Musical America Blogs

by Cathy Barbash

I’m back in China for the first time since May, and once again caught in between the impulse to blog all the cultural gossip, or hold back because divulging the news would incur the wrath of the large organizations that are in play, limiting my future access. But after a day spent with old friends at the Ministry of Culture, the National Centre for the Performing Arts, and the U.S. Embassy, there was news aplenty.

I can say that the cultural industry reforms of the past Five Year Plan will continue and deepen into the next, with many formerly well-funded and evidently complacent arts organizations complaining bitterly that the withdrawal of government subsidies is too sudden and too deep. (Have they been asleep the past five years? Or smug enough to think they were too well-connected for it to happen to them?) And the Ministry of Culture, cognizant that some art forms and their relevant ensembles will need the support in order to survive in an ever more globalized China, continues to agonize over which organizations will be so annointed. And the sensational team at the U.S. Embassy is planning a fascinating, unusual and creative concoction of activities for next year.

The other noticeable change is that the Ministry and other large arts organizations have taken seriously the government’s insistence that they look abroad for both business and business advice. One of the biggest entities will send large delegations to intern with one of America’s biggest arts organizations later this month. Today, one of America’s top arts executives (but no, not a usual suspect), will address a group of cultural officials at the National Centre for the Performing Arts on “Leading a Cultural Organization in the 21st Century.” Delegations organized by the Ministry of Culture just returned from an extended American trip which included a week’s seminar on the Broadway business. Yet at the same time it is still necessary for performances in most venues to receive official Ministry of Culture approval. When that ceases, we’ll know that change has truly arrived

by Cathy Barbash

China “cultural hands” have been waiting for news of priorities in China’s next Five-Year Plan, wondering whether the sector reforms and heightened investment in cultural export would continue. The news is now in, and those of us who depend on substantial engagement, support and greater flexibility from Chinese government-related and independent cultural entities can breathe easier. On Monday, the Xinhua News Agency reported that a senior Communist Party of China (CPC) in charge of culture and publicity had publicly pledged to deepen the nation’s reform of its cultural sector over the next five years. Said Liu Yunshan, a Secretariat member of the CPC Central Committee and head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, “More state-owned cultural institutions will be converted into enterprises as the nation builds a competition-based market for cultural products and services.” Liu spoke at what was in essence a barnstorming tour for these new reforms out in Henan Province, billed as “a workshop on a blueprint for the country’s cultural reforms and development for the “12th Five-Year Plan” (2011-2015). While assuring the crowd that the reforms would be done “in accordance with the requirements of the Scientific Outlook on Development.” (read, kosher), he stressed that “Cultural restructuring is fundamental for the emancipation of cultural productivity and the realization of cultural prosperity and development,”
Local party officials responsible for local publicity work in the provinces of Henan, Hebei, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Shandong, Guangdong, Yunnan, Shaanxi and Fujian, as well as the autonomous regions of Guangxi and Inner Mongolia, provided reinforcement and reassurance.

Moving to enable reforms on all fronts, simultaneously on Monday, a delegation of Chinese cultural officials from a variety of provinces began a week-long “how-to” seminar on Broadway theater in New York City. I’ll hope to catch up with some of them tonight at the Wen Jiabao dinner to ask what of their curriculum will be most useful to them.

P.S. Congrats to Alan Gilbert on the occasion of the New York Philharmonic’s opening night. Now that he is well-ensconced, I wonder when he will take the Orchestra back to China.

by Cathy Barbash

While the cultural diplomacy “establishment” organizations still appear to favor recognizing large brand name projects over “indies,” (see recent announcement of the U.S. Center for Citizen Diplomacy’s International Cultural Engagement Task Force’s selections for recognition at the 2010 U.S. Summit And Initiative For Global Citizen Diplomacy), young Americans continue to create true grass-roots citizen cultural diplomacy initiatives fueled by their passion and support of family, colleagues and friends. The Unity Rural Music Project in China is one of them.

The Unity Rural Music Project is barely seven months old, but already flourishing. Created in February 2010 by two Fulbright scholars David Borenstein and Jon Kaiman, it was inspired by Borenstein’s research on how the mass migration of young people from the countryside to cities affects rural life. He recognized the poverty of resources to engage youth in any way, and was ultimately approached by neighbors who knew he was a musician to play for and teach their children.

Their mission is to address issues of education development in rural China by organizing a series of music-themed summer camps in Sichuan and Guangxi Provinces. Through these camps, they will provide participating schools with instruments, textbooks and teacher training, helping them lay the foundation for sustainable music programs of their own. You can follow their progress at unityrmp.wordpress.com.

