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Munich Phil Tries Kullervo

Friday, May 31st, 2013

Munich Philharmonic at the Gasteig

By ANDREW POWELL
Published: May 31, 2013

MUNICH — Young Finnish conductor Pietari Inkinen waved his arms heartily this week for Kullervo, leading the Munich Philharmonic at the Gasteig concert hall. It wasn’t enough. Sibelius’s impassioned sequence of tone poems (1892) demands wily control of dynamics and balances, and an intermittent spotlight on half-hidden themes. How else to correlate five epically inclined “movements,” two of them vocal, with thin melodic ties and scant symphonic argument?

As performed on May 28, the second and fifth movements (Young Kullervo and Kullervo’s Death) overstayed their welcome, and the 26-year-old composer’s closing apotheosis missed its mark. The painterly start and Brucknerian flashes of the first movement (without programmatic title) did compel attention, helped by eloquent string playing, but the fourth movement’s bucolic refrains, well forward, negated its supposed devotion to war.

Kullervo and His Sister, the central, longest and strongest of the movements — authorized by Sibelius for standalone performance — contrasted the matronly sound of Monica Groop’s mezzo-soprano (sibling and rape victim in this sorry Kalevala tale) with Jukka Rasilainen’s virile, resplendent Heldenbariton. Here and in the last movement, the score needs a substantial men’s chorus, for lines mostly unison. The combined voices of the Philharmonischer Chor München and Helsinki’s 130-year-old Ylioppilaskunnan Laulajat fit the bill thrillingly, even if they could not disguise Inkinen’s unpersuasive approach.

Photo © Andrea Huber

Related posts:
Flitting Thru Prokofiev
Honeck Honors Strauss
St John Passion Streams
Mahler 10 from Nézet-Séguin
Bieito Hijacks Boris

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The Joys of Summer

Thursday, May 30th, 2013

By: Edna Landau To ask a question, please write Ask Edna. Since this will be my final Ask Edna blog post of the season, I thought it might be appropriate to offer some suggestions regarding how young musicians might want to use any extra time they might have over the summer. I contacted a number of good friends and colleagues to solicit their recommendations and am very grateful to them for their generous responses. They have inspired me to broaden my own horizons this summer as many of their suggestions have universal appeal. Before sharing their recommendations, I would like to say that there is nothing wrong with taking the summer off (if we are lucky enough to be able to do that) and thoroughly enjoying the free time, as well as the absence of a rigorous schedule that can sometimes prove stressful during the rest of the year. I came across an insightful article by best-selling author Mitch Albom called The Joys of Summer in which he discusses the increasing amount of activity in which young people are engaged year-round. He writes: “We need to lighten it up. Sometimes doing nothing is doing something.” I can certainly relate to that. Still, the summer can be a great time for attending performances in genres other than one’s area of concentration; trying out potential collaborators for a future chamber ensemble; listening to unfamiliar music with an eye toward expanding one’s repertoire; having coffee with individuals who might offer career advice, both in the arts and in business; exploring opportunities for future outreach or charitable endeavors; visiting museums and galleries, or watching legendary performances and master classes on YouTube. Janet Rarick, Associate Professor of Music Career Development at the Shepherd School of Music, Rice University, adds the following to this list: “Write to your extended family, former teachers and fans who have a special interest in you, updating them on your recent musical activities. If you are home for the summer, organize and perform a program in a church, school or retirement home. It might serve as a useful run-through of repertoire you are planning to perform in the coming season.” Sedgwick Clark, editor of the Musical America International Directory of the Performing Arts, advises: “Go to concerts. Years ago I spent the summer in Aspen, covering the music festival for Musical America. I was perplexed by the low attendance at the many weekday student concerts, especially those featuring contemporary music. ‘They are practicing and studying’, I was told. But that’s not all there is to an education. Hear what your peers are thinking. Soak up the wisdom of the veterans. The International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) plays ten concerts at Mostly Mozart in August. Marlboro is always invigorating as young players tackle the old masters, not to mention Tanglewood’s wonderful offerings. And that’s just the Northeast. Go to a concert!” I am happy to share my colleagues’ suggestions for summer reading: Janet Rarick:  Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art by Stephen Nachmanovitch. A free copy can be downloaded at http://pdfepub.com/tag/stephen-nachmanovitch. Angela Beeching, founder of Beyond Talent Consulting: Lewis Hyde’s The Gift; Steve Jobs, the biography by Walter Isaacson; Arlene Goldbard’s The Culture of Possibility: Art, Artists & The Future Nathaniel Zeisler, Director of Community Engagement and Adult Education at the Colburn School: A Whole New Mind – Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future, by Daniel Pink. “This book is now about six years old but it provides a great framework for us as we consider the role of the artist in the 21st century economy. Fun, easy read!” Live First, Work Second, by Rebecca Ryan. “This book was written just before the economic downturn and is more about economic development, but artists can glean a lot from it. Also a quick, fun read.” Mary Kinder Loiselle, Director of Community Engagement & Career Development Services at the Curtis Institute of Music: The Art of Possibility, by Ben and Roz Zander. “It’s been around for quite a while but I find the exploration of living from a place of possibility to be continually inspiring.” Your Work, Your Life, Your Way, by career coach Julie Cohen. There is also a companion workbook: The Seven Keys Workbook and Journal. “I have found these books to be among the best I’ve seen in my thirteen years of coaching. They’re very clear, practical and full of focused content and exercises. I’m thinking that your readers might find them a valuable way to refresh and refocus over the summer months.” Jeffrey Kahane, pianist, and Music Director of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra: “No musical education is complete without having read The Magic Mountain and Doktor Faustus by Thomas Mann, in the recent translations by John Woods. Either one is enough to take up a summer or a good part of it. Doktor Faustus has some of the greatest writing about music ever, and Mann himself said that he conceived of The Magic Mountain as being constructed like a massive symphony. They both require intense concentration and slow, careful reading but are worth every minute; and in many ways, for all their profundity, they are also entertaining and sometimes hilarious.” Emanuel Ax, pianist and venerated teacher: “Christoph Wolff has written a new book on Mozart’s last years, Mozart at the Gateway to his Fortune, that I really like. Also, Alex Ross’s The Rest is Noise remains a must read. Melinda Bargreen, longtime Seattle music critic: “One book I particularly like is Paul Elie’s 2012 Reinventing Bach, which I think is especially appropriate for young musicians because Elie discusses how musicians have reinterpreted Bach in new ways (and on new instruments) over time and also provides marvelous anecdotal and background material on Bach and those many interpreters.” And for your video enjoyment and inspiration: Bärli Nugent writes: “I believe that each and every young artist has a voice and a core of certainty about who they are that can sometimes become buried under a blizzard of other people’s voices and ideas. They should spend some summer time exploring the power that lies within. To this end, I suggest they watch the 1957 black and white film Twelve Angry Men, starring Henry Fonda, in which one juror in a murder trial sees things differently from the others. I also recommend a seven minute video, brought to my attention by the extraordinary Jane Kosminsky of Juilliard’s dance faculty: www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnDeo0yhIws. Watch this in a quiet moment and stay until the end.” Angela Beeching: “I LOVED this Barbara Cook master class at the New York Public Library: http://www.nypl.org/audiovideo/master-class-barbara-cook I hope that our readers will write in with additional suggestions, and would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your loyalty over the past two and a half years, as well as wish you a most enjoyable and fulfilling summer. I look forward to joining you again in the fall. To ask a question, please write Ask Edna. © Edna Landau 2013

