Local and Industry News
After a two year hiatus, President Trump has awarded the National Medal of Arts. Presidents have been giving out the award for 35 years, and this year the award will go to John Voigt, James Patterson, Sharon Percy Rockefeller, and Alison Krauss.
The Trump administration, for the third year in a row, has proposed drastically cutting funding for the arts and humanities. Under the proposed budget, the NEH, the NEA, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting would see a $897 million cut in their $1.017 billion budgets. For the past three years, Congress has rejected the proposed cuts and restored funding. Federal arts funding is less than two hundredths of one percent of the government's $4.7 trillion budget, and costs citizens about $1.35 each per year.
The Orlando Ballet has reached an agreement to perform at the Dr. Phillips Center in Orlando when Steinmetz Hall opens in 2020. Orlando Opera and the Orlando Philharmonic are still in discussions but are also expected to reach an agreement with the hall. The agreement reached provides that rental costs will be frozen for two years and capped at five percent increases for the next three years. Add-on fees will also be reduced.
Musicians are boycotting Amazon events. As Amazon launches its first music festival, Intersect, in Las Vegas this December, musicians will be protesting Amazon's policy to provide assistance to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The musicians want Amazon to terminate contracts with agencies that commit human rights abuses, stop providing cloud services that assist the government in deporting immigrants, and end projects such as facial recognition that encourage racial profiling.
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The AFM has reached a tentative agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. The two-year agreement, which is subject to ratification by musicians, increases wages by three percent, increases residuals for shows rented and purchased online, and establishes fair wages for high budget shows on streaming platforms. for the first time, musicians will also receive screen credits. The agreement is a temporary truce as musicians still do not have industry-standard residuals for new media projects, a key issue for them.
Representative Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) have introduced the Ask Musicians For Music (AMFM) Act. The bipartisan legislation would require radio broadcasters to ask permission from music creators before playing their music over the radio. This would enable musicians to negotiate compensation prior to allowing their music to be broadcast.
AT&T's DirecTV and U-Verse lost 1.2 million television customers in the third quarter as customers continue to cut the cord. Last quarter AT&T revenue dropped over two percent to $44.6 billion and profits dropped a staggering 22 percent.
IDAGIO has launched an ad-supported free tier. The Berlin-based company offers classical music streaming from a library of two million recordings.
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The Cleveland Orchestra has ended the year with a surplus for the first time since 2015. The Orchestra saw a rise in annual fund giving and a large increase in bequests. The endowment fund rose from $191.5 million to over $205 million, and attendance at their summer home, the Blossom Music Center, hit record highs.
The Cleveland Orchestra will be the first American orchestra to appear at the Abu Dhabi Festival. This will also be the Orchestra's first performance in the Middle East.
The National Symphony has created its own in-house record label, in partnership with the London Symphony's LSO Live. The first release will feature music director Gianandrea Noseda conducting the works of Copland and Dvorak and will be available in February.
The Detroit Symphony has announced Detroit Harmony, a plan to provide musical instruments to any Detroit student that wants one. The first stage of funding has been completed with assistance from the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation and the Max and Marjorie S. Fisher Foundation.
