|
IN Music News THIS WEEK:
Discordant But Familiar Sounds of Deficits
Met Broadcast Season Begins
Getting to Know, Really Know, the Philadelphia
Stephen Mosko
Bartók Student and Expert Sándor Dead at 93
|
By Janos Gereben
Grammy Honors, Nomination for Kronos
The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences announced
nominations last weekend for the 48th annual Grammy Awards, the
event to take place on February 8. Honors during the week of February 3
("Grammy Week") includes the (Academy) President's Merit Award, going
to San Francisco's Kronos Quartet, a multiple Grammy winner.
Kronos is also nominated for a World Music award for its You've
Stolen My Heart Nonesuch album, featuring songs from Bollywood's
R.D. Burman.
 Among all the Grammy pop, rock, and all that jazz, classical music once again claims a sizable corner among the nominations, including these categories: Best Classical Album
Best Choral Performance
Best Orchestral Performance
Best Opera Recording
For a complete list, see www.grammy.com.
Discordant But Familiar Sounds of Deficits Classical music and negative cash flow usually go hand in hand, especially in this country, where government priorities are quite different from those in Europe. In fact, the mighty Metropolitan Opera ended its first (1883-1884) season with a deficit of $600,000 — "real money" back then. Fast-forward to last week, and observe as both the San Francisco Opera and San Francisco Symphony are reporting unsurprising news of the Fiscal 2005 operating budget. The Opera announcement tells of "a small deficit of $206,819, which represents less than 0.4% of the annual operating budget of $57,800,000." Less, in this case, is truly more, especially against the multi-million-dollar negative figures of recent years, and the condition of opera companies elsewhere, such as Washington Opera's 16% deficit of $5 million against a budget of $33 million. (Of course, there are companies resolutely staying in the black, including new S.F. Opera General Manager David Gockley's former organization, in Houston, even in the wake of the Enron scandal — that company being a major contributor to the Houston Grand Opera before.) S.F. Symphony's deficit was more substantial, especially against the organization's recent record of staying out of the red even during the post-Dotcom deflation and post-9/11 period. Even two years ago, SFS had the distinction of being the only major American orchestra without a deficit. The current figure, a shortfall of $2.25 million during Fiscal 2005, is significant against an operating budget of $56.1. The reason: "Significant growth in both earned and contributed revenue did not fully offset a reduction in income from endowment as well as increases in expenses." To the untrained ear that sounds like: "the outgo exceeded the income." Being more specific, Brent Assink, the Symphony's executive director, said in a newspaper interview that the organization's endowment revenue declined as a result of the stock market drop all the way back in 2001. Interest income calculation is based on the average value of the endowment over three years, so the impact on the budget was felt gradually. SFS expects the deficit to persist, but probably lessen.
Met Broadcast Season Begins As the 75th season of live Metropolitan Opera broadcasts begins on Dec. 17, Classical Voice "celebrates" its sixth annual jeremiad about almost all of the Bay Area being deprived of them (besides the lack of S.F. Opera broadcasts). KDFC-FM dropped the Met back then, and no major FM station took up the slack. Among the minors, however, the University of San Francisco's KUSF-FM, 90.3, came to the rescue, and this weekend, the station will begin its third year of Met broadcasts. There is only a small corner of San Francisco where the Met can be heard live, putting the city at a disadvantage against metropolitan Wailuku (HI), Lovelock (NV), or even Yreka (CA), which has two FM stations carrying the broadcasts. So, either move close to USF or master the art of listening on the Web, and then from the Dec. 17 opening Rigoletto (with former Merolini, current operatic glamour couple Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazón) to the May 6 Rodelinda, free live opera can be yours every Saturday morning at 10:30 a.m. PST. For information, see www.operainfo.org.
Getting to Know, Really Know, the Philadelphia Music from the Inside Out, a film by Oscar-nominee Daniel Anker, that's coming to Bay Area theaters and later to Public Television, is a 90-minute in-depth, candid, collective biography of Philadelphia Orchestra musicians. Followed by cameras to rehearsals, performances, tours, and their homes, the musicians reveal personalities, motivation, quirks (lots of quirks!), making Musicians come to life in all their lower-case glory. There are many excerpts from solo, chamber, and orchestral performances, as well as salsa and jazz that turn out to be the staple of some Philadelphia musicians' daily lives. Among some of the film's intriguing topics: "Does music have color?" and "How does music work?" See www.philorch.org.
Stephen Mosko Stephen L. Mosko, 58, who was music director of the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players for a decade, died last week. Denver-born and a student of Antonia Brico, Mosko received degrees from Yale and the California Institute of the Arts, where he studied with Mel Powell, Leonard Stein, and Morton Subotnick. Mosko had a busy career as composer, conductor, musicologist, and music administrator, garnering more than a dozen awards and fellowships. San Francisco Symphony both performed his works and employed him as guest conductor. Among Mosko's areas of specialization were Icelandic folk music, the works of John Cage, and the promotion of contemporary classical music, including positions of music director at the 1984 Olympic Arts Music Festival and the 1987 Los Angeles Festival.
Bartók Student and Expert Sándor Dead at 93
 Pianist György Sándor, 93, in great form during his visit to the San Francisco Lyric Opera in March (www.sfcv.org), died peacefully in New York Friday afternoon, according to his family in San Francisco. Sándor was among the 10 mourners attending Bartók's funeral. Among Sándor's hundreds of students are Hélène Grimaud, Malcolm Bilson, and Barbara Nissman. He served as director of piano studies at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, 1961-1981, and before then, he taught at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, 1956-1961. He conducted master classes in scores of East Coast locations, at the Paris Conservatoire, the Jerusalem Music Centre, Holland Music Sessions, and Mozarteum Salzburg. (Janos Gereben is a regular contributor to www.sfcv.org; his e-mail address is janosg@gmail.com.) ©2005 Janos Gereben, all rights reserved |
