The Festival Radio France de Montpellier has good numbers.
70,000 spectators, 700 artists, 50 venues, 109 musical events, 3.5 million radio listeners: these are the key figures for the Festival Radio France de Montpellier. The French festival recorded a 25% increase in attendance over the previous edition.
It is always a pleasure to attend this summer event. Its breath and excellence put it among the top festivals of France.
Audience Up in Montpellier
July 29th, 2024• A National Ban on Performance Exclusivity Clauses • Posting Recordings on Websites • Artist Visa News, Nausea & Updates • Your Contract Playlist
June 24th, 2024LAW & DISORDER
Performing Arts Division
June 25, 2024
INSIDE THIS ISSUE:
• A National Ban on Performance Exclusivity Clauses
• Posting Recordings on Websites
• Artist Visa News, Nausea & Updates
• Your Contract Playlist
Legal Issue of the Month:
Will a New National Ban on Non-Compete Agreements Also Apply to Performance Exclusivity Clauses?
You may recall (or not, that’s ok, too) that in our last newsletter we discussed that on April 23, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a nation-wide ruling banning non-compete clauses in all employment contracts, regardless whether an individual is hired as an actual “employee” or as an independent contractor, paid or unpaid, an intern, or a sub-contractor hired to provide service to another party’s client or customer. You can read the announcement HERE.
Further review and analysis have shown that this new ruling, should it go into effect, will also prohibit venues and presenters from including any language in their engagement agreements restricting or prohibiting where an artist can perform before or after an artist’s performance. In other words, should the Grunion Run Performing Arts Center engage the Willy Tugger Jazz Band, they could not prohibit the band from performing two days later at the Annual Grunion Run Mayonnaise Festival where admission is free. Of course, regardless of the future contractual enforceability of a performance exclusivity clause, any artist who actually did this would be hammering a nail deep into the coffin of their touring career.
Whilst the official effective date has yet to be announced, unless the new regulation is pre-empted by a lawsuit or other judicial action, then the ruling will likely go into effect sometime in Fall 2024.
Dear Law and Disorder:
Actual questions we get asked and the answers people actually don’t want
“With thanks, your friendly, neighbourhood car thief”
Dear Law & Disorder:
I want to post a video on my website that I found on the internet that would be perfect for my new project. I will give full credit to the musician, including the musician’s original link, would this be legal? And can you please specify on what full credit means.
A “copyright” is literally the right to make copies. A copyright “infringement” is when you make a copy of something without the owner’s permission. Almost everything you can find on the internet (photos, images, videos, text, etc.) is someone else’s property. Part of the challenge of understanding digital rights is that the ease with which we can download and copy materials on the internet tends to make us forget that copying any materials without permission is still copyright infringement. Without question, many people post pictures, videos, and other materials and are more than happy to have others repost and share them; but that decision is entirely up to the person who owns the materials. In other words, just because a car is parked on the street, doesn’t mean it’s free for the taking. As for giving “full credit,” that’s like stealing a car, but leaving a thank you note on the owner’s door. It doesn’t make it any less a crime.
If you want to get actual permission to post a video, photograph, or any other copyrighted material on your website, then you need to get permission (aka “a license”) from the owner—which may or may not be the artist. The better option would be for you to post a link to the video rather than post the video itself. In other words, you would be inviting your readers to go to YouTube or the artist’s own website to view the video. This way, the owner can control whether or not they want the video to be shared.
And now, the part you’ve all been waiting for……
Artist Visa News, Nausea
& Updates
Most of you know by now that between December 2023 and April 2024, USCIS implemented a number of new filing fees and policies purportedly designed to “maintain adequate service.” Please Note: I did not make that part up. This is direct quote from the preamble to the Final Rule issued by USCIS on January 31, 2024 in which it sets out the goals of its new rules and policies: Not to “improve service” or even “increase processing times,” but to aspire to the lofty and inspired goal of “maintain adequate service.” You can read it for yourself HERE. That’s only slightly less disingenuous than a mobile service touting a 6G upgrade of two tin cans and piece of string.
USCIS, far from its delusions of adequacy, instead has taken an already broken system, smashed it into more pieces, glued it back together with spit and crushed graham crackers, and tossed it into a soggy carboard box of berserk cane toads. After two months in the toad box, here’s where we are:
1. Standard Processing Times Are Getting Slower
Processing times are getting longer, slower, and more intense, which is good news only for those of you who fantasize about USCIS visa examiners. Though we have seen a few instances of standard processed petitions taking 4 months or longer, most seem to be taking 2 – 4 months from the date of filing. Whilst the Vermont Service Center appears to be processing more quickly than the California Service, as USCIS is no longer assigning petitions to service centers based on jurisdiction, there is no way to know where your petition will wind up or exactly how long it will take to be processed.
Premium Processing appears to be taking 7 – 15 business days, with, again, Vermont processing more quickly than California.
2. USCIS Is Losing P Petitions
For those of you unfortunately forced to file multiple P petition to cover large groups, such as four P-1 Petitions to cover an orchestra of 80 musicians, USCIS is splitting them up and sending them to different service centers who adjudicate them at different times. Even when a single P-1 Petition is filed concurrently with a single P-1S Petition or an O-1 Petition is filed with an O-2 Petition, USCIS is splitting them up and sending them to different examiners at different service centers. In the interest of further proving that they aren’t even competent enough to trust with scissors, USCIS is also losing a few along the way. In one particular case, three P-1 Petitions for a large group were filed concurrently with premium processing. USCIS approved 2 and lost 1. Eventually, they found it 30 days after it had been filed, emailed the receipt notice with a thoughtful note saying, “thanks for your patience,” and approved it 2 days later. (Yes, USCIS has to refund the premium processing fee for that one.) So, allow even more time when filing petitions for large groups.
TIP: If you do not receive an I-979 Receipt Notice for a filed petition, then go to your bank and see if USCIS cashed the filing fee check. If so, on the back of the cancelled check will be the receipt number for the petition. You can then use this to deride them when they try to claim it was never filed.
3. USCIS Is Improperly Rejecting Petitions
There have been numerous instances reported of USCIS rejecting petitions for incorrect filing fees even where the filing fees were correct. This appears to be due to the fact the separating the total filing fee of a petition into multiple different fees based on the business status of the petitioner has not worked as seamlessly as they had hoped. USCIS reports that this is a “training issue,” which presumably means this will improve with rolled newspaper and better treats.
TIP: If you are a non-profit of an employer of 1 – 25 employees, then be sure to address this in your cover letter and explain why you qualify for a reduced fee. Also remember to provide the appropriate documentation of your status.
REMINDER: To qualify as a “small employer” you must have at least 1 full-time employee on a payroll and from whose pay checks taxes are withheld. Otherwise, you are a “small business” or “self-employed” and must pay the maximum filing fees.
4. USCIS Is Issuing Barmier RFEs
USCIS has always been renowned for issuing tragically comical Requests for Evidence (RFEs) when it comes to displays of their obliviousness of anything that occurs on a stage—which, of course, always raises the question of whose idea it was to give them the final say on the casting and booking decisions of major opera companies, theatres, and presenters in the first place. Nonetheless, unattended USCIS Examiners have recently been burrowing into new depths of obtusity in their soiled sand box and issuing more preposterous RFEs. In particular, we have seen a disturbing increase in RFEs for P-1S (Essential Support Staff) Petitions in which they are asking for individual employment contracts for each person with specific employment terms and conditions, more information on why the services provided are necessary for a performance, and why the group can’t just hire US workers to do the same thing. To pluck just a few pearls:
- What do stage managers do and why are they necessary for a performance?
- Why can’t an orchestra engage a US-based Orchestra Manager to manage their orchestra when they perform in the US?
- If the group is performing in New York City, will the group’s lighting designer and stage technicians be providing their services at the same venue at the same time?
