Musical America Blogs

by Keith Clarke

Well done Arts Council England for putting a positive spin on these chilly times. In the face of tough cuts, the council decided to ditch the current funding arrangements and invite all arts organizations—currently funded or not—to put in a bid for some of the cash. There was a fantastic response, said chief exec Alan Davey, clearly moved by the success of the venture. Perhaps there would have been more room for amazement if no one had bothered.

Behind this “great response” was the chilly fact that some 600 of the form fillers will be given the cold shoulder. Into the valley ride the 600—but which 600? That is in the laps of the Arts Council gods.

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Meanwhile the council had more fun and games when it put out an announcement that it had set up a media partnership with Rupert Murdoch’s great media conglomerate News International. This was clearly good news, since the deal was “offering arts organisations the opportunity to gain profile across their titles.”

The announcement went on: “The partnership will include editorial content to help readers gain more of an understanding about a variety of artforms, as well as exclusive offers and promotions. We are now looking for arts organisations who would like to take advantage of this opportunity.”

No sooner had arts groups begun to put up the bunting and blow up balloons than the Arts Council withdrew the statement, went a bright shade of puce and apologized for a misunderstanding.

Clearly someone at the council had come up with the plan, and is no doubt now sitting in the Naughty Corner, pondering the wisdom of it all. The Arts Council is funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, which is also responsible for dealing with competition issues in the media. And guess what? Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt is currently trying to make his mind up whether to let Murdoch’s merry team take total control of broadcasting outfit considering BSkyB.

Curiously, this does not seem to have been reported in any of News Corp’s illustrious titles—The Times, the Sunday Times, the Sun and the News of the World (the last currently the center of attention over a phone hacking scandal).

Oh how they must have laughed at the Arts Council when the penny dropped.

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So MCT Community Theater felt obliged to apologize for listing Sarah Palin among characters who “would not be missed” in its production of Mikado. English National Opera has been running that gauntlet for a quarter of a century, with Jonathan Miller’s classic production returning again this month for a silver anniversary run.

Alfie Boe, who steps into the role of love-struck Nanki-Poo, must still have been in diapers when the production first opened, but Mikado veterans Richard Angas as the Mikado and Richard Suart as Ko-Ko will be on hand again to show him the ropes.

 Will there be a “Sarah Palin” moment? We’ll have to wait and see. But ENO has played a pretty daring game over the years. I remember Richard Suart telling me how he would compile his “little list” on the train up from his Kent home, and no one knew who was included until he stepped on stage to sing it.

It must have given the lawyers a few worrying moments over the years, but as far as I know no one has grown litigious as a result. Must be something to do with fair play and a well-developed sense of humor. Just like Sarah Palin, of course.

by Cathy Barbash

As China increasingly looks simultaneously outside and inside to triangulate its place in the cultural world, we find marvelously surreal mashed-up holiday entertainments scheduled. Let’s welcome in the Year of the Rabbit with an illustrated tour (with unexpected ending).

In the old days, the celebration of western holidays in Beijing was mostly confined to the expatriate community. Now, while many of us ring in the New Year with Viennese waltzes, Beijingers celebrate our New Year too, but with Chinese characteristics:

Top Chinese leaders watch Peking Opera in New Year gala (English.news.cn 2010-12-31 00:36:56)

Chinese top leaders Hu Jintao, Wu Bangguo, Jia Qinglin, Li Changchun, Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang, He Guoqiang and Zhou Yongkang pose for a group photo with performers after watching Peking Opera in a gala to celebrate the New Year at the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing, capital of China, Dec. 30, 2010. (Xinhua/Zhang Duo)

Jump ahead to this week: The Year of the Rabbit hops in February 3. In addition to the Temple Fairs celebrating traditional Chinese culture, offering performances of Beijing Opera, acrobatics, cross-talk and traditional instruments, expats and Chinese hipsters flock to clubs for all genres of contemporary music, be it black metal or fusion Mongolian folk rock. A surviving fixture from last century however is the inevitable CCTV Spring Festival Gala Evening—think the marathon Guy Lombardo telecasts of our youth. Here are Chinese leaders congratulating and posing with the talent.

