What follows is a sorry little story about a successful classical artist who dumps his agent.

Not altogether uncommon, except that it takes place in the holier-than-how world of organ playing and the agent who gets dumped is the torch bearer for one of America’s most famous organ legends, Virgil Fox.

The artist who does the dumping is almost equally famous in organ circles. His name is Cameron Carpenter and he’s a star-spangled hero who is as likely to be found on a pop stage as in a cathedral. Take a look at his website – http://www.cameroncarpenter.com/index.html -and at the pic below.

You can see why Carpenter might like to move on from the Virgil Fox Legacy. However, it’s not what you do that colours your posterity; it’s how you do it. The account of Carpenter’s  getaway is given here in an email to fans and followers by his former agent. Read it, and weep.

Photo by Marine PenvernCarpenter

Dear Friends:

I think that it might be a bit pretentious for me to paraphrase HRM
Queen Elizabeth when she described her previous year as an “annus
horribilis,” but the summer has been pretty much of a “carpe aestatem
horribilis” for me, Marshall Yaeger, and the Virgil Fox Legacy.

It began, on the Friday before Memorial Day, with a fall I had on
Central Park West after leaving my doctor’s office. I went right back
to the doctor, and discovered that I had fractured my left shoulder.
Fortunately, it did not require surgery, but it did require
painkillers, which I don’t take well to. I still kept all of my
appointments and responsibilities for Cameron Carpenter during the next
months, but by the end of July something was seriously wrong with our
working relationship.

Eventually, he advised us that we would no longer be his manager
(actually, I was actively trying to find him a new, strong classical
management; it’s time), and he also advised us that he would not play
the Boston 30th Anniversary Virgil Fox Legacy memorial concert on
Saturday, October 9. We considered other fine artists, but none have
the predictable following that he does – especially from advance
publicity, which is hard to get (and he usually gets it). Also, he did
not communicate with us for several weeks, during which time he pulled
his publicist out of the project – even though she had been sent a
check.

We decided (demoralized as we were, I must add) that we should not
pursue the concert for fear we actually might lose money – which we
certainly could not do since Cameron had moved to Berlin in August and
stuck us with $53,000 in debts from his “Cameron Live!” recording
project and new website. And he stopped paying Anchor the agreed upon
commission of 10%, despite the fact that I have worked with Susan
Slaymaker, his booking director, on this coming season ending May 2011.

His excuse for October 9 was that we had no written contract, but I had
produced a dozen concerts for him in four years, and there was never a
written contract; only oral, which we definitely had for October 9 in
Boston. We had discussed the program, and he had expressed interest in
participating in the discussion session that would compare him to
Virgil. (Maybe that’s what made him cancel!) He was also going to play
the world premiere of his new composition, Aria Op. 1. (That, also,
might have been a good reason to cancel!)

I am now getting inquiries about the availability of tickets for the
concert, so thought I needed to inform the whole VFL list.

We will eventually have to close Anchor-International Foundation
because of its debts on behalf of Cameron (a $30,000 loan to Anchor
reverts to Cameron if Anchor is no longer in existence). However, that
will not change the presence of the amazing www.VirgilFoxLegacy website
that Len Levasseur designed and Marshall and I – and many of you –
contributed to over the years.

I was proud to have managed both Virgil and Cameron over a period of
nearly 50 years, but one major difference obviously existed between
Virgil and Cameron: Virgil was good for his word, even when major
managements enticed him after our success on his behalf with “Heavy
Organ.” Also, I had no written contract with Virgil for 17 years.

This is not meant to denigrate Cameron’s extraordinary talent, or to in
any way wish ill for him and his career. But since October 9 was to
feature a discussion about Virgil vs. Cameron, it has been
enlightening.

I may make this my last Virgil Fox Legacy posting; there comes an end
to everything, and I now must create a new (non-organ) business, or
find a job. It has been wonderful to be in touch with all of you over
the years, and we have had a wonderful, talented artist on whom to
focus; an inspiration to us all, and to all virtuoso musicians.

One last thing. www.SeeMusicDVD.com is still a website where you can
order Virgil Fox books and records and other recordings. We have some
of the recordings still available, and I think we should mark them down
and make some people happy with them rather than throw them away (which
we would otherwise have to do in order to clear our storage space).

Therefore, slashed prices are indicated on www.SeeMusicDVD.com,
generally 50% off or more, plus postage. If you’re interested, please
order before the end of October, when we will close this website.