Other notable RFE’s we have seen over the last few months include USCIS contending that:
- An “audience prize” given to an artist at a competition does not count as an “award” because he was selected by the audience and not by experts, critics, or judges in his field.
- Competitions for “Young Artists” do not count as significant awards or competitions because young artists are only competing against other young artists. For such an award to be “significant”, the competition must include older artists.
- An opera conductor is not in the same field as an orchestral conductor because one conducts orchestras and one conducts operas, thereby requiring two union consultation letters.
- An artist performing at a festival cannot be a “lead and starring artist” if there are other artists also performing at the same festival. To be a “lead and starring artist,” the artist must be the only artist performing at the festival.
And my personal favourite: a request for “independent, third-party proof” of the formal name and full street address of Carnegie Hall, as well as proof that, just because the artist has been engaged to perform at Carnegie Hall they will physically be performing on-site.
Fortunately, all of these petitions were ultimately approved, but not without extra expense, lost time, and digging ever deeper into the repository of linguistic condescension in responding to the RFEs—including printing out Google Maps driving directions from the address of the California Service Center to the front door of Carnegie Hall.
TIP: Trying to explain or induce USCIS to appreciate the impact of their ineptness on the Performing Arts will produce only slightly less meaningful results than a zip log bag of toenail clippings. Rather, work around them. Know that they are extraordinarily paranoid, as well as painfully literal. Never explain or make them think. Give them what they want to know, regardless of how stupid or rudimentary it may seem, and in the simplest of terms possible. If what they want doesn’t exist, draft simple, specific documents just for USCIS that addresses the specific things they want to know.
Want To Listen To More About Contracts?
My friend and longtime client, Laura Colby, a performing arts manager based in New York City, hosts a podcast entitled The Middle Woman. In The Middle Woman, Laura discusses best practices for managing, touring, and presenting the performing arts from the lens of a working artist and shares her collected learnings with the new generation of performing arts professionals.
She recently invited me to join her in a discussion about contracts in the performing arts.
Here are the links to access the episode on Spotify, Amazon Music, Audible, and Apple Podcast.
Whilst it may or may not be the best thing to listen to before going to bed, it was a great discussion.
Deep Thoughts
“Remember, when you are dead, you do not know you are dead. It is only painful for others. The same applies when you are stupid.”
― Ricky Gervais
Let us know what you’d like to hear more about.
Send us an email, post on Facebook, mail us a letter, dispatch a messenger, raise a smoke signal, reach out telepathically, or use whatever method works for you.
OFFICIAL LEGALESE:
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 threatening email, filing a lawsuit, or basically doing anything that may in any way rely upon an assumption that we know what we are talking about or one size fits all!
2024 International Classical Music Awards.
May 9th, 2024I don’t remember enjoying such a concert in a very long time. This is a YouTube video of a concert in Valencia which features winning artists from 2024 International Classical Music Awards. This gala concert was April 12 and posted on YouTube May 3.
There are big names performing and others that will be big names very soon. Soprano Aida Pascu is only one example of the latter.
I enjoyed the excellent artists who brought the music alive when performing. It was an amazing hour and a half.
https://youtu.be/oDw2Yu9DoL0?si=Naf9zq2rlJMivshx
Emilie Mayer, a Forgotten German Composer?
January 5th, 2024By: Frank Cadenhead
Is the German composer Emilie Mayer (1812-1883) an important composer who has been wrongly forgotten?
Laurence Equilbey and her Insula Orchestra will be performing her First Symphony on 27 and 28 February 2024, sharing the program with works of Schubert. Plans are to record the work with Warner and to continue to explore her works.
She never married and lived on inherited wealth but devoted her entire life to music. Her output includes eight symphonies and a good number of works for chamber orchestra. She was applauded for her work when alive but the recognition declined in the following years.
For visitors to Paris, it would also be a good time to get to know the new and remarkable concert hall built on an island in the Seine River. Click on https://www.insulaorchestra.fr and look for the English version.
Contractual Effrontery; Not Paying Artists is a Crime!; How a Government Shutdown Will Impact US Artist Visas
September 26th, 2023LAW & DISORDER
Performing Arts Division
September 27, 2023
INSIDE THIS ISSUE:
• Contractual Effrontery
• Not Paying Artists Is A Crime!
• How A Government Shutdown
Will Impact US Artist Visas
Legal Issue of the Month:
Contractual Effrontery
Recently, I was contacted by an agent regarding a new artist that was joining his roster. In response to receiving a copy of the agent’s managerial contract, the artist responded with a terse missive that they found the contract to be “unfriendly.” The artist complained that they were expecting a simple, written confirmation that the parties would be working in a mutual spirit of collaboration and partnership and not, as the artist opined, a “harshly written” and “aggressive” formal document with requirements, restrictions, terms, and conditions. The agent asked me to take a look at the contract.
I took a look. Whilst not a model of light-hearted whimsy, the contract contained the typically dry and prosy terms one would expect to find in an Artist/Agent contract: how commissions are calculated and paid; the agent’s booking territory and exclusivity rights; termination provisions; etc. Was it peppered with frippery and bagatelles? No. But neither did it hurl insults at the artist nor identify the contractual parties as “Manager (hereinafter referred to “He Who Must Be Obeyed”) and Artist (hereinafter referred to as “Scum”).” In short, there was nothing to find “unfriendly” or aggressive.
Make no mistake, I find it commendable that the artist actually read the contract. Indeed, given the fact that most in our industry avoid words and contracts as if reading anything that cannot fit on a post-it note will send their eyeballs exploding out their elbows, I was delighted. What is discouraging is that the artist took the contract as a personal affront rather than what it was: the agent’s proposal of the terms, definitions, and conditions that would define the “collaboration and partnership” between them. It was nothing more than an invitation for the artist to review the contract and respond with their own questions, clarifications, and proposals for alternative terms and conditions—though, in this case, the problem seems to have stemmed from the fact that the artist was anticipating no terms or conditions of any kind, presenter a deeper existential issue.
The very core of any successful collaboration or partnership is making sure that all the parties are, in fact, working with the same playbook. And that’s the whole, entire, and sole point of a contract: that before any work is done, engagements booked, or music composed, the parties have exhausted every effort to root out unexpressed concerns and fears, unclog misconstrued conversations, and extract hidden expectations from the crevices of unspoken assumptions.
Whenever I am asked to review a contract, the first thing I do is ask my client to express their own understanding of what has already been discussed, outlined, or orally agreed upon. Then, I can draw back the covers to see how close or far apart the parties actually are. Discovering that the other party has expectations and assumptions that are contrary to your own makes them neither nefarious nor contemptible. It just means that you and they are not yet on the same page (both literally and figuratively) and that further conversations, clarifications, and discussions will be needed to assess whether or not to proceed with the relationship. However, if at the outset any reasonable proposal or question results in the other party clutching their pearls and gasping at such brazen impertinence, that is a good indication that any collaboration or partnership is not going to go well without an intervening therapist.
Dear Law and Disorder:
Actual questions we get asked and the answers people actually don’t want
“Not Paying an Artist is a Crime!”
Dear Law & Disorder:
Our company got a bad check from a non-profit venue for a performance we did. We called them and they sent us a new check, but that bounced, too. Now they won’t return our phone calls. Is there anything we can do?
I once had an artistic director of a dysfunctional non-profit tell me that, although they were unable to pay the money owed to an artist, the artist should be satisfied having already been paid ten-fold in the goodwill and joy they brought to the audience. Sadly, I have yet to find landlords and grocery stories willing to accept payment in goodwill and joy.