Li Changchun (front R), a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, shakes hands with actors at the rehearsal of the Spring Festival Gala Evening at China Central Television (CCTV) in Beijing, China, Jan. 31, 2011. (Xinhua/Ding Lin)

Li Changchun (3rd Row, C), a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, poses for a group photo with actors at the rehearsal of the Spring Festival Gala Evening at China Central Television (CCTV) in Beijing, China, Jan. 31, 2011. (Xinhua/Ding Lin)

But wait, some local Beijing presenter has decided that if they can ring in the New Year with Beijing Opera, why not offer Strauss for Spring Festival? Listing from the Beijinger weekly:

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And there’s more western classical music later in the holiday week:

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And meanwhile in one of Beijing’s prime rock venues let’s not forget:

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My personal favorite illustration to multicultural holiday celebrations took place back in mid-December, however. (Full disclosure, I was one of the perpetrators.) The early music ensemble ¡Sacabuche! included residency activities and a few holiday concerts in their Beijing tour. Knowing the Chinese fondness for gambling, and wanting to program more than just Christmas carols, it was decided that their audiences might enjoy learning about some Hanukkah traditions, especially, playing dreidel. So they schlepped over a menorah, candles, Hanukkah gelt and 100 dreidels (of course, made in China). It was hilariously successful. (Photo by Ani Katz)

They say you should try any new life experience with the exception of incest and English country dancing, and that’s about the best excuse I can come up with for taking up the offer of a blogspot on this esteemed site. Does the world need another blog? Of course not. Feel free to log off and have a beer instead. But if you have any interest in an occasional glimpse at how the classical music world functions in London and the UK, I shall be doing my best to capture it in some shape or form.

The editor asks for something by way of introduction, so here goes. Having left school illegally early aged 15 to do a printing apprenticeship (which left me with an abiding love of typography and the smell of ink) I made the leap into the music business by way of the classical promotion department of Decca Records, then housed on the Albert Embankment with a fine view of Big Ben. (Well, the execs had the fine view; the rest of us watched the trains rolling towards Waterloo at the back.)

Decca was supposed to be a desk job, but with recordings being made just across Old Father Thames at Kingsway Hall and St John’s Smith Square it was not long before I started wangling my way into sessions, interviewing artists, turning pages, doing the kind of job that a 20-something couldn’t quite believe he was actually getting paid for. To have Pavarotti, Sutherland and Caballé belting out Puccini at very close quarters to an otherwise empty hall was the stuff that dreams were made of.

Back at the office, life was enlivened by unbelievably profiligate phone calls from Decca’s New York office, calls that would last for hours—tannoy messages would log the progress as New York made its way from one department to another. It seemed unbelievably exotic in a country that reckoned a three-minute call was just about affordable.

If that told me something about the way things worked in the American music business, there was another eye opener when Decca re-pressed the Solti Ring for the US market. The Ring took up a lot of vinyl, of course, but what captivated me was that for each of the operas, side one was coupled not with side two but with the final side. After a while the penny dropped: you guys played Götterdämmerung on an auto-changer!

That wacky discovery determined me to get across the Atlantic, and although Decca never sent me further than desolate seaside towns to give record recitals, my travel plans fell into place with subsequent jobs. A chance to edit the late lamented Music & Musicians magazine was followed by a spell at the BBC, before I ventured into Rhinegold Towers, where Classical Music magazine is published.

When I first climbed the stairs in the Theatreland building in Shaftesbury Avenue, I had little idea that I would still be tackling them 25 years later. A lot changed along the way. More magazines came along—Opera Now, International Piano, Choir & Organ among them—and while I have been editing Classical Music for 20 of its 35 years, for the last few I have worn an additional hat as managing editor of the whole bang shoot.

Then there was Musical America. I jumped aboard the website on set-up and have been scribbling for it ever since, finding myself volunteered to write for the directory too along the way. Over the years I got to meet up on both sides of the pond with the editors of website and directory, and I have to say, you are in very good hands, readers. Quite apart from their editorial skills, Susan Elliott wins my all-time prize for a sense of humor sharp enough to cut diamonds, and Sedge Clark is one of the most urbane and knowledgeable gentlemen I’ve ever had the pleasure to spend time with.

Visiting Ohai a few years ago I enjoyed meeting two music enthusiasts with 4×4 names—Alan Rich  and Alex Ross—both of them talking enthusiastically about blogging. If it was good enough for them, who am I to turn down the chance now that MusicalAmerica has come knocking?

