Monday Morning Violin Gossip, Op. 2, No. 7

By Darcy Lewis

The 48th Grammy Awards are now history, and it was nice to see an orchestra from the University of Michigan, earn top honors for its recording of music by William Bolcom conducted by Leonard Slatkin. Mariss Jansons and the Bavarian Radio Symphony took home the award for best orchestral performance, while the complete set of Mendelssohn string quartets by the Emerson String Quartet won best chamber music performance. And the best classical crossover album was 4 + Four, a joint project of the Turtle Island String Quartet and the Ying Quartet.

Audubon String Quartet Update

2/7/06 – The New York Times reported that the anonymous individual who last month helped two members of the Audubon String Quartet keep their instruments after they "lost a lawsuit to a fired former colleague and faced bankruptcy" has stepped forward. "He is Daniel Braden, 53, a freelance French horn player in Bethlehem, Pa., who buys instruments as an investment and lends them to musicians who may not be able to afford them. Mr. Braden said that after learning of the [Quartet's] circumstances, he approached [violinist Doris] Lederer and [cellist Clyde] Shaw, offering to buy their instruments" for $200,000, the amount the fired member, violinist David Ehrlich, agreed upon to drop his claim on the instruments. "In exchange, they would have the guaranteed use of them for 10 years. 'I needed them to feel there are a couple of things in their lives that are guaranteed,' Mr. Braden said, adding that the two musicians have the option to buy back the instruments at a set price for a period of time, which he did not disclose. After 10 years, he said, they will discuss the next step."

2/8/06 - The feuding members of the Audubon String Quartet have finally reached a settlement in their years-long dispute which racked up $1.5 million in legal fees and cost two members of the group their home and (briefly) their instruments, reports the Richmond Times-Dispatch (VA). According to the terms of the settlement, the aggrieved former first violinist will receive $500,000 from the other three members of the group. All parties will cover their own legal fees.

2/9/06 - The Allentown Morning Call (PA) offered a more local perspective on the benefactor. Braden "bought a viola, a cello and three bows for violist Doris Lederer and cellist Clyde Shaw" after a lawsuit brought by their dismissed former member forced them into bankruptcy. "Braden is guaranteeing Shaw and Lederer the use of their instruments -- an 1887 Eugenio Degani cello and a 1915 Ferruccio Varagnolo viola -- for 10 years. They have the option to buy them back during a limited period, a time frame that is confidential. What magnifies his unusual act is that Braden has never met Lederer and Shaw, who are married to one another. He said he just likes to help valuable musicians keep their instruments, their most valuable possessions." Braden comments: "This is not a big, grandiose thing ... I just felt [Lederer and Shaw] had enough uncertainty in their life."

Other Musician News

Robert Vernon, principal violist of the Cleveland Orchestra, will perform the world premiere of a new viola concerto next season. The composer, Richard Sortomme, is composing the work especially for Vernon.

2/19/06 - Violinist Evgeny Sviridov, 16, from St. Petersburg, Russia, will perform in a recital sponsored by Chamber Music San Francisco. He is a winner of the Guzik Foundation Award, given to the most talented youngsters from among hundreds of contestants in 300 music conservatories throughout Russia. Bay-area resident Nahum Guzik, a Russian emigré, industrialist, and philanthropist, sponsors the program, which offers $1,000 awards to each of the 100 finalists and a U.S. tour for the four top winners.

2/10/06 – The Los Angeles Times recently profiled British violinist Anthony Marwood, who just gave the U.S. premiere of Thomas Adés's Violin Concerto, "Concentric Paths" with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. The "fiendishly difficult" work was written in 2005 for Marwood, who tells the paper: "There was one passage at the end of the first movement which is one of the most stupendously hard things, and he said, 'Is this possible?' And I didn't really want to answer the question because so often in history you can point to people being asked that question and saying no, and I thought ... I'm not going to be the idiot who said such-and-such a thing's not possible when 50 years from now, everyone's playing it.'" Last summer, Marwood "played and acted the title role in Stravinsky's 'The Soldier's Tale' -- an infantryman who is also a fiddler": "It was always important for me to be multifaceted and not necessarily say, 'I'm only going to do one thing and I'm not going to let go of it.'"

2/10/06 – Cellist Alban Gebhardt earned a positive review in the Washington Post for his performance of the Schumann Cello Concerto with the National Symphony Orchestra. The paper noted that he "played with sumptuous tone and keen musicianship."

2/8/06 – Jeff Bradetich will join the Cleveland Institute of Music double bass faculty beginning in the 2006-07 academic year. Bradetich's numerous teaching affiliations have included the University of North Texas, where he has directed the double bass program since 1994, and he was a member of the Lyric Opera of Chicago Orchestra for four seasons.

2/8/06 – Michael Butterman will lead the Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra as music director, effective with the 2006-07 season. He will hold that post concurrently with his music directorship of the Shreveport Symphony, which begins July 1 of this year. Butterman is currently associate conductor of the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra and principal conductor for education and outreach at the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra.

