The University of Miami Frost School of Music is now host to Miami's New Horizons Band. The New Horizons Band program, founded in 1991 in Rochester, New York, and currently with 150 programs across the U.S., is geared toward senior adults who want to learn or relearn a musical instrument. The Miami band will hold classes at Coral Gables Congregational Church and at the Frost School.
The David A. Straz Center for the Performing Arts in Tampa, Florida has founded the Next Generation Ballet. Pattered after the New World Symphony, the Ballet will bring ballet students together with professional dancers to prepare the young dancers for professional careers.
Univision made history during the first week of September by beating the ratings of all of the English-language networks in the 18-49 demographic. The network commanded large numbers of viewers for its telenovelas and a Mexico/Ecuador soccer match.
Google, long speculated to be preparing to launch a music service, has circulated a proposal to major labels for a download store, a subscription service, and a cloud-based music storage locker. Music would be accessable through a web-based player and mobile applications. The music locker will also have social networking features.
The Mark Morris Dance Group has caved in to pressure from the Chicago Federation of Musicians and will use professional musicians for its productions. The dance company had originally planned on using students from Roosevelt University to accompany them in a production of Romeo and Juliet.
The Richardson (TX) Symphony has been placed on the AFM International Unfair List. The Orchestra has refused to recognize the union and refused to negotiate a successor collective bargaining agreement. Musicians are discouraged from providing services for the orchestra, and AFM members performing for the orchestra may be subject to fines and/or expulsion.
The Philadelphia Orchestra has received a $4.5 million pledge from the William Penn Foundation. The plege will provide $3 million for the orchestra's emergency bridge fund, as well as fund the orchestra's strategic-planning process, which will examine every aspect of the orchestra's operations and make recommendations for a new institutional direction.
In the past 20 months, the New Jersey Symphony has raised $25 million toward its $32 million fundraising campaign. Top donations have come from Prudential, Ruth and Mike Lipper, and Josh and Judy Weston. $7 million of the $32 million goal will go toward building the orchestra's endowment fund.
The San Francisco Opera has turned a profit from its free simulcasts. The fifth simulcast, in San Francisco Giant's home AT&T Park, is expected to draw 30,000 patrons. The Opera has calculated that new-patron tickets linked to the simulcasts has generated $80,000 more than the $800,000 cost to produce the simulcasts.
After several difficult years, the Columbus Symphony ended the 2009-10 season with a slight surplus. The surplus is due to $1 million in givebacks by the musicians and increased donations from organizations such as Battelle Memorial Institute, Nationwide, American Electric Power, Limited Brands, and Huntington Bank. The orchestra has also reduced administrative costs by signing a five-year deal to outsource some administrative services to the Columbus Association for the Performing Arts.
The Florida Orchestra in Tampa is estimating a $750,000 deficit for the 2009-2010 season. Ticket sales were up 44 percent and individual giving was up 3 percent, but the increased revenue did not make up for steep declines in government and corporate funding.