Many thanks for your support over the years, and best personal regards.

Richard
jrtorrence@aol.com

P.S. Today is Marshall’s and my 50th anniversary!
 

Richard Bonynge is 80 today. The Australian conductor, husband of diva Dame Joan Sutherland, gives a relaxed interview to my friend, Michael Shmith, here:

http://www.melbarecordings.com.au/newsletter/eNews1010/Bonynge.html

There is some useful information on various turning points in the couple’s careers. Just don’t expect the diva’s helpmate to unbutton. Not in this life.

Richard Bonynge is 80 today. The Australian conductor, husband of diva Dame Joan Sutherland, gives a relaxed interview to my friend, Michael Shmith, here:

http://www.melbarecordings.com.au/newsletter/eNews1010/Bonynge.html

There is some useful information on various turning points in the couple’s careers. Just don’t expect the diva’s helpmate to unbutton. Not in this life.

EMI Classics have a new international head of artists and repertoire. He is Andrew Cornall, a former Decca producer who, when Universal all but abolished the label, took a dead-end job in 2004 with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, an orchestra that appeared to be nearing the end of its days.

Cornall’s impact was transformatory. He spotted and hired a Russian conductor in his 20s, and stood well back as Vasily Petrenko applied charm and art to repair damaged morale and restore playing standards. With Petrenko up front and Cornall in the office as head of artistic policy and ensembles, the RLPO became the figurehead of Liverpool’s year as City of Culture and rejuvenated its audience faster than any other British band.

Those credentials make Cornall on paper a great choice for EMI, and EMI a good career move for the former studio man. Barely was the press release in my inbox, though, than the cavils followed. Cornall, said ex-colleagues, is not ‘international’. His taste are British and his first inclination is artistic rather than commercial – which might prejudice a long stay at a label owned by an increasingly desperate hedge fund, Terra not very Firma.

The word around the business is that EMI will be sold before the year is out, probably in pieces, genre by genre and territory by territory, to its principal competitors in order to avoid a monopolies investigation. Joining EMI in the last days of its pomp and ever-more straitened circumstances might not be the best move, say the doubters.

Myself, I think Cornall will do well at EMI and Petrenko even better. For how long? Let’s see. 

EMI Classics have a new international head of artists and repertoire. He is Andrew Cornall, a former Decca producer who, when Universal all but abolished the label, took a dead-end job in 2004 with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, an orchestra that appeared to be nearing the end of its days.

Cornall’s impact was transformatory. He spotted and hired a Russian conductor in his 20s, and stood well back as Vasily Petrenko applied charm and art to repair damaged morale and restore playing standards. With Petrenko up front and Cornall in the office as head of artistic policy and ensembles, the RLPO became the figurehead of Liverpool’s year as City of Culture and rejuvenated its audience faster than any other British band.

Those credentials make Cornall on paper a great choice for EMI, and EMI a good career move for the former studio man. Barely was the press release in my inbox, though, than the cavils followed. Cornall, said ex-colleagues, is not ‘international’. His taste are British and his first inclination is artistic rather than commercial – which might prejudice a long stay at a label owned by an increasingly desperate hedge fund, Terra not very Firma.

The word around the business is that EMI will be sold before the year is out, probably in pieces, genre by genre and territory by territory, to its principal competitors in order to avoid a monopolies investigation. Joining EMI in the last days of its pomp and ever-more straitened circumstances might not be the best move, say the doubters.

Myself, I think Cornall will do well at EMI and Petrenko even better. For how long? Let’s see. 

 

 

The performing arts in the Neth erlands are reeling from government plans to cut more than one-fifth of arts subsidies, with the brunt falling on the country’s excellent orchestras. Total savings estimated are 220 million Euros.

As many as 280 to 300 musicians’ jobs may go, affecting such international ensembles as the Rotterdam Philharmonic and the Residentie orchestra of The Hague to the point where their survival might be at stake. Tough times ahead for Yannick-Nézét-Séguin and Neeme Järvi.

The effect on the Concertgebouw orchestra is not yet known but the hall’s artistic director Anneke Hogensteijn has recently resigned.

In an unconected move, Dutch Radio has announced cutbacks in live classical concerts, shifting the relays to unsocial hours.