2/8/06 – Mariusz Smolij has renewed his contract as music director of the Acadiana Symphony Orchestra, based in Lafayette, La., for another three years. The new contract will run through 2008-09.

Orchestra News

The Dallas Symphony Orchestra, has received a $1 million gift from Karen and Phillip Drayer to benefit the orchestra's strategic initiatives.

The Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra has announced completion of the special $20 million endowment campaign for musicians' salaries. The campaign was introduced in July 2004 as a way to supplement musician salaries after the salary bridge fund ended in December of that year. Earnings from the added endowment will support the financial promises made during last season's contract agreement between SLSO musicians and management. The orchestra's endowment stands at $116 million after reaching a low of $18 million five years ago, reports the ASOL.

2/16/06 - Carnegie Hall will be the venue for a benefit concert that will be a dual celebration of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and the 70th birthday of Zubin Mehta. Founded by Polish violinist Bronislaw Huberman, the Israel Philharmonic was originally composed of first-chair artists from Eastern European and German orchestras who had lost their jobs under the Nazi regime. Mehta was named music director in 1969 and music director for life in 1981, according to the ASOL.

2/9/06 - The New York Philharmonic is entering the new world of digital downloading under a three-year recording deal with Deutsche Grammophon, reports the New York Times. “[The record company,] using live recordings by the orchestra, will release four concerts a year, probably through iTunes and perhaps through other Web sites." The full concerts will cost $8 to $10, and listeners will also have the option of downloading individual pieces. The new deal was made possible when the Philharmonic musicians agreed to a revenue-sharing deal, rather than insisting on being paid a flat fee up front for the project, as has always been traditional.

2/9/06 – The Louisville Courier-Journal offered an update on the Louisville Orchestra’s less-than-amicable contract negotiations: “When the CEO of the Lousiville Orchestra paused in the middle of negotiating a new contract with the orchestra's musicians last month to speculate publicly that the organization might shut down if serious changes did not occur, the musicians were stunned, and then furious. This week, they offered to take a wage freeze and benefit cuts and to submit the whole contract to mediation. But CEO Scott Provancher isn't hopeful that mediation will accomplish anything, and he remains convinced that only a wholesale reduction in the number of full-time musicians in the orchestra can save the company from Chapter 7 bankruptcy.” Specifically, the musicians said they would accept a two-year wage freeze. They also said they would stop trying to get the orchestra to cover the cost of dependent health insurance. In exchange, the musicians want the orchestra to agree to submit all other contract provisions to mediation.

2/7/06 - The Arizona Republic reports: "The West Valley Symphony, $90,000 in debt and floundering without a permanent home, closed Monday after 38 years. 'The (symphony) board just decided we didn't have the cash to make payrolls at this point, and we'd better stop,' said Fred Berkenkamp, board president." Kelly notes that the orchestra relocated from its home at Arizona State University's Sundome to a Catholic Church last fall. The 75-member orchestra played its last concert on Sunday. "The symphony still needs $90,000 to meet its financial obligations and is asking for donations so it doesn't have to declare bankruptcy, Berkenkamp said."

2/8/06 - The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra is pulling back its search for a new administrative leader, reports the Newark Star-Ledger "Eight months after the abrupt departure of its former president and CEO, Simon Woods, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra has put its search for a new leader on hold... The orchestra's search committee, having received credible feedback that it might be overselling the position and understating its problems, has suspended the search until the end of the month. During that time, it will develop a three-year plan meant to show it understands its issues and has a concrete strategy for the future."

2/08/06 - The Philadelphia Inquirer is reporting that the Philadelphia Orchestra has postponed the premiere of a new work by composer Bright Sheng, apparently at the request of music director Christoph Eschenbach, who announced after going over the score that "we all felt we weren't ready to perform it in its current state." Sheng and Eschenbach plan to work together on revisions to the Concerto for Orchestra: Zodiac Tales and the orchestra still plans eventually to give the premiere.

2/8/06 - The Allentown Symphony Association and the Lehigh Valley Chamber Orchestra are considering a merger, according to The Morning Call newspaper. “The groups announced Tuesday they will test that possibility during the 2006-07 season by sharing their business and box office operations and marketing themselves with a combined brochure ... A joint board of directors will oversee the season, according to James Bartholomew, president of the Chamber Orchestra. The Pennsylvania Sinfonia Orchestra, the Lehigh Valley's third major orchestral ensemble, is considering joining the alliance.”

2/07/06 - When Ottawa's National Arts Center Orchestra announced its next season many were interested to learn that wayward music director Pinchas Zukerman will return to lead the orchestra, according to the Ottawa Citizen. Orchestra manager Christopher Deacon said the NAC is working on a suggestion by Zukerman to bring in a facilitator to 'improve communication and better the working atmosphere'."

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