San Francisco Classical Voice

Contra Costa Young (and Brave) Artists' Free Concert

Student musicians are rarely given the challenge (and opportunity) to perform unusual and contemporary works, but here's an exception: the Contra Costa Performing Arts Society presents its Sturm-Page Scholarship winners in a free concert on Tuesday, June 14, in Walnut Creek's Grace Presbyterian Church. The program is unusual and more contemporary than you find than at most "grown-up" concerts. For example: György Ligeti's Sechs Bagatellen für Blaserquintett, Gabriel Pierne's Pastorale, Op. 14. Among the performing artists: Shirley Campbell (flute), Eva Langfeldt (oboe), Linda Wilson (clarinet), Jeff Dickey (horn), and Marjorie Prindle (bassoon). Pianist Rose Leu will perform "Oiseaux Tristes" from Ravel's Miroirs. For information, see www.ccpas.org.

California's Arts Pittance

The California Arts Council is expected to receive $1.15 million from the state for next year. Additional financing from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Arts License Plate program will bring the CAC budget to about $3 million. That's one year's support for all the arts in California, an amount slightly less than funding for music education alone in Iceland, a country of 280,000 souls with different priorities. But there is no need to go to the North Atlantic for comparison (prompted by my visit there last week) - the fact is that the state's hoped-for $1.15 million contribution represents 4 cents each from California's 34- million population or one-thousandth of 1 percent of its $120 billion budget.

Meanwhile, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger continues to propose cutting or elimination of Department of Education arts and music programs, but a Senate subcommitte countered him by restoring $6 million for the programs. "Few things have suffered so badly in California as arts education," said Sen. Jack Scott, chair of the Senate Subcommittee on Education. "Current research suggests that arts education increases interest in academic learning as well as developing basic skills for academic achievement."

On the national scene, the House of Representatives has agreed to a $10 million increase in the NEA budget proposal, for a total of $131 million, yet to clear the Senate.

Alsop a 'Classical Brit'

Cabrillo Festival music director Marin Alsop was named female artist of the year in the UK's "Classical Brits" award program. Bryn Terfel won the prize for male artist of the year. John Adams won the contemporary music award for his On the Transmigration of Soul & Road Movies. John Williams took the soundtrack composer award for his work on three recent films.

Beethoven Free to Hear, Download, Burn

With Michael Grade taking office as the new BBC chairman, the broadcasting company is BBC-3 is making Beethoven's music "a gift to the world, just as he might have wished." Keep an eye (or an ear) open to www.bbc.co.uk/radio3, for a week of broadcasting the complete works of Beethoven, and note the "BBC Beethoven Experience" on BBC-2, BBC-4 and Radio 3, June 5-10.

Beethoven's nine symphonies, performed by the BBC Philharmonic with chief conductor Gianandrea Noseda over two weekends at the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, will be available for free download from June 6 on, BBC encouraging listeners to have and hold these live performances. The symphonies will also be available as sets of MP3 files for keeps, with only five minutes on broadband for symphonies One to Eight, ten minutes for the Ninth.

The BBC release says: "No one knows if ten people or ten million will download the Beethoven symphonies and whether, if kept, they will form the cornerstone for a new habit of hoarding classical music, a surrogate for record buying. When the week is over, says Roger Wright, controller of Radio 3: "We'll share what we've learned with the unions, with other orchestras and with the music industry."

Less Generous with Recorded Music

Unlike the BBC (story above), Sony BMG is not interested in free distribution, so it's testing technology that bar consumers from making additional copies of burned CD-R discs. Since March, the company has released at least 10 commercial titles — more than 1 million discs in total — featuring technology from UK anti-piracy specialist First4Internet that allows consumers to make limited copies of protected discs, but blocks users from making copies of the copies.

The concept is known as "sterile burning," and in the eyes of Sony BMG executives, the initiative is central to the industry's efforts to curb casual CD burning. Names of specific titles carrying the technology were not disclosed. Other Sony BMG partners are expected to begin commercial trials of sterile burning within the next month. To date, most copy protection and other digital rights management-based solutions that allow for burning have not included secure burning.