Almost every state has a statute that allows a person who receives a bad check to sue the issuer of the check and not only receive two to three times the value of the check, but recover attorneys’ fees and court costs as well. In addition to suing the non-profit itself, most states will also allow you to sue the individual who signed the check even if they were acting as an officer, employee, board member, or volunteer of the non-profit. While it’s true that suing an organization that has no money is often a waste of your own time and money, it’s also a crime in most states to write a bad check. You will want to do some research on the laws in your particular state.
Regardless, your first step should never be to file a lawsuit or run to the police. Besides, both civil and criminal laws require some form of “intent” on the part of the issuer of the check. There is no liability for inadvertently writing a bad check or in situations where the check merely crossed with the available funds. If the mismanagement of a non-profit were a crime, most of the 2023/2024 season would be presented at the Rikers Island Centre for the Arts. If the non-profit is not returning your calls, try other forms of communication such as emails or even formal letters. If necessary, send letters to the Chairman of the Board or to individual board members reminding them of their potential exposure to personal as well as criminal liability. If they continue to ignore you or fail to make payment, then at least you will have written proof of their intent not to honour the check and then you can consider whether to contact a local attorney, file a claim in small claims court, or contact the local prosecutor’s office in the city or town where the venue is located. Regardless, do not, under any circumstances, post anything on social media in an effort to shame them into paying you. Whilst public shaming worked for the Puritans, it will backfire on you for a number of reasons.
Artist Visa News & Nausea
• How A Government Shutdown Will Impact Artist Visas
In the fantastically remote and implausible event that the US Congress cannot cast aside the ponderous chains of party and ideological differences, sipping from the communal grail of public service thereby discarding their own personal goals and aspirations to rapturously ascend the alchemical mountain into the prima materia of the common good, and in so doing pass the spending bills necessary to keep the government open beyond midnight on October 1, 2023, then certain US government agencies will cease operations.
As USCIS is mostly funded by petition filing fees, they will continue to review visa petitions—albeit processing may slow due to outside contractors not being paid. However, depending on how long the shutdown lasts, certain US Consulates around the world could experience delays in being able to process visa applications or cease all but emergency operations. Even when the government re-opens, the resulting backlogs could see delays continue for a while. So, again, whilst an unlikely scenario in a highly functioning democracy that owes no apologies to King George III, one may want to plan for contingencies, nonetheless.
• New Edition of the I-129 Form
Starting November 1, 2023, USCIS will only accept the new 05/31/23 edition of the I-129 Form. They have made no changes to the form itself. They merely changed the date of the form. Whilst some may consider this pointless, I have found myself enjoying new depths of restful slumber cradled in the knowledge that the Department of Homeland Security is tireless in its efforts to ensure malicious hordes of foreign orchestras do not employ date compromised forms to breach our borders. Until November 1, 2023, you can continue to submit the old 11/02/22 edition, but you might as well start using the new edition now. You can find the edition date at the bottom of the page on the form and instructions. As a general rule, if you make a habit of always downloading the I-129 form directly from the USCIS website whenever you prepare a petition, you will always have the most current edition.
• Using Consultation Letters from Peer Groups instead of Unions
We have recently seen an uptick in USCIS issuing a Request for Evidence (RFE) in response to petitions in which the Petitioner has provided a consultation letter from an artist peer group (such as Opera America, Fractured Atlas, or the League of American Orchestras) as opposed to the applicable performing arts labour union (such as AFM, AGMA, or AGVA). Whilst the applicable USCIS regulations allow for consultation letters to come from unions OR peer groups, not all Examiners are able to find this on their Fisher Price Lil’ Examiner Regulation Spin-a-Wheel pull toy. As a result, the petition will be put on hold until you can either present the Examiner with the citation to the regulation or get a union consultation letter. Depending upon whether you paid for standard or premium processing, this could cause a delay of 15 days to 3 months. As, in my experience, the most inane RFEs are only ever issued in response to petitions that are also the most time sensitive, in instances where you are on a short time you’re better off spending the extra money to get the union letter at the outset. The $300 consultation fee you try to save today could cost the cancellation you face without a visa being approved in time.
• Current USCIS Service Centre Processing Times:
There have been signs of slower processing times at the Vermont Service Center, though they are still faster than the oozing pace maintained at The California Service Center.
Vermont Service Centre:
Standard processing: 8 – 10 weeks
Premium processing: 9 – 10 days
California Service Centre:
Standard Processing 3 – 4 months
Premium Processing 13 – 14 days
Deep Thoughts
“If the wise elders of the village don’t teach the children, the village idiots will certainly do so.”
African Proverb
Let us know what you’d like to hear more about.
Send us an email, post on Facebook, mail us a letter, dispatch a messenger, raise a smoke signal, reach out telepathically, or use whatever method works for you.
GG Arts Law provides a comprehensive range of legal services and strategic support for the performing arts, including: Artist Visas, Taxes, and Touring; Rights & Licensing; Negotiations & Representation; Contracts; Business & Non-Profit Organization & Management; Project Management; and Strategic Consulting & Planning.
OFFICIAL LEGALESE:
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 threatening email, filing a lawsuit, or basically doing anything that may in any way rely upon an assumption that we know what we are talking about or one size fits all!
199 Operas You Need to Experience
July 9th, 2023The French website Forum Opera has just given us a list of 199 operas that you should experience before you die. There are a “few” on the list that I have not yet experienced and there is not an extraordinary length of time left for me to finish this task. Did they miss anything? Has anyone experienced them all?
Monteverdi : L’Orfeo (1607)
Monteverdi : L’Incoronazione di Poppea (1642)
Cavalli : La Calisto (1651)
Cavalli : Eliogabalo (1667)
Lully : Atys (1676)
Lully : Armide (1686)
Purcell : Dido and Aeneas (1689)
Purcell : The fairy Queen (1691)
Charpentier : Médée (1693)
Marais : Alcyone (1706)
Händel : Agrippina (1709)
Marais : Sémélé (1709)
Mouret : Les amours de Ragonde (1714)
Scarlatti : Griselda (1721)
Händel : Giulio Cesare in Egitto (1723)
