Archive for May, 2014

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Everything in its Right Place

Thursday, May 15th, 2014

By: Edna Landau

To ask a question, please write Ask Edna.

When I visit with students at conservatories and music schools around the United States, the question I am most frequently asked concerns the right time for approaching management. I tell students, as well as young artists who are already actively concertizing, that developing artistic recognition, positive word of mouth and distinct marketability can take considerable time. We then discuss the various aspects of this process over which they have control and a strategy for embarking on the journey.

Sybarite5 has been on my radar screen since March of 2012. In October of that year, I featured them in my blog post titled A Flair for Marketing. The instrumentation of the group (two violins, viola, cello, double bass) and their varied and untraditional repertoire did not make them an obvious target for management, but I sensed that their gift for marketing themselves in a very warm and appealing way could be a strong plus for attracting attention in the management world. It was also of utmost importance that they play at a very high level and this was borne out in several of their performances which I was able to hear. Despite all this, I was very surprised (albeit delighted) to read, about two weeks ago, that Frank Salomon Associates had added Sybarite5 to its roster, the first new artist to join this prestigious management’s list in seven years. I wondered about the process that had led to such a momentous announcement and decided to call the Salomon office, as well as Steven Shaiman, Senior Vice President and Director, Artist Management, at Concert Artists Guild, which has managed the group since they won their 2011 Victor Elmaleh Competition.

I asked Steve if he remembered Sybarite5’s 2011 audition and what made them stand out. He told me that they were like a breath of fresh air. “They weren’t trying to be innovative. They had already hit on something very engaging and were able to get your attention and keep it.” He also said that they had very good presentation skills and a polished program which showed the variety of what they did. That program had already served them well when they performed a showcase at the Chamber Music America conference, an opportunity that had already opened some doors for them. The group had also showcased at other booking conferences (Western Alliance and Arts Midwest) prior to the Concert Artists Guild competition. They came across to Steve as extremely confident and had already released a five-track disc Disturb the Silence, which gave CAG an immediate marketing tool as they further introduced this unusual group in the marketplace. CAG released Sybarite5’s second disc Everything in its Right Place (ten arrangements of music by Radiohead) in 2012 on its own CAG Records label. The title of this album would seem to be a most apt description of how the ensemble has developed over the years.

How did Frank Salomon Associates (FSA) turn out to be the right place for Sybarite5? They seem like an unlikely choice for an agency that has been very discerning but also traditional in its roster choices over the years. In a call to its director, Barrie Steinberg and associate, Chris Williams (manager of Sybarite5), I was reminded that TASHI had been a long-time client of the firm and that they had performed in untraditional concert dress, announced programs from the stage, and offered both classical and crossover repertoire. Chris first heard Sybarite5 at a Midwest conference showcase and found them to be artistically compelling and “super cool”. Several of the FSA staff subsequently heard the group at a Young Performers Career Advancement (YPCA) showcase in January of 2013 and Chris heard them again three months later at one of their self-produced concerts at the cell in New York. He was impressed by the diverse crowd and found the concert experience to be very different and a great deal of fun. A classically trained violist with undergraduate and graduate degrees in Viola Performance, Chris had also developed a strong interest in pop music during his college years. He advocated for Sybarite5 at the Frank Salomon office, reinforcing the positive impression that Barrie had of the group, having heard them when they first started out, followed them through their newsletters, and spoken to presenters about them from time to time.  FSA had also been regularly updated by Concert Artists Guild with regard to the group’s development. Both Barrie and Chris confirmed to me that several additional factors contributed to their having been signed by the agency:

1)      Sybarite5’s  varied repertoire and style of presentation bring in a younger audience.

2)      The group is always finding ways to be visible, and they work hard at it. They never look solely to management to make things happen for them. Their newsletters are unfailingly gracious and informal, but also very informative. As I wrote this column, Sybarite5 were in Sarasota, Florida for their inaugural Forward Festival (described as the world’s first portable chamber music festival). It was launched, in part, with the help of a Kickstarter campaign that exceeded its goal of $50,000. The group’s choice of Sarasota reflects their innate business sense in undertaking a new enterprise in the home town of one of their members (bassist Louis Levitt). They also undoubtedly created a good deal of excitement and community engagement by including top-notch local musicians in their five programs, presented in five different venues, and offering outreach activities along the way. The programming, which featured repertoire ranging from Debussy and Bach to Bjork and Radiohead, also included the world premiere of Andy Akiho’s RESOLVE, commissioned with an award from Chamber Music America. It should come as no surprise that the festival attracted no less than six media sponsors.

3)      Sybarite5 have an ongoing commissioning program that contributes to their vitality and their ability to continue to offer presenters new programs. In spring 2015, they will premiere the world’s first concerto for string quintet and orchestra by American composer Dan Visconti. Their residencies sometimes include an innovative New Music IDOL project, which invites collegiate level composition students to write short pieces that are performed and critiqued in a casual concert setting, complete with a panel of judges. A winner is chosen via a live text-to-vote system. The group hopes  that one or more of these pieces may someday become part of their  repertoire.

4)      The group is very well-structured (they are a 501c3) with an effective division of labor. They have a policy of answering everyone within 48 hours – a manager’s dream! They have worked tirelessly to create themselves as a brand, making it easier to approach presenters about them.

My own favorite manifestation of Sybarite5’s ingenuity and creativity is their online merchandise store. Featured alongside the expected T-shirts, sweatshirts and tote bags are bibs, an organic baby bodysuit, a license plate frame, pet bowls, and a T-shirt for your dog – all complete with the group’s logo.

