Archive for May, 2011

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The Ballet World and the Star System

Tuesday, May 31st, 2011

By Rachel Straus

In 1955 the British dance critic R. J. Austin calculated that American Ballet Theatre, whose roster of choreographers continually changed, would focus on it star dancers to solidify its reputation as a premier ballet company. Austin calculated right. Today ABT is powerful because of its stupendous dancers, whether they’re on the masthead or employed as guest artists for only a season.

On May 21, throngs descended on the Metropolitan Opera House to see David Hallberg dance Basilio, the poor barber, across from guest artist Polina Semionova, dancing the headstrong Kitri, in “Don Quixote.” On May 28, Hallberg played Prince Albrecht to guest artist Alina Cojocaru’s Giselle in the eponymous ballet. What seemed to matter to audiences (and critics) in these full-length ballets, where fifty plus dancers performed, was the performance of these principal dancers. The audiences got their money’s worth. Semionova, Cojocaru and Hallberg are at their peak of their artistry.

Hallberg dances like he is in the act of discovery. He has mastered ballet technique to the point that he plays with steps, rather than merely executing them. His confidence as an actor grows nightly. As Basilio he was all brio, showing unswerving confidence that he could win Kitri, despite all those rich suitors. As Albrecht, Hallberg dances as innocently as Cojocaru’s Giselle, whose heart he breaks and who saves him from The Wilis that are bent on his destruction. When Hallberg sequentially scissors his legs in the air six times, he resembles Christ suspended on the cross. His arms stretch wide, his expression is deathly. Hallberg’s face as much as his legs reveal his passion, his fear that if he stops dancing the Queen of The Wilis will kill him.

But Hallberg’s ability to create meaning isn’t what ticket holders, at least those I spoke to, are discussing. Hallberg’s technique and beautiful leg line are the points that dominate the conversation. Balletomanes are comfortable objectifying dancers and reducing ballets to its dancing stars. The choreography takes a back seat to discussions about virtuosity, and how principal dancers’ performances measure up to other principal dancers’. And that is a problem, if you consider a dance an artwork, in which the movement of every one on stage imbues the work with expressive value.

This complaint about ballet being reduced to stars and their tricks is as old as Jean-Georges Noverre (1727-1810). The French dancer and ballet master argued in “Lettres on Dancing and Ballets” (1760) for creating a ballet whose power lays in the sum of its parts. The ballet master, writes Noverre, has a responsibility to the entire work:

“Without forgetting the principal players in the piece, he should give consideration to the performers as a body; if he concentrate his attention on the premières danseuses and premiers danseurs, the action becomes tedious, the progress of the scenes drawn out, and the execution has no power of attraction.”

Kevin McKenzie’s staging of “Giselle” ocassionally grows tedious. It’s not that the ensemble dancers in the village scene of Act I don’t perform their steps beautifully. It’s that their steps convey little about the village life in which their dancing is supposed to express. The villagers dance much like The Wilis, who are ghosts! In both scenes, the dancers perform ballet steps.

So why didn’t McKenzie create folk dances and take the women off their pointe shoes for the village scene? Because audiences want to see virtuosity, even among the corps dancers, and because ballet dancers want to perform ballet steps so that they can have a shot of performing the roles of Giselle and Albrecht some day. Unfortunately, the plot of “Giselle” gets ground down by this assembly line standardization of choreography, which churns out a few principal dancers who can dazzle with their turns and leaps. This keeps the audiences focused on the sport of dance, which tends to sap the overall quality and meaning of a ballet.

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For those who toil

Thursday, May 26th, 2011

by Keith Clarke

Music critics don’t always have the fondest place in musicians’ affections but you have to admire their stamina. OK, our stamina, since I’m a paid-up member of the motley crew, so beware a little self-regard, but I’m thinking about the brave souls who work for the daily papers and have to do the arts editor’s bidding, for good or ill.

Last week I cast an eye over my colleagues doing three hours of Britten in London on Thursday, the same colleagues doing three hours of Mozart in Cardiff on Friday, knowing that they would be on duty at Glyndebourne on Saturday for a performance of Meistersinger that started at 2.55pm and ended at 9.40pm. OK, you get a long interval at Glyndebourne, so that everyone can get through their foie gras and Dom Perignon without fear of indigestion, but you get my drift.

