The 3/19/2009 edition of the Columbus Dispatch, reports that piano soloist Emmanuel Ax is waiving his fee for this weekend’s performances with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra (CSO). Regular readers (and everyone else in the business not living under a rock for the past season) know all about the CSO’s troubles so Ax’s generosity, which was reportedly his offer, demonstrates the right attitude at the right time. I wish the same were true of all soloists across the board…
Current Events
Amendment No. 175 Voting Results
Thanks to Adaptistration reader Geo, we now have the official Senate roll call votes for the “Limitation on Funds Amendment No. 175,” otherwise known as “Coburn Amendment No. 309.” You can find text results at the senate.gov website but since a picture really is worth a thousand words, I took a moment to arrange the results as a color-coded map (tip: anything red isn’t good for the arts)…
Burn, Baby, Burn.
After watching Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) – a politician so evil even his own lawyer wants nothing to do with him – lead the charge to eviscerate the .0000588 percent of the economic stimulus package directed toward the arts, I can’t help but think of a passage from John Schaefer’s 1/15/2009 blog post:
At times like this, I think of the famous anecdote of Winston Churchill, at the height of the Blitz…being confronted by politicians who wanted him to throw all the resources normally devoted to the theater and the arts to the war effort instead. “Good God,” he replied; “then what are we fighting for?”
Will Michael Dorf Lead The NEA?
According to the 1/16/2009 edition of the Los Angeles Times in an article by Allan M. Jalon, it appears that Michael Dorf, founding partner of Chicago law firm Adducci Dorf Lehner Mitchell & Blankenship has emerged as a frontrunner to lead the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA). According to his professional profile, Mr. Dorf is a specialist in arts law and is a nationally recognized authority on political strategy and cultural planning at the national and local levels. By all accounts, Mr. Dorf would be a welcome figure inside the Federal arts policymaking machine…
Spreading Some Christmas Cheer
With Christmas right around the corner, I thought it would be nice to focus on some good news. First up, in case you haven’t already heard the Virginia Symphony received an early Christmas present in the form of a $500,000 loan from the Norfolk Economic Development Authority. According to the 12/18/2008 edition of The Virginian-Pilot, symphony board chair, Blair Wimbush, the funds, in combination with budget cuts, will enable the organization to reach the end of the current season…