Archive for September, 2012

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The Elixir fails to work its Magic at Lincoln Center; Efterklang with the Wordless Music Orchestra

Sunday, September 30th, 2012

By Rebecca Schmid
Many American opera-goers, including New Yorkers, look across the ocean and wish that their home institutions would afford themselves the same liberties of programming. Back in Berlin, the Deutsche Oper kicked off its season with a Lachenmann opera, Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern, while the Komische Oper launched a Monteverdi trilogy including themed culinary experiences during intermission, devised by the new Intendant Barrie Kosky. Anyone steeped in bel canto might be secretly happy to spend his or her time otherwise, melody being as foreign to Lachenmann as plot is to the tradition of Regietheater. But the opening production of the Metropolitan Opera this season, L’Elisir d’Amore (seen September 27), sadly reaffirms the stereotype that even this country’s leading companies are often content to rehash well-known repertory in not so inspired packages.

The director Bartlett Sher, who recently presided over Nico Muhly’s Dark Sisters at English National Opera, attempts to go against the grain by positing Donizetti’s opera as an allegory for the Risorgimento. Sergeant Belcore and his soldiers represent the Austrians, while the peasant Nemorino and the beautiful landowner Adina must hold to their Italian territory. This is at least what the program notes tell us, all the more convincing given that the love potion which Nemorino falsely believes has allowed him to win over the heart of Adina is nothing more than a bottle of red wine. Yet the production concept fails to materialize with depth and stalls an inherently humorous, light hearted opera.

The star of the production is of course not Sher but Anna Netrebko, the Met’s official poster child who opened last season in another Donizetti opera, Anna Bolena. Her reappearance this year in a top hat failed to distract from the fact that bel canto operas are not an ideal vehicle for her vocal skills. The Russian soprano’s timbre has only become rounder and richer in recent years, and her personality naturally lends itself to the role of the flirty Adina, yet her Italian diction is largely incomprehensible and her mastery of coloratura still subpar. It was refreshing to see the American tenor Matthew Polenzani in the spotlight as Nemorino, albeit in a more earnest than buffo portrayal. He briefly stopped the show in a soulful account his romanza “Una furtiva lagrima,” demonstrating fine use of messa di voce.

Mariusz Kwiecien possesses a tough, gallant baritone that suited Sher’s vision of Belcore, yet it was Ambrogio Maestri who brought the heaviest of dose of authenticity—and humor—in the role of Doctor Dulcamara, distributor of the love potion. One of the most memorable moments in the opera occurs in his barcarolle with Adina at the start of the second act, in which Dulcamara portrays a rich senator. The contrast of Maestri’s old school inflections with Netrebko’s hammed up acting was especially prominent here, although they both appeared to be having a good time onstage. Rounding out the cast in the role of the peasant girl Gianetta was the lyric soprano Anne-Carolyn Bird, whose nasal timbre and studied acting did little to enhance what was largely an under inspired evening.

The orchestra of the Metropolitan Opera performed with natural verve and flexible phrasing under Maurizio Benini, although the Italian conductor was a bit too eager to keep the energy high with fleet tempi. The Met’s chorus did not deviate from its high standards as the peasants surrounding Adina and Belcore’s platoon. Naturalist sets by Michael Yeargan aimed for a larger-than-life, rustic charm that gained aesthetic appeal in the pastel buildings of the village square scene in the first act, while the painted haystacks lining Adina’s farmhouse in the second act indicated a bland attempt to reinvent this familiar opera in bold, accessible strokes. Costumes by Catherine Zuber, ranging from frilly peasant dresses to Austrian soldiers’ uniforms, were well-crafted but not particularly memorable. Top hats for Adina and Dulcamara added perplexing, out of place flash. While there is no doubt that Lincoln Center remains a center of world-class opera, even with the remains of New York City Opera roaming the streets, it may not be enough to ride on big names and crowd pleasers if the Met is to live up to its name as an unrivalled bastion of quality.