Vivaldi : Farnace (1727)
Vivaldi : Orlando Furioso (1727)
Rameau : Hippolyte et Aricie (1733)
Porpora : Polifemo (1734)
Händel : Alcina (1735)
Vivaldi : Griselda (1735)
Händel : Ariodante (1735)
Rameau : Dardanus (1739)
Händel : Semele (1743)
Rameau : Platée (1745)
Gluck : Orphée et Eurydice (1762)
Rameau : Les Boréades (1763)
Traetta : Antigona (1772)
Gluck : Iphigénie en Tauride (1879)
Mozart : Idomeneo (1781)
Salieri : Les Danaïdes (1784)
Mozart : Le Nozze di Figaro (1786)
Mozart : Don Giovanni (1787)
Mozart : Così fan tutte (1790)
Mozart : La Clemenza di Tito (1791)
Mozart : Die Zauberföte (1791)
Cherubini : Medea (1797)
Beethoven : Fidelio (1805)
Spontini : Julie, ou le pot de fleurs (1805)
Spontini : La Vestale (1807)
Rossini : Otello (1816)
Rossini : Le Barbier de Séville (1816)
Rossini : Armida (1817)
Weber : Der Freischütz (1821)
Rossini : Semiramide (1823)
Marschner : Der Vampyr (1828)
Rossini : Le Comte Ory (1828)
Auber : La Muette de Portici (1828)
Rossini : Guillaume Tell (1829)
Donizetti : Anna Bolena (1830)
Bellini : I Capuleti e i Montecchi (1830)
Bellini : Norma (1831)
Meyerbeer : Robert Le Diable (1831)
Donizetti : L’Elisir d’amore (1832)
Auber : Gustave III ou Le bal masqué (1833)
Donizetti : Lucrezia Borgia (1833)
Bellini : Beatrice di Tenda (1833)
Bellini : I Puritani (1834)
Wagner : Die Feen (1834)
Donizetti : Lucia di Lammermoor (1835)
Halévy : La Juive (1835)
Meyerbeer : Les Huguenots (1836)
Donizetti : Roberto Devereux (1837)
Mercadante : Il Bravo (1839)
Donizetti : La Favorite (1840)
Lortzing : Die Wildschütz (1842)
Donizetti : Don Pasquale (1843)
Verdi : Ernani (1844)
Verdi : I due Foscari (1844)
Wagner : Tannhäuser (1845)
Verdi : Macbeth (1847)
Donizetti : Poliuto (1848)
Verdi : Luisa Miller (1849)
Meyerbeer : Le Prophète (1849)
Wagner : Lohengrin (1850)
Verdi : Rigoletto (1851)
Verdi : Il Trovatore (1853)
Verdi : La Traviata (1853)
Verdi : Simon Boccanegra (1857)
Offenbach : Orphée aux enfers (1858)
Gounod : Faust (1859)
Verdi : Un ballo in maschera (1859)
Berlioz : Les Troyens (1863)
Offenbach : La Belle Hélène (1864)
Wagner : Tristan und Isolde (1865)
Smetana : La fiancée vendue (1866)
Verdi : Don Carlos (1867)
Gounod : Roméo et Juliette (1867)
Massenet : La Grand’Tante (1867)
Boito : Mefistofele (1868)
Thomas : Hamlet (1868)
Wagner : Rheingold (1869)
Offenbach : Vert-Vert (1869)
Lecocq : La Fille de madame Angot (1872)
Strauss : Die Fledermaus (1874)
Moussorgski : Boris Godounov (1874)
Ponchielli : La Gioconda (1875)
Bizet : Carmen (1875)
Wagner : Siegfried (1876)
Wagner : Götterdämmerung (1876)
Saint-Saëns : Samson et Dalila (1877)
Chabrier : L’Étoile (1877)
Tchaïkovski : Eugene Oneguine (1879)
Tchaïkovski : La Pucelle d’Orléans (1879)
Offenbach : La fille du Tambour-major (1879)
Massenet : Hérodiade (1881)
Offenbach : Les contes d’Hoffmann (1881)
Wagner : Parsifal (1882)
Reyer : Sigurd (1883)
Delibes : Lakmé (1883)
Massenet : Manon (1884)
Holmes : La Montagne noire (1884)
Sullivan : The Mikado (1885)
Verdi : Otello (1887)
Mascagni : Cavalleria Rusticana (1890)
Tchaïkovski : La dame de Pique (1890)
Massenet : Werther (1892)
Leoncavallo : Pagliacci (1892)
Verdi : Falstaff (1893)
Humperdinck : Hänsel und Gretel (1893)
Puccini : La Bohème (1895)
Giordano : Andrea Chénier (1896)
Puccini : Tosca (1900)
Charpentier : Louise (1900)
Dvořák : Rusalka (1901)
Debussy : Pelléas et Mélisande (1902)
Cilea : Adriana Lecouvreur (1902)
Chausson : Le Roi Arthus (1903)
Puccini : Madama Butterfly (1904)
Janáček : Jenufa (1904)
Strauss : Salome (1905)
Lehár : Die lustige Witwe (1905)
Bloch : Macbeth (1906)
Smith : The Wreckers (1906)
Zemlinsky : Une tragédie florentine (1906)
Ravel : L’Heure Espagnole (1907)
Delius : A village Romeo and Juliet (1907)
Messager : Fortunio (1907)
Massenet : Thérèse (1907)
Strauss : Elektra (1903)
Strauss : Der Rosenkavalier (1911)
Strauss : Ariadne auf Naxos (1912)
Fauré : Pénélope (1912)
Kálmán : La Princesse Czardas (1915)
Pfitzner : Palestrina (1917)
Puccini : Gianni Schicchi (1918)
Schreker : Die Gezeichneten (1918)
Bartok : Le château de Barbe-Bleue (1918)
Strauss : La femme sans ombre (1919)
Braunfels : Die Vögel (1920)
Korngold : La ville morte (1920)
Janáček : Kat’a Kabanova (1921)
Zemlinsky : Der Zwerg (1922)
Yvain : Ta bouche (1922)
Janáček : La Petite Renarde rusée (1923)
Hahn : Ciboulette (1923)
Schoenberg : Erwartung (1924)
Szymanowski : Le Roi Roger (1924)
Berg : Wozzeck (1925)
Ravel : L’enfant et les sortilèges (1925)
Puccini : Turandot (1926)
Janáček : De la maison des morts (1928)
Weill : L’opéra de quat’sous (1928)
Abraham : Viktoria und ihr Husar (1930)
Lehár : Giuditta (1934)
Chostakovitch : Lady Macbeth du district de Mtsensk (1934)
Zemlinsky : Le Roi Candaule (1935, création en 1996)
Gershwin : Porgy and Bess (1935)
Enesco : Œdipe (1936)
Berg : Lulu (1937)
Hindemith : Mathis der Mahler (1938)
Strauss : Capriccio (1942)
Britten : Peter Grimes (1945)
Menotti : The Medium (1946)
Poulenc : Les mamelles de Tirésias (1947)
Dallapiccola : Il Prigioniero (1949)
Britten : Billy Budd (1951)
Stravinsky : The Rake’s Progress (1951)
Poulenc : Dialogues des Carmélites (1953)
Britten : Le tour d’écrou (1954)
Floyd : Susannah (1955)
Bernstein : Candide (1956)
Poulenc : La voix humaine (1959)
Ligeti : Le Grand Macabre (1978)
Messiaen : Saint-François d’Assise (1983)
Glass : Aknathen (1983)
Adams : Nixon in China (1987)
Boesmans : Reigen (1993)
Adams : I was looking at the ceiling and then I saw the sky (1995)
Previn : A streetcar named desire (1995)
Adès : Powder her face (1995)
Eötvös : Trois sœurs (1998)
Saariaho : L’amour de loin (2000)
Hosokawa : Hanjo (2004)
Saariaho : La Passion de Simone (2006)
Chin : Alice au pays des merveilles (2007)
Benjamin : Written on Skin (2012)
Kurtag : Fin de partie (2018)
Defoort : Le temps où nous chantions (2021)
What Are Contracts for?; Non-Profit By-Laws Made Simple; Are Union Strikes Force Majeure events?; Artist Visa Updates
June 7th, 2023LAW & DISORDER
Performing Arts Division
June 7, 2023
INSIDE THIS ISSUE:
• What Are Contracts For?
• Non-Profit Laws Made Simple
• Are Union Strikes Force Majeure Events?
• Artist Visa Updates
Legal Issue of the Month:
What Are Contracts For???
It’s no secret that a vast expanses of artists, venues, managers, presenters, and agents prefer to have engagement contracts with all the “fun stuff” (dates, fees, travel, repertoire, etc) confirmed and signed on the front and the “terms and conditions” left alone, shunned, cold, abandoned, and forsaken on the back. Such “terms and conditions” are often dismissed as “just all the legal stuff” or “the legalese” or “stuff we had a lawyer draft for us years ago and we have no idea what it means, but we can’t change it.”
First, whether it’s the time of the sound check, 4 bags of raspberry Haribo gummy bears the Artist wants in the dressing room, or the number of comp ticket, everything put in a contract becomes “legal stuff.” Second, though, indeed, boring (even for me), the “legalese” typically addresses important issues such as whether or not the venue can make an archival recording and what they can do with it, rights and licenses, cancellation terms and conditions, who’s responsible if someone gets injured, what constitutes force majeure/Acts of God (remember how everyone suddenly started reading those for the first time during COVID?), and other issues that everyone ignores until something goes horribly wrong, at which point they all start arguing over what they assumed these terms meant.
