Industry News

The Bee Gees (Local 655 members Robin, Barry, and Maurice Gibb) received BMI's Icon Award on May 15. The award recognizes their lifetime achievements.

Palm Beach County has proposed eliminating an $800,000 development fund that benefits more than 50 small to midsized arts organizations, including the Boca Raton Philharmonic Symphonia. The fund is one of the casualties in state and local governments' attempts to reduce property taxes. The State of Florida, meanwhile, has cut $19.2 million by freezing funding for the Cultural Facilities Program. The fund has supported 47 organizations, such as the Miramar Cultural Arts Center, hoping to build or expand their facilities.

Elaine J. Wold has donated $6 million to Lynn University toward construction of a Performing Arts Center. The facility is expected to cost $9 million and will include a 750-seat theater that will be used by the theater arts program as well as the Conservatory of Music.

Walt Disney World has donated $12.5 million toward construction of a performing arts center in Orlando, and will receive naming rights for the 1800-seat concert hall. Since last fall, $67 million in private funds have been raised for the three-hall complex which will become home to the Orlando Philharmonic, Orlando Opera, Orlando Ballet, and Festival of Orchestras. 

The University of Miami Frost School of Music has hired Shelton G. Berg as dean. He will succeed William Hipp, who has retired after serving 24 years as dean. Berg was Professor of Jazz Studies at the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California. 

Recording 

The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS, "the Grammy's") has begun construction of a Grammy museum. The museum, across the street from the Staples Center in LA, is scheduled to be open in September 2008, in time for NARAS' 50th anniversary. 

Amazon.com, with the support of EMI and many smaller labels, will begin selling music tracks without copy protection, in MP3 format. They will compete with Apple's iTunes, which currently holds nearly 80 percent of the online music market share. 

Video games sales rose 20 percent over a year ago, to $839 million, driven by strong demand for Nintendo's Wii console.

SonyBMG will no longer accept hard copies of demo CDs from bands hoping to be signed. Instead, musicians will need to blog their promo on record label websites such as rcademos.com and columbiademos.com . 

Symphonic

Michael Hall has been appointed Music Director of the Southwest Florida Symphony (Fort Myers). Hall, associate conductor of Orange County's (California) Pacific Symphony, succeeds Paul Nadler.

The Metropolitan Opera will be expanding its simulcasts in movie theaters. This season's simulcasts were so successful that the Met will simulcast eight productions next season. They estimate that they will reach 800,000 patrons through the simulcasts and expect that the series will make a profit. They will also offer pay-per-view showings for one month after each simulcast. The Washington National Opera will also be simulcasting two productions next season, for free to college campuses.

Not to be outdone by the Met, the Philadelphia Orchestra recently broadcast a concert over Internet2 to six schools, including the University of Pennsylvania, the Eastman School of Music, and the University of Copenhagen. Next season the Orchestra expects to broadcast concerts in movie theaters across the U.S. and worldwide.

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