Bachfest Leipzig’s Musical Offerings; Radiale Nacht with Colin Jacobsen and Alisa Weilerstein

June 15th, 2012

By Rebecca Schmid

The motto of this year’s Bachfest Leipzig, “…ein neues Lied” (a new song), could not be a more fitting choice to honor J.S. Bach’s legacy in the city where he spent his final 27 years as cantor. Upon arriving in 1723, he set out to write a cantata every week, enlisting as scribes his second wife, Anna Magdalena, and students who were trained at the Schola Thomana. Now buried beneath a bronze plaque at the foot of the altar in the St. Thomas Church, Bach—or at least his presumed remains which were exhumed from a former cemetery and transported in 1949—continues to infuse local practices with his spirit. The St. Thomas Boys Choir, celebrating its 800th anniversary this year, has commissioned new music for six major religious occasions and included some of Europe’s most seminal contemporary composers: Hans Werner Henze, Heinz Holliger and Krzysztof Penderecki will have all premiered works in the church by January of next year.

At a concert yesterday, the Bachfest (June 7-17) reprised Easter music by St. Thomas Cantor Georg Christoph Biller and Henze’s Pentecost music alongside two Bach works from the Leipzig period. Pentecost, a holiday of tremendous weight for practicing Christians in Europe, officially took place late last month and celebrates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles. Henze, a self-avowed atheist, and his librettist Christian Lehnert take a spiritually inquisitive approach in An den Wind for chorus and orchestra. The chaos of unharnessed natural forces and human doubt yield to the promise of peace: “the dove will wake, its wings,/caught by the gusts, no longer will repose,” begins the final chorus after a solo violin emerges from the dust of a desert storm. Henze references Bach with a direct but unfinished quote “Jesu, meine Freu…” to ominous woodwinds and harp plucks in the first section, while wild counterpoint and a percussion interlude after Simon the Zealot’s proclamation of a burning wasteland recall the dramatic tension of his opera Phaedra (2007), another collaboration with Lehnert.

Henze often separates the high and low voices of the St. Thomas Choir and aligns them with according instrumentation: ethereal celeste, piano clusters and sustained chords accompany the pure timbre of boy sopranos while changed voices are underscored by low strings and woodwinds. Unaccompanied moments such as the Disciple’s urging to “call out…so softly that no one shall hear us but the wind” take on deceptively liturgical importance, yet the orchestra thwarts any sense of resolution, such as the gong crash after the mysterious harmonies of the chorus asking God for immortal strength or the rambling piano and bassoon blast following the sopranos’ quote from the Lutheran Bible, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you….” The Holy Ghost’s powers of salvation transcend earthly strife to restore the natural world—“a wing’s beat, a wind, a simple breath”—bringing the choir together against a billowing atmospheric chord. Biller led the choir and members of the Gewandhaus Orchestra in an intense, precise performance that clocked in at 20 minutes on the mark.

Biller conducting at the St. Thomas Church © Bach-Archiv Leipzig / Gert Mothes: Bachfest Leipzig 2012

The cantor, in his St.-Thomas-Ostermusik, takes a more pious approach, using light-dark imagery to represent the ascent of Christ with direct allusions to Bach’s Passions. Biller himself devised the text for his cantata (also 20 minutes) based on Bible passages and originally composed verse. The opening features a sustained Wagnerian-like minor chord that is punctuated by trombones, only to yield to serenading recorders before the chorus rejoices in this “Easter day! Away with care and sorrow!” Cluster harmonies reminiscent of modern American choral music bring a progressive, optimistic air, while a recurrent rising, whole-tone wind motive and quasi-liturgical structure ground the work in a decisively western European tradition. Some members of the audience sang the descant of the Bavarian/Austrian hymn “Christ is arisen” while the boy sopranos crooned into the stratosphere, a transcendent passage that culminated in the clang of trumpet and chimes. Although the work may have its hokey moments for non-church goers, Biller manages to straddle contemporary developments in religious music with a clear reverence for the St. Thomas tradition. Alongside the immaculately trained choir, tenor Martin Lattke gave a fervent performance as the Evangelist.

Between the two newly commissioned works, Bach’s Ascension Oratorio (BWV 11) transported the audience back to the heyday of cantatas as the Gewandhaus musicians and boys’ choir performed with irreproachable authenticity under Biller. As the program notes explain, the work was written only six months after the Christmas Oratorio and features liberal borrowing from Bach’s earlier works, yet any such knowledge hardly impedes upon the music’s fresh exuberance as the trumpets open the work with a life-affirming proclamation. The ensemble’s sense of pace was particularly striking in the cadence of the opening chorus “Lobet Gott in Seinen Reichen,” and the Gewandhaus players’ flowing but restrained body movement made it clear that they have this music in their bones. The fragile, glassy timbre of a boy soprano in the aria “Jesus, deine Gnadenblicke” further evoked the original spirit of the work while the woodwinds accompanied in sensitive counterpoint. Closing the program was the motet “Der Geist hilft under Schwachheit auf” (BWV 226), performed at the burial of a St. Thomas headmaster in 1729. The music does not mourn but expresses gratitude to “the Spirit” for helping mortals through their weakness. A quiet penitence prevailed beneath the painted vaults of the St. Thomas Church.

Note to interested listeners: the St. Thomas Choir, for its 800th anniversary, has released a compilation of live performances featuring works by Bach, Mozart, Mendelssohn and others on the label Rondeau Productions.

Back on the (non-denominational) scene in Berlin…

The Mahler Chamber Orchestra (MCO) and the alternative arts space Radialsystem teamed up last weekend for their second Radiale Nacht, a rotating program of orchestral and chamber works featuring choreography by Sasha Waltz, live remixes and an after show. The format, scattered between the main hall, the lounge area, and the upstairs deck, exploits the ample space of the converted water pumping plant and creates a relaxed atmosphere in which musicians mingle casually with the audience. Guest artists Pablo Heras-Casado and Colin Jacobsen roamed between the bar and patio overlooking the Spree River before the concert, while one orchestral player dressed in black was mistaken for an onsite employee. The event was first launched in November with sponsorship by the pharmaceutical company Aventis in an effort to provide a Berlin base for the MCO, founded in 1997 as a touring ensemble with offices in the German capital. Radialsystem Intendant Jochen Sandig and MCO Intendant Andreas Richter hope to further cement the relationship despite the fact that they were denied city funding; Sandig reported in conversation that the local government is currently losing half a billion Euro over the delayed launch of the new airport.

