21st Century Conductor

http://www.captimes.co.nz/rev/27/n/1786/Icecold.boss

From the bay in Wellington 

15:25 Posted in Music | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Terra Incognita

Terra Incognita

Music by Gareth Farr

Text edited and written by Paul Horan

1. "This world was never ours"

(Choir)

2.   “Come my Friends” (soloist)

The last section of Ulysees by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

                                                                                       

Come my friends

'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.

Push off, and sitting well in order smite

The sounding furrows;

for my purpose holds

To sail beyond the sunset,

and the baths

Of all the western stars,

until I die.

Tho' much is taken, much abides;

and tho'

We are not now that strength

which in the old days

Moved earth and heaven;

that which we are, we are;

One equal-temper of heroic hearts,

Made weak by time and fate,

but strong in will

To strive, to seek, to find,

and not to yield.

3. In Discovery's Slang (choir)

by Paul Horan

In discovery's slang, I am last

So of course you will claim me

As if I am a god that forgot you

But no, I never knew you.

                                                                         

In discovery's songs, I will rise

But till you can make the word

That will run out to the horizon

None will be heard 'bove the wind.

                                                                                                                  

4.  "Night light" (soloist)

Scott, 1905

... As the red glow slowly travels around    

and is lost behind the western hills, 

our white world is left alone

with the moon and the stars.

                                                                       

The cold, white light falls

on the colder, whiter snow.

                                                                       

The eye travels on and on

Over the gleaming plain

till it meets with the white misty horizon.

and above and beyond,

the soft, silvery outlines of the mountains.

                                                                    

Did one not know them of old,

it would sometimes be difficult

to think them real,

so deep a spell of enchantment

seems to rest on the scene.

                                                                             

And indeed it is not a  spell

that rests o a man alone,

for it is on such night

that the dogs lift up their voices

and ´join in a chant

which disturbs even the most restful sleepers.

                                                           

                                                                               

5. From "The Quiet Land" by Frank Debenham

(soloist and choir)

Men are not old here

Only the rocks are old,

and the sheathing ice:

Only the restless sea,

chafing trhe frozen land,

Ever moving,

matched by the ceaselessly-circling sun.

                                                                                       

Wild birds go wandering

over the face of the snow;

Bright, swift, harsh-crying,

strange adnd heedless.

Transient in time over the mountains,

As we are transient,

strangers in an old land.

                                                                         

Choir enters: (This earth was never ours)

                                                                       

Man is not old here

Creeping upon the white,

brilliant brow of the world.

Less than the birds,

impeded and muffled by the snow,

Unheeded by the sun,

rejected by the sea,

And stunned and stunted by the silence.

                                                                            

And above all,

the dream is here.

The dream of this that is above all else.

Braveness and light and space,

and the everlasting morning.

For this time there will be no awakening,

and no journey back.

Serenity is made whole and lucid;

This time the dream will never end.

                          

                                                                                                                   

6. "Eternal Silence" (soloist)

from Scott's impressions on the march

The eternal silence

of the great white desert

Cloudy columns of snow

drift advancing from the south,

pale yellow wraiths,

heralding the coming storm,

blotting out one by one

the sharp cut lines of the land.

7. "Great God" (soloist with choir)

Scott journal

Great God!

this is an awful place

and terrible enough

for us to have laboured to it

without the reward 

 of priority.

                               

                                                                 

8. "Goodbye Larsen B"

by Paul Horan

A shift

A maw

A gulch of icy water

So goodbye Larsen B

Farewwell and good luck.

                                                        

Were you a ship

A fleet

A great, white fleet

Striking otu for the North

Show our continent's might.

                                                      

 Were you a gift

A Prize

A glit'ring prize

Sacrificed to secure

The Antarctic silence.

                                               

But you are just

A baulk

A shapeless arbitary baulk

Bobbing: heaving and snapped

Green-silver in remaining light.

                                                       

 Goodbye Larsen B

Farewell and good luck

Were still an edge

The lip

Like the unmoving lip

An eternal border

Between the deep and the vast.

                                                

But you are just

A scrap

The palin testament

To our new talent

The once unthinkable

                                                  

Here

Where

It seems

to fail

I step backwards again

As the ice softens:

Terrac incognita

A sliding hill of snow

                                                   

Goodbye Larsen B

Farewell

Now go.