The editor would like an idea of  what I’ll be writing about. So would I. At a time of deep recession, when Arts Council England has torn up the whole system and got everyone to reapply for funding, it seems a fair bet that arts cuts will be a recurring theme. With the 2012 London Olympics just around the corner there will no doubt be observations to be made about the associated culture programme (though given the state of the London Underground they would be wise to cancel the whole thing even at this late stage). And no doubt the realities of UK musical life will be popping up—it sent out quite a strong message when players from the troubled Scottish Opera orchestra started applying for cleaning jobs.

Beyond that, what pops up here is anyone’s guess. If it turns out to be a load of codswallop, let the editor know. I could always try English country dancing instead.

by Cathy Barbash

China’s president Hu Jintao called for increased cultural exchanges during his remarks at yesterday’s luncheon of leaders of American business and foreign-relations organizations in Washington. Though often a step-child at State Visits, culture fared well this time. Hu’s remarks are consistent with recent U.S.-China diplomacy: our countries launched the High Level Consultation on People-to-People Exchange during Secretary of State Clinton’s May visit to Beijing. The direct discussions between PRC Ministry of Culture and State Department officials that began there will continue when the second round of High Level Consultations is convened in Washington DC this spring. Once China’s Spring Festival (aka Chinese New Years) is over, preparatory work is sure to begin in earnest at relevant US Embassy and Ministry of Culture offices.

I was also delighted by the all-star jazz line-up for the State Dinner. Some of those artists had previously toured China: Herbie Hancock and Dee Dee Bridgewater played Beijing as recently as last May, Chris Botti as early as 2007, and Randy Brecker back in the late 90’s. Also on hand was Lang Lang, embodiment of the Chinese American Dream and inspiration to countless young Chinese pianists.

However, there is controversy brewing about one of the pieces performed. I’m not sure how I feel about the inclusion of the Chinoiserie that is Laideronnette, impératrice des pagodes from Ravel’s Ma mère l’oye, offered as a four-hander by gala-worthy odd-couple Herbie Hancock and Lang Lang. However, brouhaha is sprouting online over Lang Lang’s choice of My Motherland as his solo turn.
http://www.who2.com/blog/2011/01/herbie-hancock-lang-lang-in-chinese-american-rockit-pact.html#

Screamed one blogger, 

“Do you know what Lang Lang is playing? He is playing Anti-America Song Called “My Motherland”!!! Lyrics and music of “My Motherland” was called as “A Big River” is a song written for the Chinese movie Battle on Shangganling Mountain (1956). The song was written for the movie about Korean War in 1950s.”

The blogger quotes the text:

Great mountains, great rivers and an amazing place
Every road is flat and wide
When friends are here, there is fine wine
But if the jackal comes
What greets it is the hunting rifle

Another blogger was more sanguine:

“I am totally surprised by his choice …. I guess either Lang Lang doesn’t know the history, or he does not wish to play at White House anymore.

by Cathy Barbash

I reported last year about the do-it-yourself El Sistema-like Rural Unity Music Project, implemented far from the supervisory eyes in Beijing . Now you can similarly create and book cultural exchange (read, “local expenses but no fees”) performances and residency activities in Beijing without the formerly required government-owned NGO’s (GONGOs), if you have your own connections with presenters and a trusting relationship with the Ministry of Culture.

¡Sacabuche!, the early music group which grew out of the Early Music Institute at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music managed such a feat last month. With no working capital but their own creativity, commitment and connections (aka guanxi), the team of Linda Pearse (¡Sacabuche! founder and artistic director), Ann Waltner (noted Ming scholar at the University of Minnesota) and composer Huang Ruo created “Matteo Ricci: His Map and Music,” a multi-disciplinary project incorporating both early and new western and Chinese music and Chinese and English texts.

The program premiered at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing with follow up performances at the South Cathedral (Nantang), on the site where Ricci lived and preached 400+ years ago, and at People’s University. Other performances and residency activities included a day spent with the students of Changping No. 1 High School, and lecture-demonstration/performances at Peking University, the Central Conservatory of Music, the U.S. Embassy and the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in the 798 Art District. (I provided pro bono producing services.)

The Chinese presenters took a chance in presenting this group, since not only was this their debut international tour, but early music is all but unknown to China ‘s audiences. Though the project received no money from the State Department, a letter of endorsement from the Cultural Affairs section of the U.S. Embassy helped clinched the invitation to perform at the National Center for the Performing Arts.