Tense cultural politics aside, the energy was high as the youthful members of the MCO took the stage with Jacobsen as concert master under the direction of Heras-Casado. The mostly Russian program, seen June 9, opened in the main hall with Alisa Weilerstein in Shostakovich’s First Cello Concerto, a tour de force whose ferocity and emotional complexity the 30-year-old conveys with intuitive grace. She moved seamlessly between growling harmonics and whining melodies, shaping every passage with spontaneity and forward-moving inertia as she plunged into the depths of Shostakovich’s despair and rage. The cellist maintained irreproachable beauty of tone throughout the entire rage of her instrument in the Cadenza, which moves cautiously from a slow lament and into wild disillusion. She was matched well by the strings’ sinuous phrasing under Jacobsen and lean, buoyant textures that emerged through Heras-Casado’s economical but commanding gestures, although the tone could have been angrier in the final Allegro movement. As an encore, Weilerstein offered a fast movement from Bach’s Cello Suites, whose spritely baroque character was somewhat of a sudden palate cleanser to the edgy textures of the previous work.

Upstairs on the deck, she and Jacobsen joined with two members of the MCO for a very Berlinified rendition of Shostakovich’s Eight String Quartet featuring live remixes by the DJ Georg Conrad. Jacobsen’s bright, smooth tone led the group through the searing canonic development of the opening Largo—whose main theme is drawn from the First Cello Concerto, while Weilerstein’s fierce playing found a spotlight in the following Allegro molto. Then, in an unexpected twist, the musicians rested their bows as an interlude of house music whirred through the speakers. One can’t deny that the dance beats were well suited to the views of graffitied industrial buildings across the Spree, yet it was quite awkward to watch the quartet sit onstage without playing. While Jacobsen and other audience members started nodding their heads in rhythm, it might have been more organic to have the musicians improvise over the DJ: the connection to Shostakovich’s musical content was otherwise more than spurious. The effect was no less jarring when Conrad’s atmospheric grooves returned a second time after a violin solo during the penultimate Largo movement. The quartet otherwise formed a well-balanced whole, especially considering that they had only rehearsed the set-up that day.

The program retained its progressive flair with an excerpt from Sasha Waltz’s choreographed concert “gefaltet,” a Mozarteum commission originally unveiled earlier this season. The Divertimento in E-flat, as re-experienced at the Radiale Nacht, features a quartet of dancers in mock-ballet movements that range from sweeping, eloquently neo-baroque to angular, tick-like gestures while a trio plays at the corner of the stage. Waltz is strongest when she captures the sensuousness and symmetry of Mozart’s music, while less congruent attempts to stamp the music with a post-modern sensibility are less effective for this viewer. Sandig’s subsequent scenic arrangement of the Schnittke pastiche Moz-Art à la Haydn also incorporated dancers of Sasha Waltz & Guests in “structured improvisation” to mirror the aleatoric demands of the score, which riffs on a theme by Mozart into polytonal madness. In keeping with Schnittke’s original suggestions for blocking, the dancers begin in darkness along the aisles of the main hall before clustering with the dancers in a swarm onstage and running back to their original places. Heras-Casado was spotlighted toward the middle of a piece as a buffoon-like caricature of a conductor, waving his arms only for the sake of imposing control, only to be upstaged by a child dancer-turned-maestro with as commanding a head of curls.

Heras-Casado conducts the MCO (c) Holger Talinski

The official program closed with Shostakovich’s Ninth Symphony, considered the most neo-classical of his fifteen symphonies in its neat structure and cheerful character, although this is thoroughly tongue in cheek. The symphony was written at the end of World War Two in 1945, upon which Stalin accorded himself personal credit for the defeat of Germany. The dictator was not deaf to the satirical military allusions in this symphony, and announced soon thereafter that his regime could now find time to take appropriate measures toward art that so blatantly challenged his authority. The MCO’s spirited playing did full service to the music’s irony, knit together with fiery attacks under Heras-Casado, while wind solos emerged with confidence. Shostakovich’s writing for the bassoon is particularly prominent in this work, with its humorous melodies in final Allegretto that steer the orchestra away from triumph. The music continued in the lounge outside with Jacobsen’s chamber arrangements of works by Astrud Gilberto and others. The quintet, which included Weilerstein at the cello, was clearly having a great time jamming to samba and tango beats, and the audience rewarded them with wine-imbibed cheers.

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Spring for Music II Highlights; Frühbeck’s Carmina

June 13th, 2012

by Sedgwick Clark

The blockbuster of Carnegie Hall’s second Spring for Music festival last month was the second (!) performance this season of the rarely played, 70-minute piano concerto by the turn-of-the-20th-century piano virtuoso Ferruccio Busoni. It’s not a “great” piece, as one considers Beethoven’s Emperor great, but it’s a hoot and was stupendously negotiated on May 9 by the Canadian pianist Marc-André Hamelin and sympathetically accompanied by the New Jersey Symphony under Jacques Lacombe.

Alex Ross’s New Yorker review (January 9, 2012) of the earlier performance this season, by Piers Lane and the American Symphony under Leon Botstein, is necessary reading for anyone interested in the piece. He calls it “a wildly entertaining creation” and approvingly cites Bernard Holland’s loveable summation of the concerto–“a hymn to immoderation”–in his Times review of the work’s previous local performance, in 1989 at Carnegie. As fun as this garrulous example of late-Romantic mysticism is, however, its requirement of a men’s chorus in the finale will likely ensure its infrequency.