I commend Frank Salomon Associates for signing this exciting, boundary-defying group and wish them fortitude in keeping up with them as they achieve new heights!

To ask a question, please write Ask Edna.

©Edna Landau 2014

 

Posted in Ask Edna, Finding a Manager | Comments Closed

The Elephant in the Audience

Wednesday, May 14th, 2014

By James Conlon

Last Friday night, May 9, I conducted a program at Carnegie Hall, the penultimate concert not only for this year’s installment of Spring for Music, but, it would seem, forever. In the audience, it seemed to me, was an enormous (they usually are) and benevolent elephant.

I appeared there with the forces of the Cincinnati May Festival (of which I am celebrating thirty-five years as Music Director this season), The Cincinnati Symphony, May Festival Chorus and an array of soloists.

The program consisted of two disparate American works from the twentieth century: John Adams’ Harmonium (1980) and R. Nathaniel Dett’s oratorio The Ordering of Moses (1937). The latter, by a still relatively unknown and unsung African American (born in Canada, raised and educated in the U.S.), had its world premiere at the May Festival in 1937 and was reprised there in 1956 with a cast that included Leontyne Price and William Warfield.

It has been a long time since any presenting organization has not only encouraged programs featuring lesser-known works, but also virtually required them. The artistic success of Spring for Music resided in its giving artists the opportunity to perform works that others would not risk in today’s economic environment. The fact that it drew large enthusiastic crowds was only partially explained by its encouraging of hometown fans to travel to New York. The ticket prices were $25 apiece.

And there he was, the elephant in the audience. Nobody wants to say it out loud in certain circles, but many music lovers are not willing or able to pay today’s prices. Maybe that wasn’t true fifty years ago (even adjusted for inflation I suspect they were largely less expensive), and perhaps it will not be true again in fifty years. But that is irrelevant because it is true today.

We are told that the public will not come to hear—take your pick—unknown pieces, music of composers whose names are unfamiliar, contemporary (and not so contemporary) “modern music” and so forth. All true, and the Chief Financial Officer of any symphony orchestra or opera house can point to the figures.

But what that proves is only that a large number of people will not pay a large amount of money for tickets. What Spring for Music has proved is the opposite: for inexpensive tickets, people are delighted to go out and take a chance, while we, on stage, have an excellent opportunity to experiment with new, different, “out of the box” and “off the wall” (if you will) ideas.

I noted that the public did not rush out at the end of Friday’s performance as they can do. They stayed around to express their enthusiasm before I invited them to honor a sixty-four-year-old May Festival tradition. They sang Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus” along with all the forces onstage accompanying them.

So if our classical-music-loving elephant tells us that ticket prices are too expensive, who then will pay for the performances? There is the rub.  Every orchestra, opera company, classical music festival, chamber music and recital series is fighting to keep afloat.  I do not know where the money will come from. I do know that

  1. classical music will never pay for itself (it never has);
  2. it will depend on the generosity of strangers (it has since the days of the Medicis); and
  3. it is unrealistic to expect funding to come from any source at this time in history other than from the private sector.

In Los Angeles we have just completed an extended homage to Benjamin Britten. He is another composer who is regularly cited as being one who “doesn’t sell.” But on several occasions we saw concert halls, churches and cathedrals filled to capacity, aided by modest tickets prices. Another example: in certain countries in Europe (Germany and Austria in particular), I am continually struck by the massive numbers of inexpensive tickets that are available to students on a daily basis. Here at home, I don’t see how it is possible to plan for a future without nurturing concert-going as a basic part of our educational system.

So please, let’s not continue to repeat to ourselves (until others uncomprehendingly repeat it ad nauseum) that no one is interested in classical music, or, even among those who are, that no one is interested in “off-beat” repertory. When he ran for election, candidate Bill Clinton’s advisors famously kept reminding him and his team to stay focused on the primary issue of the 1992 election, “It’s the economy, stupid.” “It’s the ticket prices…..” might serve just as well for us in our own campaign.

The popular and critical success of Spring for Music would seem to support that thesis. Music lovers will come out in large numbers when they can afford to. And the necessity to continue and to encourage similar projects (until they become normal) is clear.

As Anthony Tommasini aptly observed in his May 12 New York Times review, “That financial support could not be found to extend this invaluable project is very dispiriting. What made Spring for Music exceptional is something that should be commonplace in classical music…Shouldn’t the seasonal offerings of ensembles everywhere be a weekly succession of musical adventures?”

They can be, and we will need a lot of deeply committed and devoted patrons and sponsors with vision to help us accomplish this. We have many such people already in this country, and with more, this noisy “death of classical music” drumbeat can be muffled. Maybe our friendly, music-loving elephant will help us trample it.

Posted in A Rich Possession | Comments Closed

A Jazz Rite that Sounds Right

Wednesday, May 14th, 2014

The Rite of Spring

Stravinsky

performed by the Bad Plus

Sony Masterworks CD

 

It has long been a touchstone and signifying landmark for Twentieth Century, but particularly around its centenary (2013), Stravinsky’s Sacre du Printemps (Rite of Spring) provoked much conversation, reevaluation, and reinterpretation. One can imagine a jazz trio translation of the piece falling flat, exchanging riffing for structure and exploiting ostinatos instead of shaping them. However, this is not the case on the Bad Plus’ rendition of the work. Pianist Ethan Iverson, bassist Reid Anderson, and drummer David King have created a transcription that is quite faithful to the original. And, despite some electronic adornments, where the piano trio loses some of the “oomph” that a full orchestra brings to bear on Stravinsky’s energetic climaxes, the leaner format neatly underscores other details in the music: time changes, polyrhythms, linear interaction, and piquant harmonies. After hearing this, one wants to go back to the full score with these details firmly in mind; but one also wants to return again to the Bad Plus’s thoughtful homage to this totemic work.