Wordless Music

A visit to New York would of course not be complete without a venture into the thriving homegrown culture of indie classical. The Wordless Music Orchestra, founded in 2006 by Ronen Givony, has won attention for bringing together musicians who specialize in contemporary repertoire with rock artists such as Johnny Greenwood of Radiohead and the Japanese band MONO. On September 22, the Met Museum presented the orchestra in arrangements of songs by the Danish trio Efterklang, whose new album Piramida was released three days later. The concert boasted a strong representation of what a friend was quick to identify as hipsters, i.e. younger listeners who would most likely not venture outside their borough for a formal event at Lincoln Center. Orchestration by Karsten Fundal and Missy Mazzoli added ethereal textures to the cool vocals and ambient electronica of Efterklang, described by NPR as lying “somewhere between the cooing gloom of Bon Iver…and the soaring grandiosity of Coldplay.” A trio of female vocalists, led by Katinka Fogh Vindelev, added another layer of atmospherics, while lead singer Casper Clausen brought a friendly, casual presence to the stage.

The atmosphere took a decidedly more pop-rock direction when Clausen asked the audience to stand up for the last two numbers. Among the encores was a reprisal of “The Ghost,” a rhythmically catchy number to which Mazzoli added inventive, rubbery textures in the strings. Fundal had arranged the bulk of the songs, with a range of success. Tremoli in the slow medley “Sedna” met powerfully with vocal wailing and live electronica, while the scurrying violins were drowned out by the drums and electronica toward the end of “Between the Walls.” Despite such moments, Efterklang’s meditative, rock-inflected vibes were only enhanced in the collaboration with classical musicians. The flutes in “Told to be fine,” also entrusted to Fundal, added a heavenly sheen. The result may lack the mental rigor classical listeners associate with everyone from Bach to Lachenmann, but if blending popular and classical idioms can be such good listening, why spend one’s time otherwise?

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Posted in Berlin Times | Comments Closed

Plonk

Sunday, September 30th, 2012

By James Jorden

Of hundreds of juicy anecdotes in Ken Mandelbaum’s indispensable volume Not Since Carrie: 40 Years of Broadway Flops, one stands out perhaps a little more than the others. It’s about a show called Reuben Reuben which closed out of town in 1955. This was a through-composed absurdist piece by Mark Blitzstein, and Mandelbaum reports that on the opening night of the show over 300 audience members walked out of the Shubert Theater in Boston. (more…)

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Tips for Successful Grant Writing

Thursday, September 27th, 2012

By: Edna Landau

To ask a question, please write Ask Edna.

One of the questions I was asked this past summer when I did a live Ask Edna session at the Imani Winds Chamber Music Festival was about tips for successful grant writing.  Unfortunately, the allotted time that day didn’t suffice for me to address that topic but I felt I should dedicate a column to it as the question frequently comes up. The points itemized below have been gathered from various Internet websites and from a workshop that was presented to my class at the Colburn School a few years ago by Melissa Snoza and Adam Marks of Fifth House Ensemble. They have always been DIY types and they have developed considerable skill in this area over the years. Here are some general pointers that should apply to any type of grant application:

  1. Leave yourself a lot of time from when you request an application until it is due. If you do your job thoroughly and take the time to learn from others with experience in this area, you will maximize your chances for success. Seek out people who have written successful grant proposals. They might be happy to show you some samples. There are many sources of information on the Internet regarding successful grant writing. Chief among them is the Foundation Center. Just google “grant writing” and you will discover many hours’ worth of constructive reading.
  2. Read all instructions very carefully. A grant proposal can be rejected simply because the writer didn’t precisely adhere to them or because it was incomplete.
  3. Your proposal should be neat and easy to read. Be sure to submit the exact number of copies the funder requests. If you are allowed to submit supporting materials, try to ascertain which items would be most helpful, rather than assume that you should include every nice letter that was ever written about you.
  4. Make sure your project falls within the funding guidelines of the granting organization and matches their priorities. Also, take the time to check that you qualify for a grant even if you don’t have 501(c)3 status. You might be eligible if you have fiscal sponsorship but some funders won’t give grants through fiscal sponsors.
  5. It is essential to comply with all deadlines stipulated by the funder. Keep a “tickler file” or online timeline of when all materials are due or when you need to complete certain tasks, and update it regularly as you make progress with your proposal.
  6. Inquire about the maximum possible amount of the grant you are seeking and be sure not to submit a proposal for more. It is important to ensure that your budget corresponds realistically to what you hope to achieve. Don’t underestimate your expenses in hopes that a more modest grant request will have a greater chance for success.
  7. Make sure your need and purpose in applying for a grant is well thought out, concise and crystal clear. In this regard, I liked the following sentence which I found on the lone-eagles.com website:“You should know exactly what you’re planning to do with their money and express it in elegant simplicity.” Be very specific as to what you will be delivering if you receive the grant and make sure that the outcomes are objective and measurable.
  8. At any point along the way, you should feel comfortable calling the funder to ask any questions you may have. In fact, you might want to call even before you start the application process to make sure that your project falls within their guidelines. You might want to ask how applications are reviewed and how decisions are made. It is a good idea to invite them to events you are presenting during the application period. If you do not receive the grant in the end, you can also call them to get feedback that might prove helpful in the future.
  9. In advance of the big moment when you finally submit your proposal, proofread it carefully and have at least one other person read it. Ask them if what you have written is totally clear to them and if they think you have made a compelling case for your project. Double and triple check the numbers in your budget.