On the festival’s opening night, May 7, Hans Graf led the Houston Symphony in a well-drilled all-Shostakovich program. Houston was first to perform and record the Eleventh Symphony in the U.S., with Leopold Stokowski in 1958, so the work seemed a natural choice. But the Eleventh, composed in honor of the 40th anniversary of the Russian Revolution, reworks popular and revolutionary prison songs to tedious length, especially in the first and third movement adagios. Only Rostropovich’s searing, expansive performance with the LSO ten years ago at Avery Fisher raised it above the level of film music in my experience. Also played was Shostakovich’s Anti-Formalist Rayok, a 20-minute, late-1950s satire of Soviet bureaucrats, written for private performance among friends. Perhaps one has to be Russian.

Advance word was strong on the English conductor Justin Brown and the Alabama Symphony. A promo DVD with his orchestra of the Badisches Staatstheater, Karlsruhe, was as fine a Bruckner Fifth as I’ve heard from any conductor alive today. His recently released Karlsruhe Mahler Ninth on Pan Classics, however, is astonishingly uninvolved. Brown has championed contemporary American music in Alabama, and on May 10 he led the New York premieres of two recent ASO commissions, the first of which made a bang-up concert opener. While composing Astrolatry, lifetime city dweller Avner Dorman actually ventured into the countryside at night for inspiration. To an impressive degree he has captured his newfound “awe of nature” in this glittering 14-minute piece. Less persuasive was Paul Lansky’s tinkly Shapeshifters for two pianos and orchestra. After intermission, Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony was well played but less-than-compelling interpretively. The Fourth or Eighth might have shown this team’s work to better advantage.

I had never heard Charles Ives’s unfinished Universe Symphony (“realized and completed by Larry Austin”), with which the Nashville Symphony closed the festival on May 12. The Universe is in the style of Central Park in the Dark, beginning quietly, building to a raucous climax, and then tapering off . . . but lasting four times as long (36 minutes), at least in the hands of Nashville’s Giancarlo Guerrero, a name new to me and, I assure you, quite an enthusiastic fellow. Personally, I’m content with Central Park. But the Nashville’s performance—beginning with the quietest pppppp imaginable—was sensational. Ives fans may look forward to next Spring, when Leonard Slatkin will bring the Detroit Symphony to Carnegie for all four (legitimate) Ives symphonies in one gulp!    

As before, the concerts were streamed live internationally by Classical 105.9 FM WQXR and attended by busloads of hometown concertgoers.

Frühbeck’s Carmina burana at the Phil

Carl Orff’s ability to set Carmina’s bawdy texts with vitality and memorable melodies has excited audiences for 75 years despite critical sniping at the work’s rhythmic simplicity. Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Musical America’s Conductor of the Year for 2011, served it resoundingly well on June 1 with the New York Philharmonic, soprano Erin Morley, tenor Nicholas Phan, baritone Jacques Imbrailo, the Orfeón Pamplonén chorus, and Brooklyn Youth Chorus. Among many fine instrumental touches, Sandra Church’s slinky flute duet with Markus Rhoten’s perfectly balanced timpani in the Tanz was outstanding. Frühbeck’s 1965 New Philharmonia recording on EMI is still my favorite.

Selections from Manuel de Falla’s unfinished cantata, Atlántida, opened the concert.

Looking forward

My week’s scheduled concerts:

6/14, Avery Fisher Hall, 7:30. New York Philharmonic/Alan Gilbert; Leonidas Kavakos, violin; Erin Morley, soprano; Joshua Hopkins, baritone. Beethoven: Coriolan Overture. Korngold: Violin Concerto. Nielsen: Symphony No. 3 (Sinfonia espansiva).

6/20 Avery Fisher Hall, 7:30. New York Philharmonic/Alan Gilbert; Emanuel Ax, piano; soloists and chorus. Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 22; Mass in C minor (Great).

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How Do I Protect My Personal Assets From Claims of Copyright Infringement?

June 13th, 2012

By Brian Taylor Goldstein

Dear FTM Arts Law:

Could owning copyrights individually (as opposed to being owned by a corporate entity) ever be a personal liability?  I understand that if copyrights are held in the name of a S-corp, C-corp, or possibly LLC, the corporate veil would shield my personal assets.

There is no liability in “owning” a copyright—unless you’ve written something really horrible and would rather not be credited. However, there can be considerable personal liability in stealing (or what attorneys call “infringing”) someone else’s copyright.

Let’s assume, for the sake of argument, that you are a composer and another composer claims that portions of your famous zither concerto contains unlicensed portions of the other composer’s music. If you own the copyright in your zither concerto personally, then you can be personally liable. But what if you had transferred or assigned the copyright to your publishing company and your publishing company is a Limited Liability Company (LLC)? Then both you and your company can be sued! In other words, a corporate veil does not protect you or your personal assets from liability for copyright infringement!

In most cases, you are correct that when your form a valid corporate entity (C-corp, S-corp, or LLC), then a “corporate veil” descends between the entity and the owners (even if there is only one owner) and the owners are not personally responsible or liable for the debts of the corporate entity. If, for example, your corporate entity enters into a contract to pay for services, and your corporate entity breaches the contract and refuses to pay, then only the corporate entity is liable, not you personally. However, this “corporate veil” only protects you from liability for debts, bad business deals, or contract breaches. It does not protect you from liability from what are called “torts.”

A “tort” is any thing other than a breach of contract which causes damages to another person and includes such things as fraud, negligence, assault, battery, defamation, and….copyright infringement. So, if the president of a corporate entity commits fraud, then both the corporate entity can be liable as well as the person who “personally” committed the fraud. Or, if a truck driver runs a red light and causes an accident, then both the truck driver can be sued, as well as the company he or she works for. It is the same with copyright infringement.

If you are accused of using unlicensed material in your zither concerto, it doesn’t matter who holds or owns the copyright. If it is ultimately determined that you used someone else’s copyrighted materials when creating the work in the first place, then you are personally liable. And it gets worse. Through a legal theory called “vicarious liability”, the musicians who perform you work could be liable, the agent or manager who promoted it could be liable, even the venue where it is performed could be liable.