Posted in The New Classical | Comments Closed

Earplugs and Undergarments: Lyon Opera Ballet at BAM

Saturday, May 10th, 2014

By Rachel Straus

When the ushers of BAM’s Howard Gilman Opera House are handing out earplugs to audience members before the start of a show, it is an obvious warning: What’s to come will not be soothing. Such was the case with ni fleurs, ni ford-mustang (neither flowers, nor Ford Mustang), choreographed by fashion designer and conceptual artist Christian Rizzo, and performed by seven members of the Lyon Opera Ballet (May 7-9). The hour-long work began with Gerome Nox’s industrial sound scape, which simulated being inside of a very large, very old washing machine on the most violent of spin cycles. 

Ear plugs are wonderful things.

With this jarring introduction, experienced May 8, the curtain rose. Not a dancer was in sight. Sparkling red high-heel shoes littered the stage. Was Dorothy of the Wizard of Oz trapped in said washing machine? And was she all grown up, having discarded her flats for heels? Alternatively, was the sparkly skeleton, hanging high above the stage, Dorothy’s remains!?

These questions were not answered. Instead a female dancer entered from the wings in casual clothing and lay prone on the floor next to a stuffed animal carcass. More odd juxtapositions ensued: the cast’s deadpan expressions contrasted with their increasingly theatrical costume changes; these ballet dancers only walked, lay down, and got up. A more apt title for Rizzo’s 2004 work might be ni fleur, ni ford-mustang, ni danse. Or, A Study in Diminishing Expectations for Dance Lovers.

Instead of movement invention, the cast performed a steady layering of vintage undergarments and historical dress onto their bodies. The clothes came into high relief because of Rizzo’s enormous glowing wall, set at a 45 degree angle to the proscenium stage (Rizzo designed the costumes too). When exiting and reentering, the performers invariably appeared with another layer of clothing. If one was stretching one’s analysis of ni fleur, one could say the work focused on the history of European dress. Early on the cast wore wire skirts that changed the shape of their bodies. Later, the dancers donned jackets, wigs, and jackets, some Napoleonic, some Edwardian.

At the thirty minute mark, audience members started making their way to the exits. Was was part of Rizzo’s plan? Those of us seated got to observe their costumes too.

The most compelling costume was worn by dancer Franck Laizet. A big man, his wire undergarment and padding gave him huge ponderous breasts, gargantuan hips and a belly. Then a slight female dancer appeared wearing a beard. When Randy Castillo entered wearing a yellow, tulle floor-length skirt (reminiscent of Romantic ballet garb), and undulated his arms as though he was channeling the west African dancer Asadata Dafora in his famous solo Ostrich Dance, it was positively exciting. Castillo’s flying arm movements appeared to be triggered by his donning of a large bird headdress.

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Castillo danced shirtless. Were we to connect dancing with nudity or being an animal? This notion was supported by what happened next: The performers began appearing as creatures, wearing sci-fi looking black latex body suits with bulbous protuberances. When they entered again with black helmets, this was the cue for them to begin lassoing their arms wildly toward the heavens.  Because lighting designer Caty Olive cast them in black light, their iridescent costumes sent off sparks. Their limbs resembled molten lava.  Just as ni fleurs began to fascinate, the curtain came down. Dance over.

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There is a stereotype that the French are fickle. Ni fleurs, ni ford-mustang, shown as part of Danse: A French-American Festival of Performance and Ideas, did not temper this received idea.   

 

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Posted in The Torn Tutu | Comments Closed

Requiems, British and American

Friday, May 9th, 2014

By Sedgwick Clark

In the space of a single week, New Yorkers were treated to a pair of requiems at Carnegie Hall that combined the traditional Mass for the Dead text with modern-day poetry to create strikingly personal visions of final rest. In 1961 Benjamin Britten composed his War Requiem, interspersing anti-war poems by Wilfred Owen, a British Army officer during World War I who was killed in battle a week before the Armistice. American composer Christopher Rouse followed Britten’s lead in including poems by six authors in his Requiem, which received its New York premiere on May 5 as the first offering in Carnegie’s lamented final season of Spring for Music concerts.

Robert Spano led a bracing, well-prepared performance of the Britten on April 30. One could understand virtually every word sung by the expressive soloists: tenor Thomas Cooley (replacing an indisposed Anthony Dean Griffey at the last minute), baritone Stephen Powell, and soprano Evelina Dobračeva. No less impressive for their articulation were the Atlanta Symphony’s peerless Chorus, initially trained by the legendary Robert Shaw and expertly maintained by Norman Mackenzie since 2000, and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus directed by Dianne Berkun-Menaker. Conductor Spano’s aplomb, when a cell phone tinkled away down front during the pause preceding the work’s moving conclusion (“Let us sleep now . . .”), was admirable. He simply held his arms out and waited patiently until the infernal machine stopped before cuing the tenor and baritone. The extended fermata may even have added emotional weight to the moment. Britten’s War Requiem grows in stature with every hearing, and the Atlanta performers did it proud.

