Local and Industry News

Violinist Elmar Oliveira has announced creation of the Elmar Oliveira International Violin Competition.

The competition will take place every three years at Lynn University in Boca Raton, starting in January 2017. The first-prize winner will receive $30,000 and winners will also receive assistance in career development, public relations, and artistic management.

Opera singer Marian Anderson will be depicted on a redesigned $5 bill. Anderson, who died in 1993 at the age of 96, studied music privately after being turned away from the Philadelphia Music Academy, which was a white-only institution at the time. In 1939, the Daughters of the American Revolution refused to let her sing at Constitution Hall. in response, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt helped coordinate and Easter performance at the Lincoln Memorial which was attended by 75,000 people, and some consider this performance the start of the modern civil rights movement. Anderson became the first black person to perform at the Metropolitan Opera in 1955, and she also served as U.S. goodwill ambassador  and a delegate to the United Nations Human Rights Committee.

recording

Boosted by the sale of 17.4 million copies of the Adele album "25," global sales of recorded music rose 3.2 percent in 2015, the first significant year-on-year growth in nearly 20 years. Streaming revenue rose 45 percent, and sales of digital music accounted for 45 percent of the industry's revenue.

Worldwide film revenue rose 5 percent, to $38.3 billion in global ticket sales, in 2015, led by blockbusters including Jurassic World, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and Avengers: Age of Ultron. North American ticket sales rose 7.5 percent, and overseas growth was led by a 50 percent increase from China.

symphonic

The Florida Orchestra has announced that it will begin community residencies in 2017. The Orchestra will spend several days performing and connecting in Avon Park, Daytona Beach, and Gainesville. The communities were chosen because they don't already have an orchestra of their own. The Orchestra will give concerts for public school students, hold side-by-side concerts with students and amateurs, and present concerts in hospitals, parks, malls, and similar venues, with most events being free.

The Hartford Symphony has promoted director of artistic operations and administration Stephen Collins to executive director, replacing Bushnell President and CEO David Fay. During recent negotiations, musicians had voiced concern over the conflict of interest of Fay serving as head of both the Symphony and The Bushnell, where the Symphony pays rent.

Fort Worth Symphony musicians staged a sit-in at the symphony offices in March to protest cancellation of upcoming negotiation sessions. Musicians and management have been negotiating since June 2015 and the terms of their existing agreement were recently extended until July 2016 while negotiations continue.

San Antonio Symphony musicians have agreed to take three weeks of unpaid leave, reducing their annual salaries by ten percent. Music Director Sebastian Lang-Lessing and top executives, including President David Gross, will also be taking ten percent pay cuts.

James Levine will step down from his post as artistic director of the Metropolitan Opera at the end of this season. Levine became music director in 1976 and artistic director in 1986, and has conducted more than 2,500 performances at the Met. In the past few years, Levine has struggled with health issues, including Parkinson's disease.

Oregon Symphony musicians have extended their contract by three years, to 2018, and will receive their first raises since 2011. After years of salary cuts, musicians will receive cost of living increases based on the CPI.

Musicians of the Grand Rapids Symphony have ratified a new five-year agreement. Musicians will receive raises of from 1 to 3 percent per year, and will receive a two percent 401(k) contribution beginning in the second year. The agreement maintains the season length and restores some unfilled positions.

Share/Save/Bookmark

Write reply

This item is closed, it's not possible to add new comments to it or to vote on it

Comments must be approved before being published.