                                                                                                     

                                                                                                             

For enquiries about Terra Incognita:

                                                                          

http://www.promethean-editions.co.nz/php/WorkDetail.php?W...

17:30 Posted in Music | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Economic Environment of American Symphony Orchestras

The Economic Environment of American Symphony Orchestras is relevant to every orchestra that is facing a changing funding position, and in combination with The Search for Shining Eyes, a pointer to the relationship between orchestras the world over and Generations X & Y.

Download the report here:

Economic Environment of American Symphony Orchestras.pdf

1. What issues does the report address? The Mellon foundation requested a factfinding study of (1) cyclical and trend developments in the economic health of the symphony orchestra industry and (2) influences on performance and nonperformance revenues and expenses of orchestras. The hope is that analyses of these influences will clarify decisions facing symphony orchestras and help individual symphonies to assess and project their own economic health.

2. Which symphony orchestras are included in the analyses? The main sample includes every symphony orchestra that was one of the largest 50 symphonies in the United States (based on budget size) for at least two years during the 1987/88 through the 2003/04 concert seasons (the period covered by the data). Each symphony that meets this requirement remains in the sample throughout the 17-year period, irrespective of its rank in other years. This approach produced a sample of 63 symphony orchestras (listed in Table A1) that includes some orchestras whose “economic health” either declined or improved over the period along with orchestras whose economic health was stable. The sample represents over 70 percent of orchestra revenues and expenditures in the United States and provides the raw material for most of the analyses in this report. Some descriptions of basic industry trends use data from the 32 symphony orchestras that reported information in every year during 1987-2003 seasons (Sections III and VI).

3. Where do the data come from? The League of American Orchestras (formerly the American Symphony Orchestra League) provided data on the financial and operating characteristics of symphony orchestras. (Individual orchestras submit these data following a template established by the League.) Information on local market characteristics, such as population and per capita income, come from publicly available U.S. government data. Opera America provided data on the financial and operating characteristics of their members. In presenting the results of statistical analyses of large numbers of arts organizations, the report preserves the confidentiality of the data provided by individual organizations.

5. Broad developments. The graphs in Section III show the main trends based on the 32 continuously reporting orchestras, whose presence throughout the period signals their superior economic health. Even this group of comparatively healthy orchestras has encountered significant economic challenges, including a worsening of the performance income gap (Graph 2), declining attendance per concert (for virtually all types of concerts) that limits performance revenue growth (Graph 1), and a tendency of performance expenses to grow more rapidly than other costs in the economy (Graph 3). This group of larger orchestras has also experienced changes in the distribution of performance revenues (Graph 6), performance expenses (Graph 7), growth of private contributed support (Graph 4), and a decline of government support (Graph 5). The remaining sections of the report explore linkages between these economic developments and orchestra policies, market characteristics, and competition for attendance and contributed support from other performing arts organizations using the complete sample of 63 symphonies. The analytical results therefore reflect the experience of orchestras at varying degrees of economic health.

6. Cycles and trends in revenues, expenses and contributions (Section IV). The financial health of symphony orchestras is sensitive to the general state of the economy. The burden of recessions on orchestras results as much from the decline in contributed support—particularly private contributions—as from cyclical change in the performance income gap. Recessions worsened the overall surplus/deficit position of the average symphony in this sample, while business expansions improve the overall financial balance. Holding the influence of general economic conditions on symphony finances constant, upward trends in private contributed support and investment income offset both a long term decline in government support and the long-term deterioration in the performance income gap. As a result, there was a modest trend improvement in the overall surplus/deficit position of orchestras in the late 20th century.

8. Artistic Costs (Section VI). Artistic costs constitute the major expense category of expense for orchestras but have declined as a percent of total costs. Most symphony musicians are unionized, and their salaries are set in collective bargaining agreements signed by both labor and management representatives. Between the 1987 and 2003 concert seasons, the minimum and average effective salaries of regular orchestra musicians increased more rapidly than consumer prices, the average wages and salaries of other unionized workers in the United States , and the average wages and salaries of nonunion workers. Payments to guest soloists and guest conductors have increased at about the same rate as the salaries of orchestra musicians.