A contract in and of itself will not protect you. Contracts are not self-enforcing. There is no scenario in which a signed paper talisman with the right magic words will allow you to sleep embraced in the amble bosom of self-delusion that everyone will do what they are supposed to do, people will not act in their own self-interest and still claim the moral high-ground, and nothing can go wrong. Signatures do not guarantee that dates will not get cancelled even if the contract specifically says it is non-cancellable or even that you will get the fee everyone agreed upon.
If a date gets cancelled or you do not get paid, your signed contract merely becomes a coupon redeemable for a lawsuit to enforce it. However, are you really going to sue anyone? Is there such a significant amount of money at stake that it’s worth the cost and time, financially as well as emotionally? Are you willing to subsidize a trial lawyer’s $11,000 Japanese NEOREST toilet just for the self-satisfaction of proving a point? Do you ever want to work with that venue or artist again?
So why bother? What are contracts for?
Contracts are for managing expectations, both your own and the other party’s, by spelling out ALL of your concerns and requirements (not just the “fun stuff”) before music is composed, airline tickets are purchased, or recordings made. Contracts are for discovering and discussing unexpressed assumptions. Contracts are for planning and assessment. Contracts are for reading and discussion. Contracts are for knowing what the other party is and is not willing or able to do, and then deciding whether you can compromise or whether you are willing to proceed and accept the risks. Contracts are for starting a conversation and ending in a relationship.
If you’re just tossing unread papers back and forth through Docusign so you or your contract administrator can tick that box off the list, don’t complain when the artist trashes the dressing room and refuses to perform upon failing to find their gummy bears.
Dear Law and Disorder:
Actual questions we get asked and the answers people actually don’t want
“Non-Profit By-Laws Made Simple”
Dear Law & Disorder:
We are forming a non-profit. Can you recommend a good template for by-laws? We just want to keep it simple so we can get it set up right away and get started. We’ve already got some people willing to donate as well as serve on our board.
Aside from an outhouse erected on a popsicle stick over a tidal bore, non-profit institutions are, perhaps, the most precarious and dysfunctional of all structures ever conceived within which to conduct business. Without a strong set of by-laws, carefully and thoughtfully crafted to address your unique mission, stakeholders, goals, and challenges, your non-profit is likely to perish from such commonly fatal non-profit diseases as Foundersitis, Administrative Staff Infection, Systemic Committee Infarction, Micromanageitis, Consultant Dependency, Strategic Streptococcus, and Gangrenous Board Members.
Your by-laws are the foundation upon which your organization will be built. They determine how your non-profit is structured and managed. They will describe the roles, expectations, duties, and responsibilities of board members. It will set forth how decisions are made and conflicts resolved. At the same time, like strategic plans and business plans, by-laws are not commandments fixed in stone. They will provide a steady hand of direction within a flexible mechanism for addressing growth, challenges, and situations as they arise. In other words, whilst by-laws do not require a constitutional convention, they are also not something to be crafted with speed and indifference.
Assuming you are serious about forming a sustainable business and not merely hoping to circumvent having a viable business plan by hoping to supplement your income through a quick influx of donations and grants, you should gather as many different samples of by-laws from as many different organizations that have similar missions as yours. Analyse them to see how the successes, failures, and experiences of other organizations may apply to your own. Remember, when forming a non-profit, it is the board members who will ultimately control and run the organization, not you. So, just because someone wants to donate money does not mean they should also serve on the board. Ideally, those persons who are already willing to serve as your initial, founding board members should also be interested and committed enough to assist you in the process of crafting the by-laws.
Whether you are forming a Children’s Vuvuzela Choir or the Wilma Schiddy Centre for the Arts, simplicity kills the soul—or, in this case, a non-profit.
Breaking the News!
Are Union Strikes Force Majeure Events?
When concerts and performances started falling during COVID, it sent everyone into a delirium over whether, how, when, why, if a pandemic constituted a Force Majeure event allowing an engagement contract to be cancelled without penalty. As no one was happy with answers, everyone began re-drafting their contracts to deal with future pandemics.
Hollywood’s current Writers Guild of America strike has spotlighted yet another hidden Act of God: labour strikes. Many “standard terms and conditions” give a party the right to cancel a contract in the event of a labour strike. This means that if you are engaged to perform as a soloist with an orchestra and the orchestra goes on strike, the orchestra can terminate your engagement contract without penalty. This can apply to any situation where a union strike might impact the resources needed to fulfil a contract—such as booking an event at a university-based venue and the teacher’s union goes on strike or being booked to perform and your sets and props cannot be delivered due to a trucker’s strike. Imagine my own surprise when, as a person whose wife had to show him how to change the windshield wiper fluid in my car, I woke up one day as a member of an adjunct faculty and also found myself a member of United Auto Workers…which then went on strike!
You can read more about this issue HERE
Artist Visa News & Nausea
• The Status of Proposed Petition Fee Increases.
There have been no new updates from USCIS regarding its proposed fee increases and other changes. Whilst our crystal ball remains cloudy, the runes tell us to expect “some” changes, we just don’t know when or to what degree. In the meantime, all fees remain the same and there remain no limits to the number of beneficiaries that can be listed on O-2 or P petitions.
• COVID Vaccinations Are No Longer Required To Enter The US
Effective May 12, 2023, the Biden administration lifted the requirement that non-US citizens and non-US residents have COVID vaccinations to enter the US. However, ye who enter here will continue to be required to abandon all hopes.
• No More Passport Entry Stamps
Also this month, US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) confirmed that it will be implementing “stamp-less entries” for everyone arriving in the US. This means that when you enter the US on a visa, you will no longer receive a physical stamp and handwritten notation in your passport. Instead, your date of entry, your visa status, and the date by which you must leave will hereinafter ONLY be recorded on a digital entry/exit form called an I-94 which will ONLY be available on-line at the CBP I-94 Website .
Whilst CBP has been recording entry/exit information on digital I-94 forms for several years now, CBP officers continued to stamp passports. As it was not at all uncommon for the information on the I-94 to be incorrect, having a physical stamp meant that before you left the airport you could check and confirm that all of your information was correct. Now, for example, if you have a visa that expires on June 30, but the I-94 says May 30, you will need to leave by May 30 regardless—but you won’t know that a mistake has been made in your record unless you dash to the I-94 website as soon as you leave the immigration area and make sure your I-94 is correct. If it is not, you will need to find the CBP officer lurking betwixt the Cinnabon and Chick-Fil-A and ask them to correct it.
• There Is Nothing Graceful About US Visas
…and speaking of entries and exits, please note that there are no automatic “grace periods”—10 days or otherwise—added before or after the validity dates of a visa. There never have been. This has always been a myth—or, at least, mischaracterized. When an individual enters the US, CBP officers have the discretion to allow them up to 10 extra days to remain in the US as a tourist. However, it is the burden of the visa holder to make the request to a CBP officer upon entry to the US. The extra dates are not automatically given.
If the officer approves (and they usually do), the approved extra days MUST be reflected on the I-94. So, if you want to claim the 10 extra days: (1) You must request the extra time; (2) the CBP officer must approve the request; and (3) the additional days must be reflected on your I-94 entry/exit form. However, as discussed above, as entry/exit information will henceforth only be recorded digitally, you will need to check the I-94 website before you leave the airport to make sure the extra days are reflected on the I-94. Otherwise, even if the officer verbally approved the extra days, you will be required to leave the US by whatever date is listed on the I-94.
The better practice is that if you know you or your artist plan to hang around after your show to attend the Toadlick County Monster Truck Mash-Up and Watermelon Bake-Off, just add those extra days onto the visa petition so your visa will be valid for the full time you want to be in the US. You can always still ask for the extra days on top of that to get even more extra time.