In the end, the smartest way to protect your personal assets from potential claims of copyright infringement is either by using only original works or by ensuring that you have all of the proper licenses and permissions in the first place. Also, in order to protect yourself from frivolous lawsuits and false claims of infringement, register your copyrights with the US Copyright and Trademark Office.

__________________________________________________________________

For additional information and resources on this and other legal and business issues for the performing arts, visit ftmartslaw-pc.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. FTM Arts Law reserves the right to alter, edit or, amend questions to focus on specific issues or to avoid names, circumstances, or any information that could be used to identify or embarrass a specific individual or organization. All questions will be posted anonymously.

__________________________________________________________________

THE OFFICIAL DISCLAIMER:

THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE!

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

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Posted in Arts Management, Contracts, Copyrights, Law and Disorder: Performing Arts Division, Liability, Licensing, Limited Liability Companies | Comments Closed

Classical:NEXT debuts in Munich

June 8th, 2012

By Rebecca Schmid

Classical:NEXT, an exclusively classical professional forum which held its first edition from May 30-June 2 in Munich, set out with high ambitions. Founded at the behest of the Association of Classical Independents in Germany (CLASS) as an alternative to MIDEM, which has left many attendants disappointed in recent years both for its high costs and lack of innovation, the new event included not only a trade fair and networking opportunities but live showcases, video screenings, panel discussions and after-hours concerts exploring classical club culture. Naxos, a partner of Classical:NEXT, brought its entire brigade alongside countless small labels, distributors, independent entrepreneurs, managers, and more to mingle at Munich’s Gasteig, an elegant event space that also serves as home to the Munich Philharmonic. 700 delegates attended in total, 60% of which came from outside Germany.

The most successful aspect appears to have been the networking opportunities. The managing partner of a small label told me that several people planned on foregoing MIDEM—which is heavy on pop music and serves thousands of delegates—in favor of the new alternative next year. The founder of a new label whom I spoke with at a private party was headed up to his hotel room to sign a contract with Naxos. While none of the (former) ‘Big Four’ labels were represented, there was no lack of promotional activities. Meanwhile, the live showcases and video screenings (for which yours truly sat on the jury) coincided with each other as well as conference sessions, receiving a less than stellar attendance rate and leaving several performers disappointed. One can only hope the coming iteration will attend to the issue. I did manage to catch a performance of composer-performer Thierry Pécou’s “Ensemble Variances” in two original chamber works. His subjective idiom and unusual presentation format certainly fits into the “NEXT” part of the event’s mission, as did a contemporary concert at the Harry Klein club later that evening.

Delegates mingling at the Gasteig (c) Eric van Nieuwland/Classical:NEXT

The topics of the conference sessions included the use of atonality in film music, crowd funding, digital marketing, and perspectives on journalism today. Carnegie Hall E-Strategy Director Christopher Gruits gave an unusually focused presentation about multimedia strategies alongside Bavarian State Opera Head of Marketing Anna Kleeblatt. Video is the operative word for both institutions, while the Bavarian State Opera is also making its first forays in Twitter and has amassed 3,356 followers: the company recently launched a contest for a free weekend in Verona that asked participants to name, among other creative bits, their favorite “manner of death onstage” (hopefully stage directors won’t take the submissions too seriously). The discrepancy in developments across the Atlantic of course could not hide its face—Carnegie Hall has four people on staff for digital marketing as compared to one at the Bavarian State Opera—but the latter is fully on the bandwagon with its newly-launched free streaming service, already attracting 40,000 viewers in the U.S. Up next is an App entitled “I love Opera” to serve the 13 largest opera houses in the German-speaking world.

The ramifications of digital developments for journalism of course also dominated a discussion with BBC Music Magazine Editor Oliver Condy and freelance journalist Jessica Duchen as moderated by PIANONews Editor Carsten Dürer. Condy emphasized that music journalism must be seen as a profession and accorded proper compensation: I wouldn’t invite a plumber to work in my house and say this will be a great promotional gig, he explained. Duchen, who holds a widely read blog, admitted that it has become a bit of a “millstone” for her as she struggled to meet the expectations of readers and PR agents who request that she cover certain topics. The panel members also decried the proliferation of opinion pieces as opposed to solid music journalism. Perhaps it is my American perspective, but the general tone was a bit outdated for the current state of affairs and made too strong a distinction between internet users and print. Surely we journalists have reached the point where we can actively exploit the internet to our advantage, rather than allow it to exploit us, and use multimedia in healthy doses.

Gramophone Editor-in-Chief James Jolly, in his closing speech, emphasized the power of social media (his magazine boasts some 14,000 Facebook followers) and compared the iPad’s impact on journalism to the iPod when it first descended upon the music industry. He also confirmed that the U.S. is leading the way in digital developments, somewhat of a tricky issue at a continental conference including people from countries (40 altogether) at various stages in exploiting new technology. As it happens, some local residents of the conservative Bavarian capital were not so smitten by the forum’s international mission and complained that city funds had been invested in an event that failed to involve enough local arts institutions. Jolly smoothed over any controversy by praising Classical:NEXT as a “relaxed forum…vital to sharing our experiences, developing new relationships and guaranteeing that we will all be in a position to return again next year– in good health and ready for the challenges that will undoubtedly present themselves.” That they will indeed.

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Do Competitions Need To Withhold Taxes On An Artist’s Prize Money?

June 6th, 2012

By Robyn Guilliams

We hold a piano competition where artists, some from abroad, pay their own way to come here to compete.  If they win any prize money, do we need to withhold taxes?

For artists who are nonresidents of the U.S., I’m afraid you are required to withhold taxes! The general rule is that any payment of “U.S. income” made to a nonresident of the U.S. is subject to the 30% withholding requirement. In effect, 30% of the gross income paid to the artist must be withheld by the payer and deposited with the U.S. Treasury.  This deposit will be credited toward any taxes the artist may owe at the end of the year.