I like Christopher Rouse’s music. It’s visceral, exciting, and delights in employing unfamiliar percussion, usually at full-throated fortissimo. And yet his 90-minute “magnum opus” is quite capable of affecting lyricism, as in the Requiem’s soft final choral moments. Rouse selected his texts from poems by Seamus Heaney, Siegfried Sassoon, Michelangelo Buonarotti, Ben Jonson, John Milton, and John Ellerton, in addition to the German chorale “Es ist ein’ Ros’ entsprungen” and the words of the Roman Catholic Mass for the Dead.

The Carnegie Hall performance, with Alan Gilbert leading the New York Philharmonic, baritone soloist Jacques Imbrailo, Westminster Symphonic Choir, and Brooklyn Youth Orchestra, was only the work’s second outing anywhere. Rouse was halfway through the composition when terrorists flew hijacked airplanes into New York’s World Trade Center. However he had conceived the work, it’s difficult to imagine that the national upheaval of the event did not find itself into the piece, at least subconsciously. He finished it in July 2002, revising it in 2012. Its premiere was conducted by Grant Gershon in Los Angeles on March 25, 2007. L.A. Times critic Mark Swed called it “the first great traditional American Requiem.”

I wish I could agree.

All too often, such as in section No. 15, Rouse overloads his scoring and descends into undifferentiated noise when the huge percussion section unloads unmercifully against the chorus. Was the resulting chaos intentional?

Alan Gilbert has probably conducted and recorded more Rouse works than anyone else in the world. Unaccountably, the Westminster Symphonic Choir seemed ill-prepared, failing to articulate throughout even in the traditional Mass sections. Hardly a word was understandable—a criticism I heard from many fellow audience members during intermission. The most frequent audience comment was that there should have been surtitles. Baritone Jacques Imbrailo was often covered, and the Philharmonic players were no help in this regard, ignoring conductor Gilbert despite his repeated motions for softer playing. Another rehearsal might have made all the difference.

Even the program’s layout of the text was wanting: It would have been clearer in Carnegie’s dim lighting if, like the Atlanta’s Britten text, the translation of the Mass had been in italics.

 

Looking Forward

My week’s scheduled concerts (8:00 p.m. unless otherwise noted):

5/8 Avery Fisher Hall at 7:30. New York Philharmonic/Bernard Haitink; Leonidas Kavakos, violin. Webern: Im Sommerwind. Berg: Violin Concerto. Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 (Eroica).

5/9 Carnegie Hall at 7:30. Spring for Music. Cincinnati Symphony/James Conlon. R. Nathaniel Dett: The Ordering of Moses. John Adams: Harmonium.

5/10 Zankel Hall. Ensemble ACJW/Susanna Mälkki; Topi Lehtipuu, tenor. Schoenberg: Chamber Symphony No. 1. Jukka Tiensuu: Mora. George Benjamin: Three Inventions. John Adams: Chamber Symphony.

5/12 Meredith Willson Hall at the Juilliard School. Francesca Rose dePasquale, violin; John Root, piano. Mozart: Sonata for Violin and Piano in C major, K. 303. Beethoven: Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 7 in C minor, Op. 30 No. 2. Chausson: Poème, Op. 25. Bartók: Rhapsody No. 1, Sz 86/BB 94.

5/15 Avery Fisher Hall at 7:30. New York Philharmonic/Bernard Haitink; Bernarda Fink, mezzo; Women of the New York Choral Artists; Brooklyn Youth Chorus. Mahler: Symphony No. 3.

Posted in Why I Left Muncie | Comments Closed

Primosch on Bridge (CD Review)

Thursday, May 8th, 2014

Sacred Songs

James Primosch

Susan Narucki, soprano; William Sharp, baritone;

21st Century Consort, Christopher Kendall, conductor

Bridge Records CD 9422

 

Whether you are a spiritual seeker or confirmed secularist, James Primosch’s affecting settings of sacred texts, and poems seeking the sacred or spiritual, can prove a balm for the soul and food for thought. On the Bridge CD Sacred Songs, this is doubtless assisted by the extraordinary talents brought to bear upon the material. Soprano Susan Narucki displays impressive range, diction, and dynamic control throughout the three song cycles she assays. Likewise, baritone William Sharp provides an intensity of declamation that is required by the song cycle Dark the Star. At the same time, his instrument retains its lyric timbre and suppleness.

 

Primosch is quite fond of Rilke, and both Dark the Star and From a Book of Hours spotlight the poet’s work. Dark the Star also features fetching settings of poems by Susan Stewart. The juxtaposition of Rilke and Stewart supplies us with a postmodern vantage point on what it means to be seeking the sacred in art (John Harbison’s liner notes also gracefully illuminate this sometimes thorny subject). Four Sacred Songs deals with older texts and, in the case of Cordes Natus ex Parentis, a most familiar hymn tune. Yet Primosch’s distinctive scoring, filled with sumptuous textures punctuated by percussive tintinnabulation, make them his own. The 21st Century Consort, conducted by Christopher Kendall, have engaged in a long term collaboration with Primosch and it shows here in their incandescent and carefully prepared playing. (There are also elegantly arranged voice and piano versions of the songs – singers would do well to seek them out and program them).

 

The earliest set represented here, Holy the Firm, is also one of Primosch’s most striking cycles.  Once again we hear from Susan Stewart, alongside Denise Levertov, two poems by Annie Dillard, and a text from the 7th century AD by John Climacus. Usually, when dealing with a group of songs with poetry by multiple authors, one uses the term cycle judiciously and selectively. But Primosch has selected texts that speak to one another, about the sacred found in nature, about the bridge between temporal existence and eternity, and about the sense of meaning, transcendence, and poetry one can find every day, even, as Annie Dillard points out, on one’s deathbed. Not every composer’s music can support such weighty themes, but I find myself returning again and again to Primosch’s songs. Recommended.

