressive, and energized structures.” The problem with such an homage is, once Absolute Jest ended, all I could remember was Ludwig van’s Ninth Symphony scherzo and the opening movement of the Op. 131 string quartet. When a Stravinsky—whom Adams often evokes rhythmically—throws in a skittish reference to Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia in Jeu de cartes or an elephantine rendition of Schubert’s Marche Militaire in Circus Polka, it couldn’t be anyone but Stravinsky. The well-received performance was undoubtedly a composer’s dream.

When influences from Stravinsky’s early ballets seep into Edgard Varèse’s Amériques (ca. 1918-21; rev. 1927), one smiles knowingly but can’t possibly escape the gruff French-American composer’s path-breakingly percussive voice. Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic performed Varèse’s complete works LINK on two roof-raising Lincoln Center Festival concerts two summers ago. Gilbert’s Philharmonic predecessors Pierre Boulez, Zubin Mehta, and Lorin Maazel also played Varèse’s music—Boulez most distinguished of all—but I don’t recall any Varèse at Carnegie since the stupendous Philly/Muti Arcana in 1985 and Cleveland/Dohnányi Amériques in 1989. Enter Michael Tilson Thomas and his virtuoso San Franciscans, who shook the rafters with a smashing, superbly played Amériques. Now Arcana, please?

Ruggles, Feldman, Ives Orchestrated

Tilson Thomas has been the master interpreter of Carl Ruggles’s Sun-Treader (1926-31) since performing and recording it in 1970 with the Boston Symphony. His Carnegie Hall performance at that time was the New York premiere. His complete recording of Ruggles’s music later that decade for CBS with the Buffalo Philharmonic and various soloists was recently released on CD for the first time on the Other Minds label. It only amounts to 80 minutes of music, of which the ca. 16-minute Sun-Treader is best known. At the Wednesday concert, the San Franciscans seemed a bit more refined than either of the recordings but without ever compromising this granite-hewn score. More Ruggles, Michael?

I know I should “get” Morton Feldman’s whisper-quiet notes and silences in Piano and Orchestra (1975). I read in James M. Keller’s astute notes of Feldman’s aesthetic alignment to the painters of the New York School. A friend explains how carefully the harmonics and pauses are composed, but I’m still left as cold as a white Rothko canvas. I’ll keep trying, but Feldman performances don’t come around often. There is no doubt, however, of the commitment and artistry of pianist Emanuel Ax, whose forays into 20th-century and contemporary music are admirable, the conductor, and the San Francisco musicians.

Charles Ives composed his “Concord” Sonata between 1916 and 1919; then he obsessively revised it until 1947. That’s 31 years. The even more obsessive American maverick, Henry Brant, took five years longer to orchestrate it (1958-1994), calling it A Concord Symphony. From the very opening the orchestral garb bears a strong resemblance to Sun-Treader’s dissonant palette, which makes sense because Ives and Ruggles were friends and knew each other’s music well. The San Francisco team’s recording of the Brant orchestration was released earlier in the year on the orchestra’s own (and very successful) label. Needless to say, it’s a “must” for all Ives fans—what the record companies used to call “a sonic spectacular.” But the live experience struck me as even more stunning, revealing overtones in the woodwinds, brass, percussion, and strings that perhaps only Carnegie’s fabled acoustic can offer. Ives and Ives/Brant provide a fascinating comparison, and I strongly recommend listening to the “Concord” Sonata recordings by Pierre-Laurent Aimard (Teldec) and Jeremy Denk (Think Denk Media).

Tax Deadlines Wait for No Munsonian  

Tune in next week for my pithy words on the last two Mavericks concerts.

Looking Forward

My week’s scheduled concerts:

4/12 Avery Fisher Hall. New York Philharmonic/Jaap van Zweden; Yuja Wang, piano. Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 3. Mahler: Symphony No. 1.

Posted in Why I Left Muncie | Comments Closed

Can I Fire My Board Members?

