DOS Orchestra #41 - 11 June, 95

News from the world of professional orchestras.
Copyright 1995, International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians

Topics

An Apology

It has been several weeks since the last DOS Orchestra hit the Internet, violating our self-described policy of being a "more-or-less weekly" publication. This is due to the editor having been swamped by the need to get his other newsletter, ~Senza Sordino~, onto the music stands of America's largest orchestras, as well as the necessity of actually going to work.

DOS Orchestra regrets the hiatus.

Columbus Symphony: New Executive Director

Susan M. Franamo, general manager of the Kansas City Symphony since 1986, has been appointed executive director of the Columbus Symphony, orchestra officials announced on June 4.

Franamo, 48, assumes a position that the Columbus ~Dispatch~ described as "something of a revolving door." She will replace interim executive director Douglas Kridler, president of the Columbus Association for the Performing Arts, who took over the position when Stephen R. Vann resigned in August 1993 to become general manager of the New York Philharmonic, a post he held for a very short time.

Franamo is a native of Missouri. She attended Stephens College in Columbia and the University of Missouri and Southern Illinois University as a graduate student in voice. She worked for the Lyric Opera of Kansas City before joining the Kansas City Symphony as director of outreach in 1982, where she rapidly proceeded through the ranks to become general manager in 1986.

Ron Pizzuti, the CSO board member who headed the search committee, told the ~Dispatch~ that Franamo is "the best orchestra manager in the United States today... I think the revolving door has finally stopped. I am not happy that it took us as long as it did to find someone. But I am firmly convinced that we have the best person for the job. This is a major commitment for her. I think she will be a major player in the arts community for many years."

Czech Philharmonic: Royaltygate

The Czech Culture Ministry has confirmed press reports that an audit disclosed that Czech Philharmonic chief conductor Gerd Albrecht took $100,000 of royalties from tours that was supposed to go to the orchestra.

~Rude Pravo~, a left-wing daily newspaper, disclosed that the audit showed that Albrecht took $14,000 for the orchestra's tour to Portugal, $77,000 for its tour of Germany, and $7,000 for its tour of Luxembourg. All three tours took place in the past two seasons.

Albrecht has denied any wrongdoing, and told the newspaper that he intends to keep the money. "From a legal point of view this is a clear deal," he said, "but what's happening now is shameful."

Albrecht, a German, was appointed chief conductor three years ago over the objections of many observers who felt that there were Czech conductors more qualified to lead the orchestra, long regarded as one of the world's great orchestras.

Detroit Symphony: Music Director Becomes Professor

Neeme Jarvi, music director of the Detroit Symphony, has accepted an honorary adjunct professorship at Wayne State University in Detroit. He will rehearse with instrumental students at the University and will help devise plans for a national conducting workshop as well.

Florida Philharmonic: Radiothon Dents Deficit

The Florida Philharmonic raised $104,000 - three times what management expected - from a benefit concert and radiothon held on May 20. The orchestra is trying to close a $1.6 million deficit. The members of the orchestra donated their services to make the concert possible, as did guest artists Bruno Leonardo Gelber, William deRosa, and Dame Ida Haendal.

The concert, which had been put together on short notice, attracted approximately 1,600 patrons, who paid whatever they could afford for tickets.

Kennedy Center: Chairman to Step Down After All

James D. Wolfensohn, the new president of the World Bank, has announced that he will resign his position as chairman of the Kennedy Center at the end of this year.

When he was nominated to the World Bank by President Clinton in March, he did not state an intention to leave the Kennedy Center position, and the center's board was quite open about their desire to retain him if possible.

Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra: Masur to Leave

Kurt Masur, music director of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra for more than two decades, announced that he would resign his position with the orchestra after the 1998 season.

Masur, who has been music director of the New York Philharmonic since 1991, has said that he no longer has the energy to hold both positions, according to Georg Girardet, Leipzig's cultural affairs officer, who described him as "the leading figure of Leipzig culture."