Posted in The New Classical | Comments Closed

The Invasion of the Visa Examiner Body Snatchers Continues! (aka “The Day The Visa Process Stood Still”)

Thursday, May 8th, 2014

By Brian Taylor Goldstein, Esq.   

Dear Law and Disorder:

I recently received an RFE for a group touring the US this summer. The group is represented by a European manager who books their dates, but our US management company has previously filed petitions for them in the past, all of which have been approved without a problem. The RFE claims that I need to prove that we are not only the agent for the artists, but for each of venues on their tour. I provided an itinerary, a letter of agreement between us and the group where we are agreeing to serve as their US representatives, as well as engagement contracts confirming all the dates, including fees. This is what I have always given them before. What do they want?

For those of you who have been lucky enough not to be following along, about four months ago, the US government agency that reviews and approves visa petitions for artists, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), was invaded by aliens…and, by that, I do not mean non-US citizens, but something non-human. It began at the USCIS Vermont Service Center where reports indicate that in early February 2014 the bodies of several unsuspecting USCIS visa examiners spontaneously exploded into a burst of tentacles, multiple glowing eyes, and gaping orifices of dripping fangs. Shortly thereafter, their seedlings were able to infiltrate deliveries of pico de gallo sent to the USCIS California Service Center where they quickly replicated themselves, consuming the bodies of helpless visa examiners there as well. Ever since, these insidious creatures have taken over the review of O and P petitions, resulting in flurry of spurious RFE’s or Requests for Evidence (ie: prove that Lincoln Center is a distinguished venue!) and re-imagined interpretations of regulatory language and requirements (ie: for a role in a production to constitute a “lead or starring role” it must also be performed by an artist whose name alone will demonstrably increase ticket sales!)

Whether these beings are the evil spawn of a far-away galaxy offended by interpretive dance or whether they come from a death star of Blue Meanies, we don’t know. What we do know is that, among other things, USCIS has been seriously scrutinizing petitions filed by agents and managers, as well as itineraries. On a recent national conference call with USCIS representatives, there was a considerable amount of talk about concerns over “speculative” employment and making sure that artists had “confirmed engagements” and were not merely asking for visas in anticipation of future work.

As a result, agents and managers are being asked with greater frequency to provide proof of the agency relationship, including proof that they are authorized to represent both the artist as well as the presenters/venues. This can be either a written (and signed) agency or management agreement with the artists or a letter or other statement signed by the artist confirming that the artist has “appointed” the agent or manager to represent them in the United States. If the agent/manager has also booked all of the engagements (ie: the agent/manager’s name appears on each of the contracts or engagement confirmations), then such a letter of appointment appears to be appeasing the visa beasts…at least for now. However, many times either the artist has booked their own engagements directly with the presenter/venue or the engagements have been booked by a non-US agency and the US agent or manager is merely serving as the petitioner for purposes of filing the visa petition. In such cases, which appears to be your situation, USCIS is asking for proof that the US petitioner has been authorized to file the petition by the artist (or the artist’s non-US agent) as well as by the artist’s non-US agent and, in some cases, by each of the presenters/venues on the artist’s itinerary.

Based on a strict regulatory analysis, I cannot say that this is inappropriate. Rather, its just a very literal reading of certain regulations which have never been strictly enforced until now. Regardless, unless you have booked each of the artist’s engagements yourself, if there are any engagements booked directly between the artist and the venue/presenter, then you also need to include an “appointment form” from those presenters/venues authorizing you to include their engagement on the petition. If the artist has a non-US agent or manager, then you will need (1) proof of the relationship between the artist and the non-US agent and (2) proof that you have been authorized by the non-US agent to file the petition for the artist and on behalf of the engagements booked by the non-US agent. If there are any engagements booked directly by the artists, you will also need proof from the presenter/venue that you are authorized to include their date on your petition. The good news, such as it is, is that such “appointment form” does not need to be anything more elaborate that: “I have engaged [Artist] to perform for me. I hereby appoint [Petitioner] to include this engagement on the visa petition.” That’s it.

We’ve actually been doing this for a while. Whenever our management division acts as petitioner, we include appointment forms from everyone—our theory being: the more paperwork we throw into a petition, the more there’s bound to be something in there a US examiner is looking far. We apply this same theory to reviews, programs, and all other evidence as well. So far, this has worked.

As I mentioned, I have participated on several recent national conference calls with USCIS officials and, on each occasion, they have declared no knowledge of any new practices, rules, requirements, or regulatory interpretations designed to frustrate or scrutinize the O and P visa process. Instead, they claim to have helpfully appointed a panel of “performing arts experts”—three, to be exact, who, near as I can tell, have little, if any, actual practical familiarity with what we do—to help come up with suggestions to solve problems they claim do not exist. In other words, to translate this into government-speak:

There is no problem, but if there is a problem, we have appointed a panel of experts unfamiliar with the problem to help come up with solutions to address the non-existent problem which doesn’t need addressing, because there is no problem, but we promise we will make it better by focusing on fixing things that were not broken in the first place…until they were broken…but not by us.  

On second thought, perhaps these invaders aren’t from another planet after all.

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For additional information and resources on this and otherGG_logo_for-facebook 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 and/or posthumously.