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Le Sacre du printemps at 100

Wednesday, May 29th, 2013

by Sedgwick Clark

At the very moment I post this blog, 100 years ago in Paris there was a riot going on in the newly opened Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. Even those who have never heard Igor Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du printemps know about the uproar that ensued moments into its first performance. I’ve probably heard this work in concert and on recordings more than any other. And now I’ve heard it even more, thanks to omnibus “cap” box sets released by Decca and Sony to commemorate the occasion.

The Decca “100th Anniversary Collectors Edition” is amazing, incorporating every recording made on the British Decca, German Deutsche Grammophon, Dutch Philips, and American Mercury labels, as well as a couple of stray recordings owned by the umbrella company, Universal Classics. Spanning 1946 (Eduard van Beinum leading Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw Orchestra) to 2010 (Gustavo Dudamel leading the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela), these 35 recordings of the full-orchestra version present as vivid a history of the European style of recorded sound in the post-War era as we are likely to find in a single release.

Fleshing out this 20-CD Sacre set are three recordings for piano duet and Stravinsky’s 1935 recording of his Violin Concerto with Samuel Dushkin, the work’s first performer. The 21-minute concerto stands alone on the final CD; presumably the compilation producer, Tony Shaw, thought the performance too important historically to omit, even if his company lacked further appropriate material to fill out the disc. Kudos, Mr. Shaw! Too bad there wasn’t a recording horn around on June 9, 1912, for the first performance of the not-quite-complete duet version. The pianists were Stravinsky and Claude Debussy.

Only five recordings of Le Sacre preceded the van Beinum/Concertgebouw one:

(1) Orchestre symphonique du Gramophone/Pierre Monteux, 1929 (Pearl)

(2) Orchestre symphonique/Igor Stravinsky, 1929 (Pearl)

(3) Philadelphia Orchestra/Leopold Stokowski, 1929-30

(4) Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra of New York/Igor Stravinsky, 1940

(5) San Francisco Symphony/Pierre Monteux, 1945

The new Sony “100th Anniversary Collection,” one of the label’s three releases this month in homage to Le Sacre du printemps, includes the 1929 Stokowski and 1940 Stravinsky. Unlike Decca’s “Sacre-Geek” Edition, this 10-CD set doesn’t collect all the Sacres in its catalogue. Missing are the 1945 RCA San Francisco/Monteux, the 1958 Columbia New York Philharmonic/Leonard Bernstein (see below), and the 1978 Columbia New York Philharmonic/Zubin Mehta versions. My completist tendencies would prefer to have them all in one set, like the Decca. But Sony does include Monteux’s 1951 Boston Symphony recording—easily the best of the four by the man who conducted the world premiere—and Mehta is represented by his 1969 Los Angeles recording in the Decca box. I am happy to have this set—even if I had already heard all the recordings except the never-reissued 1955 Philadelphia/Ormandy. However, I must protest the absurdly trying space-saving solution to the listing of track timings, printed in small type on a grey background. WHAT ARE DESIGNERS THINKING? For a sensible, well-organized, readable layout, look to the Decca booklet.

A hardbound two-CD set couples the composer’s 1960s stereo and 1940s mono recordings of Le Sacre and the revised 1945 Firebird Ballet Suite. This release is evidently aimed at those who only want Stravinsky’s own Sacre recordings since those are in the 10-CD set as well. But what about those collectors who want the “bonus” Firebirds too? In the great Columbia Records tradition of “screw the customer,” they have to purchase both sets.

I’m not quite sure when Bernstein’s 1958 New York Philharmonic recording of Le Sacre became “legendary,” but it’s an exciting, expressive performance that reportedly wowed the composer. A handsomely designed double-gatefold package was released singly earlier this month. The sound is more open than on earlier CD incarnations and strikes me as being from the master tapes, but why didn’t Sony say so? What does “original analogue sources” in the booklet credits mean? Or “a new audio transfer from the original reels” in the press release accompanying the CD? More troublesome are the English horn’s flubbed 32nd notes in the Ritual Action of the Ancestors section [track 13, 19 seconds], which were correct on the label’s Royal Edition CD over 20 years ago. I’m sorry to say, the new disc should be withdrawn and corrected, including typos of Bernstein on the spine, and Nijinsky and Roerich on captions.