If you are feeling squeamish about the prospect of going it on your own, you can always enlist the services of a grant writer. However, it would be prudent to use someone who comes with recommendations from people you know. You might even ask them to show you one or two sample proposals they submitted that met with success. In the end, you might decide to resort to buying Grant Writing for Dummies. Someone I know who has had repeated success with grant applications swears that they learned everything they know from this book. If you go this route, please be sure to let me know if you found it helpful!

To ask a question, please write Ask Edna.

© Edna Landau 2012

Posted in Ask Edna, Managing Your Own Career | Comments Closed

Polisi for President

Wednesday, September 26th, 2012

by Sedgwick Clark

Of Lincoln Center, that is.

The announcement on Tuesday (9/25) that Reynold Levy, 67, president of Lincoln Center since 2002, considers his work done and will move on at the end of next year, was a surprise. I figured there would be more total remakes like Alice Tully Hall. Under Levy, all the $1.2 billion renovations of the past seven years were accomplished on time and on budget. (Lincoln Center’s detailed press release offers the full official information.) Not in the release is my own observation that the populist move begun by his predecessor Nat Leventhal has bloomed full flower, with summer events never envisioned by John D. Rockefeller and LC’s founding fathers.

I never quite believed my friend Betsy Vorce, v.p. of public relations at LC, who has been saying for some time that the renovations are nearly finished. I’ll certainly be happy to see the scaffolding removed. But what about Avery Fisher Hall, which I attend more than any other venue at LC? Won’t LC be in charge of the inevitable work there, or will the NYPhil be responsible? We all know that renovation – mainly acoustical – is desirable. I speak, of course, as an audience member, not as one aware of day-to-day operating necessities such as dilapidating plumbing, etc. (This is not the time to revisit this difficult subject. I’ll just say that I’ve heard the NYPhil sound magnificent in Fisher under Masur, Maazel, Gilbert, and Davis, and unlistenable under Mehta.)

Tomorrow (9/27), in honor of Levy’s achievements, an 83-foot pedestrian bridge on the Walter Reade Theater level connecting the Rose Building to the main Lincoln Center “campus” will be opened and dedicated The President’s Bridge by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and other dignitaries.

Back, however, to the subject of my title: Joseph Polisi. He has been president of The Juilliard School for 28 years and was honored by Musical America as Educator of the Year in 2005. His reputation as a master diplomat — a necessary quality when dealing with LC’s 11 turf-sensitive constituents – is impeccable and widespread. He had responsibility for the many alterations in the Juilliard building, most notably changing the school’s entrance from the original “back-door” location of 66th Street onto the more significant 65th Street where the action is. As author of American Muse: The Life and Times of William Schuman (Amadeus, 2008), he undoubtedly knows the ins and outs of everyone and everything to do with Lincoln Center, for Schuman was LC’s first president. Seems to me that Polisi would be ideal.

Looking Forward

My week’s scheduled concerts:

9/26 at 7:30 David H. Koch Theater. New York City Ballet. Stravinsky-Blanchine: Violin Concerto; Monumentum pro Gesualdo/Movements for Piano and Orchestra; Duo Concertant; Symphony in Three Movements.

9/27 Paul Hall (Juilliard School). Joel Sachs, piano; Cheryl Seltzer, piano; vocalists. Music of Henry Cowell.