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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 Agents, Artist Management, Arts Management, Contracts, Law and Disorder: Performing Arts Division, Touring, Visas | Comments Closed

April in New York

Thursday, May 1st, 2014

By Sedgwick Clark

Last week’s blog (April 24) was written, but for some reason in the posting process didn’t reach this stage. I wrote about the New York Philharmonic’s performance of Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd, a recital by Murray Perahia, and a Philharmonic concert in which Manfred Honeck deputized for Gustavo Dudamel. It is available now on my list of blogs, reachable by clicking on Why I Left Muncie on the desktop. Herewith a few words on some concerts I heard in April.

First Impressions of SubCulture – April 1

For a time, classical concerts in the downtown, downstairs nightclub Le Poisson Rouge were reviewed often in the Times by Allan Kozinn. But LPR’s visibility lessened when the paper changed his beat from that of critic to reporter. In its stead, a new venue called SubCulture has sprung up. Open for seven months now, it has impressed many as a more acceptable venue for classical music than its model. Both are in Greenwich Village, on Bleecker Street, and some concert impresarios believe they’ll find their future audiences in such places. The ambience is informal, and their modest capacities (150 seats in the case of SubC) allow presentation of lesser-known artists who couldn’t fill Kaufman Auditorium at the 92nd Street Y, for instance, which produced the concert I heard. Drinks are available at the bar but not served by waiters during performances, nightclub style, as is the case at LPR. (The difference is sort of like McDonald’s reducing the fat content of its French fries.) No bother, really, because neither strikes me as an acoustically acceptable concert venue. The main sonic advantage of SubCulture is that its ventilation system is less obtrusive than LPR’s roar.

On this evening, the young Cypress String Quartet played four of Dvorák’s Cypresses and Schubert’s G major Quartet, D. 887, sandwiching the New York premiere of George Tsontakis’s ruminative Sixth Quartet, which only stirred itself into a spurt of energy at its conclusion. Members of the Quartet affably talked about the music before each performance, which is what some presenters think is desirable in connecting with audiences. I would like to welcome the Cypress foursome for the melting European lyricism its players described, but I mainly heard American aggression. Sitting in the fourth row didn’t help; a colleague who moved down to the third row at intermission said that the sound was more flattering in the rear. Intimacy is nice, but it requires a certain refinement.

The quartet’s new recording with cellist Gary Hoffman of Schubert’s Quintet on Avie may offer a kinder perspective.

Heras-Casado’s New York Philharmonic Debut – April 2

The 37-year-old Spaniard Pablo Heras-Casado, principal conductor of the Orchestra of St. Luke’s and Musical America’s Conductor of the Year for 2014, wowed the hard-to-please New York Phil with my favorite program of the year: Britten’s Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes, Bartók’s Third Piano Concerto, and Shostakovich’s Tenth Symphony. While I enjoyed the entire well-played concert, Peter Serkin’s solo playing in the Bartók struck me as quite the most expressive, tonally colorful pianism I’ve ever heard from him. Heras-Casado showed himself to be a crack accompanist. I look forward to more Bartók from him.

American Composers Orchestra – April 4

There’s a lot of wonderful, neglected American music that the ACO used to play—by composers like William Schuman, Howard Hanson, Paul Creston, Ned Rorem, Peter Mennin, Morton Gould, and many others. I stopped attending ACO concerts many years ago after they ceased playing such works. I want to know where the new pieces grow out of. So I was happy to hear Silvestre Revueltas’s Alcancías, sort of a wrong-note film score for a western in three movements, and Gunther Schuller’s Contours, his first “third-stream” piece. George Manahan’s conducting struck me as spot on.

I had run into the ACO’s new artistic director, Derek Bermel at the Heras-Casado concert two days earlier and expressed my opinion in no uncertain terms; I strongly hope this concert was no aberration. The New York premiere of Bermel’s own quirky Mar de Setembro, to five mildly sensual poems by Eugénio de Andrade (pseudonym of José Fontinhas), was sung by Luciana Souza with what seemed the worst wobble I’d ever heard. But maybe it was a stylistic choice, for the composer gives “special thanks” to her in his program note, saying that his “collaboration with her has been nothing short of joyful,” so what the hell do I know?

“Destination America” at CMS – April 6

I finally caught up with violinist Daniel Hope, and I assure you that the praise is richly deserved. His equally adept collaborators were clarinetist Romie de Guise-Langlois and pianist Gloria Chien in Bartók’s Contrasts; Guise-Langlois and pianist Wu Han in Ives’s Largo; Wu Han in Prokofiev’s Sonata in D major, Op. 94a; and Chien, violinist Yura Lee, violist Paul Neubauer, and cellist David Finckel in Korngold’s Piano Quintet, Op. 15. Hope’s beautiful tone and Wu Han’s solid rhythmic pulse made the Prokofiev sonata the high point for me. Mahler proclaimed the 10-year-old Erich Wolfgang Korngold “a genius,” but I’ve always thought that Korngold’s Hollywood period redeemed him as a composer. Not even these expert players could save this thick-textured, awkward piece from his mid-20s.

 

Looking Forward

My week’s scheduled concerts (8:00 p.m. unless otherwise noted):

5/1 Carnegie Hall. Richard Goode, piano. Janáček: On the Overgrown Path, Book I (sel.). Schumann: Davidsbündlertänze. Debussy: Préludes, Book I.

5/2 Carnegie Hall. Philadelphia Orchestra/Yannick Nézet-Séguin, conductor; Lisa Batiashvili, violin. Barber: Adagio for Strings. Bartók: Violin Concerto No. 1. Bruckner: Symphony No. 9.

5/5 Carnegie Hall at 7:30. Spring for Music. New York Philharmonic/Alan Gilbert; Jacques Imbrailo, baritone; Westminster Symphonic Choir; Brooklyn Youth Chorus. Christopher Rouse: Requiem (N.Y. premiere).