• Current USCIS Service Centre Processing Times:
Vermont Service Centre: Standard processing: 6 – 8 weeks
Premium processing: 9 – 10 days
California Service Centre: Standard Processing 3 – 4 months
Premium Processing 13 – 14 days
Deep Thoughts
“Try not to focus too much energy on whether you can trust someone else. When a bird lands on a branch, it doesn’t trust that the branch will never break. It trusts its ability to fly away if it does.”
Anonymous
Let us know what you’d like to hear more about.
Send us an email, post on Facebook, mail us a letter, dispatch a messenger, raise a smoke signal, reach out telepathically, or use whatever method works for you.
GG Arts Law provides a comprehensive range of legal services and strategic support for the performing arts, including: Artist Visas, Taxes, and Touring; Rights & Licensing; Negotiations & Representation; Contracts; Business & Non-Profit Organization & Management; Project Management; and Strategic Consulting & Planning.
OFFICIAL LEGALESE:
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 threatening email, filing a lawsuit, or basically doing anything that may in any way rely upon an assumption that we know what we are talking about or one size fits all!
Artist Visa Updates, Non-Compete Agreements, Manager/Agent Trust Accounts, 1st Amendment Poop Jokes
April 5th, 2023LAW & DISORDER
Performing Arts Division
April 6, 2023
INSIDE THIS ISSUE:
• Artist Visa Updates
• Non-Compete Agreements
• Manager/Agent Trust Accounts
• Is There A Constitutional Right
To Poop Jokes?
Artist Visa News & Nausea
• The Status of Proposed Petition Fee Increases
Thanks to all of you who took the time to write USCIS and the denizens of Congress to object to USCIS’s loathsome proposal to raise petition fees by 300%. A lot of people have since been asking what happens next and what to expect. It’s hard to say. Typically, when USCIS imposes new rules and policies they give 60 – 90 days advance notice. In this case, should USCIS decide to implement the fee increases, my belief is that various lawsuits will be filed to enjoin them from going into effect while they are challenged in court.
So, while you can expect nothing to change within the immediate future, beyond that is anyone’s guess. I know that the lack of certainly is going to make it hard when budgeting for 2023/2024 tours, but nothing about getting visas for artists to perform in the US has ever been a bedrock of dependability or predictability.
• DOS Increases Visa Stamp Application Fees
Speaking of fee increases, not to be upstaged by its nefarious cousins at USCIS, the US Department of State announced on March 28, 2023 that US Consulates will be raising the minimum fee for visa stamp applications from $190 to $205 effective 5/30/23. I’d like to say that this will allow them to hire additional staff to address the significant backlogs and delays that continue to plague US Consulates around the world, but I would be lying if I said that. Instead, except in rare, dire, and unusual circumstances, no one should expect to submit a visa stamp application at most US Consulates and get the visa stamp back in less than 2 – 3 weeks, or longer. In other words, whilst I do not in the least disagree with the indignant music director who sent me an email complaining about the “iniquitous absurdity” of a US Consulate refusing to accommodate his tight international performance schedule, he nonetheless still had to wrench up his big boy pants and accept the cruel slap of indifferent reality.
• Current USCIS Service Centre Processing Times:
Vermont Service Centre: Standard processing: 6 – 8 weeks
Premium processing: 9 – 10 days
California Service Centre: Standard Processing: 3 – 4 months!
Premium Processing: 13 – 14 days
If some of you have filed petitions at the California Service Centre and receive a notice that your petition is being transferred to another service centre DO NOT PANIC. To deal with backlogs, USCIS is randomly transferring petitions to other service centres.
• Request for Evidence (RFE) Alert:
In circumstances where managers/agents have filed visa petitions in which they have also signed the US engagement contracts on behalf of their artists, we have recently been seeing USCIS issuing RFEs asking for (i) proof that the artist has authorized the manager/agent to sign on their behalf and (ii) proof the both the artist and each presenter have authorized the manager/agent to be the petitioner. While you “could” just provide USCIS with copies of management/agent agreements and include petitioner appointment language in all engagement contracts, that would presume a USCIS examiner will read them much less comprehend multisyllabic words. Its simpler just to have everyone—the artist and each presenter/venue—sign a piece of paper saying “I appoint X to be the Petitioner.”
Legal Issue of the Month:
Are non-compete/non-solicitation agreements a thing of the past?
Whether it’s a management company hiring an associate or a non-profit organization hiring a development director, its not uncommon in the arts and entertainment industry for employment contracts to include non-compete provisions which generally serve to prevent employees from taking jobs with an ex-employer’s competitors or clients for a certain period of time after they leave.
On Jan. 5, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission released a proposed rule that would bar employers from making workers agree to non-competes. The proposed rule is based on a preliminary finding that non-competes constitute a form of unfair competition in the labour market, lowering wages, and stifling innovation, among other issues, and therefore violate Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act. The proposed rule, as written, would apply to independent contractors and unpaid interns as well as employees, and it would make companies retroactively rescind non-competes they’ve already secured.
Non-solicitation agreements, whereby employees are forbidden from soliciting existing clients, customers, or employees of their employers, as well as agreements that prevent ex-employees from using or disclosing the proprietary, non-public information of their ex-employers (such as engagement contracts, books and records, tour budgets, etc.) would continue to be valid provided they are narrow, targeted, and not silly. For example, presenter and venue contact information, or anything that could be found on its own just by asking someone else or through a google search is neither proprietary nor confidential.
As most courts will not enforce broad non-competes and non-solicitation agreements anyway, this new rule would prevent employers from bullying or threatening their employees with frivolous lawsuits by not allowing such provisions to be in a contract in the first place.
Dear Law and Disorder:
Actual questions we get asked and the answers people actually don’t want
“Manager/Agent Trust Accounts”
Dear Law and Disorder:
I am considering working with an agent, but almost every agent I speak with wants to collect my engagement fees on my behalf. Why can’t I collect my fees and just pay the agent? If an agent collects my fees, should I ask for a separate bank account? What about statements? Is it reasonable to ask for monthly accountings? When do I get paid? What’s standard?
First, and foremost, nothing in this business is “standard.” Yes, there are penchants and preferences, but if you took a poll of 50 people in our business and ask what is “standard”, you’d get 50 difference answers—with all 50 basing their definition upon their own self-interest. So, if anyone tries to force you into an arrangement you don’t want by claiming its “standard” or “this is what everyone does”, run away! If parties truly want to work together, everything is negotiable.
All that being said, it’s not uncommon for an agent or manager to prefer to accept fees on behalf of an artist. Among the very legitimate reasons for this, it allows artists to focus on performing and not bookkeeping, especially when on tour, and allows the agent to follow up on contracts, payments, and other logistical issues on an artist’s behalf. It’s also easier for an agent to collect fees, deduct commissions, and send the balance to the artist rather the agent having to issue an invoice or chase down an artist who, again, may be on tour or simply abstains from reading any emails that contain the subject line “balance due.”
Both licensed and un-licensed agents are legally required to keep all collected money in a separate account and issue statements accounting for all money collected and held on behalf of an artist. Keeping money in a separate account not only makes booking and accountings easier, but also helps to ensure than an artist’s money doesn’t accidentally get co-mingled with the agent’s own money. Also, in the event an engagement is cancelled, a deposit may need to be returned. Having the money held in a separate account ensures that the funds are not prematurely dispensed, or used for unrelated purposes, for which both the artist and agent could be liable.
Is There a Constitutional
Right To Poop Jokes?
The US Supreme Court is poised to address one of the most epochal issues on everyone’s mind: is there a 1st Amendment right to tell poop jokes?
