Showcasing: A Rare Visa Exception

August 28th, 2013

By Brian Taylor Goldstein, Esq.

Dear Law and Disorder

Do non-US artists need artist visas when they come in to perform a showcase at a booking conference? They don’t get paid. Its just to get bookings. In fact, the artists lose money doing this. Can they enter on a tourist visa or do they have to spend even more money and go through the process of getting an artist visa?

Its rare that someone asks us an immigration question where they actually might like the answer…this may be one of those instances.

However, its first always worth remembering that, under current U.S. immigration law, whether or not a foreign artist is required to have an artist visa (almost always either an O or a P) is not related to payment. What triggers the need for an artist visa is performance. Whether or not an artist is paid, whether or not tickets are sold, whether or not the performance is public or private, whether or not the performance is for a non-profit educational or a cultural organization, if an artist performs, and there is someone watching the performance, he or she is required to have an appropriate artist visa.

Except for rare and limited exceptions, an artist can never perform on a visitor visa or, if applicable, under the visa waiver program. One exception is a competition. An artist is not required to have an artist visa if the artist is coming to the U.S. for the sole purpose of participating in a competition where there is no payment other than expenses and a prize, monetary or otherwise. Another exception is an audition. An artist is not required to have an artist visa if the artist is coming to the U.S. for the sole purpose of auditioning or meeting with producers or presenters in the hopes of being hired to perform in the future.

While there is no official codification of a showcase being regarded as an audition, the U.S. State Department in conjunction with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services have long taken the position that a showcase is regarded as an audition if it meets the following criteria: The showcase is not open to the public, no tickets are sold or available, attendance is open only to registered members of the booking conference, and the artists are not paid and are responsible for their own expenses. Also, the artist cannot perform any other engagements in the U.S. while on the same trip. In other words, they need to get in, perform the showcase, and get out. If these criteria are met, then an artist may enter the U.S. and perform at the showcase on a visitor visa or, if applicable, a passport issued by a “visa-waiver” country.

Be forewarned: simply calling a performance a “showcase” is not sufficient. Nice try, but that won’t work. If an artist books a venue, sells tickets or otherwise makes tickets available to the public, but allows booking conference attendees to attend free, that is NOT a showcase for purposes of the artist visa exception and the artist will be required to have an appropriate artist visa. Similarly, booking an engagement with a low fee simply because the artist or the artist’s agent/manager believes such engagement will be an opportunity to showcase or introduce the artist’s talents to the U.S. market in the hopes of getting future bookings is also NOT a showcase.

If you believe that you or an artist you represent may qualify for the showcase exception, then, if the artist is traveling on a passport from a “visa waiver” country, he or she needs to travel with a letter from the artist’s agent/manager or, even better, from the booking conference itself, confirming that all the elements of the exception are met. If the artist is traveling on a passport from a “non-visa waiver” country, then he or she will need to apply for a visitor visa at a U.S. consulate, but should bring the appropriate letter with them explaining that the showcase exception applies.

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

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

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

__________________________________________________________________

THE OFFICIAL DISCLAIMER:

THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE!

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

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

Written On Skin, at Length

August 24th, 2013

Barbara Hannigan and Iestyn Davies in Munich

By ANDREW POWELL
Published: August 24, 2013

MUNICH — What is written on skin? Craftsmanship “as immaculate as anything … composed since the heyday of Ravel” and “glimpses of a 21st-century tonality,” if you read Alex Ross in The New Yorker. And “a psychologically gripping, emotionally heart-pounding and viscerally satisfying drama,” according to Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim for The New York Times. The skin in question is parchment for an illuminated family history, the requisition of which propels a retelling of a short medieval horror story: husband serves faithless wife her (troubadour) lover’s heart. Boccaccio used it in 1351. Verdi five hundred years later did not. The cited critics are praising an “opera” of the bloody tale by George Benjamin to a libretto by Martin Crimp, premiered in Aix-en-Provence last year and given its first German outing here at the Prinz-Regenten-Theater on July 23 as part of the Munich Opera Festival.

To these ears, Written On Skin with its two momentary breaks amounts to a 95-minute triptych of orchestral pieces and an applied, alien vocal overlay: concert sheep in wolf’s clothing. Each piece employs constructs familiar from Benjamin’s Ringed By the Flat Horizon (1980, heard at its London premiere that year) and Palimpsests (2002, played intently here 15 months ago by the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra). Those 20-minute works adumbrate with their own kind of anything-but-operatic drama: discreet coloring; cautious pacing; finely splintered textures and balances; spare, crashing climaxes; and retreats of knowing modesty. They hold the attention and lodge themselves in the mind for, well, years. Craftsmanship indeed.

Laced with motifs and fuller phrases for verrophone and bass viola da gamba, the opera’s scoring coyly addresses its ghoulish subject. Sandpaper blocks and a whip contribute against a brooding 8-6-6-6-4 string complement. Stretched atop and across is the Brittenish writing for voice. This is at its most expressive and stirring in several duets, especially those involving the husband, cast by Crimp as the “Protector.” Often, though, the meeting of the earlier composer’s techniques and Benjamin’s deliberative way with structure produces drawn-out phrases — the natural counterpart to his instrumental writing and a reflection of the style and methods he settled into at Cambridge, England, more than thirty years ago. Characters then emote in similar Saran Wrap lines at various pitches. The music cannot under the circumstances shift organically, let alone spontaneously. Instead of driving the action, it merely colors it, albeit with distinction and force: drama as ornament for inescapable, purely musical shapes.

Benjamin cultivates tension right from the start, and sustains it, as he does in concert hall music, until those inevitable but seemingly casual breaks. Tension, not suspense. If some of the same could be said of Bartók’s opera, it could never be said of the average Monteverdi madrigal.

Determined, apparently, to create a music-theater work of feature length after collaborating on the chamber-scale Into the Little Hill (2006), composer and librettist chose a tale with one linear thread: a hiring, a seduction, marital confrontation, murder, a juicy meal and a suicide. This Crimp spins out to the breaking point, even if his words are always fresh and concise; his dead-end subplot offers no substitute for missing theatrical counterpoint. And so the characterizations are limited: the Protector a landed, obsessive-possessive bully; the wife, called Agnès, his hapless vassal; the third principal singing role, called the Boy (and Angel 1), passive and largely inert — yet it is he who, hired at the outset, is tasked with preparing that family history and who stirs rebellion in Agnès, becoming her lover without wishing it or evolving as a result.

Katie Mitchell’s clearly purposed, split-level staging (from Aix) operates supportively enough. She perhaps sensed the need for more action, but she responds with supplemental and ineffectual zombie exploits stage right, and the viewer soon tunes these out. Her principal direction, however, remains assiduously in focus.