5/6 Carnegie Hall at 7:30. Spring for Music. Seattle Symphony/Ludovic Morlot. John Luther Adams: Become Ocean (N.Y. premiere). Varèse: Déserts. Debussy: La Mer.

5/7 Carnegie Hall at 7:30. Spring for Music. Rochester Philharmonic/Michael Christie; singers from the Eastman School of Music Opera Department. Hanson: Merry Mount (complete concert performance).

5/8 Avery Fisher Hall at 7:30. New York Philharmonic/Bernard Haitink; Leonidas Kavakos, violin. Webern: Im Sommerwind. Berg: Violin Concerto. Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 (Eroica).

Posted in Why I Left Muncie | Comments Closed

Ueno Opera to Premiere in Boston

Thursday, May 1st, 2014

GalloCover

I recently spoke with my friend Ken Ueno, a composer on the faculty at UC Berkeley, about the upcoming premiere of his opera Gallo. It will be presented by Guerrilla Opera in May in Boston. Below are excerpts from our chat.

 

CC: How did you come to decide to compose an opera? 

 

KU: Theater has always interested me. I used to mimic the skits of my favorite comedians, the Drifters, on Japanese television. (I remember I got kicked out of a French-speaking kindergarten class in Switzerland doing one of those skits – I was just trying to make friends!) As I kid, whenever my family and I visited New York or London, we took in all the shows – musicals, plays. (I took tap dancing classes.) And later in life, I discovered Samuel Beckett, who remains one of my biggest heroes. As I got into composing concert works, much of my music still embodies some sort of theatrical component.  And over the past 10 years, as I have been performing as a vocalist more and more, I have been feeling that a natural development would be to do a theater work with voice. What made that desire concrete was when Guerilla Opera reached out to me and invited me to collaborate.

 

What is the significance of the title?

 

The central concern of the piece is man’s relationship to the landscape, how we shape the landscape, as well as how the landscape shapes us. A question of ontology.  The central scene, which was the first thing I conceived, is an aria for a countertenor in a rooster costume dressed as an 18th century dandy. I thought it would make a nice balance between the humorous and the intellectual to have the said rooster soliloquize, wax profanely, about ontology (there’s highfaluting Voltaire, Shakespeare and Heiner Müller in there), while singing in chickenese with subtitles. It’s ridiculous. And that’s part of the commentary on ontology. It’s easy to complain about the world, or dream of something, but it takes courage to actually realize, actually make the ridiculous thing. In that creative realization, there is hope – that’s when we can transform the world, rather than have the world constrain us. People will always criticize everything, so we can’t be afraid of it. That’s why it’s a rooster – chicken or “being chicken” is a common vernacular for being afraid, of course. I also thought of Max Ernst’s (a leading 20th century German painter) alter ego, Loplop, a birdlike figure that he included in many works to stand as his alter ego. In a sense, we are all Loplop, we are all the rooster of ontology, we all face life and death and crises of identity.

 

A large part of the concept of the piece was planned during my residency at Civitella Ranieri.  There, each night, when we had dinner, we were served wine in clay pitchers shaped like roosters. “Gallo” is Italian for rooster. It dawned on me towards the end of my time there that the piece should be called “Gallo.”

 

How did you decide to write your own libretto?

 

As I conceived of the idea and the sounds (including the vocal sounds), it felt natural that I would do it. I understand that many composers get the idea to do an opera then go looking for an appropriate text to set. The evolution of this project didn’t unfold that way. I was also not interested in a traditional narrative. There was also another personal need. Over the last several years, as a creative artist, I have been feeling a desire to step beyond just writing music.  Of course, composing remains the thing I most self-identify with, but I also enjoy making visual art and writing poetry. The secret is that I have been writing poetry ever since I was a kid, though I’ve been shy about sharing it. So, this scary thing (scary to me, as I’m as yet not as used to it as I am about writing music) about writing my own words and getting it out there felt like the right personal risk to take at this time. One has to get in the habit of taking risks, being courageous.

 

Did you consider singing in the piece as well?

 

Not for this project.  Guerilla Opera expressed an interest in a piece mainly for their core members.  I’m happy with that, since they are such talented, committed performers.  Besides, I am conceiving of other projects in which I can sing.

 

The two principals are a countertenor and a soprano. What are their characters like and why did you select these particular voices?

 

The countertenor is the rooster.  Since much of the text he contemplates is rooted in the philosophical discussions of the 18th century, a countertenor voice seemed appropriate. Also, having worked with the Hilliard Ensemble over a number of years, David James’ singing has been a big influence on me. The soprano is the shopper/mother figure and was conceived for the particular talents of Aliana de la Guardia, one of the directors of Guerilla Opera, and an amazing talent.

 

What’s with the Cheerios? What about the other pop culture references?

 

Inspired by Beckett’s Happy Days, I wanted the set to be a landscape, a character.  The set, then, is an installation.  I wanted a beach-like feel, a repository of memories, family vacations, Cheerios, as compared to other cereals, look more beach-like. It also makes a better canvas for video projections. Cheerios are childhood comfort food.  It’s the childhood cereal that’s good for you.

