RSO Musicians

Here are the names of the nine Music Director candidates selected by the RSO:

• Mikhail Agrest
• Daniel Meyer
• Steven Smith
• Marc Taddei
• Arthur Post
• Dorian Wilson
• Alastair Willis
• Christian Knapp
• Arthur Fagen

Read on for the full press release from the RSO.

(Richmond, Va.) The Richmond Symphony is inviting nine conductors, out of a field consisting of almost 250 applications, to compete for the opportunity to become the organization’s next music director. Beginning in Fall 2008 and lasting through Fall 2009, the nine candidates (bios below) will visit Richmond and work with the orchestra in many settings including public performances across all of its four concert series. In addition to seeing the candidates lead the orchestra in concert, the public will have the opportunity to meet the conductors at special events, pre-concert talks and weigh-in online and through surveys when the 2008-09 Season begins in September of this year.
A search committee representing key stakeholders from the RSO Board of Directors, musicians of the orchestra, and staff are guiding the process “The next 18 months provide us a great opportunity to include the community-at-large in the process as we select a new artistic leader,” said RSO Search Committee Chair Tracy Schwarzschild. “We value our constituents and the search committee wants to hear from the public on the qualities our next leader should possess to help advance the Richmond Symphony as we move back into the Carpenter Theatre at Richmond CenterStage.”

(more…)

beginners as well as advanced students welcome

Suzuki method and traditional

Tim Judd (BM, MM in Violin Performance, Eastman School of Music) is Suzuki certified and studied with Anastasia Jempelis, one of the pioneers of the Suzuki method in the United States.

Phone # (804) 353-0428

http://www.timothyjuddviolin.com

This week Mayor Wilder accepted the final report from the Committee for the Performing Arts.
Details include:

• City Ownership of the complex
• Opening Fall of 2009
• Shift $2M from Centerstage to Landmark

Here’s a Times-Dispatch article.

According to this Times-Dispatch article, the VAPAF has reached their fundraising goal for refurbishing the Carpenter Center. The new combined facility will be called “Richmond CenterStage” and the Carpenter Center will be named the “Carpenter Theater”.

The last financial report published on the VAPAF.com website is from Feb. 2006. The final report from the “committee for the arts” is due to be submitted to Mayor L. Douglas Wilder by Dec. 31.

The Richmond Symphony has announced the selection of Erin Freeman as their new Associate Conductor. Erin recently completed a Doctor of Musical Arts in Orchestral Conducting from Peabody Conservatory. She is currently the Director of Orchestras at the Baltimore School for the Arts and has been the Music Director for the Richmond Philharmonic since 2004.

The Richmond Symphony has issued a full press release.

Our neighbors in Norfolk have put together a very effective PR campaign. It has a memorable catch phrase:”Hampton Roads’ Major League Team!”. It has a very simple, two fold, message… literally; the quality of their worth to the community, and their immediate, very tangible goals. It utilizes both the old media, pamphlets, and the new media, a dedicated website.

So what, that’s what professional Orchestras do, right? Only it wasn’t the management of the VSO that masterminded this campaign; it was the musicians themselves. As preparation for an upcoming collective bargaining endeavor, the musicians conceived, developed, and executed a very successful PR campaign designed to serve their immediate needs, complement the overall VSO PR strategy and establish a permanent, public voice for the musicians.

Here’s the musician’s website.

See this Polyphonic.org article for an inside look at this initiative.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch has a short comparison of Richmond and Nashville’s Concert Hall projects.

TimesDispatch.com | Nashville’s plan for symphony hit right notes

Mayor Wilder’s committee for the Performing Arts has released another interim report. It includes a proposal to form a private corporation, the Grace Street Center Corp., whose directors are chosen by the City and the VAPAF. According to the report, up to $12M in tax credits might then be available to the corporation which would not be available to the non-profit VAPAF.

The Times-Dispatch has an article.

A public meeting to release the recommendations of the Wilder Committee for the Performing Arts will be held on Thursday, May 4, at 10:00 a.m., in the large conference room on the second floor of City Hall.

UPDATE 5/4/06:

The committee has published it’s interim report. The bottom line is: $45M to refurbish the Carpenter Center, and if they can get an extra $20M, it would be used for a playhouse on the SE corner next to the Carpenter Center. According to the report, the $45M includes an orchestral shell, but not storage space.

The Times-Dispatch has a short article.

There’s an interesting discussion over on ployphonic.org about collective bargaining, including traditional and “interest based” approaches.

Several panel members are from the American Federation of Musicians’ symphonic services division; others are from some of our peer orchestras.