Kent Nagano led a committed performance on opening night, taking over from the composer, who had conducted in Aix. That was Munich’s loss: Benjamin, on hand for bows, is a gifted leader. But Nagano’s coordination endured and the Austrian orchestra Klangforum Wien played with obvious dedication. Philipp Alexander Marguerre and Eva Reiter ably traced the vital verrophone and viola da gamba parts. Countertenor Iestyn Davies, taking over from Bejun Mehta who had sung the Boy in France, contrasted ideally with Christopher Purves’s fearsome and all-too-realistic (bass-baritone) Protector. Both were persuasive musically. As the distressed Agnès, soprano Barbara Hannigan acted and sang as if her own life were under “protection.” Marie Victoria Simmonds (mezzo-soprano) and John Allan Clayton (tenor) made vivid contributions as Angels 2 and 3.

Photo © Matthias Schrader for Associated Press

Related posts:
Verdi’s Lady Netrebko
Kaufmann Sings Manrico
Mélisande as Hotel Clerk
Nitrates In the Canapés
Liederabend with Breslik

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Opera on the Gendarmenmarkt: Iván Fischer’s ‘Marriage of Figaro’

August 23rd, 2013

By Rebecca Schmid

The season is already underway in flying colors at the Konzerthaus Berlin. Iván Fischer, following an enthusiastically received appearance at the Mostly Mozart Festival, unveiled his concert staging of Le Nozze di Figaro yesterday featuring much of the same cast alongside the Konzerthausorchester. It was a pleasure to see the concert house’s neo-classical interior—an opulent post-war refurbishment—brought into my relief by Fischer’s concept. Rococo-dressed mannequins and wire-framed costumes (designs by György Kertész) were suspended from the gilded ceiling on metal grids, descending as the disguises which drive the opera’s class- and gender-bending comedy of errors. Figaro seizes the head of a model representing the count in his aria “Se vuol ballar,” only to dress him down to boxers; and the page Cherubino slips full of desire into the arms of a costume representing Susanna—externalizing the double-illusion of a woman playing a boy.

Fischer—who has sought to widen the house’s reach through new formats such as Espresso Concerts, public rehearsals and online video since becoming music director last season–stood casually upstage before the performance began, chatting with passers-by before raising his baton toward the back of the hall and launching into the overture. He conducted most of the performance seated to the edge of the second violins, with the orchestra arranged in a semi-circle around two platforms that served as focal points for the action. The singers, however, wove freely in and out of the orchestra from doors placed on either side of the stage. Eighteenth-century wigs were tossed around playfully, integrating Fischer and the musicians into the drama. The aesthetic risked on camp, however, and the exposed transition into the fourth act was more irritating than charming as stagehands fastened karabiners onto mannequins that would allow the Countess and Susanna to switch places and trick the Count. “It will only last another two or three minutes,” Fischer told the audience.

One forgave the setback once the music resumed. The orchestra has made tremendous strides under Fischer, now playing with renewed warmth and energy in the strings. His intuitive connection to Mozart’s emotional world emerged in graceful but playful phrasing, although there was an unfortunate tendency to rush into attacks. The cast displayed delightful emerging singers in roles which, as it happens, are best depicted by youthful performers. As the cunning servant Susanna, Laura Tatulescu anchored the evening with lush, expressive tone. She also conveyed the character’s feminine wiles with admirable comic timing. Hanno Müller-Brachmann, with a precocious, unforced bass-baritone and boyish charm, proved a fine partner as Figaro, although he is even stronger in German repertoire. The detailed characterization and well-sculpted tone of Rachel Frenkel in the role of Cherubino made for another stand-out. The seasoned mezzo Ann Murray and bass Andrew Shore were a memorable pair as Marcellina and Bartolo, Figaro’s long-lost parents, although Murray’s thespian approach seemed more tailored to a full staging. Roman Trekel brought subtle comedy to his portrayal of the Count, and Miah Persson—returning to an opera she has sung many times—inhabited the role of the Countess with natural aristocratic restraint. Norma Nahoun was a charming as Barbarina, the daughter of the gardener Antonio, here in a strong performance by Matteo Peirone.

The acoustics of the stage formation required some getting used to—inner voices at times jumped out unexpectedly, and the singers had to cut through an orchestra that surrounded them on all sides—but Fischer guided the musicians with unimposed authority. His fluid integration of scenic elements and flair for comedy remain a triumph. He managed to flesh out the characters of Mozart and Da Ponte in great detail, unencumbered by the gags that often drown out the action on opera stages. With three full-time houses, Berlin is of course not in need of more opera—and just across town, the Berlin Philharmonic can boast a far more entrenched tradition, a house with far superior acoustics, not to mention a level of international fame with which only one or two other orchestras on the planet can compete. But Fischer has succeeded in revitalizing the Konzerthaus with a fresh, organic—albeit quirky—creative impulse that remains blissfully impervious to outside influence.

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Bard’s Stravinsky Festival

August 22nd, 2013

by Sedgwick Clark

A long weekend of festival gluttony left me exhausted but happily so: the first weekend of Bard’s Stravinsky deluge (8/9-11), Tanglewood Contemporary Music Festival’s U.S. premiere of George Benjamin’s ecstatically received opera Written on Skin (8/12), and back home for David Lang’s the whisper opera at Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival (8/13).

We drive up the Taconic Parkway along the Hudson River through some of the most beautiful country in the Northeast, in passionate anticipation of what Bard’s omni-proselytizer Leon Botstein has to share with us. He and his artistic co-directors, Christopher H. Gibbs and Robert Martin, invariably concoct illuminating musical menus by the primary composer and complementary works by various colleagues. Preconcert talks and panels of experts dot the schedule, reminding us that Bard is a school. Superbly produced, unfailingly literate, and perfectly proofread programs are available to all attendees. One never fails to learn and even be surprised. (Ever hear any music by Mikhail Gnesin, Maximilian Steinberg, or André Souris? I hadn’t even heard of the latter.) Two programs this year featured ten composers, and they sometimes run close to three hours counting setups between works. Bard audiences are notable for their sitzfleisch.