Wednesday, April 11th, 2012

By Brian Taylor Goldstein

Dear Law and Disorder:

Many years ago I founded a successful non-profit dance company. Over the years, we have continued to grow by adding board members, increasing donations, and critically acclaimed performances. However, my current board has become too invasive. In the past, I have always given them reports about the upcoming season, plans, new artists, etc, and they have focused on fundraising. As the founder and artistic director, it has always been clear that I was always in charge. Now, some of the newer board members are starting to demand financial reports and budgetary control. The new board chair recently wanted to be involved in interviewing a new development director I wanted to hire! My understanding has always been that the legal role of the board was only to raise money. How do I stop this situation before it gets worse? Is this something I can address in the by-laws? Can I fire the board members? What are my legal options?

 

First, and foremost, congratulations! Clearly, under your leadership, you have created a viable and sustainable organization for which you deserve an extraordinary amount of credit. For the purposes of your question, I am going to presume your non-profit has also been approved for 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status by the IRS. This is important because not all non-profit organizations are also tax exempt. A non-profit organization, like its for-profit cousin, can organize and operate in whatever manner its founder or owners decide—subject only to whatever restrictions may be imposed by the law of the state in which it is formed. However, a non-profit which has also applied and been granted tax-exempt status under 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code must operate under very specific guidelines in order to maintain its tax-exempt status.

In applying for and receiving 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status, the founders of the non-profit are striking a grand bargain with the IRS pursuant to which, in exchange for permitting donations to the organization to be deductible and exempting the organization from having to pay taxes on its income, the founder must forfeit sole control and ownership. Like a scene from a Dickensian novel, once a non-profit organization applies for and receives 501(c)(3) status, its founder abandons the organization on the steps of society. It becomes an “orphan” whose care and welfare is left to the community. The community is represented by the board of directors, which is then charged with overseeing the management and operations of the tax-exempt non-profit to ensure that it continues to serve its mission and tax-exempt purposes. The artistic director and founder can—and, in my opinion, should—serve on the board of directors, but the organization is no longer owned by anyone. In short, it is not “your” organization. It is not anyone’s organization. It belongs to the community and, as such, the authority and control of the organization rests solely in the board of directors.

In your situation, it sounds as if your board is transitioning from a culture where you have understandably been given much deference to one where the board wants to assert more control and oversight. While I understand that this can be frustrating in many respects, it can also offer many positive opportunities for growth and sustainability. A healthy tax-exempt organization requires a constant exchange of expertise and experience between the board members, administration, and artistic leaders who must in turn balance many competing considerations in carrying out the organization’s mission: art and business; emotion and practicality; innovation and tradition. Even in a situation where an organization’s founder might be perceived as the best person to arbitrate such things, the organization’s by-laws cannot legally bestow upon any one individual—the founder, the board chairman, the artistic director—sole control and authority. Unless the board has some degree of meaningful control and oversight authority, not only does the organization risk losing its 501(c)(3) status, but also jeopardizes its relevancy and viability as a community institution. On the other hand, while the board needs to have control over major decisions—such as the hiring and firing of the artistic director or whether or not to raise funds for a new production—if the board asserts too much control, it risks losing its artistic legitimacy. The surest path to artistic disaster is to allow a board of well-meaning attorneys, business leaders, and wealthy patrons to dictate casting, programming, or other similar artistic decisions. These are extraordinarily difficult and perilous paths to navigate, to be sure, and are littered with organizations who, in either failing to address these issues correctly or ignoring them completely, have fallen into the abyss of bitter feelings, splintered boards, burned out staff, depleted endowments, and even bankruptcy.

Rather than looking for a means to assert—or maintain—absolute control, it sounds as if the time has come for you and your board to evaluate the organization’s operations and structure. Among other things, does your organization have the right balance of wealth and wisdom, both financial and artistic, on its board? Is there a plan should you, as artistic director, want to retire or take a less active role? What if an overly-aggressive board chair presents itself? How are decisions made? Now is the time to reflect not just upon your by-laws, but the policies, strategies, and procedures necessary to ensure a healthy balance that can sustain the future of the organization you have nurtured this far.

__________________________________________________________________

For additional information and resources on this and other legal and business issues for the performing arts, visit ftmartslaw-pc.com.