 

The text is full of pop references, besides the literary (the aforementioned Voltaire, Shakespeare, Müller as well as Joyce and Carroll).  Many references are about consumer culture.  Others are references to songs – Janis Joplin, Beastie Boys, Van Morrison, Jimi Hendrix.  They occurred to me as I was writing the text.  “Mercedes Benz,” when I was writing about consumer culture. Beastie Boys, when I was writing about the difference between semantic sounds and asemic sounds (the “ill communication”). Van Morrison about breathing.  And Hendrix’s “majestic and superior cackling hen,Your people I do not understand.”  There’s a surprise ending that references a meta-ending of all meta-endings.  All these things are just how I speak – a mishmash of all the things I’ve read, seen, and thought about. I hope it’s entertaining for the audience.  Most of it you don’t have to “get” a local reference to get the whole picture. Fredric Jameson, the philosopher, says that one of the conditions of postmodernism is that time is flattened into a space. The Cheerios and the cultural references articulate that space in Gallo. Music is also flattened into a space – the baroque, the contemporary, a lullaby are all there too.

Do you have some other projects in process? What’s next?

 

I have an installation opening at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum the first week of May. Then, a new string quartet for Mivos premiering at Darmstadt, an evening-long work for Community Music Works for the rededication of the Dainichi Buddha at the RISD Museum, a piece for the Paul Dresher Ensemble with Amy X Neuberg for Cal Performances, a violin concerto for Graeme Jennings and the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, and a few other exciting things upcoming!

When/where are the premiere performances of Gallo?

 

The premiere performances will be at the Zack Box Theater at The Boston Conservatory
8 The Fenway, Boston, MA, on these dates:

 

May 22 – 24, 2014 (at 8pm)
May 29 & 30, 2014 (at 8pm)
May 31, 2914 (at 2pm)

 

Posted in The New Classical, Uncategorized | Comments Closed

Hypothetically Speaking About Liability

Thursday, May 1st, 2014

By Brian Taylor Goldstein, Esq.

Dear Law and Disorder:

If a hypothetical rental company is hired, either by a venue or by the client using a venue, to supply the sound and/or video system for a corporate, non-profit or association event; and this hypothetical rental company is asked to provide “top 40” music to be used during “walk in”, dinner, award winner walks up to the stage, etc. where in the liability chain would this rental company be? What if the end client hands the hypothetical rental company a stack of CD’s or worse, a drive full of MP3’s and requests/insists that they be played? If “ultimately” the owner of the venue is responsible of verifying that proper licensing has been obtained but “everyone involved” is at risk of being named in a lawsuit if proper licensing has not been obtained, how does the vendor in the middle point to either the venue or the end client as the responsible parties?  Is it enough to spell out specific language in the rental agreement? <sarcasm> I know that you are, no doubt, shocked to hear that this scenario might be possible.  However, IF it were to become “common practice” among rental companies to happily play whatever they and/or their client wanted without so much as a hesitation, it would be difficult for any hypothetical rental company to compete if they were the one’s constantly harping on usage rights with their clients. </sarcasm> 

In truth, I’m less shocked by the possibility of the scenario you propose than astonished—nay, agog—by your desire to be proactive about it—even hypothetically. It’s a welcome reprieve from the “let’s not call GG Arts Law until we’ve actually been sued by Disney” approach we are more familiar with.

Merely being named in a lawsuit doesn’t mean that you will necessarily be found responsible—or, as lawyers like to say “liable.” Liability requires that you had a duty to do, or not do, something which you did or did not do. In your hypothetical, its not entirely accurate to say that “ultimately the owner of the venue is responsible for verifying that the proper licensing has been obtained.” Rather, if licensing is required, everyone involved in the performance has a duty to make sure that the proper licenses are obtained—not just the owner of the venue, but the hypothetical rental company and the rental company’s client. Its more accurate to say that, while, ultimately, the owner of the venue is more likely to get sued, everyone involved could be held responsible.

However, you are correct that the hypothetical rental company can put language in its rental agreement that says that whomever is hiring the company (either the venue itself or the person renting the venue, or both) agrees to obtain all necessary licenses and, in the event the rental company is sued and found to be liable for copyright infringement, will cover all of its legal costs and expenses, as well as any damages it might be ordered to pay. The technical term for such a clause is “indemnification and hold harmless”, but there’s no need to use magic legal terms so long as the meaning is clear. While having such a clause in its rental agreement will neither protect the hypothetical rental company from getting sued nor protect it from being liable, it will give the company a contractual basis to turn to the party that signed the rental agreement and say “you agreed to take care of this problem. Fix it!”

Even with an indemnification and hold harmless clause in its pocket, whether or not the hypothetical rental company can happily play whatever it and/or its hypothetical client wanted without so much as a hesitation really depends on the venue where the company has been hired to provide services and where such venue lies on what I call the Risk-O-Meter.  On the low end of the meter lies most for-profit venues (hotels, rental halls, restaurants, conference centers, etc) which more often than not will have obtained the necessary blanket licenses from the major performance rights organizations (ASCAP, BMI and SESAC) to permit that stack of CD’s or a drive full of MP3’s to be played. So, no worries. On the high end you will find the non-profit venues, schools, community centers, and social halls which either don’t know they are supposed to get performance licenses or incorrectly believe that because they are non-profit they are also non-commercial and are exempt from the statutes, rules, laws, and other social orders by which the rest of us must abide. (While not all commercial venues are non-profit, almost all non-profit venues are also commercial.) Your need to harp on usage rights is directly proportionate to where you lie on the Risk-O-Meter—hypothetically speaking, of course.

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For additional information and resources on this and otherGG_logo_for-facebook 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 and/or posthumously.

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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, Contracts, Copyrights, For Profits, Law and Disorder: Performing Arts Division, Liability, Licensing, Music Rights, Non-Profits, Presenters, Publishing, Recordings, Venues | Comments Closed

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