Tempo is the principal problem in the performance of his music, Stravinsky tells Robert Craft in Conversations with Igor Stravinsky: “A piece of mine can survive almost anything but wrong or uncertain tempo.” Botstein’s presentational approach to conducting is more in tune with Stravinsky, who claimed to loathe interpreters, than, say, Mahler, whose music is open to a variety of approaches. I’m hopeful. In his introductory preconcert talk on opening night, Botstein says that, with few exceptions, Stravinsky’s music is no longer difficult for contemporary audiences. But, he warns ominously about one of the works on the program, “I assure you that Abraham and Isaac does sound ‘modern.’ ” (Actually, it doesn’t, being a 60-year-old serialist relic whose time has long passed in our current, neo-tonal era.) Interestingly, Botstein’s easygoing performance of this ungrateful piece with members of the American Symphony Orchestra was quite the most digestible I’ve ever heard, abetted by baritone John Hancock’s mellow rendering of the Hebrew text. The most popular work on the program, Symphony of Psalms, was unerringly paced but compromised by mushy choral articulation. Anna Polonsky and Orion Weiss, two young pianists who would shine in other performances throughout the weekend, brought the unaccountably neglected Concerto for Two Pianos to life. And Botstein led a taut Les Noces that featured an engaging vocal quartet—soprano Kiera Duffy, mezzo-soprano Melis Jaatinen, tenor Mikhail Vekua, and bass-baritone Andrey Borisenko—to end the concert.

The second program, called “The Russian Context,” was one of those point-making Bard concerts performed largely by workmanlike festival regulars. Three Tchaikovsky works, for instance, Feuillet d’album, Op. 19, No. 3, and Humoreske, Op. 10, No. 2, both for piano, and the song None but the Lonely Heart, Op. 6, No. 6, were all adapted by Stravinsky for his 1928 ballet Le Baiser de la fée. The pianist in these, and several other works throughout the first weekend, Gustav Djupsjöbacka, was discouragingly half-hearted, whether as soloist or accompanist. Fortunately, contributions by pianists Orion Weiss in works by Glinka and Stravinsky and Piers Lane in works by Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, and Stravinsky compensated. Most impressive, however, was the young, Curtis-trained Dover Quartet in Glazunov’s Five Novelettes, Op. 15, which had everyone marveling over the foursome’s warm, full-bodied sonority and gracious Romantic style.

A teacher (Rimsky-Korsakov), and two students (Steinberg and Stravinsky) in works from 1913, dominated the third program, with the full American Symphony under Botstein reveling in the shimmering sensuousness of a suite from Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh (1907) and Maximilian Steinberg’s ballet suite from Les métamorphoses. The music might have been from the same pen. What a contrast with the savage Le Sacre du printemps, however, conducted pretty much in one well-chosen tempo throughout, as the work’s first conductor, Pierre Monteux, said was possible. There were no serious mishaps, and the Danse sacrale—the burial ground for innumerable past performances—went perfectly. Unfortunately, the brass were nearly always too loud, overwhelming the strings, and rasping and ugly besides.

Many performances of Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire (1912) strike people as “modern” because they are so unattractively sung. What a revelation in the fourth program, then, to hear Kiera Duffy tackle the composer’s Sprechstimme with utmost security and beauty, matched by the character and musicality of the excellent instrumentalists. Her accuracy in honoring the composer’s frequent p and pp indications imparted a surprisingly delicate character to a work that 101 years later can still be daunting, although I wondered if listeners farther back than my row F could distinguish the text without difficulty. Four fine performances of vocal works with instrumentation inspired by Pierrot followed: Ravel’s Trois poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé (1913), Melis Jaatinen, mezzo-soprano; Delage’s Quatre poèmes hindous (1912-13), Lei Xu, soprano; Stravinsky’s Trois poésies de la lyrique Japonaise (1913) and Pribaoutki (1914), Lei Xu, soprano, and John Hancock, baritone, respectively. Short pieces by Falla, Ravel, Bartók, and Satie composed in homage to Debussy soon after his death followed, and the concert ended with a performance of Debussy’s always welcome two-piano En blanc et noir (1915) by Alessio Bax and Lucille Chung.

Les Six, a group of post-World War I Parisian composers who adopted avant-garde artistic trends as a backlash against Debussy and impressionism, dominated the sixth program. Looking to the eccentric composer Erik Satie as a mentor, The Six—Francis Poulenc, Georges Auric, Darius Milhaud, Germaine Tailleferre, Louis Durey, and Arthur Honegger—injected café music, ragtime, and jazz into the concert hall. Typically for Bard, the most famous of these pieces, Milhaud’s Le boeuf sur le toit (The Bull on the Roof; 1920) was not performed, and Satie’s signature piece, the ballet Parade (1916-17), was played in the composer’s four-hand piano arrangement. Missing, therefore, were such surrealistic aspects of Jean Cocteau’s scenario as sirens, whistles, gunshots, and a typewriter, but pianists Orion Weiss and Anna Polonsky made the best case possible for the black-and-white version. Polonsky accompanied John Hancock in a first-rate performance of Poulenc’s last song cycle Le travail du peintre (1956). Conductor Geoffrey McDonald conjured a delectable blend of sass and refinement from the Bard Festival Chamber Players in Stravinsky’s Ragtime for 11 Instruments (1918) and Les Mariés de la tour Eiffel (1921)— a collaboration between all The Six except Durey. The final work on the concert, Stravinsky’s 25-minute opéra bouffe Mavra (1921-22), was one of Botstein’s most successful performances, undoubtedly helped by the work’s chamber forces, which prevented him from inflating dynamic values, and absence of the ASO’s brass. The impressive vocalists were soprano Anne-Carolyn Bird (Parasha), mezzo-sopranos MelisJaatinen (The Neighbor) and Ann McMahon Quintero (The Mother), and tenor Nicholas Phan (The Hussar).

A fine conclusion to Bard’s first weekend of Stravinsky and His World.

I had intended upon hearing Bard’s second weekend as well, but attending to an ailing pet took precedence. So my upstate festival hopping ended the next day with Tanglewood’s Contemporary Music Festival for the U.S. premiere of George Benjamin’s acclaimed opera Written on Skin, about which I blogged last week. Perhaps it’s unfair to compare the Bard Festival with Tanglewood’s Festival. Their missions are different. If nothing else, the Bard performers are all professionals and Tanglewood’s are all students. I have no idea what the respective budgets are, but professionals must be paid, and students do not. My recollection is that Bard used to have more “name” soloists (Peter Serkin was the only one this year, although some Bard musicians may reach that status eventually). I noted many American Symphony players in chamber performances this year, which cannot help but lead to exhaustion in the rehearsal and performance of concerts. Perhaps shorter programs, Maestro Botstein, would level the playing field. One wants to be encouraging about Bard because there are so many positive aspects about it—and I did enjoy many performances this year—but the inescapable conclusion, as I sat enthralled in Ozawa Hall, was that Tanglewood’s student orchestra and vocalists were so vastly superior that the Bard performers were thrown totally in the shade.