9. Public and Private Support (Section VII). All symphony orchestras must rely on private philanthropy and government support to offset their performance income gap, but orchestras differ widely in the extent to which they rely on private contributions by individuals, businesses and foundations. Government support is invariably a less important source of funding than private philanthropy. The highly varied structure of nonperformance income for orchestras indicates that they do not follow a common model for achieving financial balance. Philanthropic contributions to orchestras depend on the characteristics of their market areas, the development activities of the orchestras, and (to a small extent) the development activities of competing performing arts organizations. Orchestras in areas with higher per capita income receive more private contributions. Orchestra ticket-pricing, concert programming, and fundraising policies also may influence the level of contributed support. Once the effects of an area’s economic capacity are held constant, the effect of fundraising activities on contributed support appears more modest than sometimes claimed. For larger orchestras, there are indications that annual fundraising expenditures do not immediately pay for themselves. There is some evidence of competition between different performing arts organizations for contributed support. Although the evidence is not ironclad, it appears that a small proportion of increased private contributions to operas comes at the expense of symphony orchestras in the same area, and vice versa. While, this competitive effect is small in the vii ata for the late 20th century, it could lead to a mutual and mutually unproductive scalation of development and fundraising expenditures by all competing arts rganizations.

10. Endowment (Section VIII). The returns on endowment experienced by individual symphony orchestras are highly dispersed even though they all have access to the same.capital markets when they invest their endowments. Returns to endowment investments are cyclically sensitive (Exhibit 4). In the early 21st century, the endowment policies of most symphony orchestras permit annual draws from the endowment of 5-7 percent in nominal terms. The actual draws of some symphony orchestras appear to exceed this policy. Actual symphony orchestra endowments are not sufficiently large to cover performanc deficits at prudent endowment draw rates (Exhibit 5). Endowment draw rates that would offset performance deficits in the short run are so high that they would cannibalize endowments to a point where it could sustain only smaller draws in the future.

Taken from: 

REPORT TO ANDREW W. MELLON FOUNDATION

The Economic Environment of American Symphony Orchestras

Robert J. Flanagan

Graduate School of Business

Stanford University

Stanford, CA 94305

March 2008

© Robert J. Flanagan

13:50 Posted in Music | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this

The Search for Shining Eyes

The Search for Shining Eyes is quite an old report from the Knight Foundation, 2006, surveying the nature and funding of innovation in US orchestras over a period of years.

You can download the full document here:

shiningeyes.pdf

• Despite predictions of the death of classical music and its audience, there is healthy support for the art form. The probems of orchestras stem not from the music they play but from the delivery systems they employ.
• An orchestra cannot be all things to all people. The mission of an orchestra needs to be clear, focused and achievable.
• Regardless of their aspirations for artistic excellence and prestige nationally and internationally, orchestras must be relevant and of service to their communities and to the people who live there if they hope to find the resources to survive.
• Transformational change in orchestras is dependent on the joint efforts of all sectors of the orchestra family – music director, musicians, administration, and volunteer leadership and trustees.
• Despite those who suggest a single magic bullet is adequate to address the serious problems that orchestras face, only a combination of many strategies will be effective.
• Free programming and outreach do not turn people into ticket buyers. They simply turn them into consumers of free programming.
• Traditional audience education efforts – targeted to the uninitiated – generally end up serving those who are most knowledgeable and most involved with orchestras.
• There is growing evidence that participatory music education – primarily instrumental lessons, ensemble and choral programs – will turn people into ticket buyers later in life.
• There is no evidence that exposure programs for children – especially the large concert format offerings for school children – will turn them into ticket buyers as adults.
• To grow their audiences, orchestras need to do more research on those who do not attend their concerts rather than focus on those who are already buying tickets.

The lessons for funders are equally compelling:

• To produce transformational change in a field, the dollars and time invested need to be commensurate with the scale of the field involved.
• Dollars are only a small part of what a committed funder can contribute to assist institutions and a field. Technical assistance, research, symposia and publications, among many other things, can also contribute significantly to program outcomes.
• Funders need to be clear with themselves and with applicants and grantees about the results they expect from a grants program even if this seems prescriptive. Vague instructions produce equally vague responses.
• Thoughtful programmatic innovation simply cannot happen when an institution is in the midst of financial crisis.
• Strategic change in grantee organizations cannot happen without strong consistent leadership. Turnover of staff and board will be a fundamental challenge to effectiveness.
• Sometimes the unintended results of a foundation program are more significant than those that were planned, and a funder should be open to them.
• If something matters to the success of a program, funders should not be afraid to take a hard line, even if this poses some difficulties for grantees. (In the case of Magic of Music, the involvement of music directors was crucial, yet to the program’s detriment, the foundation backed away from setting stiff requirements that would have inconvenienced the directors.)
• If a grants program is to be evaluated, it is best to think about evaluation from the very start and design the program in a way that makes uniform data collection and meaningful evaluation possible.