Depending on the artist’s country of residence, however, there may be an exception to the withholding requirement.  The U.S. has entered into tax treaties with many countries (68 at last count.)  The terms of each treaty control where a particular person’s income is taxed when the person resides in one country, but the income has a connection to another country (the treaties prevent the person from being taxed twice, in two different countries, on the same income.)

Whether or not an exemption from tax in the U.S. exists is very fact-specific.  Obviously, the nonresident artist must reside in a country with which the U.S. has entered into a tax treaty.  But (just to keep things interesting), the terms of each treaty are different, so the treaty in question must be reviewed to determine if there is a provision that exempts his type of income from U.S. tax, and whether that exemption can be claimed at the withholding stage!

A more detailed explanation of how the tax treaties work is available at the Artists from Abroad website:

http://www.artistsfromabroad.org/tax-requirements/exceptions-to-nra-withholding-requirement/tax-treaties/

You may also want to check out the IRS’s Publication 901, “U.S. Tax Treaties”, (http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p901.pdf), which provides a summary of each treaty currently in force, as well as a few helpful charts to determine what types of income are exempt under each treaty (but be sure to read the footnotes carefully!)

_________________________________________________________________

For additional information and resources on this and other legal and business issues for the performing arts, visit ftmartslaw-pc.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. FTM Arts Law reserves the right to alter, edit or, amend questions to focus on specific issues or to avoid names, circumstances, or any information that could be used to identify or embarrass a specific individual or organization. All questions will be posted anonymously.

__________________________________________________________________

THE OFFICIAL DISCLAIMER:

THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE!

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

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

Paying Retainers to Managers

May 31st, 2012

By: Edna Landau

To ask a question, please write Ask Edna.

A note from Edna Landau:

As summer is fast approaching, many of our readers will be traveling and enjoying holidays in the coming months. Therefore, Ask Edna will be taking a break during the summer months (June through August). We look forward to having you back with us in September. Meanwhile, please feel free to continue to send questions to Ask Edna during the summer, as they will help us to “hit the ground running” when we return. I wish everyone a most enjoyable summer.

Dear Edna:

I am a member of a chamber ensemble which is in discussions with a small agency regarding management. We have been asked to pay a monthly “administrative fee” to cover the management’s expenses on our behalf. Can you please tell me whether this is customary? Also, should these payments cease when the manager begins to receive commissions from concerts we perform? – D.B.

Dear D.B.:

The answer I am going to give to your question is very different from what it might have been five years ago. At that time, artists were very leery of an agency that asked for a monthly retainer. Today, I think it is incumbent upon artists to take a broader view. It is becoming increasingly difficult for soloists, ensembles, conductors and dance companies to obtain management. Times are challenging and managements need to focus their energies more than ever on the bottom line. A small or new agency faces the biggest challenges because they can’t amortize the cost of developing young artists’ careers against the hefty commissions received from well established artists. When Charles Hamlen and I worked together in the pre-IMG Artists days as Hamlen/Landau Management, we charged our artists for all expenses incurred on their behalf. This included phone, postage, printing (promotional pieces and inclusion on our printed artist roster), advertisements, and the like. Once we became IMG Artists and the roster became large and varied, we abandoned the practice of charging for phone and postage since it was too time-consuming to do the calculations. We continued to charge for promotional materials specifically prepared for individual artists. The administrative fee you are being asked to pay is not unjustifiable and it streamlines the expense reimbursement process for the manager. A reasonable monthly fee might be in the range of $300-$400 a month. Today there are a growing number of small, respected agencies who charge not only for the above expenses but for their travel to booking conferences, their exhibit costs at those conferences and the conference registration fee. Some are also charging their artists for maintaining and updating their presence on the management’s website. I know of one agency that charges an annual fee, which they are willing to accept in installments if that is easier for the artist. This fee might be anywhere from $2000 to $4000. These monthly and annual fees might even be slightly higher than the actual total of documented expenses. I can assure you that managements charging these fees wouldn’t do so if they didn’t need to. There are various times during the year, such as the summer months and December when income from commissions is way down. The monthly or annual fee enables the management to pay their own operational expenses during such times. I should add that there is so much that a manager does for an artist on a regular basis that is not related to concert booking ( such as setting up auditions, writing and updating bios, coordinating interviews, offering general career advice, showing up at performances) and that cannot be adequately compensated for solely from commissions, especially when the artist is starting out and fees are rather low. In your particular case, your manager won’t earn any income from you for at least 12 to 18 months, since engagements are booked with a long lead time. Once this period has passed and you begin to generate commission income for the management, there is no reason why you can’t discuss the administrative fee and see if it can be lowered or waived. If the answer is no but you are otherwise happy with how things are going, you should consider yourselves lucky to have management at all and view these payments as you do other career related costs such as a tax accountant, concert clothing, and purchase or maintenance of your instruments. Remember that at least in the U.S. , they are tax-deductible.

To ask a question, please write Ask Edna.

© Edna Landau 2012

Posted in Ask Edna, Finding a Manager, Uncategorized | Comments Closed

Bwana Clark

May 30th, 2012

by Sedgwick Clark

It was quite a day yesterday for our last complete day in Africa: I rode Coco, a 34-year-old elephant, and got drenched in the all-consuming mist of Victoria Falls. Also, Zimbabwe’s notoriously corrupt president, Robert Mugabe, 88, made a surprise visit to the historic Victoria Falls Hotel, where we stayed our last two days. He was receiving some odd sort of United Nations proclamation as a “leader for tourism,” reported msnbc.com, which added that the U.N. was thus endorsing Zimbabwe as a friendly nation and safe-tourism destination. Human rights activists promptly criticized the move. Mugabe’s odious anti-gay and -lesbian views are well known, as are his abuses on his own people to retain power. Hotel workers wisely put up a photo of the president to mark the occasion, which spoke volumes.