Currently before the Supreme Court is Jack Daniel’s v. VIP Products wherein VIP Products, the nation’s second-largest maker of dog toys, is accused of infringing upon the whiskey maker’s trademarked bottle shape and label by manufacturing and selling squishy dog toys that resemble a bottle of Jack Daniel’s with the label showing a dog and the by-line “dropping the old No. 2 on your Tennessee carpet.” While traditional parody exceptions already in place would normally support VIP, Jack Daniel’s contends that the value of its trademark will be diminished if people begin to think its product makes dogs poop. So, VIP has responded by arguing that the 1st Amendment supersedes Trademark Law and allows parody to cross any lines or restrictions, regardless of how offensive or objectionable to the party being parodied—which would be a superfluous argument in most cases had not several lower federal courts agreed.
Notwithstanding the fact that so many of its customers apparently serve whiskey to their dogs that Jack Daniel’s is concerned with lost sales, should VIP prevail it would essentially eliminate trademark law when it comes to parody. It’s a classical example of an inane case brought purely because litigators are willing to litigate anything if you pay them enough, the outcome of which could have larger consequences: Does a 1st Amendment claim of parody automatically allow anyone to use another’s name, song title, or logos without restriction and under any circumstances, whether its by association with poop, porn, or politicians, regardless of the owner’s objections or concerns?
For those of you who feel so moved, you can read more about this here:
www.vox.com/politics/23650136/supreme-court-poop-jokes-jack-daniels-vip-dog-toy-trademark-lanham-act
Deep Thoughts
“With enough spizzerinctum, there’s almost nothing you can’t accomplish.”
Cynthia Bowes-Palmer
Let us know what you’d like to hear more about.
Send us an email, post on Facebook, mail us a letter, dispatch a messenger, raise a smoke signal, reach out telepathically, or use whatever method works for you.
GG Arts Law provides a comprehensive range of legal services and strategic support for the performing arts, including: Artist Visas, Taxes, and Touring; Rights & Licensing; Negotiations & Representation; Contracts; Business & Non-Profit Organization & Management; Project Management; and Strategic Consulting & Planning.
OFFICIAL LEGALESE:
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 threatening email, filing a lawsuit, or basically doing anything that may in any way rely upon an assumption that we know what we are talking about or one size fits all!
CALL TO ACTION! ARTISTS COMMUNITY ASSEMBLE!
February 22nd, 2023LAW & DISORDER
Performing Arts Division
February 22, 2023
CALL TO ACTION!
ARTS COMMUNITY ASSEMBLE!
We have until MARCH 13, 2023 to file public comments and objections to USCIS’s proposal to artist visa petition fees to nightmarish levels.
As a reminder, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the consummate embodiment of incompetency, capriciousness, and paranoia spawned from the feted nether loins of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), has proposed the following:
>>>The standard processing fee for O-1 and O-2 petitions would increase from $460 to $1655 per petition.
>>>The standard processing fee for P petitions would increase from $460 to $1615 per petition.
>>>O-2, P-1, and P-1S petitions would be limited to 25 people per petition.
>>>The Premium Processing Fee would remain at $2500 per petition, but the petition would be processed in 15 business days as opposed to the current policy of 15 calendar days.
If these proposals are implemented:
- It would cost an individual performer in any field of arts and entertainment $1615 plus an applicable union consultation fee of $250 – $1000 to file a visa petition and then another $190 to apply for a visa stamp at a U.S. Consulate.
- It would require a typically sized orchestra or other large group of 70 members (including staff/crew) to file 4 petitions at a total cost of $6460 in USCIS filing fees, plus union fees, and visa stamp application fees. If premium processing were required, that would cost an additional $10,000 (4 petitions x $2500).
THESE FEES HAVE NOT GONE INTO EFFECT…YET.
THEY HAVE MERELY BEEN “PROPOSED.”
However, we have only a short window to file objections.
Whilst national and international organizations throughout the arts and entertainment industry are preparing comments and objections on behalf of their members, it is just as critical that everyone from the entire biosphere of arts and entertainment—classical, jazz, theatre, ballet, rock, hip-hop, circus, multi-media, druidic poets, zither players, agents, presenters, promoters, venues, and even weary arts lawyers, regardless of where you are located in the world—submit their own individual, personal comments and objections as well. Now is not the time to hope others in your field speak for you. Also, other industries and sectors, such as technology, sports, and finance are more than willing to pay additional fees to get the people they want.
We’re on our own here folks.
We need to inundate USCIS with a sufficient deluge of objections and comments that it will require an ark for a haggard band to survive and repopulate their cubicles. We need to let them know we are here and what’s at stake.
Comments can be filed online through the Federal Register Portal by the extended deadline of March 13, 2023.
(Please remember that any comments submitted through the Federal Register portal will be viewable by the public. So, while trendy these days, avoid threats of violent reprisals or uprisings.)
When commenting, please don’t just object or make generalized remarks about the importance of the arts, culture, and rainbows. They don’t care. It is essential to provide specific examples on the actual, real life impact these proposals will have, such as:
- Artist X comes each year to perform at the Y International Festival. If these fees are implemented, the artist will not be able to afford to come and, without international artists, the festival will close.
- Group X is booked regularly by venue Y. It sells out, bringing in $___ revenue to the venue and the community. If the group cannot afford to enter, this will all be lost.
- Benevolent Foundation X underwrites performers from diverse cultures around the world to perform for children and others in U.S. communities that would otherwise not get exposed to them. If these fees are implemented, there will not be sufficient funding to continue these programmes.
- Why is USCIS proposing fee increases without committing to any improvements to the visa process to make it more efficient, consistent, and reliable?
For additional ideas and suggestions on comments, the Performing Arts Visa Working Group (PAVWG), an ad hoc coalition of national and international performing arts organizations led by the League of American Orchestras dedicated to improving opportunities for international cultural exchange, CLICK HERE.
PAVWG is intentionally not providing any templates or forms because we need USCIS to read each comment and not discard form-letter entries.
In addition to submitting comments and objections to USCIS, U.S. Citizens should share them with their Senators and members of Congress as well—except, perhaps, those of you in Florida, Texas, Georgia, and other states whose representatives will just view the fee increases as a nifty way to discourage the demonic hordes of non-U.S. artists who would otherwise poison the U.S. with their fiendish ideas of affordable health care, paid vacations, clean water, and similar signs of the approaching apocalypse of the end times. We recommend using THIS PLATFORM created by our friends at the League of American Orchestras to paste a copy of your comments to share with your U.S. Senators and member of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Lastly, we are also asking everyone to spread the word on whatever social media platforms you frequent with the tag #OpposeTheFeeIncrease
Coming Attractions
Hopefully, in March we’ll be able to focus on topics other than artist visas, including recent updates on non-compete clauses, handling engagement fee deposits, and other important, but less volatile matters.
Deep Thoughts
“Don’t give up! I believe in you all.
A person’s a person, no matter how small!
And you very small persons will not have to die
If you make yourselves heard! So come on, now, and TRY!”
Dr. Seuss, Horton Hears A Who
Let us know what you’d like to hear more about.
Send us an email, post on Facebook, mail us a letter, dispatch a messenger, raise a smoke signal, reach out telepathically, or use whatever method works for you.
GG Arts Law provides a comprehensive range of legal services and strategic support for the performing arts, including: Artist Visas, Taxes, and Touring; Rights & Licensing; Negotiations & Representation; Contracts; Business & Non-Profit Organization & Management; Project Management; and Strategic Consulting & Planning.
OFFICIAL LEGALESE:
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 threatening email, filing a lawsuit, or basically doing anything that may in any way rely upon an assumption that we know what we are talking about or one size fits all!
USCIS PROPOSES DRACONIAN FEE INCREASES FOR ARTIST VISAS!
January 25th, 2023LAW & DISORDER
Performing Arts Division
January 25, 2023
USCIS PROPOSES DRACONIAN FEE INCREASES FOR ARTIST VISAS!
Despite my efforts to have our blogs and updates covering a wide range of topics, and not just artist visas, I am now frustratingly forced to focus entirely on a significant issue that has arisen in the world of obtaining visas for artists to perform in the US.