Masur was a key player in the 1989 protests in Leipzig that led to the collapse of the former East German regime. He was widely regarded as a leading candidate to become president of the newly-united country in 1993, but he withdrew his name from consideration.

New York Philharmonic: New Artistic Administrator

from the management of the New York Philharmonic, June 5:

Welz Kauffman has been appointed Artistic Administrator of the New York Philharmonic, effective September 5, 1995, it was announced today by executive director Deborah Borda. Mr. Kauffman will succeed Elizabeth Ostrow, who held the position from December 1991 to May 1995.

The Artistic Administrator reports to the General Manager and, in consultation with the Music Director, is responsible for implementing artistic policy, programming all Philharmonic concerts, and engaging conductors, soloists, and choruses. Mr. Kauffman will serve as primary liaison for visiting artists and composers and will be involved in coordinating the Orchestra's programming activities.

Mr. Kauffman comes to the Philharmonic from The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, of which he has been general manager since 1994. In this position he oversaw artistic administration and operations, concert and artist contracting and programming, and implementation of the orchestra's new education program. Prior to that he spent two seasons with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in the position of artistic administrator, and four seasons with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra as its general manager. Before joining the staff of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestras, he held a variety of positions in production, marketing, and public affairs with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Nonesuch Classical Records, and the J. Paul Getty Trust.

A native of Alamo, California, Mr. Kauffman majored in music and minored in political science at Occidental College, where he received honors in piano performance. Mr. Kauffman was named Outstanding Pianist in 1977 at the Berkshire Music Center in Tanglewood, Massachusetts, and was a 1983 recipient of the Presser Scholarship for music history and theory.

Philadelphia Orchestra: Megabucks Losses in New Era Mess

The Philadelphia Orchestra has lost $1.5 million in the collapse of the Foundation for New Era Philanthropy, an organization that promised to double donors' (or "investors'," as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has contended) monies in six months. On May 31, lawyers for the SEC charged that the foundation misappropriated or misused at least $55 million in the first four months of 1995. The lawyers claim that the lost money was either "diverted" by New Ear founder John G. Bennett Jr. to private businesses under his control, or used to pay off past donors in a Ponzi-like scheme.

The bankruptcy has left hundreds of institutions, including churches, museums, and schools, owed approximately $200 million. The foundation raised money from these institutions, and a number of prominent philanthropists as well, by claiming that a pool of anonymous donors would match the funds raised. The original contributions plus the matching funds would them be returned to the institutions.

According to George L. Miller, an accountant working with interim trustee John T. Carroll 3rd, New Era took in almost $200 million in the six months before its collapse, overwhelming the foundation's nine-person staff.

Investigators have raised numerous questions about Bennett's income from New Era, as well as some recent heavy personal expenditures, including the purchase last August of a new house for $600,000 in cash and the $1.4 million in consulting fees that Bennett had paid himself since January 1.

The orchestra had also been promised $8 million from New Era as part of its ongoing $140 million campaign to build a new concert hall.

Wichita Symphony: New Concertmaster

Jennifer John has been appointed the new concertmaster of the Wichita Symphony Orchestra. She will also join the faculty of Wichita State University and become the first violinist of the Fairmount String Quartet, quartet-in-residence at WSU.

John, 30, replaces David Perry, who resigned to join the faculty of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and become the first violinist of the Pro Arte Quartet. She has been assistant professor of violin at the University of Memphis and a member of the Ceruti Quartet since 1991.

John received her undergraduate degree from the Cincinnati College and Conservatory of Music, and studied at Yale University and the University of Michigan, receiving a master's degree there in 1991. She has also played in the Ann Arbor Symphony, the New Haven Symphony, and the Eugene Symphony.

Deaths

Ulysses Kay, a composer whose works had been performed by many American orchestras, died on May 20 at the age of 78. His output included five operas, twenty large orchestral pieces, and over thirty choral compositions. His last work was the 1991 opera "Frederick Douglass," based on the life of the escaped slave who become a major figure in the Abolitionist movement around the time of the American Civil War.

He leaves unfinished a commission from the New York Philharmonic.
Copyright 1995, International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians

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