Interchanging Idioms

The danger in getting news from Fox News is the perception that what you hear is the truth. In April 2015, the CEO of Fox News admits they are not in the news business, but in the entertainment business.  Fox News is registered with the FCC, not as news, but as entertainment.  There are a number of reasons for this, one being entertainment programming outperforms news programming. So, in terms of advertising dollars, Fox News does better as entertainment. But, another aspect of being entertainment rather than being news is the requirements set by the FCC. The FCC requires news outlets to be able to substantiate 45% of their news content. This means they have to employ staff to find the sources to corroborate what they report as fact on their broadcast. By not registering as news, Fox can do away with the staffing needs to substantiate what they say. This doesn't mean what they say isn't true, they just haven't done the due diligence to back it up. According to the 2006...

MINNEAPOLIS, MN (January 14, 2014)—The Minnesota Orchestra Board of Directors and musicians, who are members of the Twin Cities Musicians’ Union (Local 30-73), today ratified a new collective bargaining agreement, effective February 1, that brings the organization’s lockout to a conclusion. The Orchestra’s first concert performances back on stage at Orchestra Hall are anticipated in early February and will be announced shortly. “This ratified agreement reflects that both the musicians and the board made concessions on issues of importance to them, which was necessary in order to bring the organization together again,” said Board Negotiating Chair Richard Davis. “Our success now depends on our ability to move forward with positive spirit as one organization, and we are very pleased to begin this work with the musicians and to engage our audiences with music again.” Clarinetist and musician negotiator Tim Zavadil said, “Musicians are pleased that we have come to a solution with our...

International hip hop star and renowned peace activist Emmanuel Jal was badly beaten by police in the South Sudanese capital of Juba last night on 8 September 2012. At approximately 9:30pm, Emmanuel was en route to the Gatwich guesthouse in the outskirts of Juba when he was stopped by police and robbed of his mobile phone. Determined not to use or respond in violence, he was repeatedly beaten by 5 police and national security officers until he eventually lost consciousness. A group of approximately 15 police and national security officers watched on as Emmanuel was beaten. It appears that Emmanuel was randomly attacked in an unfortunate and unprovoked example of police brutality. The incident has been reported and an investigation is underway. Emmanuel is in Juba to highlight International Peace Day with the anticipated "We Want Peace" Business Gala and concert on 20 & 21 September 2012. The scheduled events are due to take place at Juba's Independence ha...

There were two press conferences at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum on Tuesday. At 1 p.m., and by invitation only, New York City Opera officially announced its slimmed down, multi-venue 2011-2012 season. At noon, and open to anyone who would listen, members of the NYCO orchestra and chorus gathered to protest the dismantling of the New York City Opera as it has been known for 45 years -- a full-season opera company with a permanent chorus and orchestra. The "legit" event was hosted in the museum's theater by City Opera General Manager and Artistic Director George Steel; the union rally took place just outside on the sidewalk, and was hosted by local leaders of the American Federation of Musicians (AFM) and the American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA). Both sides called themselves the New York City Opera. Both sides claimed to be "the people's opera," referencing Fiorello LaGuardia's famous moniker for the company. "Those people can't say the...

If the Bankruptcy of Philadelphia Orchestra wasn't bad enough, or the players strike in Detroit, now there's the ultimatum by management and rejection by the players in Louisville to shake up the classical music world. Management offered a "per-service" model, basically stripping the musicians of collective bargaining. (which seems to be the trend, note Wisconsin) However more than 40 musicians and music patrons delivered letters and emails on Wednesday to the orchestra management. Gathered outside the orchestra offices, they answered questions about the progress. The Louisville Orchestra filed for Chapter 11 back in December and have been without a contract since the end of may. The letter, from CEO Robert Birman, was sent to players individually and as such could be grounds for a complaint to the National Labor Relations Board. The players, however, just want to get back to the bargaining table. These kinds of labor struggles are unfortunately not new. ...

Travel & Leisure ranks cities in a variety of ways, but the Classical Music scene put these four cities at the top For more information on what cities rank where, visit: http://www.travelandleisure.com/americas-favorite-cities .

This is part two of the #GettingHeard series The first was posted here: Getting Heard: What it means in a Modern Digital World Classical Music Critics used to (and to some extend still do) speak through newspapers. Alex Ross ( NY Times ), Anne Midgette ( The Washington Post ), Kyle MacMillan ( Denver Post ) and Mark Swed( Los Angeles Times ) are just a few of the really big names across the US that publish classical music news and reviews in their regional newspapers. Newspapers used to be the only way to get heard. 50 years ago it was the primary way people got their daily updates. If you wanted to publicize your classical music event, you posted an article or a full color spread in the local paper (Orchestra's still do this, but it's not the only way they are getting the word out now). TV attempted to challenge the power of the printed press, but it never really captured the readership that newspapers held --in terms of news, particularly classical music news. Newspap...