The programming and our viral PR campaign, however, were the trump cards. Matteo Ricci (Li Madou in Mandarin), was an Italian Jesuit who settled in Beijing , dying there in 1610. These were the last in an unrelated series of cultural events commemorating the Ricci anniversary in Beijing , and as far as we could tell, the only concerts. Despite recent tensions in China ‘s Catholic community, Matteo Ricci is considered beyond reproach, the model expat who showed the deepest respect to Chinese culture. And since the program combined music with scholarship, spoken word and projections, we were able to reach out also to potential audiences in the academic community through Waltner’s network.

Houses were full, positive blog posts spread after performances. The ensemble, with performers 20-75 years old hailing from everywhere from small town Indiana to Spain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, bonded with their Chinese musician colleagues, and interacted with Chinese of all ages and a broad spread of socio-economic classes. There was a bare minimum of government involvement from either side in making this happen, yet the maximum possible activity squeezed into 10 days.  Everyone was delighted and inspired. This was citizen to citizen diplomacy the way it should be, and the way it now can be. Come one come all.

by Cathy Barbash

Just back from almost three weeks in China. While I write my reports on recent activity, here is a guest post from Qi Yue, Visiting Scholar at Yale School of Music and Executive Director of the Eastern Strings Music Festival. – CB.

In China, the music-education market is much larger and more promising than the performance market. As urbanization accelerates and huge numbers of middle-class families emerge, more and more parents are sending their children to private violin, piano and ear-training lessons. Kaoji (grade test) and competitions for music students are crowded with children and parents. If you happened to pass by the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing on a Kaoji date, you would see a long line from inside the campus to the outside sidewalk — not for just an hour, but for several days, until the end of the Kaoji.

This is the case not just in Beijing and Shanghai, but in most major cities in China.

On the other hand, the number of summer music festivals or schools for children can be counted on one hand. Some, funded from sources outside of China, have survived, but are still struggling.

A new one, with non-government backing and outside funding, is emerging. In the summer of 2006, Prof. Wing Ho, from Central Conservatory, started a viola camp, teaching nearly 20 students from all over the country in his apartment in Beijing.  In just over four years, the camp has grown into what is now called the Eastern Strings Music Festival (ESMF), of which I am the executive director. In August 2010, we presented a free outdoor concert by the Jing Bo Lake in Mudanjiang (a northeastern city with a population of nearly three million) to an audience of thousands. Performers ranged in age from four to 65 years old and included nearly 30 faculty members from major conservatories in China, along with 120 students from both the mainland and Taiwan.  The featured soloist was violinist Chen Xi, winner of the Tchaikovsky Competition at the age of 17. Under festival Artistic Director Wing Ho’s baton, the ensemble offered standard western fare as well as local songs specially arranged by a guest Taiwanese composer.

Wing Ho was a visiting professor at Yale School of Music (also his alma mater) for the 2008-2009 academic year and has been asked to serve on the jury for 2011 Primrose Viola Competition. In 2000, he established a string chamber ensemble for 12- to 14-year old students in the Middle School of Central Conservatory. The ensemble, which he continues to conduct, is among the finest in China and serves as an inspiration to string teachers throughout the country.

The mission of ESMF is to bring internationally known music educators to different local Chinese cities, especially those outside of Beijing and Shanghai. As such, it moves to a different city every year.  Since it began, ESMF has traveled from Beijing to Baotou, Xi’an and Mudanjiang.  Students from past years keep coming back, to experience different natural and cultural highlights, following an ancient Chinese saying, “Read ten thousand books and walk ten thousand miles.”

Moving from place to place can be difficult for festival organizers, but the students love this yearly change. [Qi Yue points out that he has taken many music groups on tour throughout Europe, the U.S., and China, including the Golden Sail Symphony Orchestra Europe Tour and New England Conservatory Youth Symphony Orchestra China Tour, so he is well-equipped for ESMF’s format. – CB].

ESMF students range from beginners to advanced; at the end of the eight- to 12-day festival, students perform publicly. ESMF has already performed in such venues as the National Center of  Performing Arts and the Forbidden City Concert Hall. Some of the alumni have been admitted to Juilliard, Central Conservatory and other major international music schools.

In 2011, ESMF plans to launch an international exchange program, as well as introduce new multimedia techniques. Like China, each year the festival is growing and evolving fast.