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“Fair Use” Just Isn’t Fair!

Wednesday, May 29th, 2013

By Brian Taylor Goldstein, Esq. Dear Law and Disorder: I have read your clearly stated articles about mechanical use and rights.  What about “fair use”? Aren’t there specific scenarios where permission is not needed to use a recording of someone else’s music? Beware of what you ask. You are about to open a box whereupon a thousand nasties will fly out! Now that you have been duly warned…. Copyright Law gives the owner of a copyright the exclusive right to perform, edit, arrange, or reproduce a protected work in copies or recordings, as well as the exclusive right to authorize others to do so. Anyone who copies, performs, or records a protected work without the copyright owner’s permission, even including small excerpts, is guilty of copyright infringement. Fair Use is a legal doctrine whereby certain usages of a particular work “may” be considered permissible without the copyright owner’s permission, if the purpose for which the work was used is determined to be “fair”, such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, research, and parody. As the U.S. Copyright Act is intended, albeit arguably, to afford the maximum protection of copyright owners and the creators of protected works, it does not set forth specific usages that are inherently “fair.” Rather, the analysis and determination of what constitutes Fair Use is left entirely to a judge to decide in her or her sole discretion. In other words, should you decide to use any portion of a protected work without the owner’s permission, you won’t know whether your use is a permissible Fair Use or a prohibited infringement until after the copyright owner files a lawsuit claiming an infringement and everyone goes to court, makes arguments, and the judge decides. The only guidance given by the U.S. Copyright Act is the following four-part test which judges use in making the Fair Use analysis and determining whether or not a particular use is “fair”: (1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for non-profit educational purposes; (2) the nature of the copyrighted work; (3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and (4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work. As you may imagine, the application of these factors is both highly fact specific and highly subjective. Any one factor can tip the balance for or against Fair Use. More significantly, just because one judge determines a specific usage to be Fair Use within a specific scenario does not mean that a different judge will determine that a similar usage will be Fair Use in a similar scenario. Determinations can, and do, change from judge to judge. Case law is filled with conflicting examples of recordings where one judge ruled that a specific usage of a melody was a parody (Fair Use) and another judge in another state said a similar use of a different melody was satire (not Fair Use). Similarly, judges have ruled the use of as little as thirty seconds to be an infringement and usage of entire works to be Fair Use. Essentially, this means that Fair Use is an exception, or defense, to a claim of infringement, not a right in and of itself. To be fair, there are many legal scholars who would argue, correctly, that Fair Use is not a mere defense, but is, in fact, an important right that balances copyright law with the First Amendment and that the current system gives far too much power to wealthy copyright owners who can use the mere threat of lawsuits to quash any usage of their works, even usage that might legitimately constitute Fair Use. I don’t necessarily disagree with this position. However, it’s more aspirational than reflective of the current realities that you and I have to deal with. Until Congress comes up with better guidelines (and the likelihood that Congress can “come up” with much of anything these days is slim), we are stuck with the current system and all its inherent flaws and inconsistencies. Despite the distinctions between Fair Use and infringement being uncertain and difficult to define, there are, nonetheless, a few certainties which you can depend upon: There is no specific number of words, lines, or notes that may safely be taken without permission. Acknowledgement of the source of the copyrighted material does not constitute Fair Use and is not a substitute for obtaining permission where permission is required. Just because something is used by a non-profit and/or used for “education” does not mean its “fair.” Materials you find on the Internet is neither inherently public domain nor Fair Use. Just because you do not sell anything, does not make your use of someone else’s work Fair Use. At the very least, when determining whether or not using someone else’s work without permission might be Fair Use, take only the smallest amount of a copyrighted work necessary to accomplish your goal of criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, research, and/or parody. As a general rule, the more you take, the less likely your use will be considered “fair.” It is also reasonable to assume that if you are using any part of a copyrighted work for promoting or marketing your services or performances, or your organization’s services or performances, even if no copies are being sold, it probably IS NOT fair use. Of course, the safest course is always to get permission from the copyright owner before using copyrighted material. __________________________________________________________________ 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. __________________________________________________________________ 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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Spring for Ives

Thursday, May 23rd, 2013

by Sedgwick Clark

Too bad that we have only one more season of Carnegie Hall’s Spring for Music series to anticipate. Programs have been stimulating and the artists notable. Tickets cost only $25 a seat! But our economy hasn’t cooperated: The Oregon Symphony under Carlos Kalmar—whose concert in the initial season was my favorite concert of the year, bar none—couldn’t raise the funds to return this year, so the already-scheduled Leonard Slatkin and the Detroit Symphony stepped in to play an extra concert.

In the opening concert (5/6), Music Director Marin Alsop and the Baltimore Symphony enlivened John Adams’s Sibelius-tinged Shaker Loops and did their best to make a case for the 1947 version of Prokofiev’s uninspired Fourth Symphony, based on his ballet The Prodigal Son and filled with weak-tea melodic echoes of Romeo and Juliet. In between, they were joined by the inanely dubbed TIME FOR THREE, string trio in the New York premiere of Jennifer Higdon’s pleasant Concerto 4-3.

Morton Gould’s Symphony No. 3 (1946-47), an all-but-forgotten candidate in the Great American Symphony pantheon, was a highlight of the festival. It hasn’t the stature of the Big Three third symphonies of Roy Harris, William Schuman, and Aaron Copland (and indeed it strongly alludes in its first movement to the Schuman and briefly in its second movement to the Harris), but it is nevertheless a major American symphony and reveals a tough, dramatic side of a composer unjustly dismissed as a symphonettist. The jazzy third movement (“with sardonic humor”), in particular, with its brash percussion writing, is a standout. Gould was well served in a vibrantly committed performance (5/7) by the Albany Symphony and its enterprising music director, David Alan Miller, who have recorded the work for Albany Records. The concert opened with John Harbison’s suite from his opera The Great Gatsby. Gershwin’s Second Rhapsody (1931) followed; it will never rival his Rhapsody in Blue, but pianist Kevin Cole and the Albany players got the most from it. Cole tore through a medley of the best of George and Ira for an encore.