 

Here’s a couple of articles (in Dutch)

http://www.volkskrant.nl/binnenland/article1420217.ece/Omroeporkesten_vrezen_extra_bezuinigingen_nieuw_kabinet
http://www.dvhn.nl/nieuws/kunst/article6391835.ece/Bijl-in-de-cultuur

 

 

The performing arts in the Neth erlands are reeling from government plans to cut more than one-fifth of arts subsidies, with the brunt falling on the country’s excellent orchestras. Total savings estimated are 220 million Euros.

As many as 280 to 300 musicians’ jobs may go, affecting such international ensembles as the Rotterdam Philharmonic and the Residentie orchestra of The Hague to the point where their survival might be at stake. Tough times ahead for Yannick-Nézét-Séguin and Neeme Järvi.

The effect on the Concertgebouw orchestra is not yet known but the hall’s artistic director Anneke Hogensteijn has recently resigned.

In an unconected move, Dutch Radio has announced cutbacks in live classical concerts, shifting the relays to unsocial hours.

 

Here’s a couple of articles (in Dutch)

http://www.volkskrant.nl/binnenland/article1420217.ece/Omroeporkesten_vrezen_extra_bezuinigingen_nieuw_kabinet
http://www.dvhn.nl/nieuws/kunst/article6391835.ece/Bijl-in-de-cultuur

Britain’s second largest city launched its first Mahler cycle last night with a heart-stopping concert of the eighth symphony, shrunk to 600 performers. That was the most the hall could sensibly accommodate but the result was a performance of rare intimacy in which the conductor Andris Nelsons seemed to reach out and almost touch the banks of singers posted at the back of the stage, both sides and the overlooking balconies. It was 100 years to the week since Gustav Mahler gave the world premiere in Munich.

In some ways, the hall was the star. I can’t remember ever hearing such such a wondrous, warm hush between the opening Veni blasts and the first soprano/tenor duet, or so natural a balance between solo voices, orchestra and massed choruses. The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra is in effulgent sonic form and the city itself seems to be in love with the ever-twinkling Latvian conductor, who wears the perpetual look of a boy with a new bike.

All the omens were good and none of them let us down. The soloists – Marina Shaguch, Erin Wall, Carolyn Sampson, Katarina Karneus, Mihoko Fujimara; Sergei Shemshikur, Christopher Maltman and Stephen Gadd – were flawless and, for once, they were able to sing the Symphony of a Thousand without being strangulated or drowned.

Of the three Mahler Eights I have heard this year – the others were led by Mark Elder (Manchester) and Jiri Belohlavek (BBC Proms) – this added most in terms of lucidity and comprehension. Russell Johnson, the hall’s late acoustician, can rest easy in his grave.

It came as a shock to discover that Birmingham had never done a complete cycle of the Mahler symphonies before, but local historians assured me that even in the Simon Rattle years Mahler was introduced with caution, little by little, as much as the market could bear. Why Mahler? argues that Mahler has become established as a concert phenomenon chiefly in the 21st century.

That said, the concert programme revealed plans for a Mahler Eighth in Birmingham in the orchestra’s opening season, 1920-21, which would have brought forward its UK debut by four decades. Why conductor Appleby Matthews’ plan failed is not known; we have to assume he ran out of money.

Many in the sold-out house had come from far and wide to hear the Eighth – one young couple from Leeds, others from Scotland – having been unable to get tickets for previous performances. Demand for Mahler is high, and rising. More than 300 attended the Why Mahler? pre-concert talk and the bookshop sold out of copies. I shall return to Birmingham at least once more during the cycle, which runs to June 2011.

If you have a Mahler experience to share, you can log it into the orchestra’s My Mahler site.

Britain’s second largest city launched its first Mahler cycle last night with a heart-stopping concert of the eighth symphony, shrunk to 600 performers. That was the most the hall could sensibly accommodate but the result was a performance of rare intimacy in which the conductor Andris Nelsons seemed to reach out and almost touch the banks of singers posted at the back of the stage, both sides and the overlooking balconies. It was 100 years to the week since Gustav Mahler gave the world premiere in Munich.

In some ways, the hall was the star. I can’t remember ever hearing such such a wondrous, warm hush between the opening Veni blasts and the first soprano/tenor duet, or so natural a balance between solo voices, orchestra and massed choruses. The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra is in effulgent sonic form and the city itself seems to be in love with the ever-twinkling Latvian conductor, who wears the perpetual look of a boy with a new bike.