Bwana Clark & Peggy Kane with Norman on Coco

In a few hours I’ll either be aloft or waiting for a plane connection for nearly 20 hours. PK and our favorite travelling companions have had a great two and a half weeks in South Africa. While they have typically been more aware than I, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed being liberated from my calendar, not knowing the date, the day, or the time of our activities. Oh, I was aware of a few of the world’s events, such as the deaths of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and my old boss Herbert Breslin. And, on the one day I happened to check Musicalamerica.com, I learned of the most public demonstration yet of Metropolitan Opera head Peter Gelb’s thin skin. Only three weeks after I arrived in New York in September 1968, F-D sang Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder in the first concert I ever heard by the New York Philharmonic and Leonard Bernstein—my first live encounters with these great musicians, all in one concert! Herbert rubbed a lot of people the wrong way, and my two months with him weren’t my most auspicious, but I still retain a respect for his burning commitment on behalf of most of his clients. As for Peter, heads of arts organizations all stick their heads on the critical chopping block if they aspire to greatness, and attempts to stifle serious criticism after less-than-successful performances will always smell fishy. He was wise to reverse his edict within a matter of hours.

I return to the rigor of my calendar recalling only my 2013 Directory deadlines and a lick of my lips in anticipation of Alan Gilbert’s NYPhil performance of Nielsen’s Third Symphony sometime this month. In my next blog I hope to test your patience with some brief comments on the pre-Africa Spring for Music concerts at Carnegie and the Met’s final performances of the season, as well as scintillating photos and video from our safari. Stay tuned.

Posted in Why I Left Muncie | Comments Closed

I Want To Engage A Foreign Artist. Tell Me Everything I Need To Know!

May 30th, 2012

By Brian Taylor Goldstein

Dear FTM:

What needs to be done to bring a performing artist from a foreign country to play in a US concert? How is their pay reported to the IRS? Is withholding required? Do they have to pay taxes on the money that they earn in the US? Etc.

Wow, this is a pretty broad question. In general…and this is very general…in order for a foreign artist to perform legally in the US, he or she will need to obtain a visa. In most cases, this will be either an O or a P visa. (There are almost no instances when a foreign artist can legally perform in the US on a visitor visa—regardless of whether or not the artist is paid or tickets are sold.) In order to obtain the necessary visa, someone in the US—such as the presenter or the artist’s US-based manager or agent—will need to file a visa petition on the artist’s behalf with United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). The petition consists of the forms, evidence, and documents required for USCIS to “approve” the artist for the requested visa. As you may imagine, USCIS also requires a petition fee. Once approved, USICS will issue an “approval notice.” The artist will then use this “approval notice” to apply for the actual visa at a US Consulate. This will involve more forms…and fees.

Depending on where the artist is from, and how much they earn, they may or may not have to pay taxes on money that they earn in the US. With some exceptions, all artists who perform in the US are subject to 30% withholding from their gross engagement fees. Then, the artist is then required to file a tax return (just like you and I), declare all payments and withholdings, claim any applicable deductions and exemptions, and seek either a full or partial refund. Alternatively, an artist can apply to the IRS in advance of his or her performance and seek a withholding deduction. As you may imagine, all withholding is reported to the IRS on a form. The artist will also need to obtain either a social security number or a taxpayer identification number. This, too, involves forms.

While this can all seem overwhelming, the good news is that everything you need to know is contained in a website: artistsfromabroad.org. Produced by the League of American Orchestras and Association of Performing Arts Presenters, and authored by FTM Arts Law, artistsfromabroad.org is the most complete and up-to-date online resource for engaging foreign guest artists and non-US arts professionals, and includes essential guidance, forms, sample documents, and useful links. Even better—the entire website has recently been fully updated, redesigned, and re-launched, making it even easier to find the information performing arts organizations and artist managers need to successfully navigate the U.S. visa and tax procedures required when engaging international artists for performances in the U.S.

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For additional information and resources on this and other legal and business issues for the performing arts, visit ftmartslaw-pc.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. FTM Arts Law reserves the right to alter, edit or, amend questions to focus on specific issues or to avoid names, circumstances, or any information that could be used to identify or embarrass a specific individual or organization. All questions will be posted anonymously.

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THE OFFICIAL DISCLAIMER:

THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE!

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

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Posted in Central Withholding Agreements, Law and Disorder: Performing Arts Division, Taxes, Touring, Visas | Comments Closed

Dresdener Musikfestspiele pay Tribute to Eastern Europe

May 29th, 2012

By Rebecca Schmid

The theme of this year’s Dresdener Musikfestspiele, “Herz Europas” (the Heart of Europe), inventively returns the East German city to its roots as a thriving cultural hub. While today’s united Germany is roiled by the end of the ‘Merkozy’ era and Eurobond controversy, the emphasis of the festival (May 15-June 3) on central European repertoire and the cultural proximity of Dresden to the former Hapsburg Empire in effect harks back to a time when the arts served as a better common currency than any fiscal pact. As the Intendant and cellist Jan Vogler pointed out in a discussion, no other part of the world has produced a more influential body of composers than Eastern Europe. Vogler, who took over the festival in 2009, has turned a once provincial institution into an international attraction boasting a roster of coveted artists and ensembles. At the same time, he strives in his programming to strike a balance between the local love of native tradition and a more outward-looking approach. While last year’s theme, “Stars of Asia,” must have seemed positively exotic for the conservative ‘baroque’ city, Vogler—who spends most of the year in New York—hopes to provide a kind of ‘double-window’ from Dresden into international trends and vice versa.

The city of former East Germany has received a face lift in recent times, from the reconstruction of the Frauenkirche in 2005 (sixty years after the Protestant church was bombed to the ground) to Daniel Liebeskind’s provocative redesign to the Museum of Military History—a wedge of concrete and steel that slices through the traditional architecture—last year. Boxy post-war buildings line the outskirts of the shell-shocked city while fancy new hotels abut the cobblestone streets of the city’s small but opulent center, where the rebuilt Semperoper stands as a monument to the heyday of late German Romanticism (the original 19th-century building premiered works by Strauss and Wagner). The resident orchestra, the Staatskapelle Dresden, has already cemented its relationship with the incoming Music Director Christian Thielemann—who, according to Vogler, may have filled Karajan’s shoes as a leading conductor for many in Germany, unfortunate political allusions aside.