10/3 at 7:00 Carnegie Hall. Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus/Riccardo Muti. Orff: Carmina burana. OPENING NIGHT.

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Music and Dance Partnerships

Wednesday, September 26th, 2012

By Rachel Straus

At the most recent Guggenheim Museum Works & Process (September 23), I couldn’t help but think of Monte Carlo in 1928. In that city and year, the 24-year-old George Balanchine created his bedrock neo-classical ballet to Stravinsky’s Apollon musagète. For the next four decades, the partnership between the young Russian choreographer and older Russian composer flourished.

At Sunday’s moderated talk and dance exhibition, the subject was a new ballet-music partnership—that of the 25-year-old American choreographer Justin Peck and American indie rocker Sufjan Stevens. Peck is a current New York City Ballet corps member who has been making work since 2009. Stevens has several award winning albums under his belt. Moderator Ellen Bar mentioned that Stevens has a “cult following.” The hope is that his music will bring in a new, young audience to New York City Ballet. On October 3 the Peck-Stevens work, Year of the Rabbit, will premiere at the former New York State Theater.

What’s odd about this new collaboration is that Stevens’s 2001 electronica album Enjoy Your Rabbit is getting a complete classical music makeover. In fact, Rabbit has been through not one but two iterations since its inception. Classical music arranger Michael Atkinson turned it into a string quartet in 2007. For the City Ballet commission, Atkinson and Stevens expanded the quartet into a full orchestral score. Instead of electronic acoustics and club beats, Atkinson inserted clacking sounds for the violin and a fare amount of percussion. Stevens’s original work, heard in excerpted form over the PA system, captures the cosmic sensibility of The Chinese Zodiac, which served as Stevens’s original inspiration. The orchestral version, also heard in excerpted form, sounds less celestial.

When Peck began reading up on Chinese astrology, he confessed to feeling overwhelmed by the enormity of the subject. When asked about the challenges of making Year of the Rabbit, Peck said that it has been easy sailing, partially because NYCB Ballet Master in Chief Peter Martins gave his work priority and the pick of the company’s dancers. Only Alexei Ratmansky might have gotten this treatment at City Ballet. But that is the very point. Ratmansky is gone; he took an Artist in Residence position at American Ballet Theatre in 2007. Choreographer Christopher Wheeldon left City Ballet in 2008 to start his own company. Martins is looking for a new wunderkind. Peck has fluency formulating movement based on academic ballet steps. He is the great new hope.

Four excerpts showcased Peck’s choreographic talent, energy, and ambition. His work is fast, virtuosic and not as angular as Balanchine’s style. But the softer arm work often rides on top of Peck’s hyper-kinetic foot work (and sometimes lyricism gets lost). When City Ballet principal Tiler Peck (no relation) danced an excerpt from “Year of the Ox,” it was the most exciting moment of the evening. Having learned the part 48 hours prior, Peck was filling in for an injured Ashley Bouder. Becoming the Ox, she pawed the ground. Her legs and arms yoked in one direction, and then another. She pushed back with flying limbs that syncopated against the music and responded to the violins’ high notes.

**

Another event that featured music as much as dance was the September 17 Alice Tully Hall performance of the Simón Bolivar National Youth Choir and the José Limón Dance Company. The highlight of the one-night only occasion in celebration of Venezuala’s El Sistema was Missa Brevis. With a score by Zoltan Kodaly, a choir of more than 65 young singers, and a cast of 18 dancers, the 1958 Limón work has never looked better.

In the age of irony, it’s not easy to dance Missa Brevis. The work was inspired by Limón’s trip to Poland, where he witnessed the people’s poverty and dignity under Soviet Union rule. Despite this big subject, Missa Brevis came across Monday night not as an ideological sermon, but as a prayer. In their Lincoln Center debut, the Limón dancers performed Limón’s landmark work without an ounce of sanctimony.

Like a religious icon above the heads of the worshippers, Missa began with Kathyrn Alter raised out and aloft of a mass of men and women. Hovering above the organist, played by Vincent Heitzer, Alter’s face shone like a Madonna. Francisco Ruvalcaba danced Missa‘s Christ figure. Ruvalcaba is the outsider who dances alone and prostates himself on the floor in the sign of the cross. Angels also appear: three men men lift three women; they float through the air; their arms reach upwards; their limbs sing to the heavens.