To ask your own question, write to lawanddisorder@musicalamerica.org.

All questions on any topic related to legal and business issues will be welcome. However, please post only general questions or hypotheticals. FTM Arts Law reserves the right to alter, edit or, amend questions to focus on specific issues or to avoid names, circumstances, or any information that could be used to identify or embarrass a specific individual or organization. All questions will be posted anonymously.

__________________________________________________________________

THE OFFICIAL DISCLAIMER:

THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE!

The purpose of this blog is to provide general advice and guidance, not legal advice. Please consult with an attorney familiar with your specific circumstances, facts, challenges, medications, psychiatric disorders, past-lives, karmic debt, and anything else that may impact your situation before drawing any conclusions, deciding upon a course of action, sending a nasty email, filing a lawsuit, or doing anything rash!

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Posted in Arts Management, For Profits, Law and Disorder: Performing Arts Division, Non-Profits, Presenters | Comments Closed

Water works

Friday, April 6th, 2012

By James Jorden

Most arts-related technology is at least slightly Jekyll-and-Hyde in its implementation, no matter how optimistic the intentions of its creator. For an example of the phenomenon, you need look no farther thafn Robert Lepage‘s Ring, clanking its way back to the stage of the Met this week. Amazing tech, that: all those motion-controlled computer animations and theoretically an almost infinite variety of stage configurations. Of course, the down side is, it often doesn’t work, and it’s not exactly singer-friendly. (more…)

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Posted in Rough and Regie | Comments Closed

Opening words…

Thursday, April 5th, 2012

By Rebecca Schmid

The author Karl Scheffler famously described Berlin as condemned to forever becoming but never being. When I arrived here nearly two years ago as a DAAD grantee in journalism, the city sprawled out like an unfinished collage. The Philharmonie on the gleaming, rebuilt Potsdamer Platz where I heard Daniel Barenboim perform and conduct Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto seemed a world away from the gritty Kreuzberg district across town, where musical experimentalism thrived as an end in itself: Baroque + Yoga??

The opera houses also eluded me. After sitting through a production of Offenbach’s “La Périchole” at the Komische Oper—in German and otherwise heavily edited by the director—and  a “Don Giovanni” at the Deutsche Oper that had me fuming days later, I wondered how fate had ordained me to end up in a city that considered half-naked cabaret appropriate for Mozart (I experienced my first operas in the relatively ‘conservative’ cities of New York, Zürich and Paris).

With time, the city has gained coherence, and other aspects of musical life here—the generous programming of contemporary repertoire across institutions both mainstream and alternative, the seamless integration of classical music into the urban fabric, the sheer variety of events —have proved redeeming. By force of nature I’ve also developed a better appreciation for the risk-taking in matters of Musiktheater (and seen some Wagner productions that could beat New York or Paris any day).

Berlin is, as it apparently always has been, in search of identity. It is a very exciting time to be here as the city reclaims its roots as a bastion of multi-culturalism and all things avant-garde. My blog will cover live performance; new recordings and books; as well as classical music industry news in Germany and beyond. With institutions in flux across the globe, one wonders if Scheffler’s reflection extends well beyond Berlin—we are all eager to understand what classical music is becoming. Hopefully, my posts from the German capital will serve as a useful part of that dialogue.

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Building an Ensemble Step by Step

Thursday, April 5th, 2012

By: Jessica Meyer

Note from Edna: At a recent conference for career development officers (NETMCDO), I met a dynamic young woman who was invited to participate on a panel of “guest musician entrepreneurs”. Her approach to career building and  her intriguing website “Chops Beyond the Practice Room” inspired me to invite her for coffee. I discovered that violist, teaching artist, ensemble coach and workshop leader, Jessica Meyer, was a veritable superwoman and the quintessential networker. Not long after we met, I read a glowing review of her composer/performer collective, counter)induction, now in its 13th year and excited to be releasing its first cd, “Group Theory”,  on April 29. I thought that Jessica’s general career insights and specific experience in building an ensemble would be of value to our readers. It is my pleasure to welcome her as my first guest blogger.