Thielemann with the Staatskapelle Dresden (c)Matthias Creutziger.

The program notes to a performance of Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony, presented as a co-production of the Staatskapelle and the festival, go as far as to compare the collaboration to a fated marriage, with the symphony acting as testimony. While a couple of my colleagues from the Music Critics Association of North America found the performance lacking a sense of arch at the expense of attention to dynamic detail, it is hard to deny the authenticity Thielemann brings to this music, with its triumphant Wagnerian brass and inner torment. Performing a 1939 edition that melds Bruckner’s original score with a modified version he penned between 1887 and 1890, the young Karajan kept the orchestra flowing like a well-oiled machine, with the Staatskapelle’s strings providing a full-bodied sound reminiscent of the Vienna Philharmonic. As a tuba solo hovered over a rising string motive in the final movement Feierlich, nicht schnell (a passage not included in the original score), history seemed to stand still.

To be sure, Dresden cannot as easily rest on its laurels as the long established Salzburg or Bayreuth festivals, yet the former imperial city of Saxony boasts its own lineage of noble interest in the arts. Princess Amalie, daughter of Prince Maximillian and the Princess of Parma, wrote a total of twelve operas based on her own libretti between 1816 and 1835, the last of which—La Casa Disabitata—was retrieved from an archive in Moscow with rights to a single unstaged performance at a 17th-century Lusthaus in Dresden’s Großer Garten this year. The grounds remain largely untended and the salon unrestored, yet the faded glory provided a fitting context for this mock opera buffa involving an orphan, Annetta, who is given shelter in a vacant house owned by the nobleman Don Raimondo where the poor poet Eutichio has secretly taken refuge. In the end, Raimondo and Annetta are finally able to acknowledge a mutual crush, while Eutichio and his wife Sinforosa also overcome their differences.

The plot is somewhat half-baked, and the music can be succinctly described as a rehashed Mozartean farce with shades of Cimarosa and Rossini. Amalie’s attempt to extend the formulaic final coda may reveal a poor grasp of dramatic tension, but at least she had the good taste to resist the lure of courtly indolence by immersing herself in the Mozart-Da Ponte masterpieces. Eutichio even breaks out into a meta-dialogue between Don Giovanni and the Commendatore before Annetta bursts in with her new keys while the poet waves a plastic pistol in his defense. As Eutichio, Matthias Henneberg was a bit of the sore thumb in a cast of otherwise budding young singers as he struggled to tailor his mature bass to the small resonant space. The lyric soprano Anja Zügner gave a stand-out performance as Annetta; Tehila Nini Goldstein (Sinforosa), Allen Boxer (Callisto, the house caretaker) and Ilhun Jung (Raimondo) also displayed fine musicianship to accompaniment by the Dresdner Kapellsolisten under Helmut Branny.

Just around the bend from the grassy promenades of the Großer Garten sits the monumental ‘Gläsener Manufaktur,’ a largely transparent glass and steel complex erected in 2002 that serves not only as a Volkswagon production plant but an event space. On a small stage beneath suspended half-built sedans with their engine parts exposed (call it factory chic), violiniste du jour Patricia Kopatchinskaja joined with both her parents and two other friends for an evening of gypsy-inspired music from Bartok to Ravel. The contrast of her father’s 120-year-old cimbalom with the industrial surroundings and the faint sound of a machine whirring (apparently an air-conditioner to counteract the heat produced in manufacture) was somewhat jarring for this listener, and Kopatchinskaja’s correction to the program notes that this music should not be considered ‘coffee house’ fare despite the fact that she hopes we can all drink coffee through the economic crisis only drove home the irony, but her ensemble’s spirited, authentic musicianship eventually created a world of its own, culminating in an encore of the full quintet performing to the Balkan dance melody “Hora Stacato.”

Back in the center of town a few days earlier, Steven Devine conducted the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and English tenor Ian Bostridge in an all-Bach program at the Frauenkirche. The acoustics of the church were a bit too fractious for the clear textures of the period ensemble—a colleague noted an approximately four-second reverb—yet the musicians increasingly settled into the space with their signature elegance. Bostridge, opening with a dedication to Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, gave a tender account of the cantata “Ich habe genug,” although the transcription for tenor did not always flatter his instrument. His timbre found a better match in an aria from the cantata “Lass, Fürstin, lass noch einen Strahl” in which he also revealed impeccable breath control. As no festival would be complete without educational activities, Kristian Järvi was busy rehearsing his Baltic Youth Orchestra together with the MDR Symphony, where he will take over as music director next season. The young musicians, joined by a few professional members, displayed great potential in a performance of Mahler’s Bach Suite at the city’s event space “Messe Dresden,” followed by the MDR in a clean but sorely rushed interpretation of Beethoven’s Eighth Symphony.

Vogler, upholding his commitment to diverse programming, joined Valery Gergiev and the Marinsky Orchestra for his first performance of Honegger’s Cello Concerto, an approximately 16-minute gem that weaves together expressive neo-Romantic lyricism, shades of Gerschwin, and early twentieth-century angst. Vogler shaped the cantilenas expertly and nailed the fast runs of the final movement. Despite the sharply accented style of the Marinsky, Gergiev provided deferential accompaniment, and the music’s precise architecture emerged gracefully. As an encore, Vogler offered a movement from Bach’s Cello Suite in C-major, the lower range of his instrument singing with particular clarity of expression. The concerto was flanked by a somewhat clunky reading of Bartok’s “Miraculous Mandarin” (many noted that Gergiev’s nose never left the score) and Strauss’ “Ein Heldenleben,” which vacillated between the brash and the serene. The orchestra silenced all criticism in an encore of Lyadov’s “The Enchanted Lake,” creating a pianissimo as rich and placid as is earthly possible.

