Echoes Resound from a Dark Past
For more than 15 years, Francesco Lotoro has been unearthing music written in prison camps between 1933 and 1945. Lotoro and his Italian researchers have found numerous previously unknown works, not only in concentration and prison of war campsites in Europe but also at what remains of Japanese camps in Asia, the Associated Press reports. The assembled findings, which include a five-act opera by Czech composer Rudolf Karel, will be available to scholars at a library set to open in September at the Third University of Rome. The collection is expected to contain more than 4,000 papers and 13,000 microfiches of music, letters, drawings, and photographs, said the report.
Available works will include music by Jews from Nazi-occupied countries, Gypsies imprisoned by the Third Reich, Dutch women held by the Japanese in Indonesia, and an American, Edmund Lilly, who was a Japanese prisoner of war captured in the Philippines.
www.cantonrep.com/topFive.php?vote=5&Headline=Out+of+the+ashes+of+war+and+Holocaust%2C+forgotten+music+finds+new+life&ID=342770&Category=24
Foundation Donates $10 Million to the Met
The Metropolitan Opera Association has received a gift of $10 million from the Annenberg Foundation, according to Bloomberg.com. The Met plans to use the money to pay bills over the next few years, including $7.4 million for new productions, $1.6 million for a special fund for leading singers’ fees, and the remaining million to pay the outstanding costs of the company’s recent 40th anniversary celebration, said the report.
In 2005, the Met raised $93.4 million from donors, more than any other not-for-profit arts center, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy.
Shakeup Surprises Florida Opera Lovers
On April 2, Robert Swedberg, who has been general director of Orlando Opera for the past 17 years, unexpectedly announced his resignation, reports the Orlando Sentinel. Jim Ireland, the opera’s president and CEO since July, said that the position of general director is being phased out, but that the company still expects Swedberg to direct the company’s production of Don Giovanni next fall. Ireland said that most regional opera companies are run by one individual, inferring that Swedberg’s position represents a duplication of effort.
Swedberg said he looks forward to directing in many cities, but expects to continue to make Orlando his home, said the report.
www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orange/orlswedberg0407apr04,0,1569655.story?coll=orl-news-headlines-orange
Free Tickets Do Not Entice New Subscribers
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation surveyed 15 symphony orchestra markets to ascertain what steps orchestra management should take to insure future audiences. Ten to 15 percent of people in general are classical music fans, said the survey, but only 5 to 7 percent actually attend live concerts.
The survey found that subscriptions have a significant appeal to senior citizens, but that younger patrons often prefer to buy single tickets for events in the suburbs. It also noted that a large segment of the population welcomes free tickets, but that the people who made use of them seldom bought tickets for other concerts. Instead, they tended to wait for the next free pass. The survey found much more of a correlation between ticket buying and people who participate or formerly participated in choral or instrumental music, even if their participation took place in the distant past.
www.knightfdn.org/music/issuesbrief02.asp
Mimi Lerner Succumbs After Long Battle with Cancer
On Saturday, March 31, mezzo-soprano Mimi Lerner passed away at her home near Pittsburgh, Penn. She was only 61 years old, but had been battling cancer since 1995. She sang not only with leading U.S. arts institutions, including the Metropolitan and New York City operas, but also with La Scala, Glyndebourne, and the Paris Opera. For many years she was chair of the voice faculty at Carnegie Mellon University, the school from which she had received her own master’s degree. She is sorely missed by many of her colleagues who have written of her on various classical music forums.
www.playbillarts.com/news/article/6253.html
www.post-gazette.comp907089/773797-122.stm
www.post-gazette.com/pg/07089/773797-122.stm
Miami’s Carnival Center Needs Increased Funding
Higher than expected costs for utilities, security, maintenance, and insurance have left Miami’s new arts center with a $3 million budget deficit. The Miami Herald reports that in April, Carnival Center administrators had to use some money from advance ticket sales to cover expenses. Loans and monies from the county were expected to replace the box office revenue soon, however. County Manager George Burgess said that he expects the facility to be paying its own bills after its initial problems have been solved, said the report.
www.miamiherald.com/519/story/61247.html
Utah Symphony and Opera Tries to Make Its Hall Fit Its Audience
When Utah Symphony and Opera management found that a large percentage of the seats in Abravanel Hall often go unsold, they attempted to place the entire audience on the lower levels, reports the Salt Lake Tribune. That ploy, which has worked well in other venues, was unsuccessful in Salt Lake City, where longtime subscribers wanted to keep their upper-level seats. As of April, seats on the upper levels have increased in cost, however. That may eventually influence lovers of “Il Paradiso” to move downstairs, said the reports.
www.sltrib.com/arts/ci_5566041
www.sltrib.com/ci_5566041
Summer Course Features Spanish Song
This summer Mannes College The New School for Music will offer Project Canción Española, a seven-day institute directed by Nan Maro Babakhanian. Set for June 26 to July 2 at the renowned New York City school, the institute will cover the various aspects of flamenco and Spanish art song. Mannes College is one of the eight schools that make up the New School. Read more information at the institution’s website, http://216.71.55.88/asis/ or by e-mailing asis@thenewschool.edu.
[Editor’s Note: See “Viva la Cancion” on page 8.]