I am very grateful to Edna for giving me the opportunity to tell the story of counter)induction and how it has attracted a growing audience and critical acclaim for its new music concerts since its inception in 1999. The successful evolution of the ensemble has depended in equal measure on hard work, persistence during difficult times, a clear sense of identity and artistic focus, tireless networking efforts, and of course, a dash of serendipity. Let’s go back to the beginning and explore the seemingly random ways in which some of our five performers and three composers came together.

I got to know composer Douglas Boyce during the few summers I spent in Aspen in the 90’s. During our last year at Juilliard, clarinetist Benjamin Fingland (now my husband) and I took day trips to Philadelphia to perform Doug’s pieces at the University of Pennsylvania. We subsequently booked a few concerts in Philadelphia, including the Fringe Festival, and additional concerts at the University where we first worked with c)i composer-member Kyle Bartlett. Also while at Juilliard, Ben and I were invited to perform undergraduate compositions at Columbia University. It was then that we met Deborah Bradley, who was interested in building up the music department as part of her new job. I contacted her several times without much luck but when she took the time to look at our website and explore what we were doing, it resulted in our first residency.

One of our first concerts in New York came about after I met composer Rika Iino at a random event. She was looking to present a multi-media opera that involved a string quartet and we signed on to the project. At that time, we were very intent on performing at Miller Theatre in New York, and inadvertently, getting to know her was a step towards making that happen. She introduced us to Bill Rhodes who was Director of Promotion at Carl Fischer publishing at the time. They were the publisher of composer Lee Hyla and Bill got us hooked on his music. Bill made the introduction to the theatre, and we wrote a proposal for their Composer Portrait series that revolved around Lee’s music. They wanted a more varied program that included some of his chamber orchestra pieces, so we took the responsibility of putting that together, even though we had to raise a fair amount of the money for the concert ourselves. This fundraising experience led us to the conclusion that we needed to get 501(c)(3) status if we were going to continue to fund and present our own concerts.

A chance cancellation at Merkin Concert Hall presented another New York concert opportunity and marked the start of a long series of (thankfully) favorable reviews from the New York Times. Our group continued to grow when our cellist, Sumire Kudo, happened to meet composer Ryan Streber at a recording session. She asked him to write a piece for her upcoming recital and later proposed that he write for counter)induction. After Douglas met composer Erich Stem of New Dynamic Records in an online social network for composers, we finally decided the time was right to apply for a Copland Recording Grant to fund our upcoming first release.

I know that reading this saga can be a bit overwhelming, but it is important to realize that significant things can happen in unpredictable ways and each can impact the other. There have certainly been some bumps along our winding road. A major funder backed out weeks before our big Miller concert, sending us into a fundraising frenzy. Major cutbacks in grant funding due to the 2008 financial meltdown kept some seasons pretty lean for a few years. Some concerts should have had bigger audiences. There were many times when we looked at each other and said, “What now? How can we get to the next level?”

Fortunately, our clear vision kept us focused. We wanted to always perform new music at the highest level and consistently create thought-provoking programs. We wanted to celebrate composers who were already in the public eye and also shed light on those who were emerging from the shadows of their early careers. We never presented concerts we couldn’t financially support and we worked hard to build our relationships with funders. We relied on each other to get the work done and to connect to like-minded colleagues and presenters to collaborate with along the way.

My advice to those who are starting out, or who are entering the next phase of their career, is to consider the following: What musically inspires you? Who shares the same passions as you do and might inspire you to play (and write) your best? Each time you meet someone new, what steps can you take to build that relationship in a meaningful way? And as you seek to expand the number of performances for your ensemble, what steps can you take to connect audiences to the music you so deeply care about?

 All of this takes a huge amount of patience, more than anything else, but it will be a great day for counter)induction when we finally tear through the shrink-wrap of our first CD, knowing that we have reached an important new milestone as a result of our collective efforts.

Note from Edna: After a week of holiday, I look forward to resuming the “Ask Edna” column on Thursday, April 19. However, please continue to send in your questions during this time!

To ask a question, please write Ask Edna.