Posted in Why I Left Muncie | Comments Closed

How Does An Unauthorized Arrangement Become Grand Theft Auto?

August 21st, 2013

By Brian Taylor Goldstein, Esq. Dear Law and Disorder: Several years ago, our small ensemble hired a composer to arrange and re-orchestrate a work for us to play. The work itself, which is still under copyright, was originally written and arranged for a large orchestra. Recently, we made a video of our group performing the piece, put it on YouTube, and the composer’s publisher had it taken down. The publisher also told us that the composer had not authorized any arrangements or re-orchestrations. They also told us we couldn’t even perform it live anymore. Is this true? Even though we paid for the re-arrangement ourselves? Even though we have always obtained performance licenses through BMI? We have been performing this arrangement for years and the publisher has never objected before. It doesn’t seem fair. We have engagements in 2013/2014 to specifically perform this piece as part of our repertoire. When you obtain a performance license through ASCAP, BMI or SESAC, you obtain the right to perform a work as written. This includes the right to “interpret” the work to reflect your own style, artistry, expression, etc. However, it does not include the right to re-orchestrate or re-arrange a work in a manner that changes the fundamental nature of the work. For example, obtaining a performance license to perform a work written for a chamber ensemble does not give you the right to “re-arrange” it for four banjos and a zither—as tempting as that may be! The fact that you paid for the re-arrangement doesn’t give you any rights to perform it, if the re-arrangement itself was unauthorized. That’s like stealing a car, but arguing that it wasn’t a crime because you paid for the gas. (My partner, Robyn, says I never met an analogy I didn’t like…so let’s go with that.) However, on the plus side, such as it is, should the composer/publisher of the work ever decide they like your arrangement, they can’t use it without your permission either. The right to the re-arrangement belong to the owner of the re-arrangement—which could be your ensemble or the composer of the re-arrangement, depending on how your commission agreement was drafted. (Remember, the mere act of paying for something doesn’t inherently convey any rights.) The fact that you have been performing this arrangement to date without any trouble might buy you an argument—albeit a weak one—that your past performances were “implicitly” licensed. However, now that the publisher has officially told you that your arrangement is unauthorized, any future performances beyond this point would constitute copyright infringement. The line has been drawn. I know it doesn’t seem fair when a composer, author, publisher, or copyright owner refuses to give you the rights you need—especially in a situation such as yours where your arrangement obviously has artistic merit or else you wouldn’t be getting engagements to perform it. However, bear in mind that those same rules also protect your own rights. Imagine your position if someone had taken that video you posted on YouTube and, without your permission, altered it or used it in such a way that you found artistically objectionable. You would be just as adamant that they must stop. Also, bear in mind that its almost always easier (not to mention legally required) to get rights by asking and negotiating ahead of time, rather than taking what you want and then asking for forgiveness or permission after the fact. It’s the difference between borrowing and stealing a car. __________________________________________________________________ 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, Contracts, Copyrights, Law and Disorder: Performing Arts Division, Licensing, Music Rights, Publishing, Recordings | Comments Closed

George Benjamin’s Written on Skin

August 16th, 2013

by Sedgwick Clark   

British composer George Benjamin’s opera Written on Skin certainly doesn’t need my praise after all the encomia it received at its world premiere at Festival d’Aix-en-Provence in July 2012 and its London premiere on March 9 at Covent Garden. But I can report on the U.S. premiere this past Monday at Tanglewood’s Festival of Contemporary Music in Ozawa Hall. In a word, it was thrilling.  

The playing of the Tanglewood Music Center Fellows, a student orchestra, was flawless from top to bottom—indeed, already imbued with the elder orchestra’s Boston richness and depth of tone. Even in a concert performance, the young singers displayed a sense of drama and commitment fully competitive with the excellent Aix cast available on the recently released Nimbus CD set. They were: Lauren Snouffer (Agnès), Evan Hughes (Protector), Augustine Mercante (Angel 1/Boy), Tammy Coil (Angel 2/Marie), and Isaiah Bell (Angel 3/John). My concert companion had heard the Aix premiere and expressed misgivings about attending the Tanglewood performance, but after the first few minutes she turned to me, smiled, and nodded her assent.  

The composer conducted the Aix and London performances and did so at this concert as well. On the evidence of this one concert, I have no hesitation in stating that Benjamin is a great conductor. Never for a moment was there doubt of his control over his youthful orchestra, and the precision of attack, allied with expressive warmth and natural freedom of phrase, was masterful. His biography states that he has conducted some of the world’s great ensembles, in repertoire from Schumann to Wagner and, of course, works by many of his contemporaries. I hope to hear him conduct again as soon as possible . . . as long as it doesn’t unduly compromise his composing career.    

Program details of Bard Music Festival, “Stravinsky and His World”  

WEEKEND TWO: Stravinsky Re-invented: From Paris to Los Angeles  

Friday, August 16
SPECIAL SHOWING
Filming Stravinsky: Preserving Posterity’s Image
Weis Cinema
Free and open to the public

PROGRAM SIX
Against Interpretation and Expression: The Aesthetics of Mechanization
Sosnoff Theater
7:30 pm Pre-concert Talk: Christopher H. Gibbs
8 pm      Performance: Eric Beach, percussion; Judith Gordon, piano; Jonathan Greeney, percussion; Imani Winds; Piers Lane, piano; Peter Serkin, piano; Gilles Vonsattel, piano; Bard Festival Chamber Players and students of The Bard College Conservatory, conducted by Leon Botstein  

Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971)
Concerto for Piano and Winds (1923–24)
   Sonata for Two Pianos (1943–44)
Béla Bartók (1881–1945)
   Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion, Sz 110 (1937)
Edgard Varèse (1883–1965)
   Octandre (1923)
Paul Hindemith (1895–1963)
   Kleine Kammermusik, Op. 24, No. 2 (1922)
Olivier Messiaen (1908–92)
   From Quatre études de rythme (1949–50)Tickets: $25, $35, $50, $60  

Saturday, August 17  

PANEL THREE
Lenin, Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini: Music, Ethics, and Politics
Olin Hall
10 am—noon
Tamara Levitz, moderator; Tomi Mäkelä; Simon Morrison; Michael Beckerman  

Free and open to the public  

PROGRAM SEVEN
Stravinsky in Paris
Olin Hall
1 pm        Pre-concert Talk: Manuela Schwartz
1:30 pm     Performance: Xak Bjerken, piano; Randolph Bowman, flute; Sara Cutler, harp; Jordan Frazier, double bass; Marka Gustavsson, viola; Robert Martin, cello; Jesse Mills, violin; Harumi Rhodes, violin; Sharon Roffman, violin; Laurie Smukler, violin; Bard Festival Chamber Players    

Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971)
   Les cinq doigts, for piano (1921)
   Octet for Wind Instruments (1922–23)
   Duo concertant (1931–32)
Albert Roussel (1869–1937)
   Sérénade, for flute, harp, and string trio, Op. 30 (1925)
Bohuslav Martinu (1890–1959)
   String Quartet No. 4, H. 256 (1937)
Sergey Prokofiev (1891–1953)
   Sonata for Two Violins, Op. 56 (1932)
Arthur Lourié (1892–1966)
    Sonata for Violin and Double Bass (1924)
Alexandre Tansman (1897–1986)
   Sonatina for Flute and Piano (1925)  

Tickets: $35  

PROGRAM EIGHT
The Émigré in America
Sosnoff Theater
7 pm     Pre-concert Talk: Leon Botstein
8 pm     Performance: John Relyea, bass-baritone; Rebecca Ringle, mezzo-soprano; Bard Festival Chorale, James Bagwell, choral director; American Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Leon Botstein, music director  

Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971)
   Jeu de cartes (1936)
   Symphony in Three Movements (1942–45)
Ode (1943)
Requiem Canticles (1965–66)
Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951)
   Kol Nidre, Op. 39 (1938)
Hanns Eisler (1898–1962), Score for Night and Fog (1955), a film by Alain Resnais  

Tickets: $30, $50, $60, $75  

Sunday, August 18  

PROGRAM NINE
Stravinsky, Spirituality, and the Choral Tradition
Olin Hall
10 am     Performance with commentary by Klára Móricz, with the Bard Festival Chorale, James Bagwell, choral director; Frank Corliss, piano; Bard Festival Chamber Players  

Choral works by Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971); Gesualdo da Venosa (1566–1613), Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643); Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750); Sergey Rachmaninoff (1873–1943); Francis Poulenc (1899–1963), Lili Boulanger (1893–1918), and Ernst Krenek (1900–91)  

Tickets: $30  

PROGRAM TEN
The Poetics of Music and After
Olin Hall
1 pm     Pre-concert Talk: Richard Wilson 

1:30 pm  Performance: Rieko Aizawa, piano; Imani Winds; Alexandra Knoll, oboe; Piers Lane, piano; Jesse Mills, violin; Bard Festival Chamber Players 

Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971)
   Circus Polka, arranged for piano (1942, arr. 1944)
   Septet (1952–53)
Anton Webern (1883–1945)
   Variations for Piano, Op. 27 (1936)
Walter Piston (1894–1976)
   Suite, for oboe and piano (1931)
Aaron Copland (1900–90)
   Nonet (1960)
Elliott Carter (1908–2012)
   Woodwind Quintet (1948)
Ellis Kohs (1916–2000)
   Sonatina for Violin and Piano (1948)
Carlos Chávez (1899–1978)
   From Ten Preludes (1937)
Tickets: $35

PROGRAM ELEVEN
The Classical Heritage
Sosnoff Theater
3:30 pm     Pre-concert Talk: Tamara Levitz 4:30 pm     Performance: Gordon Gietz, tenor; Jennifer Larmore, mezzo-soprano; Sean Panikkar, tenor; John Relyea, bass-baritone; Bard Festival Chorale, James Bagwell, choral director; American Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Leon Botstein, music director; and others 

Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971)
   Perséphone (1933–34, rev. 1948)
   Oedipus Rex (1926–27, rev. 1948)Tickets: $30, $50, $60, $75All programs subject to change.   

The Festival Glutton
Abandoning my contrarian avoidance of summer-music, a week of festival gluttony has left me exhausted but happily so: the first weekend of Bard’s Stravinsky deluge (8/9-11), Tanglewood Contemporary Music Festival’s U.S. premiere of George Benjamin’s ecstatically received opera Written on Skin (8/12), and back home for David Lang’s Whisper Opera at Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival (8/13).

Ever the proselytizer, the Bard Festival’s Leon Botstein can’t resist sharing a cornucopia of music with his audiences, and those of us who share his passion are happy to follow. He and his artistic co-directors, Christopher H. Gibbs and Robert Martin, invariably concoct illuminating programs of music by the primary composer and complementary works by various colleagues. Preconcert talks and panels of experts dot the schedule, reminding us that Bard is a school. One never fails to learn and even be surprised. (Ever hear any music by Mikhail Gnesin, Maximilian Steinberg, or André Souris? I hadn’t even heard of the latter.) Two programs this year feature ten composers, and they sometimes run close to three hours due to setups between works. Bard audiences are notable for their sitzfleisch.

Botstein’s presentational approach to conducting is more in tune with Stravinsky, who claimed to loathe interpreters, than, say, Mahler, whose music is open to a variety of approaches. In a preconcert talk on opening night, Botstein said that, with few exceptions, Stravinsky’s music is no longer difficult for contemporary audiences. But, he warned ominously about one of the works on the program, “I assure you that Abraham and Isaac does sound ‘modern.’ ” (Actually, it doesn’t, being a 60-year-old serialist relic whose time has long passed in our current, neo-tonal era.) Interestingly, Botstein’s easygoing performance of this ungrateful piece with members of the American Symphony Orchestra was quite the most digestible I’ve ever heard, abetted by baritone John Hancock’s mellow rendering of the Hebrew text. The most popular work on the program, Symphony of Psalms, was unerringly paced but compromised by mushy choral articulation. Anna Polonsky and Orion Weiss, two young pianists who would shine in other performances throughout the weekend, brought the unaccountably neglected Concerto for Two Pianos to life. And Botstein led a taut Les Noces that featured a characterful vocal quartet—soprano Kiera Duffy, mezzo-soprano Melis Jaatinen, tenor Mikhail Vekua, and bass-baritone Andrey Borisenko—to end the concert.

The second program, called “The Russian Context,” was one of those point-making Bard concerts performed largely by workmanlike festival regulars. Three Tchaikovsky works, for instance, Feuillet d’album, Op. 19, No. 3, and Humoreske, Op. 10, No. 2, both for piano, and the song None but the Lonely Heart, Op. 6, No. 6, were all adapted by Stravinsky for his 1928 ballet Le Baiser de la fée. The pianist in these, and several other works throughout the first weekend, Gustav Djupsjöbacka, was discouragingly half-hearted, whether as soloist or accompanist. Fortunately, contributions by pianists Orion Weiss in works by Glinka and Stravinsky and Piers Lane in works by Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, and Stravinsky compensated. Most impressive, however, was the young, Curtis-trained Dover Quartet in Glazunov’s Five Novelettes, Op. 15, which had everyone marveling over the foursome’s warm, full-bodied sonority and gracious Romantic style.