The groupings of dancers in response to Kodaly’s choric mass created sonic-visual achitecture. Its architectural correlative is the great cathedral, one that possesses a high golden altar and low simple benches. Limón learned from his mentor Doris Humphrey that contrast is key to choreography. Consequently, Missa doesn’t focus solely on darkness and sorrow. Of the 12 sections, almost half of them speak of hope.

Under the artistic direction of Carla Maxwell, the Limón Company is now in its 65th year. The company’s executive director is the Venezuelan-born Gabriela Poler-Buzali. Since her appointment in 2009, Poler-Buzali has been forging alliances with Latin American arts organizations, presenters and choreographers. The company is increasingly touring Latin America. Today Limón is being rediscovered as a Latino artist. The majority of the audience at Alice Tully were there to listen to the Simón Bolivar National Youth Choir. Hopefully, they will seek out the José Limón Dance Company after this first, magnificent introduction.

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What Are You Trying To Hide?

Wednesday, September 26th, 2012

By Brian Taylor Goldstein

I run a small management company. In addition to our commissions, we bill our artists monthly for their share of expenses (conference fees, publicity materials, etc.) One of our artists is now refusing to pay unless we provide her with an itemization of expenses. Do I have to give her one? In the past, she has always paid and never asked for an itemization before?

Do you have a written agreement with your artists that requires an itemization? I once had a manager contact me with a similar question and she was unaware that the contract she had been using for years required all reimbursable expenses to be itemized. She never did, but a savvy artist eventually called her on it.

If you have a contract that requires you to provide an itemized invoice, then you are required to do so even if the artist has never asked for one before. However, lets assume your contract doesn’t have such a requirement or…perish the thought…you don’t even have a written agreement in the first place. Why not provide an itemization anyway?

Unless you’re trying to hide something, it’s not an unreasonable request. I don’t pay my credit card bill or even a restaurant check without checking the itemized charges first. (Ok, in the interest of disclosure, I don’t do math, so I rely on my wife to check these things, but the point remains the same!) It doesn’t mean someone doesn’t trust you when they ask for an itemization. People make inadvertent mistakes and, in today’s economy, every penny counts.

I realize that preparing itemized invoices requires an additional level of record keeping and bookkeeping, but, presumably, you are already keeping track of your expenses in some fashion. Besides, when representing an artist, whether as an agent or a manager, the artist is your client. They are the ones paying for your services. If you provide an itemization and the artist still refuses to pay for reasonable expenses that were knowingly incurred on their behalf, that’s a different matter. However, in any service oriented business, a happy client is a paying client.

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

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

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

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THE OFFICIAL DISCLAIMER:

THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE!

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

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New York Rites

Friday, September 21st, 2012

By Rebecca Schmid

In Berlin, where contemporary music thrives from the Philharmonie to off spaces, it is a widespread perception that New York’s mainstream institutions are afraid to program anything past Stravinsky. A look at Alan Gilbert’s recent undertakings with the New York Philharmonic, notably in a hugely successful “360” concert of Mozart, Stockhausen, Boulez and Ives in June that exploited the full space of Park Avenue Armory and was streamed live on medici.tv, reveals the idea to be a fallacy. Yet it is ironic that the orchestra’s new season has kicked off with a tribute to Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring). The concert is only the first of many events that will commemorate the centenary of Stravinsky’s ballet, which falls on May 29 of next year.

As with many works that have shaped the canon, the work was a scandal upon its Paris premiere. Choreography by Vaslav Nijinsky reportedly set off physical fights in the audience, perhaps a response to the primitive energy that Stravinsky’s music launched onstage—a far cry from the cultivated elegance high society expected to encounter on the Champs-Elysées. Le Sacre has since become one of the most widely recorded and well-known 20th-century works. Even if it doesn’t feel monumental, in the right hands, it is still hard to resist the score’s raw power.

Alan Gilbert and the Philharmonic, seen at Avery Fisher Hall on September 19, made a strong account for venerating Stravinsky, investing ripping strings and grinding rhythms with the animalistic vigor that turns this music into a pagan feast. The painterly dissonances of “The Sacrifice” emerged with ethereal mystery, while the players invested the metallic, stabbing attacks of the final “Sacrificial Dance” with unrepressed drive. The delicate, overlapping wind solos of the opening “Adoration of the Earth” emerged with unpretentious clarity before ceding to the mechanical churning of the “Augurs of the Spring” that effectively wipes the unconscious of its need for soothing classical idioms.

Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto, performed with Leif Ove Andsnes, received a less unified, persuasive interpretation. Andsnes could not quite match the heat of the Philharmonic in the opening Allegro, although his clean, incisive pianissimi nearly redeemed the performance. He and Gilbert communicated effortlessly, and yet the emotional arc from inner torment to Mozartean bitter-sweetness at times lacked conviction. The inner Largo movement felt a bit studied despite the orchestra’s sensitive phrasing, while the players’ tempered use of bombast was well suited to the final Rondo in its stormy pursuit of light-heartedness. Andsnes brought a natural, although not terribly spontaneous, playfulness to his final solo passages.

Opening the program was Kurtag’s …quasi una fantasia…for Piano and Groups of Instruments, an approximately 10-minute work that calls for the distribution of instrument clusters around the performance space while the pianist (Andnes) remains onstage in pseudo-concerto style. The rustling percussion and sparse descending piano melodies that open the piece would have been even stronger with the lights dimmed, but even more importantly than visual aesthetics, Avery Fisher Hall did not provide ideal acoustics. The snare drums behind me at one point overwhelmed the timpani onstage. Gilbert nevertheless coordinated the work with care, allowing sensuous sighing melodies to linger as strongly as the battery of percussion.

Although the piece is not tailor made for Avery Fisher Hall, Gilbert is making a concerted effort to seduce his audience base into what many listeners would consider unusual repertoire, and one hopes that he will succeed. It takes vision, charisma and daring but sound artistic choices to guide an orchestra through the current age of economic uncertainty and cultural levelling. And if Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring can teach us anything, it is that challenging the status quo is sometimes the only way to make artistic progress. As I descended into the subway after the concert, the flute melody from the opening “Adoration of the Earth” hovered mystically. It was of course just a busking musician. Even if New York does not meet the expectations of more academically-minded new music connoisseurs, one can´t deny its magic.

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A Most Unusual Recording

Thursday, September 20th, 2012

By: Edna Landau

To ask a question, please write Ask Edna.

One morning last week, while waking up to radio station WQXR, I heard the announcer introduce a nocturne by Ottorino Respighi, which he said was part of their featured album of the week. I had never heard it before and was spellbound by the beautiful playing. The pianist was Michael Landrum, also totally unknown to me. I decided I needed to know more about the two-cd set entitled Nocturnes and, a few hours later, began to research the recording. I learned that it contained 32 nocturnes by 31 different composers, among them two women – Clara Wieck-Schumann and Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel. I also learned that the pianist is Professor of Music at Roberts Wesleyan College in Rochester, New York, and that he has long been fascinated by nocturnes and the way different composers have approached them. I decided to call Dr. Landrum in hopes of finding out more about the evolution of this project, what drove him to make the recording, and what effect it has had on his professional career. It was quite easy to get through to him via the school’s music department and after leaving a message, my call was returned later the same day. The conversation proved every bit as rewarding as listening to his wonderful recording (which I bought the same day). Having assumed that he made the recording to get his name out to a broader musical community, I learned that his motivation was not that at all. He made the recording because he loved the music and realized that so much of it is unknown (e.g., nocturnes by Griffes and Tcherepnin). He felt that he would be making a contribution in his own small way by sharing it with a larger audience.

Since I know how difficult it is for performers to find time to research unusual repertoire, I asked Dr. Landrum how he succeeded in assembling such a rich and varied collection of nocturnes. He told me that he hadn’t set out to compile such a collection but “it just snuck up on him”. Having always been inspired by Chopin’s nocturnes, one of which he worked on while a freshman at Oberlin, he later was scavenging around for teaching materials for his undergraduate students and came across some nocturnes by John Field, which were totally new to him. A search through the stacks at Eastman’s Sibley Library yielded the nocturnes by Cyril Scott and Alec Rowley that are on the recording. A music dealer in Atlanta, Hutchins and Rea, have been wonderful about collecting nocturnes for him during their international travels. Actually, each nocturne has its own story. But how did they make their way onto a very distinctive recording?