Wednesday’s concert (5/8) featured the Buffalo Philharmonic under its music director, JoAnn Falletta, in Giya Kancheli’s “Morning Prayers” from Life Without Christmas and Reinhold Glière’s Symphony No. 3 (Il’ya Muromets). In the program booklet Falletta opines that “both works share a mystical quality,” and her conducting of the Kancheli was eloquent and moving. Il’ya Muromets (1911) was accurately rendered but lacked the flair necessary to bring such a long-winded tub-thumper to life. The elder generation used to impose heavy cuts: This well-paced reading lasted just over 70 minutes; Stokowski’s recording was 43. Perhaps the forthcoming Buffalo recording on Naxos will have more fire.

I missed the first Detroit/Slatkin concert on 5/9, but this team’s monumental Friday night concert of all four symphonies by Charles Ives featured fine playing by the orchestra and the best conducting I can recall from Leonard Slatkin. Tempos were ideal throughout. The Yale student’s First Symphony moved along sleekly, with its early-Dvořák and Tchaikovsky resemblances seeming more homage than hodge-podge. The popular Second moved along buoyantly, neatly integrating all of the composer’s witty pastiche of Beethoven, Brahms, Dvořák, and American folk and hymn tunes. Only the trumpets’ initial “Reveille” was unaccountably buried before “Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean” roared to its triumphant conclusion, with Slatkin conducting the final chord with a perfect, sharp attack. (That other Ivesian Leonard followed the score in his 1951 world premiere performance with the New York Philharmonic, but he broadened the chord into an unseemly Bronx cheer in his Columbia and Deutsche Grammophon recordings.) The Third Symphony has always struck me as a crashing bore, but Slatkin kept it moving more than most and all to its benefit.

In a delightful introductory treat to the Fourth Symphony, Slatkin had the orchestra play four bars of the cacophonous Scherzo and then four choirs of the orchestra separately, each playing an instantly recognizable folk tune; then the orchestra played the four bars again together—and nothing was recognizable. I could listen to him deconstruct the second and fourth movements like this all night, bar by bar. The orchestra then proceeded to play the piece spectacularly. What a night—surely the height of the festival!

I was away for the final Spring for Music concert, with Christoph Eschenbach leading Washington’s National Symphony in works by Shchedrin, Schnittke, and Shostakovich, in honor of the orchestra’s past music director, Mstislav Rostropovich.

Steve Smith, ASCAP Honoree

Steve Smith received an ASCAP Concert Music Award on Friday, May17, at the organization’s annual ceremony, held this year at Merkin Hall. Steve has distinguished himself as a classical-music reviewer at the New York Times for nearly seven years and an even longer stint at Time Out New York. In particular, his ardent interest and even-handed reviews in a broad range of contemporary music have won him a loyal readership of both musicians and audiences alike.  Congrats, Steve.

Other ASCAP honorees were conductor/educator Tania León and Jon Deak, composer, educator, and former long-time double bass player for the New York Philharmonic. There was also a centenary tribute to Morton Gould, ASCAP’s former president and noted American composer and conductor.

Classical Oops

The New York Times’s Sunday Review section on May 12 printed an interview with one Barbara Natterson-Horowitz, “a cardiologist and professor at U.C.L.A.’s David Geffen School of Medicine.” Her husband is the chairman of Universal Music Publishing Group, so her home rocks to “many forms of music all the time.” She continues: “I’ve also recently found on YouTube this historic footage of iconic violinists—Heifetz, Horowitz [sic], Oistrakh—playing with the great symphonies of the past century.”

It reminded me of a press release I received several years ago from Philips Records announcing the reissue of “Schubert: The Complete Impromptus conducted [sic] by Alfred Brendal [sic]. . . .”

The Rite at 100

Mark your calendars! On Wednesday, May 29, Q2, the contemporary classical online station of New York’s WQXR, will celebrate the centenary of Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring with 24 hours of recordings of the work.

Audra on Live from Lincoln Center

Don’t miss Audra McDonald’s brilliant performance on PBS, Friday, May 24, at 9:00 p.m. In the words of the New York Times’s Stephen Holden, “Absolutely thrilling.” I was there, and he was absolutely right.