I excused myself from the Wagner, for reasons best kept between me and my urologist. But as I raised a leisurely glass or two on Saturday evening, I felt honor bound to toast those who toiled.

Of course, musicians have every right to stamp in here and say “What about us?” They are the ones putting in the real effort, night after night, while we sit on our fat butts then file a bit of pontification. But we know the blood, sweat and tears that go into performance, whereas journalists are generally looked on as lazy sons and daughters of bitches who spend their whole lives standing around quaffing other people’s liquor. Like the man said, “Journalism? It’s better than working.” Sometimes it just doesn’t feel that way.

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On the subject of being excused from Wagner, we asked one of our Classical Music magazine scribes to come up with Top Ten accessories for musicians for our June 4 edition and he rather controversially included a Shewee, a device enabling ladies to discreetly answer the call of nature. He reports: “An acquaintance recently told me of her dread of playing Götterdämmerung at the Royal Opera House, not because of any difficulties in Wagner’s score but because of the prologue and first act’s two-hour running time.”

Apparently the Shewee was pressed into service with great success. Whether the conductor was aware of fumblings beneath long skirts as the music soared goes unreported.

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To Thine Own Self Be True

Thursday, May 26th, 2011

by Edna Landau 

To ask a question, please write Ask Edna.

This column was prepared with the assistance of Neale Perl, President of the Washington Performing Arts Society, and Ruth Felt, President of San Francisco Performances. Both are valued longtime colleagues, to whom I am very grateful.

Dear Edna:

I am a pianist and have just completed my second year at an American conservatory. I am hoping that I will be fortunate enough to pursue a solo career. I read your article [Getting Noticed in the 21st Century] in the 2011 Musical America International Directory of the Performing Arts and have taken to heart your message that so much of the challenge of succeeding as a performer lies in getting noticed. I have been thinking about this, specifically in relation to programming. My focus has been on learning major repertoire pieces that every pianist should know. Do you think that is a mistake? Should I also be exploring works that are quite rarely performed so that I will stand out from the crowd? —K.P.

Dear K.P.:

Your question is a good one, which will probably be of interest to many other young musicians, regardless of their instrument.

It is my firm belief that no matter what one’s objective might be, a cardinal principle is to remain true to oneself. Throughout your career,  the repertoire you choose should be repertoire you can’t wait to explore and master. There is no list of pieces that every pianist should know. You are fortunate that you have a huge amount from which to choose. In the case of concerto repertoire, it is advisable to keep in your fingers a certain number of pieces that are considered to be “standard repertoire” because that is what most orchestras will want. However, if you are drawn to less often performed repertoire or a relatively unknown concerto that you feel deserves a wider audience, this could prove to be a useful vehicle for gaining exposure. When Murray Perahia was in the early stages of his career, he decided upon the Mendelssohn concertos for his first recording. As far as I recall, he and his manager felt that he should be introduced in concertos for which he felt a great affinity but which had not been overly recorded. Pianist Marc-Andre Hamelin’s earliest concerto recordings featured works by Adolf von Henselt, Charles-Valentin Alkan, Joseph Marx, and Erich Korngold. However, this was no gimmick on Mr. Hamelin’s part. He was introduced to a great deal of unusual repertoire, including Alkan, by his father who was also a pianist.

In these times, when opportunities to play recitals on established series are fewer than they used to be, and when recital reviews for less than superstars are an increasing rarity, considerable attention should be given to one’s chosen program in hopes that it will pique a presenter’s or critic’s interest. There are various ways to do this while still remaining true to one’s repertoire strengths:

  • Round out a familiar program with an unexpected rarity. By way of example, here is a program that cellist Sol Gabetta will perform on the Washington Performing Arts Society’s Kreeger String Series at the Kennedy Center next February: Schumann Fantasiestücke, Shostakovich Sonata in D Minor, Mendelssohn Sonata in D Major, Servais Fantaisie sur deux Airs Russes. The Servais adds a nice symmetry to the program, creating a sort of “fantasy” sandwich with some “meaty” substance in between!
  • Choose a program that includes music from various periods, but not the most obvious composers or works. I like the following program, chosen by pianist Nareh Arghamanyan for her San Francisco Performances recital next April: Clementi Sonata in F# minor; Schubert Four Impromptus, Op. 90; Rachmaninoff Variations on a Theme by Corelli; and Balakirev’s Islamey.
  • If you were born in a foreign country, you might want to showcase music of your homeland or native region. Audiences always seem to welcome the introduction to something new, perhaps even exotic. The young Moroccan pianist, Marouan Benabdallah, is offering two pieces by Nabil Benabdeljalil in his Carnegie Hall (Zankel Hall) recital debut this evening.
  • Offer a program of works that have an internal connection. For his Carnegie Hall (Weill Recital Hall) debut this October, pianist Kit Armstrong is offering selections by two composers—Liszt and Bach—including Liszt’s Fantasy and Fugue in G Minor (after J.S. Bach) and his Variations on the Bach cantata “Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen.”
  • Offer a program that includes a newly commissioned work or unusual transcription. Violinist Giora Schmidt’s recital at the Ravinia Festival this summer will include a transcription for solo violin of Liszt’s B Minor piano sonata. The transcription is the work of Mr. Schmidt’s piano collaborator in the recital, Noam Sivan.

These types of programs lend themselves very well to some spoken words from the stage. Your audience wlll undoubtedly welcome some introductory comments about how you made your choices and perhaps what they might especially want to listen for.

None of the above rules out you playing a program of your favorite sonatas by Mozart, Beethoven, and Chopin if that is what you feel you do best, but in the early years of your career, you might reserve that program for cities where you are returning to an audience that is already enthusiastic about your artistry. I should also mention that if you are planning on selling a recording following the performance, you might want to include one of the works on the recording in your program so as to heighten the possibility that the audience will want to “take you home with them.”

While you are still in your conservatory years, it would be wise to solicit suggestions from your teachers, as well as guest artists who may be offering master classes or conductors working with your school orchestra, regarding unusual repertoire that you might explore. If you have the opportunity to meet people who write about music or audiophiles who may be a treasure trove of information about recordings that are long out of print, they may be a source of wonderful ideas. You may find yourself planning a program that offers your favorite Mozart sonata alongside a piece by his Czech contemporary, Leopold Kozeluch, or pairing a Bach suite with Max Reger’s Variations and Fugue on a Theme of J.S. Bach. The possibilities are endless, with YouTube showcasing many gems waiting to be more broadly discovered.

To ask a question, please write Ask Edna.

© Edna Landau 2011

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The Seven Deadly Sins at City Ballet

Tuesday, May 24th, 2011

By Rachel Straus

New York City Ballet’s new staging of  “The Seven Deadly Sins,” which had its premiere at the company’s spring gala on May 11,  puts Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s dark, sinister “ballet chanté” of 1933 into a new context: a tinsel-town soundstage, complete with unison hoofers in the grand finale. Choreographer Lynn Taylor-Corbett, whose credits include Broadway’s “Swing,” has essentially created a Cliff Notes version of this irony-laced yarn, dragging  principal dancer Wendy Whelan and guest artist Patti Lapone through seven shallow scenes of human transgression and stripping the work of its brooding soul.

In the original 1933 production, choreographed by George Balanchine for Les Ballets 1933, singer Lotte Lenya and dancer Tilly Losch were presented as Anna I and II, yin yang composites of the same woman. The fact that Lenya and Losch bore a striking resemblance to each other, and were about the same age, probably helped Kurt Weill and Bertold Brecht’s scenario. It concerns the Annas experiencing seven American cities, encountering seven “deadly” sins, and struggling with each other’s opposite personalities.

When Balanchine revived the work in 1958, he cast the 21-year-old Allegra Kent across from the significantly older Lenya. New York Times dance critic John Martin dubbed the production  “a stunning revival of a minor masterpiece.” But not all critics concurred, though the vision of Kent carried aloft on a human-size plate wearing just lingerie lingered in the mind, says dance writer Deborah Jowitt.

Balanchine was never afraid of being naughty. He also wasn’t afraid of “Seven Deadly” dissapearing after its run. No one filmed the performance. This may say more about what Balanchine thought of his “minor masterpiece” than City Ballet’s capacity to film performances in the 1950s. But this point is conjecture.