J. Ricky Arriola , Member, President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities Mr. Arriola is the President and CEO of Inktel Direct, where he oversees business development, operations and overall strategy of the business process outsourcing company. He is actively involved in the arts and humanities community in Florida, serving as the Chair of the Board of the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County. Madeleine Harris Berman , Member, President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities Ms. Berman serves on the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee of Americans for the Arts and the Boards of Directors of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Michigan Opera Theater and the Detroit Zoological Institute. She previously served on the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities in 1994. Richard J. Cohen , Member, President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities Mr. Cohen is a Minnesota State Senator chairing the Finance Committee. He...

Jordi Savall’s Acclaimed Recording of Opera, Farnace Rinaldo Alessandrini Conducting Two “Glorias” Oboe Concerti from Alfred Bernardini and Zefiro In 2000, when the Paris-based record company näive announced its launch of a 15-year project to record the more than 450 works of Antonio Vivaldi held in the National Library in Torino, Italy, many people were sceptical. Nearly 100 CDs by one composer? Now nearly at the halfway point, the Vivaldi Edition is recognized as a groundbreaking project with far-reaching repercussions, from raising the performance level of this composer’s virtuosic music to changing our understanding of the history of Western music. Antonio Vivaldi is practically a household name today thanks to his ubiquitous piece, The Four Seasons , which is as much a hit today as it was when it was first published in 1725. We are now learning that there are numerous works of equal quality penned by the Venetian priest, including operas on a par with those of Georg Friedr...

WRR Classical 101.1 FM Dallas / Fort Worth is losing their weekend host Matt Erikson. He has been offered the opportunity to pursue an exciting journalism opportunity in Los Angeles. In May, Matt was selected to receive a prestigious Annenberg graduate fellowship at the University of Southern California. These awards are highly competitive, and as an Annenberg fellow, Matt will be researching the latest communication and digital media technologies to create a project of value to the field of arts journalism. "I leave WRR with great sadness, as well as tremendous gratitude and respect for the station and how it contributes to the cultural life of the Dallas-Fort Worth area," says Matt. "I don't think that an arts journalist could have a better professional experience than reporting the Cliburn Competition with the kind of wall-to-wall, quality coverage that this station is used to providing its listeners." Kurt Rongey, Operations Manager for WRR, says "...

The premiere is scheduled for June 2013 in Madrid's Teatro Real. There is an interview between Juan Antonio Muñoz H. of El Mercurio and composer Charles Wuorinen about a new project he is working on, "Brokeback Mountain" - the opera. Annie Proulx, who wrote the original story, wrote the libretto, so the opera will not necessarily compare to the film. Some of the changes are women playing a slightly larger role, there will be no physical expression of sex on stage, but rather the emotions will be sung, and, as there are no close-ups, there are more internal dialogs. The above link is only a translation of the original article/interview, but it illuminates some interesting aspects about writing an opera, working with the subject matter of homosexuality and how Charles Wourinen is approaching this work.

Classical music organizations have tried a lot of way to get younger people into their performances, but the Utica Symphony is attempting something that doesn't seem to make much sense. On April 11th, they will "Come Together" with a Jeans n' Classics at the Stanley Center for the Arts in Utica NY to play the music of The Beatles in celebration of the orchestra’s 75th anniversary. “Everybody loves The Beatles,” Ensign said. “It will be interesting to see the diversity of the audience.” Ensign said the orchestra expects the turnout to be double or triple its usual crowd. Hmmmm - Get a younger audience by playing the Beatles. I'm fourty-six and I'm young to really remember the Beatles. Yes, I know lots of people younger than me who enjoys the Beatles music, but none of them are people I consider "younger", all of them ranging from thirty and older. Having said that, yes, the Beatles do have an appeal. The film "Beyond the Universe...

Undeniably the reigning virtuoso of the violin, Itzhak Perlman enjoys superstar status rarely afforded a classical musician. Perlman's recordings regularly appear on the best-seller charts and have won 15 Grammy Awards. He has also been honored with four Emmy Awards. One of Perlman's proudest achievements was his collaboration with film score composer John Williams in Steven Spielberg's Academy Award winning film Schindler's List in which he performed the violin solos. "(His) technical skill translates to the remarkable ease and charisma on display in Sunday’s recital that sets Perlman apart as a world-class musician and a joy to behold in concert. "Playing to an enthusiastic audience, Perlman could have performed anything to generous approval. But he used his superstar status to take the listener on a journey through varying styles of classical music, celebrating baroque and romantic genres with pieces by George Frideric Handel and César Franck, respective...

“Photographers are in a sense composers, and the negatives are their scores.” —Ansel Adams (1902–1984) Stockton Symphony premiered a new work last week by Dave Brubeck and his son Chris, Ansel Adams: America! The Brubecks' one-movement work will correspond to 92 photographs projected onto a rear screen. Most of the photos to be shown were taken by Adams. A few are by Adams' contemporaries, and nearly a dozen are photos taken of Adams when he was a child. Ansel Adams: America! was co-commissioned by the Philharmonic and six other orchestras - the Stockton Symphony, the Monterey Symphony, the Fresno Philharmonic, the Temple University Symphony Orchestra, the Abilene, Texas, Philharmonic and Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Sacramento Philharmonic board member Jennifer Bayse Sander came up with the idea for a musical work honoring Adams in 2006, soon after she made the orchestra's commission of an Andre Previn work honoring Wayne Thiebaud. Although the elder Dave Brubeck, ...