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Hi, I’m Adam Schoenberg

Thursday, May 23rd, 2013

By: Edna Landau To ask a question, please write Ask Edna. Adam Schoenberg is a very gifted young composer with a knack for building relationships. He first entered my life early in 2011, shortly after I started writing this blog. He wrote me a lovely e-mail, saying that there were things he wanted to “Ask Edna” but he didn’t think they were straightforward enough for the blog. His thoughtful and considerate style of writing (as well as his compliment on my blog!) made me want to try and help him. He had graduated from Juilliard the previous year, where he earned his Doctor of Musical Arts degree, and had already been commissioned to write works for the Atlanta and Kansas City symphonies. The premiere of his American Symphony was scheduled just a month later in Kansas City under the baton of its music director, Michael Stern. Our initial discussions revolved around generating attention for the Kansas City premiere and how he might get through to conductors and artistic administrators to acquaint them with his music. He was particularly interested in trying to secure a West Coast premiere for his chamber orchestra work, Finding Rothko, which was inspired by four paintings, one of which was housed at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art. We met in person about a month later in Los Angeles, where he is based, and where I was making a visit to the Colburn School. At that time, he told me that there was a European music publisher that might be interested in him but that things were moving slowly, as they had never before represented an American composer. I gave him some suggestions about how to move things along in general and offered to speak to a few people on his behalf. In truth, I didn’t do all that much for him but he claims that my enthusiasm for his music and his entrepreneurial initiative gave him a big boost in continuing his networking and remaining optimistic that things could eventually fall into place. We stayed in touch for a short while and then there was a hiatus of 16 months. In October of 2012, I noticed that Adam was listed on Opus 3 Management’s roster, that he had a publishing agreement with Ricordi in London (part of the Universal Music Publishing Classical Group), and that his list of commissioned works had expanded to include a new work for the Atlanta Symphony, La Luna Azul, personally commissioned by its music director, Robert Spano; another art-inspired work, Picture Studies (conceived of as a 21st century Pictures at an Exhibition), jointly commissioned by the Kansas City Symphony and the Nelson-Atkins Museum, and a ballet-inspired symphonic work, Bounce, co-commissioned by the Aspen Music Festival & School and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. I was eager to know all the intermediate steps that had led to these exciting developments and my curiosity brought me back in touch with Adam. I learned that while Adam was an undergraduate at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, he was friendly with a young singer who was later represented by Jeffrey Vanderveen, then a managing director at Universal Music Group in Europe. He made an introduction for Adam to James Kendrick and Silke Hilger of Universal Music Classical Publishing. They subsequently came to Aspen to hear a performance of Finding Rothko and decided to take him on a few months later. By that time, Jeffrey Vanderveen had moved to Opus 3 Artists in New York as Vice President, Artist Manager, and he brought Adam on to the artist list. Adam’s Aspen association proved fruitful in other ways as well. He was a student there in 2002 and 2003 and, needing a summer job, returned for the following two summers as a stagehand. While there, he met Michael Stern, who became a regular tennis partner, and Asadour Santourian, Artistic Advisor and Administrator. His first ever commission was from Aspen for a quintet for the American Brass Quintet (premiered in July 2006 and later recorded by the ensemble). Around the same time, Adam was commissioned by Michael Stern to write his first orchestral work Finding Rothko for the IRIS Chamber Orchestra. Six years later, when Adam was hoping to get on the radar screen of the Los Angeles Phiharmonic, it was Asadour Santourian (in town for pre-concert lectures) who suggested that he contact Chad Smith, Vice President of Artistic Planning at the orchestra, and use his name. Adam subsequently met Chad Smith for coffee and gave him two of his scores. Now he greatly looks forward to the inaugural performances of his new work Bounce at the Aspen Music Festival on July 17, 2013, with Robert Spano conducting, and at the Hollywood Bowl on September 10 with Miguel Harth-Bedoya conducting. Adam met Robert Spano in Miami, where he was living in 2009. Spano was guest conducting the New World Symphony and happened to be taking a rehearsal break outside the hall when Adam was walking down Lincoln Road. He walked over to Mr. Spano and said: “Hi, I’m Adam Schoenberg and we have two things in common. We both went to Oberlin and I studied orchestration with Christopher Theofanidis.” Mr. Spano excitedly responded: “I just commissioned him to write his first symphony and the score just arrived today. Do you want to hear it?” He took Adam upstairs, played some of it for him and then invited him to lunch the next day. Adam brought along two of his pieces and eight weeks later, he got a call. Mr. Spano said: “I’ve found a way to program Finding Rothko in Atlanta and I’m commissioning you to write a new work” (which became La Luna Azul). Adam’s time is taken up with many things in addition to his composing. His American Symphony was conceived of as a musical message of hope that would unite the orchestra community throughout the country. He is currently engaged in a project to secure performances of it in all 50 states by the 2015-16 season. So far, he has commitments from seven. His time is also taken up with teaching at UCLA and with a Young Composers Institute for high school students which he founded this past year while composer-in-residence with the Kansas City Symphony. This project, while not unique, generated a great deal of excitement in the community and was a thrilling experience for the young participants whose works were performed by members of the symphony.  He hopes to start more programs like this around the country. Adam is excited that Reference Recordings and the Kansas City Symphony, with Michael Stern conducting, plan to record a CD of three of his works in 2014, all of which were commissioned by the orchestra. He has been commissioned to write a new work for the Lexington (KY) Philharmonic, where he will be composer-in-residence next season. He is also proud of his first major venture into film scoring, having recently collaborated with his father, composer Steven Schoenberg, on the score for the movie Graceland. Recognizing that composers have relied on patrons and benefactors since the time of the Renaissance, Adam recently added an innovative “Patrons” page on his website which allows for tax-deductible gifts of support via Fractured Atlas’s fiscal sponsorship program. He received his first gift just recently. Despite the fact that he has a publisher and manager, Adam hasn’t stopped networking. He still sends e-mails to artistic administrators from time to time when he feels he can build on an existing connection. He may soon have to make adjustments to his busy schedule as he and his wife are expecting their first child in August (which partly explains the title for his newest work Bounce). I have no doubt that Adam will continue to set the bar very high for himself and that he will be successful in achieving his goals. He told me the following: “All I really care about, and what I think every composer should care about, is to write the best possible music that expresses who we are. I want to write music as beautifully and intensely as I can, and I am happy if the audience and performers respond deeply to my music.” He must have been gratified when Atlanta arts critic Mark Gresham wrote: “La Luna Azul deserves a descriptor not often afforded contemporary music: ‘beautiful’.” Timothy McDonald of the Kansas City Star has also written: “Schoenberg demonstrated a distinctive and exciting compositional voice. His American Symphony is bold and brilliant, and deserves to be a staple among orchestras in the U.S. and abroad.” Michael Stern told me that he has every expectation that Adam will be a real voice in American music in the coming years. It would seem that he is far from alone in his estimation. To ask a question, please write Ask Edna. © Edna Landau 2013

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New I-94 Process for Artists Touring the United States