A teacher, Rimsky-Korsakov, and two students, Steinberg and Stravinsky in works from 1913, dominated the third program, with the full American Symphony under Botstein reveling in the shimmering sensuousness of a suite from Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh (1907) and Maximilian Steinberg’s ballet suite from Les métamorphoses. What a contrast with the savage Le Sacre du printemps, conducted pretty much in one well-chosen tempo throughout, as the work’s first conductor, Pierre Monteux, said was possible. There were no serious mishaps, and the Danse sacrale—the burial ground for innumerable past performances—went perfectly. Unfortunately, the brass were nearly always too loud, overwhelming the strings, and rasping and ugly besides.

Many performances of Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire strike people as modern because they are so unattractively sung. What a revelation, then, to hear Kiera Duffy tackle the composer’s Sprechstimme

Tanglewood perf fully competitive with any musical performance I’ve ever heard!  And, upsettingly so, what a qualitative contrast with Bard’s standard (still haven’t read your review)!!  One wants to be encouraging about Bard because there are so many positive aspects of it, but the student orchestra and vocalists at Tanglewood were so vastly superior that the Bard performers–all professionals, after all, although Peter Serkin was the only “name” soloist at Bard this year–were nearly all thrown in the shade.  I have no idea what the respective budgets are, but professionals must be paid, and students do not.  It’s difficult when the weakest link in the festival is its leader. 

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

8/15 at 7:00. Rose Theatre. Mostly Mozart Festival. Budapest Festival Orchestra/Ivan Fischer. Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro.

8/16-18 (various times). Bard Music Festival. Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y. “Stravinsky and His World.” See schedule above.

Posted in Why I Left Muncie | Comments Closed

Its Not The Length Of A Contract That Matters, Its How You Use It

August 14th, 2013

By Brian Taylor Goldstein, Esq. Dear Law and Disorder: I want to start getting the artists I represent to sign a written representation agreement. However, all of the models I have found are too long and complex. I definitely do NOT want a 14 page contract, more like 4 or 5 at most.  I won’t be able to get folks to sign it otherwise!  And, can the language be more simple? I like simplicity. When drafting contracts, length and simplicity should be the least important factors. Such restrictions are arbitrary. That’s like saying: “I want to drive from New York to California, but I absolutely refuse to use a car that requires tires or gas.” You’re going to have a problem satisfying your travel needs and goals. The goal of any contract is not to make it simple enough so everyone signs it. If that’s your goal, you really only need two sentences: “I agree to book engagements for you. You agree to pay me.” Let’s assume both parties sign it. What if the artist doesn’t pay you or leaves you for another agent? Contracts are not self-enforcing. If one party breaches a contract, then merely having a signed contract is not going to force them to comply. You have to file a lawsuit to enforce a contract. That’s expensive…and often pointless if the artist has no assets. Worse, if your contract is too simple and doesn’t adequately address the nature of the dispute, then the other side’s attorney is going to poke all sorts of holes in your “simple agreement” and you’re going to lose anyway. The goal of a contract is having a document that adequately addresses your concerns and issues and spells out all of the key terms so that you and your artist have a chance to review and discuss them. A meaningful contract will assist both parties in routing out any presumptions or misunderstandings before problems arise. Whether it takes 4 pages to do that or 14 pages, the length of your contract will depend on the complexity of the relationship, the length of the relationship, the needs and concerns of the parties, the amount of money at issue, and a myriad of other issues. For example, if an agent takes a commission of 20% off everything they book for the artist, do you earn your commission when the engagement is booked or actually performed? Does “everything” include 20% of reimbursements for travel and hotel expenses? Are you exclusive? Do you get a commission on engagements that the artist books on their own? And when do you get paid? And how do you get paid? Are engagement fees sent to you or do you invoice the artist? What about engagements that happen after the term? How long is the term? Can you cancel? Can the artist cancel? What if the artist decides to cancel and goes to another agent? Are you still entitled to the commission on engagements you booked? And the list goes on… Think of your contract as a checklist that you will use to facilitate a discussion with each new artist you bring on to your roster to help you decide if you want to work with them and vice versa. If there are issues that are not important to you, then you can take them off your list and remove them from your contract. However, if there are expectations or requirements that are important to you, those need to be adequately explained and detailed. Similarly, while the language you use to explain your expectations and requirements can be simple, it also needs to be appropriate. While I am the first to criticize attorneys for using overcomplicated legal babble, more often than not, a lot of language that confuses artist and agents in contracts is not necessarily “legalese”, but basic business terms and practices with which they are not familiar. Let’s face it…a lot of artists as well as agents, managers, and presenters, do not necessarily have the same business background and training as do entrepreneurs and business people in other, less fulfilling industries. That merely means there are new terms to learn, as opposed to avoid, as your business grows and matures. My point is that your focus needs to be on finding the right language to adequately explain your terms, concerns, expectations, and requirements. I’ve seen too many parties get burned because they dumbed down a contract just to make it shorter. That’s a waste of both time and money. More important, in my opinion, arbitrarily “dumbing” down a contract merely on the assumption that artists won’t understand anything more complex does a disservice to the all the inherently bright, creative, and intelligent denizens of our arts industry who merely need an opportunity to be taught. __________________________________________________________________ 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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Uni Classical—Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

August 8th, 2013

by Sedgwick Clark

Is there anything new under the sun?

Last week I wrote in this space about Deutsche Grammophon’s new 13-CD release of Pierre Boulez’s complete works: “To the college student who discovered the Frenchman’s artistry soon after his classical-music ‘Eureka!’ moment with Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du printemps, this set comes as a shining example of the currently embattled recording industry’s good works.”

After a vantage point both in and out of the record business for over four decades, I shouldn’t have been surprised by the piece on Musical America’s website Tuesday (8/6) about the latest marketing scheme of DG’s sister label, Decca, under the Universal Music umbrella. Decca, you will recall, was the creator of the industry’s all-time best seller, “The Three Tenors,” as classy a crossover notion as ever conceived. It’s now about to be succeeded by releases of “Classical Music for Your Gay Wedding,” with a separate cover targeted for lesbians as well, “Classical Music for Dogs,” and “Classical Music for Driving,” with uptempo cuts such as “Ride of the Valkyries” aimed specifically at truck drivers and sold at truck stops.

The Gay Wedding CD got me thinking, and I e-mailed my old friend Kevin Copps, Senior V-P at Atlantic Classics back in the gay-90s, who recalled his company’s own best-selling effort: “hey, what a great idea—i wish we had thought of something like that. oh, wait, we did—20 years ago. today we’d probably be a bit, shall we say, ballsier, and call it something like, ‘my big queer gay wedding,’ but so-called gay marketing seems so passé now that it probably wouldn’t kindle our imaginations. the cover’s a yawn, btw, such a dated and nigh-straight aesthetic, though i suppose the ‘mainstreaming’ of gay weddings is a progressive indicator. in any case, our models were way hotter.”

