Local and Industry News

Funding Arts Broward has announced grant winners for 2014.

Winners include: Ars Flores ($7,500 for concerto competition); Chameleon ($2,000 for spring concerts); FGO ($8,500 for Madame Butterfly production); Florida Youth Orchestra ($7,500 for spring family concert); Gold Coast Jazz Society ($7,500 for winter/spring jazz project); Master Chorale of South Florida ($6,600 for Bach and Master of Leipzig concert); MCB ($12,000 for the premiere of The Concert); Seraphic Fire ($10,000 for their spring season); and Symphony of the Americas ($9,600 for classical concerts and Summerfest).

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The AFM has concluded negotiations with the Association of National Advertisers and the American Association of Advertising Agencies on a new commercial announcements agreement. The three-year agreement, which must still be ratified by musicians, calls for an immediate increase in wages of six percent and increases in pension, health and welfare, cartage, and sideline services. It has been five years since the agreement was last negotiated.

After a year and a half of negotiations, the AFM has reached an agreement with Microsoft covering videogame scoring. The contract, which must be ratified by musicians, runs through December 2016 and calls for scale wages of $300 per three-hour session.

According to Miami-Dade county's film commissioner, at least two films have not been filmed in Florida due to lack of tax incentives. Florida launched an incentive program in 2010 that awarded $296 million in tax credits, but all funding has been exhausted and no additional funds have been approved in the past two legislative sessions. Film professionals are worried about attracting film production to the $11.5 million Miami Entertainment Complex, which includes two studios each twice as big as the largest current studios and opens in August 2015, and they intend to increase their lobbying efforts next year toward additional tax credits for film production.

The US Department of Justice has invited comments prior to its review of consent decrees governing music licensing and royalties. The decrees, first entered into in 1941, govern royalty rates for songwriters when their compositions are used on radio, television, or Internet services. Publishers and songwriters have been fighting Internet radio giant Pandora for higher rates and the Justice Department is stepping in as a result of that battle.

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Ramon Tebar has been appointed artistic director of Opera Naples. Opera Naples presents four productions a year in Naples, Florida.

The Jacksonville Symphony has named Courtney Lewis as music director. Lewis cofounded the Discovery Ensemble in Boston in 2008, and has served as assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic and associate conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra.

The Alabama Symphony has ratified a new three-year agreement. The agreement calls for wage increases of 1.3 percent in the first year, 1.5 percent in teh second year, and two percent in the third year.

The Chicago Symphony has received $32 million in foundation gifts. $17 million from the Zell Family Foundation will go toward naming rights in perpetuity for the Orchestra's music director. $15 million from the Negaunee Foundation will go toward operating support and endowment funds for the Orchestra's education and community engagement wing.

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