Dr. Landrum met his record producer, David Frost, at the Taubman Institute, and they became good friends. They set about to record the nocturnes at Roberts Wesleyan College already in the year 2000. Dr. Landrum paid for the engineering and production, program notes and photography. Like many labors of love, nothing happened immediately, but it was David Frost who introduced him to Sono Luminus, the distinguished label who released the recording. He originally gave them enough material for one disc, thinking they would find the repertoire too cumbersome. They insisted on having two. Enjoying my little nocturne adventure so much, I asked Dr. Landrum for contact information for the Managing Director of Sono Luminus. I reached Daniel Shores on the first try. When I asked how he makes decisions about which albums to release, he said that their primary focus is on the highest quality of performance and sound. In the case of the nocturnes, it was the beautiful sound achieved by David Frost and the captivating performances of Michael Landrum. He said he could hear the passion in his music making and felt it needed to be heard. Sono Luminus benefited from receiving a fully prepared recording but they did the final packaging and undertook a substantial promotional campaign which led to WQXR receiving the set and ultimately featuring it on the air.

I have often been asked by young artists: How can I stand out from the pack? What does it take to get noticed? Clearly a recording can be a very valuable tool. But what kind of recording? Something that truly touches the artist and brings out their unique gifts. If the repertoire turns out to be unusual and the recording has a unifying theme, that can prove to be a plus. The chosen works should feel like intimate friends, especially since they will undoubtedly be performed often, in preparation for the recording and later, in promoting it. Michael Landrum did not undertake his recording project to advance his career; however, he has found the nocturnes to be a perfect vehicle for a lecture recital format, which he greatly enjoys presenting both in Rochester and in guest engagements when his schedule allows. In wrapping up our conversation, he told me that “he is stunned that people seem to be interested in his little project”. I told him that I was touched by his humility, dedication and patience in bringing such a special project to light and that I was sure others would be too.

To ask a question, please write Ask Edna.

© Edna Landau 2012

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Stravinsky Lovers Unite!

Wednesday, September 19th, 2012

by Sedgwick Clark

Alastair Macaulay’s review in Thursday’s Times reminded me of the two-week Stravinsky-Balanchine mini-festival that opens New York City Ballet’s fall season. No performing organization in the world offers so much Stravinsky in a single season—and so authoritatively. These two weeks commemorate NYCB’s 1972 and 1982 Stravinsky festivals; I saw every program of both those festivals. There are only three programs this time around, and every music and ballet fan should see them. I’ll have more to say when I have.

The Dying Artform on TV

I resist hitting the mute button when I hear classical “beds” for TV commercials. Within five minutes last week, a movement from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons served as background to Donald Sutherland’s Delta commercial, followed by another baroque beauty in the next round of commercials. A couple of hours later on Nightline, the ominous pulsating of waves lapping onto the beach of Rachmaninoff’s Isle of the Dead underscored a commercial for The Master, a new movie starring Philip Seymour Hoffman. I’m definitely interested in hearing how the music is used, and reviews were positive, so if it’s still in the theaters when my MA Directory deadline is over I won’t wait for the video.

Huh?

The Republicans scorn fact checking, but the Mannes School shouldn’t. Descriptions of two Mannes orchestra concerts in a press release sent my mind reeling. In an effort to be kind, I won’t divulge the young author’s name and assume that he likes the music.

On Friday, September 28 at 7:30 p.m., the orchestra will perform Bartok’s Miraculous Mandarin, an act from the early 20th century pantomime ballet Trauer-Symphonie by Haydn, and Bernard Herrmann’s North by Northwest Suite.

On Tuesday, October 30 at 7:30 p.m., the program will include work from The Firebird by Stravinsky and Ravel’s Daphnis et Cholé Suite No. 2.

In the first concert, the students will almost certainly play Bartók’s 20-minute Suite from The Miraculous Mandarin, not the complete version with chorus. Let’s further assume that a comma is missing after “ballet” and that Haydn did not arrange Bartók’s music into separate acts and retitle the work Trauer-Symphonie. Still, what does “an act from the early 20th century pantomime ballet” mean? Bartók’s continuous half-hour ballet has no “acts,” although there are three “decoy games” where three tramps force a girl to seduce men from the street into an apartment to rob them. The suite contains all three of the decoy games.