Posted in Ask Edna, For Chamber Music Ensembles | Comments Closed

American Mavericks, Part 1

Wednesday, April 4th, 2012

by Sedgwick Clark

The American composer has no greater champion than Michael Tilson Thomas. For his first season as music director of the San Francisco Symphony, 1995-96, virtually every subscription program contained an American work. Heralding the 21st century, the orchestra’s 1999-2000 season concluded with a three-week American Mavericks festival. This year, to celebrate the orchestra’s centennial, Tilson Thomas revived the Mavericks concept and took it on tour, culminating in a week at Carnegie Hall. Darned if these concerts weren’t the hottest tickets in town, with hardly an empty seat in either house.

Los Angeles Times critic Mark Swed called Tilson Thomas “a fearless musical explorer” when Musical America named him Conductor of the Year in 1995. Perhaps the most notorious of his explorations remains a performance of Steve Reich’s Four Organs at a Boston Symphony concert at Carnegie Hall on January 19, 1973. This rather severe example of minimalism–in which four organs “deconstruct” a dominant eleventh chord for 20 minutes to the rhythmic underpinning of a monotonous maraca beat (Steve’s Bolero?)–provoked a mass walkout, with audience members shouting at each other and at the performers.

Tilson Thomas recalled that “One woman walked down the aisle and repeatedly banged her head on the front of the stage, wailing ‘Stop, stop, I confess.’ ” Another quote had her banging a shoe. I wonder how he could have heard her: I was sitting about a third of the way back from the stage in the left parquet section with Joan La Barbara, who performed in two of these current Maverick concerts, and can attest that after 10 minutes it was impossible to hear the music over the uproar.

But I digress. As noted in this space a couple of weeks ago, I had looked forward to these concerts ever since their announcement, and overall there were few disappointments. The four San Francisco concerts were preceded by a week of city-wide concert, dance, film, and visual arts events, performed by violinist Jennifer Koh and pianist Reiko Uchida, Alarm Will Sound/Alan Pierson, and JACK Quartet, among others.

A hugely entertaining John Cage Centennial Celebration by So Percussion and friends performing on assorted electronics at Zankel Hall (3/26) led off the first night of American Mavericks. The group writes in the program book about their concert: “John Cage believed that duration—as the only musical parameter that sound and silence have in common—was the best way to frame musical structure. It becomes like a box, or a series of compartments, into which all kinds of noisy, unusual, and beautiful things can be thrown. In this spirit, our show will be exactly 91 minutes long (4’33” multiplied by 20), a Cage-ian work unto itself.”

Seven Cage pieces (four performed simultaneously) were thus woven in with five new works by other composers to create a continuous tapestry.  The digital countdown was projected onto the stage wall so that all of the pieces and actions could be “choreographed” with precision. Isolated events dotted Zankel’s crowded stage: One man performed pushups; another who had been growing a long, black beard for over a year in anticipation of this concert cut it off. A member of So Percussion ripped through Cage’s 45’ for a Speaker (“I have nothing to say, and I am saying it”), astonishingly pronouncing the final word as the countdown reached 00:00.

Audience participation was delightfully provided by Dan Deacon in his Take a Deep Breath, which consisted of 14 instructions timed to the countdown and performed by everyone in the hall “to the utmost extreme” and “with sincerity.” Among them, hold one’s breath as long as possible and release it with “AHH” or “OHH” sounds; make non-singing, vocal, or speech sounds with your mouth, including “tongue slaps, lip smacks, pops, teeth chatter, clicks, sucking sounds, sound with the spit in your mouth, whistles, fart sounds, throat sounds, etc.”; make a series of snaps, claps, stomps, whistles, or hoots in accelerating-decelerating, crescendo-decrescendo shape; sing something to the person on your left for a minute; play any song on your cell phone at maximum volume; switch seats).

As my favorite concert companion had been scared away by my description of the evening’s projected delights, I found myself unable to respond fully to the composer’s urging, “Don’t be shy!” At some point in the work I realized that the best “performers” would be couples in love. 

NOTE: Tune in next Wednesday for Part 2, which covers the San Francisco Symphony portion of the American Mavericks festival.

Posted in Why I Left Muncie | Comments Closed

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