DOS Orchestra #23 - 20 December 94

News from the world of professional orchestras.
Copyright 1994, International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians


Topics

Bolshoi Ballet: The Show Goes Off

A performance of "Giselle" by Moscow's Bolshoi Ballet was postponed for 20 minutes on December 8 by a protest by the members of the company over pay and management.

Instead of the overture, the evening started with a member of the company addressing the audience about how the Russian goverment had ignored two no-confidence votes taken by the company members regarding theater director Vladimr M. Kokonin.

One member of the orchestra told the audience "we want the government to pay attention to what is going on inside the walls of the Bolshoi Theater. It's the first strike in 219 years. There has never been such a thing, and we hope the government and the president will listen to us."

Members of the company reportedly earn between $80 and $200 per month.

Theater critic Anatoly Agamirov has said that "a real civil war in the Bolshoi" began after Kokonin suceeded in having President Boris Yelstin introduce a contract system for theater employees over the vehement objections of artistic director Yuri Grigorovich.

Boston Symphony: Jamming with the Emperor

Members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, including the entire cello section, performed for Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko of Japan at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo on December 10. The cellists played works of Bach, Handel, and Gruezmacher, after which Empress Michiko, a pianist and long-time friend of music director Seiji Ozawa, played a movement of Haydn and a movement from the Schumann piano quartet with members of the BSO. Emperor Akihito, a cellist, then joined the Empress and the BSO cello section in a work by Karl Bohm. The BSO musicians, accompanied by Ozawa, also had lunch with the Emperor and Empress.

Later that evening, the BSO and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus performed the "Requiem" of Hector Berlioz in Suntory Hall.

Colorado Springs Symphony Hires Executive Director

from the management of the Colorado Springs Symphony:

The Colorado Springs Symphony Board of Directors is pleased to announce the appointment of new Executive Director David A. Ball. Mr. Ball is currently the Executive Director of the New Hampshire Symphony.

Born and raised in New Jersey, David Ball received a master's degree in business administration from Lehigh University in 1972. In 1975 he founded the San Diego Sandwich Co., which he operated as President until its sale in 1983. While in that capacity, Ball pursued a Bachelor's degree in Music Composition at San Diego State University and a Master's of Music degree at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Mr. Ball began his career in arts management in 1985 when he took the post of General Manager of the Bremerton (WA) Symphony. Moving from there to Johnstown, Pennsylvania, he served the Johnstown Symphony as Manager from 1986-1988. For the next two years he served as Music Program Director and Arts in Education Program Director at the Pennsylvania State Council on the Arts until moving, in 1990, to serve the New Hampshire Symphony as Executive Director.

He has been an active advocate for symphonies nationally, serving on both policy committees and the Board of Trustees of the American Symphony Orchestra League, the national service organization for over 800 orchestras in the United States and Canada. He is currently project director for the publication of an industry-wide handbook on professionalism in orchestra management, and has been a frequent panelist and presenter in a variety of arts forums.

A special interest of Mr. Ball is the orchestra as educator. He has served on a national advisory panel in this area and has developed innovative models for orchestras in collaboration with the schools while at the New Hampshire Symphony.

Due to begin his job January 19, Ball states, "I was immediately impressed by the level of commitment shown by all involved in the Colorado Springs Symphony. There was a contagious pride to be found in the players, the Board, the staff and the many volunteers, a spirit which made the Symphony an irresistible organization to me. The community as well was immediately attractive, an impression that grew with every moment I spent there."

Board President, Michael Grace stated, "We are delighted that Mr. Ball is joining our Symphony. We are especially impressed with his diversity of experience in both the arts and the business world. He is highly regarded in the American Symphony Orchestra League, having chaired committees of orchestra managers and serving on the Board of Directors. His leadership for the staff, musicians and board will serve us well."

Seattle Symphony: New Plan for New Hall

A new proposal for a new concert hall for the Seattle Symphony was approved on December 14 by the Seattle City Council's Parks Committee. The proposal calls for the new 2,500-seat hall to occupy an entire city block across from the Seattle Art Museum. The Parks Committee also approved an expenditure of up to $35.77 million on the entire project, which is anticipated to cost $97.77 million. The orchestra is committed to raising $54 million of the $64 million cost of the hall itself. City and orchestra officials have stated that they hope to raise the balance through the sale of view and light easements and development rights, as well as by contributions.

The vote by the Parks Committee was 5 to 1 in favor of the project, with three members abstaining and expressing concerns about financing. Council member Sue Donaldson, who voted to approve the project, said "the concept of the concert hall downtown is very exciting. It helps create a 20-hour downtown and an opportunity for the Seattle Symphony to showcase its talent. It is part of the package to ensure our downtown does not fail but continues to be vital and a source of pride and importance to the community."