Now flash forward 60 years. At a City Ballet studio event, Lynn Taylor-Corbett suggests to Peter Martins that she make a reintepreted revival of “Seven Deadly Sins.” With a penchant for commercially-driven projects, Martins agrees to the venture and to Taylor-Corbett’s casting of the matronly-looking Patty Lapone, who sings like a battle ax, and the bone-thin Wendy Whelan, who dances like a steely wraith. The hope was that the project would bring in new audiences (read Broadway ticket holders). At the gala, I did see Matthew Broderick arm and arm with his wife Sarah Jessica Parker.

Unfortunately, on stage Whelan and Lapone never formed a convincing relationship, twin-like, sisterly, or otherwise. Lapone mostly stood on the sidelines, serving as singing narrator. Whelan danced Taylor-Corbett’s forgettable choreography, becoming a pawn rather than a protagonist in the rapidly unfolding events.

The greatest interest in Taylor-Corbett’s ballet was Beowulf Boritt’s sets of seven cities. In Memphis, where the sin is “Pride,” Whelan flitted about in imitation of Isadora Duncan during an audition for a sleeze-style cabaret. The black and red décor said bordello, as did the lighting by Jason Kantrowitz. In San Francisco, where the sin was “Envy,” Boritt’s backdrop of quaint Victorian row houses against a boundless blue sky was enviable. In Baltimore, where the sin was “Greed,” Boritt created a salon, channelling both Phillipe Starck’s overblown modernism and the Belle Epoque’s love of patterns. From two gargantuan black and white striped, tasseled love seats, Anna’s overfed suitors embarked on a mutually fatal duel.

As for Taylor-Corbett’s choreography, it lacked movement invention or good movement imitation. In Boston, where the sin was “Lust,” Whelan and Craig Hall peformed a romantic pas de deux.  Muscular and in a wife beater, Hall looked like Marlon Brando in Elia Kazan’s film version of “Street Car Named Desire.” He lifted Whelan aloft in shapes and transitions that looked exactly like moments in Christopher Wheeldon’s “After the Rain”—which Whelan and Hall perform frequently.

Following the performance, this reviewer read the Brecht text, which was translated into English by W.H. Auden and Chester Kallman. What crystalized from the text, but not from Taylor-Corbett’s production, is that the production hinges on demonstrating the conflict between the Annas: Anna I wants money and power; Anna II wants love and a creative outlet. Also, Anna II allows Anna I to push her around. But only in the last scene of Taylor-Corbett’s work is their conflict delivered without a doubt and Anna II emerges triumphant. As Anna II  (Whelan) collapses in front of her families’ spiffy new home, Anna I (Lapone) walks up the stairs in a mink, looking like a character from “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.”

The gala’s second half was devoted to Balanchine’s “Vienna Waltzes,” which premiered at the 1977 City Ballet gala.  If you don’t care for the music of Johann Strauss II, Franz Lehar, or Richard Strauss or for watching a carousel vision of dancers waltzing for 46 minutes, this ballet may not be for you. But despite the work’s repetitiousness, “Waltzes” is visual spendor at its finest;  Karinska’s five sets of costumes, ranging from full-skirted 1860s crinoline ball gowns to sleek white silk Roaring Twenties dresses are a fashionista’s delight.

In the pit, Clotilde Otranto energetically conducted such ditties as the “Explosions-Polka” and excerpts from “Der Rosenkavalier.” Principals Maria Korowski, Jennifer Ringer and Megan Fairchild demonstrated their strikingly differing styles through the same steps. That said all City Ballet dancers waltz with a brilliant elegance.

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An Ode to Audra

Thursday, May 19th, 2011

by Sedgwick Clark

Carnegie Hall celebrated its 120th birthday party on May 5. Some thought it could have waited five years, but I would welcome a Carnegie fête every night if Audra McDonald were singing. On this evening she sang four Duke Ellington songs with the New York Philharmonic and once again revealed that her emotional truth in any music she sings is blinding. Her four-year gig on TV’s Private Practice ends this season, and her manager reports “a bunch of concerts scheduled between now and Thanksgiving.” This includes a Carnegie concert all her own on October 22, which is as great a cause for rejoicing as any I know. If there is a more entrancing singer in the world, I’m not aware of her (or him).