Program Includes Music by Handel, Alongside Sacred Arias and Cantatas by Bach as Featured on Daniels’s Recent Recording for Virgin Classics “ The most electrifying singer of the present day … . A voice of matchless beauty at the service of the finest musical sensibility. ” – BBC Music magazine Following his recorded excursions into repertoire rarely sung by countertenors (Berlioz’s Les nuits d’été , also available on Virgin Classics), superstar countertenor David Daniels has been heard most recently on a stunning all-Bach recital with the English Concert and conductor Harry Bicket that features the composer’s incomparably sublime sacred arias and cantatas. The album was released in the fall at the time Daniels and the English Concert began a highly successful European tour. Now, Daniels and his disc-mates come to North America for a five-city tour that will feature works by the composer with whom Daniels is most closely associated – George Frideric Handel – alongside the m...

The World’s First Online Collaborative Orchestra Will Perform at Carnegie Hall on April 15, 2009 35 Americans are among the 96 members selected to participate in the YouTube Symphony Orchestra, the world’s first orchestra formed entirely through online auditions. Ranging in age from 17 to 37, the Americans include students, professionals, and talented amateur musicians from 15 different states, from Nevada to New York and Maryland to Mississippi. They were selected by the global YouTube community and Artistic Advisor Michael Tilson Thomas from a list of 200 finalists. Violist Alissa A. Seavey of Wayne , Pennsylvania won the audition with a video entry she made using her home computer camera and a good-quality microphone. The 28 year-old violist got her master’s degree at Yale, and is now being coached by Philadelphia Orchestra violist Rachel Ku while she auditions for orchestra jobs. Kurt Hinterbichler heard about the YouTube Symphony Orchestra from his father, who is a prof...

Executive and Artistic Leadership, Administration, and Orchestra Musicians Take Steps To Counter Tough Economy Measures To Include Administration Pay Cuts, Furloughs, and A Hiring Freeze Say it isn't so... I applied for their webmaster position... The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s executive and artistic leadership, administration, and Orchestra musicians have taken steps to counter the tough economy. The ASO has announced pay cuts, furloughs, and a hiring freeze in the 2009 fiscal year, beginning with President and CEO Allison Vulgamore, who will take a minimum of 7% compensation reduction. Vice Presidents will take a 6% pay cut, and all other employees will take a 5% pay cut. These cuts will be effective beginning with the April 3, 2009 pay period, and will extend through May 31, 2009 — the end of the 2009 fiscal year. These reductions, combined with previous cost-cutting measures, will result in $1.3 million in savings for the 2009 fiscal year, and will enable the ASO to...

The British Library is making their classical music recordings available via the web, more than 1,000 titles, many of which are interpretations of well-known movements not generally available. This is all possible through the Archival Sound Recordings project. While the initial sentiment of such a project should be met with cheers, the recordings, for copyright reasons, will only be available through licensed UK higher and further education institutions or in the British Library reading rooms. Although, it is possible to explore the full audio holdings in the Sound Archive catalogue, include concertos and sinfoniettas from masters such as Bach, Beethoven, Mozart and Brahms and Haydn.

The Duluth Symphony Orchestra is not the size of the Minnesota Orchestra or financially as big as the St Paul Chamber Orchestra. Still, it was a contributor to the classical music scene in the Minnesota area which for 77 years has relied heavily on volunteers. As many surrounding business tighten their belts with the coming recession, the symphony is expecting an endowment value of 40% less than last year. This does not include the lower corporate donations. Their annual deficit could stand at $69k, but if ticket sales also decline this number will change. Last years deficit was only $53, so something is going to have to change. "Ticket sales generate about half the orchestra’s revenue, with the other half coming from endowment returns, grants, gifts and state funding. But investments have tanked, and season ticket subscriptions have declined 10 percent. Despite unbudgeted income from extra concerts, charity giving and other sources, expenses are exceeding income," sa...

New Chamber Opera Company Opens with The Return of Ulysses and good reviews Pacific Operaworks is a new chamber opera company based in Seattle which debuted its first performance, Monteverdi's The Return of Ulysses , on Wednesday. The nature of this production sets the tone for the company: innovative interpretations of operas from the baroque to the modern, involving major figures from the worlds of visual art, dance, drama and music. In the first few seasons Pacific Operaworks will be bringing artists such as Mark Morris , Heiner Goebbels , and Stephen Wadsworth to Seattle, as well as the initial residency of William Kentridge and the Handspring Puppet Company of South Africa. With a wide range of partnerships in the Seattle Arts Community (from Seattle Baroque Orchestra , Seattle Opera , Seattle Chamber Players and Pacific Northwest Ballet to such institutions as St. James Cathedral, the Henry Art Gallery and the University of Washington) Pacific Operaworks will fea...