Their first effort was a tour by the US Afro-Latin Band, Los Piratas Del Monte. Working alongside four different local NGOs, the project organized a series of six one-day Latin music camps at Chinese rural schools. The group held events at a vocational school for orphans and others affected by the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, several schools located at the earthquake epicenter that were destroyed by the quake, a school sponsored by the YMCA, and other schools in low-income areas. Camp content featured classes in three different styles of Latin dance, percussion, and singing (merengue, son and cumbia). The camps culminated in an interactive performance where campers took turns performing with the band—making use of the percussion, dance, and singing styles they learned during the day.

Alas, two workshops scheduled for Guanxi province this week have been canceled because of dangerous flooding conditions in the province.

On 8/5, the project continued with two four-day music camps in the villages surrounding Lugu Lake in southern Sichuan Province. In addition to Los Piratas Del Monte, past and present Fulbright scholars, a PhD student in ethnomusicology and a professional Pipa player from Chengdu all volunteered to teach. For the first three days at each camp, campers attend five 45-minute long classes: Latin music, American folk, popular music, Chinese classical and jazz. On the fourth day, they showcased what they’d learned in a village-wide performance. The project will also be donating resources to the schools, including percussion sets and teacher stipends, to help them lay the foundation for extracurricular music programs of their own.

Full disclosure: I was so moved by this project that I made what I call a “micro-grant” to support it.

Messrs. Borenstein and Kaiman are not alone in their dedication. Last May, Philadelphia Orchestra violinist Phil Kates returned to Du Jiang Yan Tian Ma Primary School, also in the earthquake stricken zone nearby Chengdu. Accompanied by three of his Orchestra colleagues, they performed for students and inspected the music classroom that the Orchestra’s donations had helped to fund since his first visit just after the devastating Wenchuan earthquake in 2008.

And Americans are not the only grass roots cultural activists. Through Mary Sue Fields of the U.S. Consulate Chengdu, I’ve learned of an Italian, Luca Silipo, who is running a non-profit association out of Hong Kong called Music for the Growing Mind. They have received permission from local officials in two cities near Chengdu to start an El Sistema program there for youth affected by the earthquake, but are finding fundraising a challenge. For more details on that program, see http://www.musicgrowingmind.org.

By Cathy Barbash

“Front of House” critics have been raving about Zaha Hadid’s recently opened Guangzhou Opera House. However, this just in from backstage:

Yes, the space is amazing, but they made a major flaw in the electricity design: the smaller theater electricity can only be used if the large theater is also in use, therefore, if there is no performance in the large theater and you want to rent the small theater, you have to pay the fee for the large theater too.

Ouch!

by Cathy Barbash

I recently caught up with Sonia Kolesnikov-Jessop’s excellent NYTimes article, “China’s Offering New Culture Venue to Its Citizens.” While one correction was made re: the Nederlander’s corporate structure, there is another China-side correction necessary, should the Times choose to make it.

The article states that the Beijing Music Festival is managed by The China Arts and Entertainment Group. In fact, CAEG, with the Ministry of Culture, manage the “Meet in Beijing” cultural festival each spring, not the Beijing Music Festival. The Beijing Music Festival is directed each fall by Yu Long, with the backing of the Poly Group.

In fact, I’ve heard reports that the Poly Group and CAEG are now competing for venue management contracts across the country, with, as the article mentions, a few foreigners like the Nederlanders and AEG in the mix as well. “Waiguoren (foreigners) beware: AEG tried to manage the Wukesong Arena but was misguided enough to sign an untenable contract, and gave up after several months. This “territorial dispute” will merit an interesting article of its own at some point.

by Cathy Barbash

Ping Chong’s Cathay: Three Tales of China will finally premiere in China in late October 2010. Almost five years ago, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts’ month-long Festival of China commissioned Ping Chong to set a new work on the Shaanxi Folk Art Theatre’s puppetry troupe. Ping Chong worked with the company in Xi’an, and Cathay was assembled and premiered at the Seattle Rep before playing at the Festival, the New Victory Theatre in New York and at the Vienna Festival.

I knew the company from my work as consultant to the Kennedy Center for the Festival, and went on Ping Chong & Company’s board to help them try to “repatriate” the work. Ping Chong wanted to see the work performed in China, and wanted to give the production to his Xi’an colleagues as a legacy. Only now have the infrastructure and priorities of China’s culture industry evolved enough to make this a reality. The China premiere, fittingly, will be held in Xi’an, and it is hoped that it can develop into a long run that will create a steady income stream for the company.