This was one of Philharmonic Music Director Alan Gilbert’s best nights.

His well-judged celebratory program began with a rousing Dvořák Carnival Overture and continued with a downright bubbly Beethoven Triple Concerto, garnished with an unbeatable trio of cellist Yo-Yo Ma, violinist Gil Shaham, and pianist Emanuel Ax. His Ellington accompaniments had just the right elegant swing. I couldn’t stay for Gershwin’s An American in Paris, but I’m told I shouldn’t miss the PBS broadcast on May 31. You shouldn’t either.

Dutoit’s All-Stravinsky
Two nights before, the Philadelphia Orchestra’s first Carnegie Hall concert since its board filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy (April 27 blog) was an all-Stravinsky program conducted by Charles Dutoit. There were bravos amidst the applause as concertmaster David Kim walked onstage, and some members of the audience stood, to the evident pleasure of the musicians. The performances, however, were mixed. Dutoit’s devitalized Apollo sorely lacked balletic verve; moreover, except for Kim’s bewitching violin solos, the string ensemble sounded unaccountably coarse and monochromatic. Things improved immeasurably in the opera-oratorio Oedipus Rex, which was conducted with a taut sense of drama, played with power and rhythmic acuity, and sung effectively by Paul Groves (Oedipus) and Petra Lang (Jocasta), in particular, and the Men of the Philadelphia Singers Chorale. David Howey was the appropriately haughty narrator.

Curse of the Proofreader
Poor Igor. In recent years his last name has become one of classical music’s most frequent typos. The Times review head of the Philly concert shouted out in 26-pt. boldface type: “A Stravinksy Program With Ancient Inspiration.”

Have any commentators pointed out that the license plate of The Royal Newlyweds’ car did not read “JUST WED,” but “JU5T WED”? One hopes it’s not a harbinger of thrings to come.

And then there was the “beautification” of Pope John II on the TV. Good lord.

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Horse play

Thursday, May 19th, 2011

By James Jorden

The critics’ reaction to Robert Lepage’s new production of Die Walküre at the Met leaves this contrarian reviewer in something of a quandary. Not only was pretty much everybody underwhelmed, but there was a consensus about what (they thought) was wrong: the clunkiness of The Machine, the lack of poetry in the latter part of the first act, the clumsy path to the final tableau.  No, one doesn’t want to just heap on the contempt, but at the same time it’s not easy to build a case for Lepage’s invention thus far in the Ring.  (more…)

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Never Say Die

Thursday, May 19th, 2011

by Keith Clarke

Attendances down 10 per cent, box office revenue down 6 per cent. That’s the stark news from the Society of London Theatre, comparing the first quarter of this year with the same period in 2010. It is hardly surprising. Everyone has been talking about the financial storm coming our way, but so far it has been a bit of a phony war. Now it is getting a bit real. With gasoline prices at an all-time high, the cost of food essentials soaring, there is little doubt that people are feeling the pinch, and thinking twice before booking tickets for a show.

But show business has always thrived on the principle of unreasonable optimism. And when financial doldrums descend, people need entertaining all the more. One thing that changes in a recession is that people tend to make more last-minute bookings rather than planning ahead, which can be nerve racking for arts managers. But the never-say-die approach has seen us through dark days before, so let’s hope it works its magic this time round.

The West End certainly cannot be accused of not trying hard enough. Among its efforts to woo audiences is a live event in Trafalgar Square over two days next month. As the fountains splash and Lord Nelson looks down from his plinth, cast members from more than 20 shows will perform live, free of charge, to an expected crowd of half a million.

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A new report on copyright law has stopped short of recommending that the UK should follow the US model  of “fair use,” allowing limited use of copyright material without the need for permission from the copyright holders. But any step in the right direction is to be welcomed. At present it is illegal to copy a CD to an iPod, even if the owner has bought the CD. That means that many millions of us walking the streets with iPods are technically criminals. But police numbers are being cut at the moment, so it seems unlikely that there will be a sudden rush of bobbies to round us all up.