United Statues Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), by and through the auspices of their reptilian overlords, the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), has proposed the following:
- The standard processing fee for O-1 and O-2 petitions would increase for $460 to $1655 per petition.
- The standard processing fee for P petitions would increase from $460 to $1615 per petition.
- O-2, P-1, and P-1S petitions would be limited to 25 people per petition.
- The Premium Processing Fee would remain at $2500 per petition, but the petition would be processed in 15 business days as opposed to the current policy of 15 calendar days.
So, for example:
- If a major orchestra or ensemble with 80 members wanted to tour the U.S., it would need to file 4 petitions at a total cost of $6460 in USCIS filing fees (4 petitions x $1615). If they needed support staff (managers, stage crew, etc.) that would require an additional petition at a cost of an additional $1615. If premium processing were required, that would cost an additional $12,500 (5 petitions x $2500).
- If a single artist wanted to enter with an accompanist, band, company members, or crew, that would require O-1 and O-2 petitions at a cost of $3310 (2 petitions x $1655).
USCIS argues that it is facing considerable backlogs and staffing shortages and that, as it must rely almost entirely on petition fees to fund its operations, it needs to raise its fees to meet demand and improve service. It also argues that, as a result of COVID, fewer petitions were filed, resulting in a significant loss of income.
To be fair, unlike most other government agencies, USCIS does, indeed, rely almost entirely on fees and not federal funding. Also, whereas Congress allocated specific funds to USCIS in fiscal year 2022 to be used to address backlogs, all that got taken away for fiscal year 2023. However, USCIS was infamous long before COVID for operating with the competency and efficiency of a Great Dane cooking a soufflé with an oven mitt on its head. Moreover, $600 of the proposed fee increases include an “Asylum Program Fee” whereby everyone who files a petition or application of any kind with USCIS will be assessed an extra fee to cover the costs of USCIS having to process an increased number of applications for asylum seekers and refugees. In other words, the proposed $1655 filing fee for an O petition actually consists of a $1055 filing fee plus an additional $600 “build the wall” fee.
Because these are “proposals” and not a final ruling, USCIS is required, however disingenuously, to provide a “comment period” for the general public and interested parties to provide comments, objections, and concerns. The comment period is open until March 6, 2023, after which USCIS will take several months to review public feedback, disregard any feedback it doesn’t agree with, and implement the new proposals anyway.
Many will recall that USCIS proposed significant fee increases and policy changes in 2019 and disregarded all of the public comments and objections at that time. Ultimately, it was only due to a lawsuit and a subsequent court injunction that thwarted USCIS’s plans. Having since had a chance to study its enemy and reassemble its forces, USCIS is proposing even more drastic proposals than it did in 2019.
Should you be in need of extraordinary abrasive toilet tissue, you can download, read, wince, and flush the full 500 pages of the Proposal HERE. Among its many slings and arrows, you will note that USICS specifically addresses, and summarily dismisses, any significant impact these proposals would have on “arts” and “culture.” At pages 99 – 100 of the Proposal USCIS writes:
“DHS is committed to reducing barriers and promoting accessibility to immigration benefits, and knows that the beneficiaries of Forms I-129 and I-140 fuel our economy, contribute to our arts, culture, and government…DHS is also aware that Forms I-129 and I-140 are submitted by non-profit entities [and] appreciates that non-profit or small entities may not have the same level of financial resources as many large, for-profit corporations that also submit petitions for foreign workers.
USCIS purports that it engaged in a study of the impact that petition fees have on non-profits and small entities and concluded: “…approximately 90 percent of the small entities in the sample experienced an economic impact of less than 1 percent of their reported revenue… USCIS acknowledges that those small entities with greater than 1 percent impact may file fewer petitions as a result of this proposed rule.” In short, USCIS ran all this by Disney, Netflix, and the NBA, who also file O and P petitions, and they expressed no objections to the additional fees. However, for those of you not supported by a national sports league, USCIS helpfully suggests on page 269 of the Proposal: “DHS acknowledges that applicants and petitioners may face additional difficulties in paying the fees, and may be required to…save money longer to afford the fees, or resort to credit cards or borrowing…”
Although artist visa petitions represent a small fraction of the work USCIS is asked to do, USCIS concedes at page 210 of the Proposal that it does not, in fact, have the capacity or data to determine whether or not O and P petitions for artists in particular are adding to its backlog at all. It specifically admits: “DHS lacks the information to propose separate fees for each of these classifications.” So, the teacher has merely decided to punish the entire class rather than attempt to discover exactly who put 12 tablets of Dulcolax in her tea.
In other words, USCIS continues to display less that a fart from a flea on the freckle on a demented rat’s ass about the arts and entertainment sector.
I strongly suspect that, as in 2019, fighting this new advance will require yet another lawsuit, except this time with all major arts organizations, service organizations, venues, and presenters all joining in as part of major class action. For now, we need to take advantage of the comment process and raise as much noise as we can.
A CALL TO ARMS!
The tireless warriors at the League of American Orchestras are working with national organizations throughout the arts and entertainment industry to prepare joint comments. However, it is essential that each of you—your artists, board members, audience members, supporters, friends, families, and even opposible toed pets—take the time to comment on the significant artistic and economic impact these proposals will have on the ability for international artists to perform in the US. ALL artists, from ALL sectors: jazz to opera, folk to theatre, rock to ballet, playwrights, composers, orchestras, bands, and everyone one all sides and in-between. We need to be in this together.
The League of American Orchestras has compiled suggestions for comments, including:
- International artists are engaged throughout the arts and entertainment industry, which is still itself recovering from the effects of COVID-19. Most of these entities do not, in fact, have the ability to pay these proposed fees.
- Drastic fee increases will stifle international cultural activity, put U.S.-based jobs at risk, and have a negative economic ripple effect on communities supported by arts events.
- Delays in processing are already forcing some petitioners to pay the already unaffordible Premium Processing Fee or forgo engaging international artists.
- To date, USCIS has ignores all proposals that have repeatedly been made to them through all available channels to suggest ways it could change its own policies and procedures with regard to reducing any backlog specifically related to O and P artist petitions, including (i) recognizing prior O and P approvals; (ii) requiring only updated materials as opposed entirely new petitions for artists that have recently performed in the U.S.; or (iii) deferring to experts and established arts organizations to know who is and is not a “distinguished” artist or group and not assume that every bassoonist or flower mime is being engaged purely to make America “less great.” (Ok, I added the “less great” bit on my own. Don’t include that.)
It is also essential to provide SPECIFIC examples of the financial impact these new fees will have on you or your organization in particular, such as cancelling performances, losing the ability to engage guest artists, etc.
Comments can be filed online through the Federal Register Portal by the deadline of March 6, 2023.
To make your comment, click HERE.
Please remember that any comments submitted through the Federal Register portal will be viewable by the public. So, avoid threats and keep swearing to a minimum.
In addition to issuing a formal comment in response to the Proposal, everyone is strongly encouraged to forward a copy of your comments to your U.S. Senators and members of the U.S. House of Representatives, as well as engage the your audiences, speak up and out, create performance art advocacy, and whatever else it takes for our situation to be taken seriously.
You can find a deeper analysis, along with further advocacy opportunities on the League’s website as well as on its recently released ADVOCACY ALERT.
Deep Thoughts
“Arise, arise, Riders of Théoden!
Fell deeds awake, fire and slaughter! spear shall be shaken, shield be splintered, a sword-day, a red day, ere the sun rises!
Ride now, ride now! Ride to Gondor!”
— J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
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OFFICIAL LEGALESE:
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 threatening email, filing a lawsuit, or basically doing anything that may in any way rely upon an assumption that we know what we are talking about or one size fits all!