I recently spent 5+ weeks in China in various cities, including an extended stay in Beijing. The unreasonably cold spring weather was more than compensated for by the sense that the city is finally beginning to feel like a cultural capital. In coming posts I’ll discuss the performances I sampled and hint of the latest developments behind the scenes. Today, I’ve asked my friend, current Fulbright Scholar Nick Frisch, to reflect on the competing rock festivals that descended on Beijing earlier this month, simultaneous to international orchestral and opera festivals elsewhere in the capitol.

Guest Blog by Nick Frisch

Two years ago, the MIDI Festival—for several years, Beijing’s signature outdoor music event—was denied its usual permit without explanation. Pre-Olympics jitters were blamed; but in 2009, permission was denied again, and MIDI went forward in Zhenjiang, a city near Shanghai.

When the Modern Sky Festival sought to rock out Chaoyang Park this past October, officialdom struck again: all foreign bands were denied visas with scarce advance notice, gutting the lineup.

Naturally, the government isn’t terribly keen on large groups of young people massing in the Chinese capital. All the more surprising then, that both the MIDI and Strawberry festivals went forward on a triple-booked May 1st weekend this year. Besides the two outdoor events, rock hole-in-the-wall D-22 threw itself a fourth birthday party, its signature bands (Carsick Cars et al.) rocking the cramped, smoky venue on three successive nights. Many bands played both festivals, some of the D-22 bands all three.

It was a good moment to take the temperature of Beijing’s music scene. Diagnosis: mediocre, with some bright spots. Prognosis: good. If China ever did have an analogue to the free-love, anti-man Woodstock of legend, these heavily merchandised, hipster-infested, and police-monitored festivals weren’t it.  Beijing’s youth like a weekend out to strut their fashion sense, but most seemed unaware that rock music traditionally includes a period during which one resists the idea of selling out. And who schedules two massive festivals, on the same weekend, on opposite ends of town? Ditan Park’s Folk Music Festival, at least, had the good sense to wait until the following weekends. Many of the acts were simply mediocre, while others showed a frustrating inability to capitalize on their potential. My personal bone to pick is with Mountain People (Shanren), an act populated with Chinese of minority extraction from the diverse and musically fascinating southwest. Their songs invariably begin with a fascinating swirl of folk sounds on native instruments. A pop or rock beat will creep in…and suddenly, you are listening to someone’s high school band emulating a cross between Dispatch and Jimmy Buffet.

There were some outstanding acts. Your correspondent saw local favorites Pet Conspiracy (Chongwu Tongmou) give a great show at Strawberry, and at MIDI, Secondhand Rose (Ershou Meigui)’s Chinese opera-inflected rock was rapturously received. So the glass is also half full: the logistics and management might lag, and the overall talent level lags even further behind that; but when the talent develops, they will have somewhere to play, and someone willing to come watch. For those seeking to engage with Chinese music on a two- or three-year time horizon, frustrations are inevitable in all genres, from rock to classical and between.

But for anyone who remembers or knows of the gigantic proletarian-praising parades that once occupied Beijing’s attention on May Day holidays under Mao, it’s hard to argue the trend is anything but positive.

by Cathy Barbash

With the opening of the Expo 2010 Shanghai less than a month away, the USA Pavilion has finally put online a more comprehensive Calendar of Events. The schedule is a work in progress, and will be updated as events are added.

The first marquee event is the Philadelphia Orchestra on May 7/8, and with admirable full-disclosure it is noted that the Orchestra was invited by the Expo organizers, not the Department of State. (More full disclosure, I’m consulting to the Orchestra for the tour.) The first marquee events presented by the U.S. State Department are jazz greats Herbie Hancock, Dee Dee Bridgewater & the Thelonius Month Institute of Jazz on May 13/14.

The remaining events in May and June, ranging from Ozomatli to the Miami University Collegiate Choral to the Youth Orchestra of San Antoni et al, are self-funded affairs.

Director of Entertainment Operations Jason Meek (jmeek@usanationalpavilion2010.org) recently told me that “We certainly are interested in more performing groups. However, we unfortunately do not have budget for additional performers so we would be limited mostly to groups that are self-funded and would not require a performance fee.” Any groups passing through China during the six-month Expo and willing to open a space on their schedules for an Expo performance are invited to contact him, and his department will assist in booking an appropriate venue and helping out with all necessary arrangements.