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It is brave of English National Opera to stage John Adams’s opera, The Death of Klinghoffer, even two decades after it was written. The murder of a disabled Jewish-American tourist by Palestinian terrorists was never going to offer the easiest subject matter, and certainly those 20 years have seen no lessening of Middle East tensions.

The piece was supposed to have first seen the light of day at the 1991 Glyndebourne Festival, the house having co-commissioned the work, along with five other institutions, including Brooklyn Academy of Music, but the leafy country opera house decided to drop it following complaints. It was left to La Monnaie in Brussels to mount the world premiere, with the Brooklyn Academy giving the first US performance.

It was understandable that Glyndebourne did not want its manicured lawns threatened by protest, but a little more controversy might do wonders for the company’s image. These days, the most heat being generated is over the house’s plans to build a wind turbine in the rolling English countryside.

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An Alternative to Traditional Management

Thursday, May 19th, 2011

by Edna Landau

To ask a question, please write Ask Edna.

Dear Edna:

I am a professional classical guitarist that has turned to other styles of music, as well as played shows with dancers. I have been concertizing over the past twelve years. I have been fortunate to get great reviews from major newspapers and standing ovations from large audiences in most of my recent concerts. I have a promoter but have been seeking a larger management over the last two years, with no success. They all told me they are afraid to add one more guitarist to their roster on top of the one they have. I honestly believe I have a lot to offer a manager in terms of getting booked and don’t know how to make them interested in taking me on. Do you have any advice for me?   —Frustrated But Still Inspired

Dear Edna:

I am a pianist with some concerts lined up but I would like to have some help with contacting more orchestras and presenters. I have seen some artists who have a ‘personal representative’ (sometimes the representative works for only one artist, or just a few artists), and I thought that would work well for me. The question is how to find someone who is interested in doing the work, has some knowledge and background in music, and can handle the bookings well. I was thinking about contacting a local arts council but I’m not so sure about that. If you have any ideas as to where I should look, can you please share them with me?   –Trying To Be Resourceful

Dear Searching Artists:

I wish I knew the perfect answer for everyone who writes to me seeking professional management. Clearly there are more artists inquiring than there are managers to go around. While it is important to be confident in your abilities and persistent in your efforts to find a solution, it is also important to recognize that managers have their own agenda. You may believe that “you have a lot to offer a manager in terms of getting booked” but unless you can demonstrate a steady stream of concert income that is likely to continue to grow, it is not likely that they will share your belief. Furthermore, if that income is derived from a large number of concerts for which you tend to be paid small fees, it will necessitate a great deal of servicing work on the part of the manager (contracts, travel, programs, etc.) which they may feel they cannot assume.

In the case of guitar, I can understand that a manager may feel that one guitarist on a roster is enough. However, since you don’t come across as squeamish, you could always make the case that you have general availability and would be happy to pick up whatever dates the other guitarist might not be able to do! Since you also sound enterprising, you might offer to turn over to them research you have done on series around the country that have presented guitarists in the past several years, in exchange for them taking a chance on you. (Managers often don’t have time to do this type of research.)

As I said in my earlier blog post entitled “The Truth About Managers,” it is better to be represented by a smart, healthily aggressive and motivated individual, who loves music, than by a management that has little recognition or, even worse, is not respected. The best salespeople are those who are passionate and very knowledgeable about what it is they are trying to sell, and intelligent and strategic minded about how to target realistic buyers. And now, on to our pianist’s question: how to find them? First and foremost, you must tell everyone you know, both friends and professional contacts, that you are seeking such a person. It would be advisable to get in touch with deans, faculty, and the directors of arts management programs at conservatories  or universities, to see if they have a student who possesses the qualities mentioned above and might be willing to work for you. Musical America lists schools, as well as arts administration degree programs, in the U.S. and Canada. Another good resource is The Association of Arts Administration Educators. There is certainly no harm in trying your local arts council. It is also possible that a parent of young children or a retiree who has training in the arts might welcome the opportunity to have part-time work that they can do from home. If you find a student without any training who otherwise seems very promising, it might be wise for them to inquire about internships at management agencies. That is one of the best ways to acquire the necessary skills. (Be aware, however, that they may be required to receive credit in their school program in order to qualify for such an internship.)