The Dresdener Musikfestspiele has tapped a wealth of potential with a new festival orchestra joining players from top period ensembles such as the Academy of Ancient Music, Concentus Musicus Wien and Il Giardino Armonico, which premiered under Ivor Bolton just after I’d made my way back to Berlin. Vogler also let on that Britten’s centenary will receive some deserved attention next year (the Semperoper has no plans to the effect), including the “War Requiem” with Andris Nelsons and the Birmingham Symphony. Dresden can of course also boast its share of extra-musical attractions, which will surely continue to work to the festival’s advantage. The Alte Gemälde Galerie boasts striking paintings of an intact city by the Venetian artist Canaletto, a sizeable collection of Dutch masters and just launched an exhibit with Raphael’s “Sistine Madonna” at its centerpiece. The local wine industry, despite its northern location, produces a Gold Riesling on par with Alsatian vineyards. As it happens, the Herald Tribune ran a travel story last week about Dresden’s move away from its communist past (always a newsworthy bit) and toward a vibrant cultural life: perhaps the Elbe is indeed bringing in fresh wind again.

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Seeing Dance (and Bullfights) in Spain

May 28th, 2012

By Rachel Straus

While the New York Times paints Spain as a country on the verge of collapse, the view from the streets of Madrid and Salamanca is quite different.

Yes, the restaurants are not as full, but that cannot be said of the bars. At Madrid’s Plaza de Toros de Las Ventas on May 27, the stadium was packed. Though the bullfights are a far cry from ballet or experimental dance, the posture of the toreadors (bullfighters) are inescapably similar to the stance of flamenco dancers: the arch of the back, the puff of the torso, the legs pressed together. The men even rise to relevé (the tips of their toes) before running toward the bull with flags that end in sharp knives. The overall experience is a bloody one. But unless you’re a vegetarian, you can’t escape being complicit in violence toward animals. Humans kill them for sustenance. Cows and chickens generally live lives of abject misery, and the process by which they come to urban tables is hidden. With the bullfight, the ritual reenactment of slaughter is raised to the level of art. The enormous animals are given names, have carefuly recorded family trees, and when they are about five years old, they fight for their lives to the accompaniment of live music. In rare cases, when one bull outsmarts a dozen gorgeously costumed men, in 15 to 20 minutes of fighting, the president of Las Ventas grants the animal its freedom. This winner returns to the countryside to grow old in privileged circumstances.

Plaza de Toros de Las Ventas

Compared to Madrid’s tickets prices for the bullfights (30 to 80 Euros), Salamanca’s Obra Social de Caja hosts performances and lectures about Spanish culture for practically nothing (3 Euros). Salamanca, an ancient city northwest of Madid that boasts the nation’s oldest university, isn’t known for its flamenco. But on May 24, the singer Sebastián Heredia Santiago performed for more than an hour at el Teatro de la Caja. Accompanied by guitarist Juan Antonio Muñoz, Santiago, known as the Cancanilla (the trickster) of Málaga, carried on an impromptu conversation with his fans in the audience. “Eres simpatico” (you are nice), shouted one lady. Cancanilla returned the compliment and thus began the love-in. Cancanilla, who has performed in the companies of José Greco and Lola Flores, and who looks like an amiable bullfrog because of the width of his throat, possesses a booming, plaintive voice that needs no amplification. He teased the audience, saying that he was going to get up and dance flamenco. I doubted the veracity of his statement, but Cancanilla kept his promise. What was astonishing was that this trickster can approximate the same nuanced power with his legs as he can with his lungs.

Sebastián Heredia Santiago

Unlike in the United States, Germany, and France, modern dance never flourished in Spain. That, however, does not mean that it doesn’t exist. On May 25, at Madrid’s El Huerto Espacio Escénico, modern dancer and choreographer Manuel Badás presented his one-man show Sebastián. The French-trained artist skillfully connects Saint Sebastian’s martyrdom with gay culture’s punishment of the body in its quest for physical perfection. Though it was not touched upon, gay men began pumping iron and obsessing about their abdominal muscles in increasing numbers with the AIDS crisis. Looking physically invulnerable, and sexy, was the community’s defense in the face of so many deaths.

Manuel Badás

In Sebastián, Badás creates a montage of stereotypical homosexual images: the drag queen with his five-inch heels, the cover model in white underwear, and the regular guy pouring over glossy male magazines, whose pages are riddled with advertisements for beauty pills and creams. Again and again, Badás transformed back into the martyr Sebastian. His stomach contracted as though struck by an arrow. His arms fluttered behind his back, like he was manacled and he was sprouting wings. He swirled across the floor, as though transcending rough terrain. Throughout, the music ricocheted between the past and present: from baroque hymns to classic American rock and jazz. Biblical quotes about Sebastian’s martyrdom were projected and Badás’ dancing became increasingly kinetic. In the last section, a recording of Billy Holiday singing Strange Fruit was heard. The young, lithe Badás lined up his glossy magazines in the shape of a cross. He tilted his body over a chair, becoming a strangely suspended fruit, one that has been martyred by today’s media-saturated forces.

George Bizet’s Carmen is a well-worn score. Flamenco companies, opera troupes, and car commercials have taken a bite out of the 1875 composition by the French (not Spanish) composer. On May 26 at the Teatro Nuevo Apolo, The Ballet Flamenco de Madrid ratcheted up the cliches associated with the Carmen story.

Veronica Cantos

Veronica Santos performed the title role. Choreographer Sara Lezana tipped her hat to Broadway by having her female flamenco dancers bare a lot more leg (and crotch) than is traditionally seen. Carmen is a tale of the gypsy femme fatale, who plays men against each other, has a taste for violence, and whose life ends tragically. She is stabbed to death by her soldier-lover Don Jose (Saulo Sanchez G). Instead of lamenting the vulgar aspects of this production (which could take up several pages), it’s best to mention what was worthwhile. Sanchez danced with elegance and emotional commitment. The decision to interpolate Bizet’s music with live flamenco, performed by a quartet of musicians (including a flutist), helped return Carmen back to Spain, the home of this wonderful art form.

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