I haven’t heard of an official North by Northwest Suite. If I were in town, I’d probably go to this concert just to hear how much of this great Herrmann film score would be played. But I’ve got all the recordings and a laserdisc and two DVDs of the film. (I see that a Blu-ray version has just been released too.)

As for the second concert, what in heaven’s name does “work from The Firebird” specify? The complete 45-minute ballet music? One of Stravinsky’s suites (1910, 1919, or 1945)? And the unfortunate typo in Ravel’s ballet suite makes poor Chloé sound like an intestinal bacterium.

Looking Forward

My week’s scheduled concerts:

9/19 Avery Fisher Hall. New York Philharmonic/Alan Gilbert; Leif Ove Andsnes, piano. Kurtág:  …quasi una fantasia … . Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 3. Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring. OPENING NIGHT.

9/20 Miller Theater. ICE/Steven Schick; Jessica Aszodi, mezzo. Cage: Music for ___; Variations III; Atlas Eclipticalis; Radio Music; 1’5½” for a string player; Amores; The Wonderful Widow of Eighteen Springs. Boulez: Le marteau sans maître.

9/24 Alice Tully Hall. Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Mozart: Serenade in C minor for Winds, K. 388. Kodály: Serenade for Two Violins and Viola, Op. 12. R. Strauss: Serenade in E-flat for Winds, Op. 7. Dvořák: Serenade in D minor for Winds, Cello, and Double Bass, Op. 44. OPENING NIGHT.

Posted in Why I Left Muncie | Comments Closed

When You’re Right, You’re Right!

Wednesday, September 19th, 2012

By Brian Taylor Goldstein

I wonder if you would mind giving me some advice on a visa situation with one of my artists. To summarise, I represent a British artist who was commissioned to write a 7 minute piece for a university in the United States which will be premiered in 2013. The artist will be traveling to the United States around the premiere for various events, including attending concerts and also one or two workshops led by the artist. Primarily, the new piece will also be conducted by the artist himself. In the past, this artist has always held an O-1 visa to work in the United States. However, the university is insisting that, because it is a university, the artist only needs a visitor visa and they are refusing to obtain an O-1 visa for him. The university is not only paying the artist for the commission (which has already been settled through his publishers) but for his visit and performance as a conductor. Therefore, I should think we need a visa and that it’s not really possible for him to travel on the visa waiver scheme – is that correct? If so, am I right in thinking that he really should get an o-1 visa as he always has before?

Because so many legal questions involve the application of broad legal concepts to issues of specificity and nuance, its customary to qualify certain answers by saying “it depends.” That is not the case here. Based on the details you have provided, you have made this extremely easy for me: you are correct. The university is wrong. Plain and simple.

Yes, he needs an O-1 visa. No, he cannot enter and perform on the visa waiver scheme. The visa waiver program allows citizens of certain countries (including the UK) to enter the US as visitors solely using their passports and without the need of obtaining an actual visitor visa. However, they are must abide by the same rules and restrictions applicable to all visitors—namely, no work. For artists, work is not defined by payment. ANY performance of any kind or nature, even if no tickets are sold and the artist receives no fee, is, nonetheless, defined as “work” While there are, indeed, certain exceptions, they are very narrow and limited and, in this case, are inapplicable. I suspect the university is relying on a narrow exception that permits individuals to enter the US as visitors in order to give a lecture or demonstration at an educational institution and receive travel reimbursement and an honorarium. However, that is not the case here. Your artist has clearly been “hired” to conduct. The fact that he is conducting an orchestra at a university does not qualify for a visa exception any more than the fact that music is being performed at a university exempts the need for licensing it (though many erroneously believe this to be the case!). The fact that the university may have convinced other artists to perform for them without the proper visa just means these artists did not get caught. Your artist may not be so lucky.

I would direct the university to www.artistsfromabroad.org. Also, Musical America is about to unveil a special visa issue which will be jammed packed full of insights and tips on bringing foreign artists into the US. Stay tuned!

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

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

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

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THE OFFICIAL DISCLAIMER:

THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE!

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

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Posted in Artist Management, Arts Management, Law and Disorder: Performing Arts Division, Visas | Comments Closed

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