While it may not be absolutely essential, it would be beneficial if your chosen person had knowledge of the repertoire for your instrument, especially in the case of guitar. You would need to set specific goals for them, which might include getting re-engagements for you in places where you were successful in the past, following up on leads you haven’t had time to pursue, and inquiring about possible auditions for conductors. It might make sense to identify certain geographical areas you want to concentrate on, especially if you know that there are presenters in those areas who might be interested in your kind of programming. You will need to be prepared to pay this person a weekly or monthly stipend since you will not be able to offer them commissions on fees which will not be received for a while. However, these payments can later be applied against those commissions. You will also need to incur the expense of providing them with attractive, up to date materials to work with in promoting you (whether print or digital), that capture the essence of what you have to offer a presenter and their audience. High quality recorded samples of your work will also assist them greatly in their efforts. I would advise you to set a date by which your arrangement will be reviewed, such as three to four months. By then you should have some idea of the effectiveness of your representative.

Once you have succeeded in your quest, please be sure to report back on your progress so that others might benefit from your experience. (We’ll call that “Answer Edna,” rather than “Ask Edna!”)

© Edna Landau 2011

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Chinese Enrollment Continues to Rise

Friday, May 13th, 2011

by Cathy Barbash

Once acceptances and responses were issued and received by applicants and conservatories nation-wide, I decided to take an informal look at trend in numbers of Chinese musicians who auditioned at, who were accepted to, and who chose to enroll in American institutions. My hunches proved correct: applications, acceptances and enrollments of Chinese are increasing, but my research hinted at another story. I chose to contact a handful of institutions with which I had enough contacts that I expected responses. What I ultimately found more interesting than the musician statistics was that the willingness or lack thereof to share this information seemed like an indicator of the conservatory’s self-confidence and comfort with this issue.

Curtis Institute was happy to oblige with any information I requested. They had 97 PRC citizenship applicants this year, 7 of whom were accepted. That’s up from last year’s 82. Successful candidates this year included 2 clarinetists, 2 pianists, a violinist, a violist, and a singer. All accepted chose to attend. Curtis even shared the successful applicants’ teachers: mazel tov to Keith Lipson, a Curtis grad himself, who taught both clarinetists!

New England Conservatory of Music’s representative said: “The growth has been really striking and is, consequently, something we’re tracking closely. The number of applications (roughly 15-20), admission offers (roughly 8-12), and enrolled students (roughly 1-5) from China held fairly steady from 2002-2006.

Starting in 2007, application numbers began to increase noticeably and have continued to do so each year. For our most current application cycle (class entering fall 2011), we received 224 applications. This represents about 11 times the number of applications from China than we received in each of the years from 2002-2006.

This increase in the number of applications led to a higher number of admission offers and, ultimately, enrolled students. Last year (with the fall 2010 entering class), China became the country of origin of the second-highest number of entering students at NEC, only behind South Korea. Compared to 1-5 enrolled students in each of the years 2002-2006, we have commitments from 26 Chinese students to enroll in fall 2011.

In terms of the percentages:

– From 2002-2006, applicants from China generally represented just under 1% of our total applicant pool. This year, they represented 7.5% of our total applicant pool.

– Number of Chinese applications is up from 18 applicants in 2002 to 224 applicants in 2011, an increase of 1144%.

– As application numbers from China have increased, our acceptance rate has gone down. This is to be expected—a 58% acceptance rate among 18 applicants is not terribly surprising, but a 58% acceptance rate among 224 applicants would be very surprising! So while the acceptance rate in 2002 was 58%, this year it was 26%.

– The acceptance rate for Chinese applicants over the past five years has mirrored closely our overall acceptance rate for the total NEC applicant pool.

– Enrollment yields (the number of admitted students who choose to come): From 2002-2006, an average of 34% of accepted Chinese students chose to enroll, but the percent from year to year varied greatly because the number of students was so small that the decisions of one or two people would affect the percent dramatically. From 2007-2011, when we’ve had a larger pool of applicants so that the percentages are not dramatically affected by one or two students, our enrollment yield for Chinese applicants has averaged 40%. For the coming year, about 45% of admitted Chinese students have indicated that they will be enrolling at NEC in fall 2011. Note that numbers are for the fall 2011 application cycle but those numbers are not 100% final as they may see changes over the summer.”