All the omens were good and none of them let us down. The soloists – Marina Shaguch, Erin Wall, Carolyn Sampson, Katarina Karneus, Mihoko Fujimara; Sergei Shemshikur, Christopher Maltman and Stephen Gadd – were flawless and, for once, they were able to sing the Symphony of a Thousand without being strangulated or drowned.

Of the three Mahler Eights I have heard this year – the others were led by Mark Elder (Manchester) and Jiri Belohlavek (BBC Proms) – this added most in terms of lucidity and comprehension. Russell Johnson, the hall’s late acoustician, can rest easy in his grave.

It came as a shock to discover that Birmingham had never done a complete cycle of the Mahler symphonies before, but local historians assured me that even in the Simon Rattle years Mahler was introduced with caution, little by little, as much as the market could bear. Why Mahler? argues that Mahler has become established as a concert phenomenon chiefly in the 21st century.

That said, the concert programme revealed plans for a Mahler Eighth in Birmingham in the orchestra’s opening season, 1920-21, which would have brought forward its UK debut by four decades. Why conductor Appleby Matthews’ plan failed is not known; we have to assume he ran out of money.

Many in the sold-out house had come from far and wide to hear the Eighth – one young couple from Leeds, others from Scotland – having been unable to get tickets for previous performances. Demand for Mahler is high, and rising. More than 300 attended the Why Mahler? pre-concert talk and the bookshop sold out of copies. I shall return to Birmingham at least once more during the cycle, which runs to June 2011.

If you have a Mahler experience to share, you can log it into the orchestra’s My Mahler site.

Promotion, what promotion? fumes a well-known artists’ agent in an email this morning.

The artists have to pay for their own PR (and it doesn’t come cheap). They also pay for the photo in  the booklet and for the sleeve notes if they want them to be more than a hacked rehash of Grove Online.

Even more pernicious, Sony in particular has told certain soloists to get an orchestra that is paid for by a radio organisation. That means the label gets the entire production for nothing.

And yet it expects to take the bulk of any profits and a share in the artist’s live fees.

Extortionate, or what? 

I guess someone has to pay for Lang Lang’s $3 million golden hello.

Promotion, what promotion? fumes a well-known artists’ agent in an email this morning.

The artists have to pay for their own PR (and it doesn’t come cheap). They also pay for the photo in  the booklet and for the sleeve notes if they want them to be more than a hacked rehash of Grove Online.

Even more pernicious, Sony in particular has told certain soloists to get an orchestra that is paid for by a radio organisation. That means the label gets the entire production for nothing.

And yet it expects to take the bulk of any profits and a share in the artist’s live fees.

Extortionate, or what? 

I guess someone has to pay for Lang Lang’s $3 million golden hello.

When Sony Classical offers a young artist a record deal these days, it no longer just wants to own what goes on in studio.

Agents have been alarmed to read in the new contracts that, in exchange for the privilege of appearing on its label, Sony expects to receive a share of all the artists’ earnings – in concert, on tour, in media, wherever.

The contract specifies that Sony will own 15 percent of 80 percent of all the artist’s live fees. Some agents are putting up a fight but bright young soloists are so flattered by the approach and so desperate to get their name on a CD sleeve that they will sign anything – and don’t the corporation just know that.

Sony is not alone. Deutsche Grammophon also wants a share of the action. If DG pays 15 percent of an artist’s record earnings, they expect to receive 7.5 percent of his concert fees. I haven’t checked EMI, but if they don’t have a similar set of screws I’m sure they will pop up here quickly to tell us.

The major labels justify this new form of exortion by arguing that their prestige and promotion gives the artist a career boost, and this in return entitles them to a slice of the action. Looked at from an independent perspective, it appears to be a form of creeping slavery by which the corporation owns the musician, body and soul. DG/Universal’s imminent merger with a major artist management agency will certainly accelerate that process.

It is, by any reasonable measure, an unacceptable demand and, if challenged in court, it might well be ruled an unfair restraint of trade. It could not happen in another industry. If a publisher were to say that, by stamping their colophon on my next novel, they want a slice of all my earnings from broadcasting, films, public speaking and Strictly Come Dancing, my US agent would (I imagine) escort him out through her twenty-fifth floor window.

My advice to musicians is: shun Sony and DG until they drop the clause. It is unacceptable, morally, artistically and commercially.