The city funding would go towards purchasing and demolishing existing structures on the site, as well as building an underground parking facility.

Ventura County Symphony Wins NEA Grant

The Ventura County (CA) Symphony has been awarded a $50,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts in support of its five-year growth plan. The orchestra was one of 38 groups chosen for the grants, for which 91 arts groups applied.

At the same time as the NEA grant was announced, orchestra officials also announced plans to expand the orchestra's series to 12 concerts, six of which would be at the new Civic Arts Plaza in Thousand Oaks.

The NEA grant must be matched by $150,000 raised by the orchestra. Board president Felice Ginsberg expressed confidence that the money will be raised.

The Ventura County Symphony, which has an annual budget of $730,000, began the season with a deficit of $180,000. The start of the current season was marked by difficult labor negotiations. The orchestra's musicians sought to negotiate a collective bargaining agreement for the first time in the orchestra's history, partly in response to new music director Boris Brott's threatened termination of a number of musicians. Two of the musicians who received "artistic warning" letters on February 24 had been named as members of the union organizing committee in a letter to executive director Karine Beesly on February 16, prompting the filing of unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board, which did not accept jurisdiction of the charges, due to the orchestra's budget being under the $1 million threshold of the NLRB's jurisdiction.

Less then 24 hours prior to the season finale on May 6, which the musicians had threatened to strike, management recognized AFM Local 581 in Ventura as the musicians' bargaining representative.

The negotiations which followed included threats by management to cancel the upcoming season and also to hire a foreign orchestra to play the first concert of the season, a plan the management jettisoned after the union explained to the media that the logistical difficulties of doing so, including problems with immigration, were immense.

An interim agreement for the 1994-95 was reached on September 22 which included a "no firing" clause for the season and a grievance and arbitration procedure. Negotiations for a long-term agreement are continuing.

Deaths

Samuel Lipmam, publisher of the arts journal "The New Criterion" and until recently the artistic director of the Waterloo Music Festival and School in New Jersey, died on December 17 in New York of leukemia at the age of 60.

Mr. Lipman became widely known in orchestra circles for two articles in "The New Criterion" that were highly critical of the American Symphony Orchestra League. The first article, "The Cry from the Orchestras," was published in 1992 as a response to the ASOL's publication of Dr. Thomas Wolf's report "The Financial Condition of Symphony Orchestras." The second, published a year later, was a response to the ASOL's release of "Americanizing the American Orchestra" and was entitled "Who's Killing Our Orchestras?"

Mr. Lipman was considered a leader of the neo-conservative movement and was instrumental in a 1980 report by the Heritage Foundation that was harshly critical of the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. In 1982, he was appointed by President Ronald Reagan to serve on the National Council for the Arts, and served until 1988.

Mr. Lipman was born in San Jose (CA), where he studied piano. He also attended the summer school run by Pierre Monteux and studied with Darius Milhaud. He made his New York debut in 1955. He is survived by his wife and a son.
William A. Tesson, who worked with the Boston Symphony and Boston Pops as a composer and arranger, died on December 13 in Somerville at the age of 80. Mr. Tesson, a trombonist, graduated from Northeastern University and the New England Conservatory of Music, and was in charge of the US Army Band in the Phillipines during World War II. He also performed with the Red Nichols Touring Band and the Folies-Bergere in Paris, and taught at Northeastern University and the New England Conservatory of Music.
Catherine Filene Shouse, who donated the land and the funding to create Wolf Trap Farm Park near Washington DC in 1966, died last week in Naples (FL) at the age of 98.

Shouse, who was the daughter of an owner of Filene's Department Store in Boston, moved to the Washington area in 1920, where she began the first chamber music concerts at the Phillips Collection and served on the National Symphony board.

She donated the first 40 acres of her Wolf Trap Farm to the American Symphony Orchestra League in 1961, but her offer to donate the rest of the site, 15 miles west of the District of Columbia, to the National Symphony was declined on the grounds of being too far from Washington. She donated the site to the National Park Service in 1965. The Park Service then maintained the park and the buildings, while the Wolf Trap Foundation, which Shouse led, produced the events at the site. When a fire destroyed the facility in 1982, Shouse led the rebuilding program.

An estimated 500,000 people attend a wide range of events at Wolf Trap Farm Park every year. In addition, Wolf Trap also sponsors a variety of educational programs.
Copyright 1994, International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians

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