Eastman told me that anecdotally they have seen a gradual increase in both applicants and enrolled students from China in recent years. They attribute this increase to ongoing recruitment efforts in the Far East (including regional auditions held in Asia) as well as alums who return to their home country and speak favorably about Eastman to the next generation of students. They apologized that unfortunately they were not authorized to provide specific numbers or percentages to outside parties.

At the other end of the spectrum, two institutions would not share data (I’ll leave my readers to guess who.) One of them replied: “ ________’s application, screening, and audition processes are modeled to encourage applicants from all nationalities. In view of this, we hesitate to break out numbers specifically for the People’s Republic of China; we do not want the publication of any apparent trends in Chinese applications — or those of any country — to be taken out of context or misinterpreted.”

Sounds like I hit a sore spot…

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Young at Art

Thursday, May 12th, 2011

Of all the classical music awards ceremonies, the Royal Philharmonic Awards are easily the most valuable. They are also the glitziest, with a slap-up, black-tie dinner in London’s Dorchester Hotel where the entire British music establishment gathers to quaff champagne and roar approval. So why wasn’t I there on Tuesday night? Having quaffed and roared my way through the event for many a year, this time round I went to a piano recital instead.

What kind of piano recital could take precedence over the most prestigious awards event in the classical music calendar? A pretty unusual one, with 34 pianists going through their paces. One of the 34 was young Benedict Clarke, my 14-year-old son, fresh from gaining a distinction at his Grade 3 exam, and taking his place at the school piano alongside some of the other young musicians currently putting work into scales and arpeggios and two-minute pieces.

It is encouraging that at a time when we are led to believe that teenagers are mainly hooded thugs, snorting drugs and knocking little old ladies over the head, so many are still keen to discover the sheer joy of learning an instrument and making music.

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While the RPS Awards continue to get my medal for the Most Grown-Up Awards, at the other end of the scale the Classical Brits organizers have an important message for us: they are dropping the classical. As from this year, the event is to be known as the Classic Brit Awards. The show takes place tonight at the Royal Albert Hall, and for those who can take the sugar rush, it is broadcast on May 29.

Dropping classical is hardly surprising, since the organizers seemed embarrassed by the adjective right from the start. While the list of winners is usually a reasonable reflection of classical work in the recording world, the show itself has been a ghastly piece of lowest-common-denominator tat, everything heavily amplified, with the usual crowd pleasing combination of flashing lights, dry ice and saccharine presentation.

Over the years it has served its purpose – to get the cash registers ringing in record stores – but classical it is not.

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Back at the piano recital, one thing those youngsters may not realise is that by engaging in that miraculous combination of brain and fingers, they are upping their chances of remaining crisp in later years. A recent report from Chicago’s Northwestern University claims that learning a musical instrument boosts memory and helps keep hearing intact. It’s great news for those of us who have been plugging away at instruments all our lives – if only we can believe it. Do these findings mean that had I not started hitting the family piano aged five, my current senior moments would be even worse?

But I am encouraged by some fellow sufferers who have recognized that we veterans are increasingly getting our heads round texting and tweeting, and have helpfully devised a Senior Texting Code:

ATD – At The Doctor’s
BFF – Best Friend Fell
BTW – Bring The Wheelchair
BYOT – Bring Your Own Teeth
CBM – Covered By Medicare
CUATSC – See You At The Senior Center
FWB – Friend With Beta Blockers
FWIW – Forgot Where I Was
FYI – Found Your Insulin
GGPBL – Gotta Go, Pacemaker Battery Low!
GHA – Got Heartburn Again
HGBM – Had Good Bowel Movement
IMHO – Is My Hearing-Aid On?
LMDO – Laughing My Dentures Out
ROFL…CGU – Rolling On The Floor Laughing… And Can’t Get Up
TTYL – Talk To You Louder
WAITT – Who Am I Talking To?
LMGA – Lost My Glasses Again
GLKI – Gotta Go, Laxative Kicking In

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