Wednesday, May 22nd, 2013

By Brian Taylor Goldstein, Esq. Dear Law and Disorder: I heard that US Immigration will no longer be giving foreign artists the little white card they used to get when an artist entered the US. The cards were stamped with the artist’s visa category and the date they had to leave. It was my understanding that we needed to make copies of those cards if we needed to extend an artist’s visa. Are we supposed to use something else instead? Is there a new process? Yes, you heard correctly. The little white card, called a Form I-94, was an artist’s official arrival/departure record. Up until recently, every foreign artist as well as all other foreign travelers entering the U.S. (except, occasionally, Canadians, depending on when and where they entered) was given a Form I-94 to fill out (most often while waiting in an interminably long line at an airport international arrivals hall), the bottom half of which was stamped with their status and departure date and returned to them by a US Customs and Border Patrol Officer (aka the border troll.) This form was also issued to those who adjusted their status while in the U.S. (ie: changed from F to O), or who extended their visas. The I-94 was used to confirm the artist’s individual’s status or visa category (O, P, F, B1/B2, etc.) and the departure date by which they must leave the U.S. When the artist left, they surrendered the I-94 either to the commercial airline carrier or to CBP directly. The I-94 information and the date of departure was then entered into a database to verify that the artist did not overstay the required departure date. As of April 30, 2013, this process became electronically automated. CBP will no longer require artists to fill out a paper Form I-94 upon arrival to the U.S. by air or sea and will no longer issue paper I-94 forms in return. Instead, CBP will gather the arrival/departure information automatically from the foreign artist’s electronic travel records and, upon entry of the artist into the U.S., will enter their status and departure date electronically. (Because advance information is only transmitted for air and sea travelers, CBP will continue to issue a paper form I-94 “at land border ports of entry”—which is government-speak for Canada and Mexico.) Similarly, when the artist leaves the US, the date of their departure will be electronically gathered, as well. Under the new process, the CBP officer will stamp the passport of each arriving artist. The admission stamp will show the date of admission, class of admission, and the departure date by which the traveler must leave. Artists wanting a hard copy or other evidence of their valid admission and immigration status will need to go to a special website (www.cbp.gov/I94) where, using their passport numbers and names, they can access and print as many physical copies of their I-94 as they want. Officially, there is no legal reason for an artist to have a hard copy of the I-94. Officially, the electronic record and the passport stamp will serve as evidence of their valid admission and immigration status. Nevertheless, we are strongly recommending that all artists, or their managers/agents or employers, go to the website and print out a hard copy of the I-94. Why? Simple—we don’t trust CBP not to make mistakes! Plus, while CBP may no longer require a physical I-94, other government agencies still do. Despite what is stamped in an artist’s passport, an artist’s official arrival/departure record will remain the electronic I-94. If a CBP officer makes an error and the required departure date written on the passport does not correspond with the official departure date electronically entered on the I-94, the I-94 will govern. In other words, regardless of what is written on the passport, the artist MUST leave the US by the date stamped on the I-94 despite what was approved by USCIS or written on their visa. Printing out the I-94 will be the only way to verify that the I-94 reflects the correct visa category and the correct period of admission. Furthermore, having a hard copy of the I-94 will also continue to be required by employers and schools who are required by other government agencies to verify immigration status. A hard copy of the I-94 will also facilitate the process of obtaining drivers licenses and social security numbers. An equally important reason for a paper copy of the I-94 is that it would function as a backup document in the event that CBP officers cannot access the electronic record of admission due to a systems failure at the time that an artist seeks re-admission to the US after a short visit to either Canada or Mexico. A hard copy of the I-94 will also continue to be required by USCIS when an artist is currently in the US and files a visa petition to extend their visa. In such cases, the petition must include a copy of the I-94 to show that the artist was validly admitted and is currently “in-status.” CBP has issued a fact sheet that includes frequently asked questions regarding the impact of automation, visa revalidation, passenger processing times, and more. You can access that at: http://www.cbp.gov CBP contends that this automation will streamline the entry process for travelers, facilitate security, and reduce federal costs by saving the agency an estimated $15.5 million a year. That remains to be seen. As CBP implements the I-94 automation process, processing errors and challenges relating to the automated admissions process and accessibility of electronic records are already arising. _________________________________________________________________ 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. __________________________________________________________________ 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, Employees, Law and Disorder: Performing Arts Division, Taxes, Touring, Visas | Comments Closed

Expunged ‘Tannhäuser’ opens Debate on Artistic Freedom

Friday, May 17th, 2013

By Rebecca Schmid

The tolerance of German audiences for extreme stage productions is a source of national pride and the envy of many abroad. But a production of Tannhäuser at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein which had to be stripped down to concert performance last week has set off a national debate about the sanctity of a director’s artistic freedom. Two seasons ago, the Bayreuth Festival mounted the same opera in a new production by Sebastian Baumgartner which places the heroine, Elisabeth, in a “biogas” chamber. It caused a moral outcry in the press, but the notion of her being “recycled” rather than outright gassed appears to have kept the staging in repertoire. In Düsseldorf, at the Oper am Rhein, the director Burkhard C. Kosminski went a step too far. Naked extras were already being gassed during the overture. An entire family was shot after its members had their heads shaven by soldiers. Venus was dressed in an SS uniform; Elisabeth was raped and burned. The boos in the small city of Düsseldorf started 30 minutes into the production, according to Der Spiegel, and some audience members were so traumatized that they needed medical attention. Criticism from the Jewish community was just the icing on the cake. But Kosminski refused to modify his vision, for fear of betraying his artistic principles. Less than a week after its premiere on May 4, the opera was reduced to a concert version.