I haven’t seen the playlists of these soon-to-be-released gems, but I figure that truckers will be treated to such hi-test butch blockbusters as Glinka’s Ruslan and Ludmilla Overture (only the Solti/LSO recording would do), the Death of Tybalt from Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet, Khachaturian’s Sabre Dance, Shostakovich’s Festive Overture, Mars from Holst’s Planets, the finales of Beethoven’s Seventh and Tchaikovsky’s Fourth symphonies . . . the list is endless.   

My suggestion: Keep your eyes on the road—and on the sidewalk.  

Bard’s Stravinsky Festival Starts This Weekend
For those who missed seeing the delicious programs for Bard’s “Stravinsky and His World” festival in this space two weeks ago, I repeat the first week’s offerings as a public service. It begins this weekend, August 9-11, in Annandale-on-Hudson—don’t miss it!

Program details of Bard Music Festival, “Stravinsky and His World”

WEEKEND ONE: Becoming Stravinsky: From St. Petersburg to Paris

Friday, August 9

PROGRAM ONE
The 20th Century’s Most Celebrated Composer
Sosnoff Theater
7:30 pm        Pre-concert Talk: Leon Botstein
8 pm             Performance:  Alessio Bax, piano; Andrey Borisenko, bass; Lucille Chung, piano; Kiera Duffy, soprano; Gustav Djupsjöbacka, piano; John Hancock, baritone; Melis Jaatinen, mezzo-soprano; Anna Polonsky, piano; Mikhail Vekua, tenor; Orion Weiss, piano; Bard Festival Chorale, James Bagwell, choral director; members of the American Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Leon Botstein, music directorIgor Stravinsky (1882–1971)
   Les Noces (1914–17)
   Symphonies of Wind Instruments (1920, rev. 1947)
   Symphony of Psalms (1930)
   Concerto for Two Pianos (1935)
   Abraham and Isaac (1962–63)

Tickets: $25, $35, $50, $60

Saturday, August 10

Panel One
Who Was Stravinsky?
Olin Hall
10 am–noon
Christopher H. Gibbs, moderator; Leon Botstein; Marina Frolova-Walker; Olga Manulkina; Stephen Walsh
Free and open to the public

Program Two
The Russian Context
Olin Hall
1 pm         Pre-concert Talk: Marina Frolova-Walker
1:30 pm    Performance: Matthew Burns, bass-baritone; Dover Quartet; Gustav Djupsjöbacka, piano; Laura Flax, clarinet; Marc Goldberg, bassoon; Melis Jaatinen, mezzo-soprano; Piers Lane, piano; Orion Weiss, piano

Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971)
   Faun and Shepherdess, Op. 2 (1906–07)
  From Four Studies, for piano, Op. 7 (1908)
   Three Movements from Petrushka, for piano solo (1921)
Mikhail Glinka (1804–57)
   Trio Pathétique in D minor (1832)
Alexander Glazunov (1865–1936)
   Five Novelettes, for string quartet, Op. 15 (1886)
Alexander Scriabin (1872–1915)
   Vers la flamme, Op. 72 (1914)
Sergey Rachmaninoff (1873–1943)
   Preludes, Op. 23, Nos. 8 & 9 (1901–03)
Songs and piano works by Modest Mussorgsky (1839–81), Pyotr Tchaikovsky (1840–93), Nikolai Medtner (1880–1951), and Mikhail Gnesin (1883–1957)

Tickets: $35

SPECIAL EVENT
Film: The Soldier’s Tale
Lászlo Z. Bitó ’60 Conservatory Building
A film by R. O. Blechman, with live musical accompaniment
Tickets: $12

Program Three
1913: Breakthrough to Fame and Notoriety
Sosnoff Theater
7 pm    Pre-concert Talk: Richard Taruskin
8 pm    Performance: American Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Leon Botstein, music director

Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971)
   Fireworks (1908)
   The Rite of Spring (1913)
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844–1908)
   Suite from The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh (c. 1907)
Anatoly Liadov (1855–1914)
   From the Apocalypse, Op. 66 (1910–12)
Maximilian Steinberg (1883–1946)
   Les Métamorphoses, Op. 10 (1913)Tickets: $30, $50, $60, $75

Sunday, August 11

Panel Two
The Ballets Russes and Beyond: Stravinsky and Dance
Olin Hall
10 am–noon
Kenneth Archer; Lynn Garafola; Millicent Hodson
Free and open to the public

Program Four
Modernist Conversations
 
Olin Hall
1 pm         Pre-concert Talk: Byron Adams
1:30 pm    Performance: Alessio Bax, piano; Lucille Chung, piano; Gustav Djupsjöbacka, piano; Kiera Duffy, soprano; Benjamin Fingland, clarinet; Judith Gordon, piano; John Hancock, baritone; Melis Jaatinen, mezzo-soprano; Sharon Roffman, violin; Raman Ramakrishnan, cello; Lance Suzuki, flute; Benjamin Verdery, guitar; Lei Xu, soprano; Bard Festival Chamber Players

Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971)
   Three Japanese Lyrics (1912)
   Pribaoutki (1914)
Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
   En blanc et noir (1915)
Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951)
   Pierrot lunaire (1912)
Maurice Ravel (1875–1937)
   Trois poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé (1913)
Maurice Delage (1879–1961)
   Quatre poèmes hindous (1912–13)
Works by Erik Satie (1866–1925); Manuel de Falla (1876–1946); and Béla Bartók (1881–1945)

Tickets: $35

Program Five
Sight and Sound: From Abstraction to Surrealism
 
Sosnoff Theater�
5 pm        Pre-concert Talk: Mary E. Davis
5:30 pm   Performance: Anne-Carolyn Bird, soprano; John Hancock, baritone; Melis Jaatinen, mezzo-soprano; Nicholas Phan, tenor; Ann McMahon Quintero, mezzo-soprano; Anna Polonsky, piano; Orion Weiss, piano; members of the American Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Leon Botstein, music director; designed and directed by Anne Patterson; projection design by Adam Larson; choreography by Janice Lancaster

Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971)
   Ragtime (1918) 
   Mavra (1921–22)
Erik Satie (1866–1925)
   Parade (1916–17; arr. piano four-hands)
Francis Poulenc (1899–1963)
   Le travail du peintre, song cycle for voice and piano (1956)
Georges Auric (1899–1983), Arthur Honegger (1892–1955), Darius Milhaud (1892–1974), Francis Poulenc, and Germaine Tailleferre (1892–1983)
   Les mariés de la tour Eiffel (1921)
André Souris (1899–1970)
    Choral, marche, et galop (1925)

Looking Forward
My week’s scheduled concerts (8:00 p.m. unless otherwise noted):
8/9-11 (various times). Bard Music Festival. Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y. “Stravinsky and His World.” See schedule above.

