Archive for May 1st, 2014

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).

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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

Piano Retailers as Resources

Thursday, May 1st, 2014

By: Edna Landau

To ask a question, please write Ask Edna.

In a column I wrote in February (Using Google to Find Concert Opportunities), I addressed the challenge that pianists confront in identifying new venues in which to perform or run through repertoire in advance of major recitals. I have always been sympathetic to the limitations they face in not being able to bring their instrument with them. I recently began to investigate the opportunities for piano stores and dealers to be a resource – both in terms of providing performance spaces and advising regarding specific locations with suitable pianos.  I was helped greatly in my research by Bonnie Barrett, Director, Yamaha Artist Services in New York, who led me to some very dedicated individuals whom I otherwise might never have met.

Let me say at the outset that this is not a column about the advantages of becoming an official artist of a particular piano company. There is no standardized information that I can offer about that as it is a personal decision for each artist. However, it does seem to me that the tide has turned and whereas piano companies’ rosters of artists were once populated primarily by “household names”, they have made an effort to reach out to younger performers in ways that can be extraordinarily meaningful. Substantial information about this can be found on the Yamaha Artist Services and Steinway & Sons websites. Yamaha’s range of services even extends to career advice and Steinway now has a special Young Steinway Artists roster for classical, jazz and pop artists.

Can piano dealers offer helpful information to pianists hoping to secure performing opportunities on their own? The answer is both yes and no. Vivian Chiu, Operations Manager, Concert Services at Steinway & Sons in New York, confirmed that dealers obviously have information about pianos they have sold or rented to institutions in their area. In all likelihood, they are in fine condition but she does find herself on the phone with artists who call to request  information about a particular piano. The dealers are usually not a resource for general locations of venues with pianos and they do not keep such a master list. However, a call (for example) to a church to whom the dealer has sold a piano may yield information about other churches with pianos. Most dealers have websites which list the institutions with whom they have had an affiliation.

How common is it for piano dealers to have a performance space and host concerts in their showrooms? Such an arrangement is not uncommon, especially in the larger cities. The New York City headquarters of Steinway and Yamaha have hosted concerts and press events for years.  The Yamaha Artist Services Piano Salon is equipped to offer its artists use of their unique Disklavier TV recording technology that allows them to connect to remote concert stages throughout the world. On a more fundamental level, students who need to prepare DVD’s for professional auditions are welcomed into the facility, provided with an excellent concert grand and assisted in the preparation of their recording.  Klavierhaus in New York City, which is in the business of piano restoration and sales,  built a state of the art concert space and recording studio several years ago which was used on a rental basis and attracted a very cultivated audience. The company has since relocated and is constructing a new showroom and recital space at Le Parker Meridien Hotel near Carnegie Hall, where it will also begin curating a recital series in the penthouse. Both Michael Harrison, Managing Director, and Nicholas Russotto, Director of Events, are excited about the possibilities that these venues will afford and note that it will allow Klavierhaus to continue to be a haven for pianists at all stages of their careers. Gavin English, General Manager of Steinway’s West Coast retail stores, told me that if you go on Steinway’s website, click on Dealer Finder and enter the zip code in which you are located, it will list the contact information of the closest Steinway & Sons showroom in that area. Another way to find your local Steinway & Sons showroom is to call 1-800-STEINWAY and it will reach the local showroom in the area code you’re calling from. He mentioned that there is no charge for Steinway artists, and often local artists, to use concert spaces in their dealers’ showrooms but advised that some showrooms are larger than others and availability may be limited to the daytime hours.

The motivations for hosting concerts vary from city to city. Many showrooms cultivate a relationship with local teachers and open their facility for student recitals. The typical showroom concert space has a seating capacity of 69-95, although some can seat as many as 150. Faust Harrison Pianos hosts concerts in all three of its New York area showrooms – New York City, White Plains and Huntington. Sara Faust, owner of Faust Harrison and a prizewinning pianist herself, told me that hosting concerts is a good way for the company to give back to the community and support artists. Understandably, she also explained that it provides opportunities to bring potential customers to the store. In White Plains, concert audiences attend for free and are also offered a factory tour. A dealer might host a showcase for an artist if local presenters (who can be good customers) are interested in hearing them. If an artist can bring a local audience of at least 50 to their performance, Faust Harrison won’t charge for the space. Sam Varon in Faust Harrison’s Huntington showroom adheres to the same general guidelines, with strong deference given to teachers for student recitals.

If my travels take me to Maryland any time soon, I will be sure to visit Downtown Piano Works in Frederick. The owners, Dan and Theresa Shykind, do very little traditional advertising, preferring to draw customers into their store via a free concert series which they present using the finest pianos from their exclusively Yamaha inventory. They have presented 100 concerts over the past six years, featuring some of the finest established and emerging pianists of our time. (They’ve even been known to sneak in a violinist or cellist.) Young artists receive a small honorarium. The space holds 65 and they generally have a wait list of over 150. The concerts are free and a percentage of seats are set aside for students of the Downtown Piano Works Music School, led by Theresa, herself a musician. On occasion, artists performing in the store offer master classes to the students. The Shykinds have no expectation of the artist bringing in an audience. They see the series as an opportunity to give back to the community in which they raised their children. Dan told me that he receives materials and CD’s every week from artists interested in performing there. He books the concerts over a year in advance and suggests that artists send YouTube links for his review to DowntownPianoWorks@yahoo.com. The company’s website  has an extensive list of institutions to whom they have provided pianos (albeit not always grands), which artists might find helpful. It is not uncommon for concerts at DPW to be reviewed and/or broadcast if the artist is willing, and for senators and congressmen to be present in the audience.

Despite the many visits I have made to Chicago over the course of my career, I only had occasion this week to connect with Thomas Zoells, owner of PianoForte Chicago, Inc. (a piano store) and founder and Executive Director of the PianoForte Foundation. After a time working in artist management, and a longer time spent in banking, he decided ten years ago to respond to his passion for pianos and enter the piano business. He told me that what drives him and gives him fulfillment is “to get people excited about the piano and to promote piano culture”.  Although the recital hall in the store is available for rent and the recording studio for a fee, they are also used for the classical and jazz concerts, and the radio series, curated by Thomas Zoells himself through the foundation. Moderately priced tickets are sold to the performances and artists receive a fee. Many of the concerts are broadcast live and students are particularly encouraged to attend those concerts. The application process for participating in the Foundation’s series is detailed on their website.

A Google adventure of mine led me to Coral Gables, Florida (perhaps in a subliminal search for better weather than we are currently experiencing in New York) where I discovered the Steinway Piano Gallery. I had a delightful conversation with the General Manager, Doug Thiel, a 40-year veteran of the piano business. The Gallery has a 90 seat hall which is used almost every day. They host hundreds of student recitals every year, as well as master classes and educational activities. There is no charge for the space. Doug Thiel sees his role very clearly as sustaining the evolution of classical music and jazz. He told me: “We’ve got to support the young people’s efforts in order to continue to cultivate an interested and appreciative audience.” I was impressed with Doug’s wonderful spirit and hope to have the opportunity to meet him in person someday.

By necessity, this column has focused on retail establishments in the U.S. Fortunately, there are many piano stores and showrooms around the world which also host concerts and educational activities and which are staffed with dedicated individuals who are often musicians themselves.  I encourage all young pianists to seek them out during their travels. They will undoubtedly prove to be great sources of information and may also become lifelong friends.

To ask a question, please write Ask Edna.

© Edna Landau 2014

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