The obvious issue, which audience members were quick to point out, is that Nazis and persecuted Jews have nothing to do with Tannhäuser. The opera is about a pilgrim who leaves Venus’ world of love-making, enters a song competition on the Wartburg, and finds redemption in the saintly Elisabeth. An editorial in the German magazine Cicero , dedicated to the intersection of arts and politics, observes that a director turns to Nazis when he has no good ideas of own. The author continues to criticize Germany’s lavish public funding for theater, calling Hitler its “patron saint.” It may be worth noting that the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, a shared entity of the nearby cities of Düssseldorf and Duisburg, nearly entered financial meltdown last season. Was the production a desperate attempt to lend the company a cutting-edge status capable of competing with the many other opera houses in West Germany (let’s not forget that the reunited country possesses altogether one-seventh of the world’s companies)?

In an interview with Der Spiegel this week, Kosminski states the “real scandal” at hand is “censorship in the arts.” He insists that the production intended to mourn, not ridicule, the victims of World War Two, describing himself as “terrified” by criticism from the Jewish community. Just yesterday, he won the support of the president of the Akademie der Künste, Klaus Staeck, who has written a letter demanding that the production be reinstated. “Art—regardless of its quality!—is not a superfluous luxury,” he argues. Is it then justified to use art as a vehicle for emotional torture? And is quality not an important criterium when good tax money is being invested? From a purely literary point of view, there is little to no basis for casting Tannhäuser as a war criminal who is forced into the SS guard. Surely Greek myth is more important to understanding the opera than Wagner’s indirect connection to the Holocaust as a role model of Hitler.

Although the opera derives its plot in part from Thuringian legend, there is little in the way of nationalist undertones compared to later works such as Lohengrin, Die Meistersinger, Parsifal and, to some extent, the Ring cycle. Patrice Chéreau caused a scandal upon the centenary of the Bayreuth Festival in 1976 by setting the cycle at the time of early German industrialization. This is a loaded topic, given the industrial killings that followed during World War Two, but the production opened the door to historical allegory on the Festspielhaus stage. Stefan Herheim’s 2008 production of Parsifal, which opens in the Villa Wahnfried in the 1880s and ends in the Federal Republic of Bonn, plumbs the possibilities even further. The appearance of swastika flags and black-and-white footage from the Second World War remains controversial, but Herheim caused the audience to think critically about the inextricability of Wagner’s works from his time and the institution of Bayreuth itself.

Kosminski, through his graphic depictions of the violence and genocide, crossed a threshold that was already at breaking point. Although I didn’t see the production first-hand, the audience’s reaction would indicate that he lacked the sophistication of a director such as Chéreau or Herheim. The exploitation of World War Two—not just to artistic ends but in the media and in academia—has reached a point of saturation in Germany that, thanks to the reaction at the Oper am Rhein, should finally be considered cause for concern. Artistic freedom does not license a director to indulge his darkest fantasies or work out psychological issues at the expense of an opera. Do we go to the theater to be provoked, reviled and confused, or enlightened and transported by an interpretation that allows us to penetrate a given work with more understanding and appreciation? Wagner may remain a thorn in the cultural consciousness, but it is not paying respect to anyone—neither the composer, the German people, nor the Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust—to use his stage works as vehicles for cheap, shock tactics under the pretence of creating socially relevant art. As austerity plagues Europe, it is even more shameful to invest in stage productions that ruin rather than illuminate an opera.

rebeccaschmid.info

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A Performer with a Passion for Teaching

Thursday, May 16th, 2013

By: Edna Landau

To ask a question, please write Ask Edna.

Anyone who has read my blog over the past year knows that I am fascinated by the career trajectories of successful people. This week, I have chosen to spotlight a much admired viola professor.

My first introduction to Barbara Westphal was in the early 1980’s when she was violist of the Delos String Quartet, based at the University of Delaware, and Charles Hamlen and I signed them to the Hamlen/Landau Management roster. There was no way to predict at that time that she would become one of the most prominent and sought after viola teachers of our time. She left the quartet in 1985 and I totally lost contact with her. When I started teaching at the Colburn School in 2008, a number of students who were moving on to graduate studies spoke about her with considerable reverence and mentioned that they hoped to have the opportunity to study with her. Curious about her personal journey since the time our communication left off, I decided to call her recently and make up for lost time. Thanks to her American manager, Melody Bunting, I was able to accomplish this rather easily.

One need only look at a picture of the medieval North German city of Lübeck to understand why Prof. Westphal has been teaching there since 1989. The Hochschule, which is situated inside of 17 old merchant houses, looks out on a river and on a 1480 city gate. This picturesque location was once captured on the face of the DM 50 note. A native of Germany, Prof. Westphal came to the U.S. in 1974 to study violin with Broadus Erle at Yale University. He passed away in 1977 and she moved to Delaware in the following year to join the Delos Quartet (after having switched to viola during a summer at the Marlboro Music Festival). However, Prof. Erle had a profound influence on her teaching philosophy which has remained with her to this day. She spoke to me of how “he burned for his calling. Teaching was his whole life, not something he did simply to earn a living.” She admired how “he could say very much without saying hardly anything at all.” She loved how he pointed his students in the direction he thought was right for them while challenging them to find the right solutions for themselves.

After winning the Munich International Competition and the Busch Prize in 1983, Germany seemed a logical destination for Prof. Westphal. She settled in Munich in 1985 after leaving the Delos Quartet and getting married three days later (!). Although she had regular opportunities to perform, she felt the need for a steady and reliable income. She found the opening at the Lübeck Hochschule in the job listings of the German weekly paper Die Zeit and started there in 1989. The schedule was flexible enough to allow her to keep performing but after a time, she was totally taken by surprise to discover that she had found a new calling. Despite various job offers over the years, she has remained in Lübeck ever since.  However, she has maintained her contacts in America, visiting the Heifetz Institute in recent years and returning to the Sarasota Music Festival for the past 22 years, where she has treasured the opportunity to perform alongside admired colleagues such as Claude Frank and Neil Black.