13:35 Posted in Music | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this

Saturday, March 29, 2008

New Voices @ Carnegie Hall

Last week, thanks to the Center for Contemporary Opera's competition in 2006, Mauricio Virgens and I made our debut as baritone and accompanist in the Weill Recital Hall of Carnegie Hall, New York .

Our centrepiece, “Tondo di Michelangelo” by Peter Maxwell Davies, was written for us in 2006 and premiered in Great Britain in October of 2007. About 15 minutes long, Max sets eight of Michelangelo’s sonnets, many addressing his tortured feelings on love. Beginning and ending with unaccompanied voice, it is cyclic in nature, as with a tondo, the circular arrangement of paintings in Italian art. In between, there are settings of poems alternating lyricism and virtuosity for both singer and pianist.  The last song laments the state of government in Tuscany from Michelangelo’s exile in Rome . Readers of this blog will recognise artists in exile as a familiar theme.

The twist for me came when Lars Fosser, the Danish baritone in the recital, phoned just before the concert to say that his pianist had pulled out and the composition he was to premiere hadn’t yet been completed.  The day before flying to New York, I received the 50 pages of notes by fax and booked myself into the Y, a community centre in upper East Manhattan with an excellent music department, where we could rehearse.

So, on March 18th, Lars, Mauricio and I performed Adams, Bernstein, Britten, Berzonsky, Matthus and Maxwell Davies in Carnegie Hall to great acclaim.

Mauricio changed from the Denzel Washington to the Jamie Foxx hairstyle, for Carnegie Hall.

Five years ago, when I was visiting a friend for breakfast, Mauricio, who happened to be there also, asked me if I knew any German accompanists who could play opera and samba.  It didn’t take long to think of the answer, so I offered to work with him instead.

Since then, without the support of our dear friend, Heidrun Brocker, who has offered us her Cologne flat on many occasions to perform in front of friends and colleagues, we wouldn’t have made it to Carnegie Hall.  Therein lies a powerful lesson.  You really can go a very long way on positive attitude and support from your friends, even (or perhaps, especially) when they haven’t the slightest contact with your business.

18 months ago, the evening after the competition semi-finals in New York, we had been instructed to phone a number after 7.30 pm where we would hear an answering machine with the names of the finalists for the next day.  Neither Mauricio nor I had mobile phones that worked in the US, so we spent the evening roaming the streets trying to find a phone box in Manhattan . Mauricio took a half hour of redialling as he and the other singers fought their way through to the answering machine. As his face lit up, I knew we were into the finals. Busily talking on the street corner about our plans, a well dressed, middle-aged woman, arm in arm with a man, walked by and said; ”Congratulations guys. I don’t know what you’ve done but I can feel the success from here!” In a flash, I asked myself where in Scotland that would ever happen. Again, it didn’t take long to think of the answer.

What I wish for the young people of Scotland is along the same lines as Andrew Carnegie, the courage to venture out and allow the whole world to embrace their talent so that, if they choose to return, the next generation won't be crushed by those who cling onto their jobs for dear life, terrified of change and believing that they're not good enough to make it elsewhere. 

The full program can be downloaded here:

Carnegie Hall Program.jpg

Our promoter, the Contemporary Opera Studio of New York:

http://www.conopera.org/

Tondo di Michelangelo: 

http://www.schott-music.com/shop/1/show,231583.html

Lars Fosser:

http://www.fosser.eu/

Martin Hennessy:

http://www.martinhennessy.net/

Emily Langford Johnson:

www.ada-artists.com/artist.asp?ID=65

The Y on Lexington and 92nd:

www.92y.org

Mauricio Virgens and Paul MacAlindin were dressed by CINQUE:

www.cinque.de

Carnegie Hall, New York:

http://www.carnegiehall.org/article/box_office/events/evt...