8/12. Ozawa Hall. Tanglewood Music Festival, Lenox, Mass. Tanglewood Music Center Fellows/George Benjamin. Lauren Snouffer (Agnès); Evan Hughes (Protector); Augustine Mercante (Angel 1/Boy); Tammy Coil (Angel 2/Marie); Isaiah Bell (Angel 3/John). George Benjamin: Written on Skin (concert performance).

8/13 at 7:30. Clark Studio Theater. Mostly Mozart Festival. International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE). David Lang: Whisper Opera.

8/15 at 7:00. Rose Theatre. Mostly Mozart Festival. Budapest Festival Orchestra/Ivan Fischer. Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro.

Posted in Why I Left Muncie | Comments Closed

Licensing May Not Be Music To Your Ears

August 7th, 2013

By Brian Taylor Goldstein, Esq. Dear Law and Disorder: Since ASCAP does not cover dance or theatrical performances, how does a dance group go about getting the appropriate permissions/ copyright releases needed for their performance? Another word for “permission” or “copyright release” is “license.” Dance performances, like theatrical performances such as opera or theater, as well as any other performance of music other than a concert, most often require two types of licenses for their performances: (1) a “Performance License” which is required for music to be performed (either live or via a recording) and (2) a “Dramatic License” for the music to be interpreted dramatically either through choreography or by performing the music as part of a play, musical, or opera. While ASCAP (as well as BMI and SESAC) does not issue dramatic licenses, they do issue performance licenses. Typically, most venues, theaters, presenters, etc. will obtain yearly blanket performance licenses from ASCAP, BMI and SESAC which allow the music in the ASCAP, BMI and SESAC catalogs to be performed in the venue. In such cases, that means you would only be required to get dramatic licenses for your group’s performances. However, not every venue obtains ASCAP, BMI and SESAC blanket performance licenses. Some erroneously believe that non-profits are somehow exempt from such licenses. Others believe it is the artist’s responsibility while others simply hope they won’t get caught. There are also instances where the music you want to dance to may not be represented by ASCAP, BMI or SESAC. Regardless of the reason, in instances where either the venue doesn’t have a performance license or the performance license doesn’t cover the music you need, you will be required to obtain both performance licenses as well as dramatic licenses. As for how your group actually obtains the necessary licenses, you would need to identify the composer or publisher of each musical work you want to use in your performance and contact the composer or publisher directly. Identifying composers and publishers isn’t actually that hard. ASCAP, BMI and SESAC maintain free, searchable databases, as does the Copyright Office website. You can also search the databases of other licensing organizations such as the Harry Fox Agency (which issues mechanical licenses.) You may have to be persistent and allow for lots of time. Not every composer or publisher will respond right away—or even respond at all. You may need to make repeated requests. If you don’t’ get a response, assume the answer is “no” and select different music. “Silence” is never golden which it comes to licensing. Also, just because you request a license doesn’t mean the composer or publisher will agree. And even if they agree, they can charge whatever they want. Composers and/publishers are free to be as arbitrary as they want when it comes to issuing licenses and setting fees. As I frequently remind everyone, there is no such thing as “industry standard.” If all of this seems daunting, keep in mind that, more often than not, you will be able to get the licenses you need provided you invest the necessary time and attention. Do not leave the licensing process to the last minute and do not assign this task to a volunteer intern helping out at your office. Also, bear in mind that the same rules that may seem to thwart your ability to use the music you want also protect you when it comes to controlling the ability of other dance groups to copy and perform works that you create and control. If all else fails, consider supporting a composer and commissioning your own music. _________________________________________________________________ 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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Boulez—Complete Works on DG

August 1st, 2013

by Sedgwick Clark

Pierre Boulez began his recording career in earnest for Columbia and CBS Records (now on Sony Classical) in 1966. In the late 1980s, for Erato, he recorded several of his own works, as well as some by Stravinsky, Schoenberg, and young contemporary composers whose music interested him. Then, in March 1991, he began an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon that resulted in new recordings of most of his Columbia and CBS repertoire, divided between the orchestras of Cleveland, Chicago, Berlin, and Vienna. In addition, he added many new works to his recorded catalogue, including many of his own.

It appears that the 88-year-old Boulez’s conducting, recording, and compositional careers are over now, silenced by an eye ailment that prevents him from seeing his scores. DG seems to be acknowledging this fact of life with its release last week of a handsome new 13-CD edition of Boulez’s complete works, with the composer leading all the works requiring a conductor. To the college student who discovered the Frenchman’s artistry soon after his classical-music “Eureka!” moment with Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du printemps, this set comes as a shining example of the currently embattled recording industry’s good works. We are inundated every day by vanity CDs and duplicate downloads praying for a piece of the pie before oblivion beckons, but here is a testament to a lifetime of accomplishment hailed with the thoughtfulness of classy design, excellent sound, and a 250-page French/English booklet with copious notes and photos.

The yellow label has done it right. First, the composer supervised the collection, making the choices between works he recorded more than once (three times in the cases of Le Marteau sans maître and Pli selon pli). Second, in order to include all of Boulez’s compositions, DG has included recordings from several other labels, including Sony, Erato, and Harmonia Mundi. Third, several short pieces, most for solo instruments or small ensembles, were recorded to fill out the composer’s catalogue.

The final disc contains an October 2011 interview with Boulez conducted in French by Claude Samuel and translated into English in the accompanying booklet.  Boulez is as lucid as ever, although sounding alarmingly gravelly compared to 11 months before when he was interviewed by Ara Guzelimian at an 85th-birthday celebration at Columbia University’s Miller Theater in New York. (Now that I think about it, that was also the last time I had the opportunity to speak with Elliott Carter and Charles Rosen.)

As Boulez himself has always left future possibilities open, so does Deutsche Grammophon. In my first interview of four over 30 years with the French musician, he explained that he viewed composition as a “spiral” into which he could return to a work and imbue it with new ideas. The works and performers are listed on the back of the CD box, and DG’s head cannily reads “Pierre Boulez  Works in Progress.”

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

8/3 at 4-10:00 p.m. MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA. 12th Annual Bang on a Can Marathon. View program.

Posted in Why I Left Muncie | Comments Closed

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