When I asked Prof. Westphal about her proudest moments as a teacher, she cited the joy derived from performing chamber music with former students and being swept away by their artistry. Needless to say, she is also thrilled that a significant number of her students have found jobs in leading orchestras in Germany and abroad. How many students have actually had the benefit of being exposed to Prof. Westphal’s passionate calling? She told me that she doesn’t believe in just filling spaces in a class. She has to feel a chemistry with any student she accepts and, based on meeting and talking to them, must feel convinced that she can help them accomplish their goals within four years. At the same time, she tends to exceed the number of students that she is legally required to teach because she believes that there is so much that students can learn from one another and often it is not even about their instrument. Spencer Martin, a teacher at Luther College in Iowa, spent the summer of 2006 taking lessons with Prof. Westphal and observing her with her students and in master classes at the Oberstdorfer Musiksommer. He wrote a lovely profile of her for the Journal of the American Viola Society in which he highlighted “the nurturing environment that she creates, which heightens the chances that her students will blossom and feel accepted”. In a blog post of the American Viola Society,  another former student, David Lau, now a violist in the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, spoke of his time in her studio as “one of the greatest learning experiences of my musical education”. When I contacted him via Facebook, he was inspired to elaborate further: “ I felt she heard all of her students as the individuals they were. Everyone has his or her own needs, strengths and weaknesses, and she never tried to fit you into a mold. The aim was to explore who you were and what you wanted to say, and together to find the most effective way to achieve those goals. She is also incredibly honest and didn’t feel the need to sugarcoat things. It was never negative, but she said exactly what she thought. If it was bad, she told you, but then when she told you it was good, you really believed her. She, herself, is very active as a performer as well, and it really helped that she had the chops to back up the things she taught. Her studio, when you are there, becomes like a family and her students are not only very successful, but also kind people. I have never seen anyone invest themselves so wholeheartedly in other people like she does. I will cherish my time as her student forever.” From what I can tell, Mr. Lau is not alone in these sentiments. Broadus Erle must be smiling from on high.

To ask a question, please write Ask Edna.

© Edna Landau 2013

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Board Term Limits–The Kindest Cut of All?

Wednesday, May 15th, 2013

By Brian Taylor Goldstein, Esq.

Dear Law and Disorder:

We are a small non-profit that runs a performing arts center. In up dating our by-laws, its been recommended that we establish term limits for our directors and officers, as well as a formal nominating committee. Do we really need such formalities? We’re very small and don’t have any other committees. Can’t the board itself select its own members and officers? And it seems a mistake to force directors to leave when they are willing to continue to serve on our board. What do you recommend to your clients?

While I am a strong advocate of fixed terms, I never recommend term limits for board members. Why? Because among the most challenging aspects of running a successful non-profit is finding and keeping healthy board members who, whether through wealth, work, or wisdom (or a rare combination of all three), contribute to the success and productivity of the organization. Once you are lucky enough to find then, the last thing you want to do is force them to leave! However, at the same time, you need to have a mechanism through which malignant board members can be removed. Such members, if left to metastasize, can quickly chase all the healthy ones away, burn out the staff, and poison the entire operation. Fixed terms without term limits provide you with the best of both worlds.

Let’s say, for example, that the by-laws provide that each board member serves a term of 2 years. At the end of each board member’s term, the nominating committee is required to review the board member and recommend either that the board member be invited to serve another term or be invited to exit. By having terms, but no term limits, there is no limit to how many terms a board member can serve, but there is also a fixed time after which every board member’s service can be reviewed. While you can pick any term length you want, I usually recommend no longer than 2 – 3 year terms for board membership. (Anything longer and you start losing the effectiveness of early detection and prevention!) There are also ways to stagger terms so that not everyone on the board is up for renewal at the same time.

Term limits for officers, on the other hand, can be more appropriate. Why? Because with no term limit, even a beloved president or board chair can quickly become a feared dictator that no one wants to cross, or, just as worse, a benevolent, but ineffective leader who spurns all attempts at growth or change. At the end of the president’s term, he or she can still serve on the board, but no longer gets to wield the mace of supreme authority. Also, in my experience, I have also found that the people you most want to serve as board president or chair will be those who do not want to serve more than a year whereas those you want to avoid are those who are looking for a life-time appointment.

As for whether or not you need to have a formal nominating committee, its a recommended practice to have the formality of a separate nominating committee—if not at first, then certainly as your board gets bigger. The nominating committee does not make the actual decisions, but, rather, makes recommendations to the board of whether or not to ask existing board members to renew their terms, as well as reviews and makes recommendations for the nomination of new board members. While the board is always able to accept or decline such recommendations, having a nominating committee allows a forum for such discussions to be “hashed out” other than in a full board meeting. This has the advantage of avoiding potentially awkward situations. First, imagine a scenario where a board member has nominated a “close friend” to serve on the board, but who may not be a good choice for the board. Having such a frank discussion is easier “in committee” than in the presence of the board member. Similarly, when reviewing the renewal of existing board members, its usually easier to have a more open and honest assessment, including key staff input, without having the entire board present. Like all committee work, its also a more efficient use of the board’s time to have committees make recommendations and reports rather than bog down the entire board with every decision. Lastly, a separate nominating committee can potentially prevent a small board from evolving into a dictatorship where only a few members dominate everything.

By-laws, like strategic plans and business plans, are not commandments fixed in stone, but, rather, should be approached as living, breathing, and malleable tools that provide structure as well as flexibility. When thinking of by-laws, you not only need to think of current operations, but creating mechanisms for growth. Even though your board may now be small, you want think big. Similarly, even though your board may currently be one big happy family, you want to think of the future when, like all families, everyone inevitably starts to get one everyone else’s nerves.

_________________________________________________________________

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.

__________________________________________________________________

THE OFFICIAL DISCLAIMER:

THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE!

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

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

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