January 24, 2021 - Slippedisc

The Scottish postman Nathan Evans, a multimillion attraction on Tik-tok with his sea shanties, has made his last delivery.

Universal Music has snapped him up.

Full story here.

Julia Noulin-Merat, 39, has been named General Director and CEO of Opera Columbus after an international search.

She has been working lately with Boston Lyric Opera.

From an interview in Milan with Corriere della Serra:

‘In Rome I’m not collecting my salary as music director; for the concerts, I’m taking a significantly reduced fee; and for the three concerts that we streamed at Covent Garden, I worked for free.

‘The news from the UK is increasingly gruesome with the enormous rise in deaths. The country seems divided between those who reason and care for others and those who couldn’t care less. So there’s chaos and fear. And let’s not even talk about my theatre, The Royal Opera House, which has been closed since December – at least in Italy we continue with streaming. The economic damage is indescribable, but Petrenko, Gatti, and Gardiner have all come to work at Santa Cecilia, which are important signs of encouragement.’

Read on here.

The universally acclaimed Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto has undergone surgery for bowel cancer, a little over six years after receiving treatment for cancer of the throat.

Sakamoto, who turned 69 last week, writes on his website: ‘I will continue to work as much as I can during treatment … From now on, I will be living alongside cancer. But, I am hoping to make music for a little while longer.’

We wish him a full recovery.

Professor Timothy Jackson has issued proceedings against the University of Northern Texas for removing him as editor of a music theory journal and calling an investigation into his defence of the theorist Heinrich Schenker, whom a colleague, Philip Ewell, attacked as racist.

Jackson found himself hounded by a mob of international musoclogists who called for his head.

He is claiming defamation by 17 named colleagues and is likely to have his day in court.

It’s the entire deteriorating discipline of musicology that ought to be put in the dock.

Composer Dascha Dauenhauer has just won her second international award in a month.

Following the European Film Award for her Berlin Alexanderplatz soundtrack, she has just scored the elite Max Ophüls Film Festival award for her music in THE CASE YOU.

Dascha, 31, is a Berliner with attitude.

From evidence presented this week to the House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee:

My name is Rachel Bolt and I am a professional viola player, whilst you will not be familiar with my name you will hear my performances everywhere you go.

I have recorded for artists such as Adele (the albums “19” and “21”), Amy Winehouse (“Valerie”, “Rehab”), Robbie Williams, Take That, Sam Smith, Emily Sande, One Direction and Joni Mitchell to name a few.

These recordings were all done under the British Phonographic Industry/Musicians Union agreement. The current fee for this £130 for a three-hour session and I frequently record four or five tracks in a session.

For example, my fee for the Amy Winehouse recordings “love is losing game” “back to black” and “rehab” was £113.40 for all three recordings under this agreement at the time. Likewise, my fee for four tracks from the Adele album “19” was £151.20.

Of course in order to do these recordings I have to provide my own instruments and bows, the current value of which is around £70,000,I also have to pay to maintain and insure these. As you can see this is a huge amount in relation to the fee I am earning from the
recordings themselves. As a session musician I do not receive any income from streaming whatsoever.

My royalty income for radio broadcasts is paid to me via PPL and is vital to me as otherwise the frequency of sessions and the fee for the recordings would not constitute a livelihood. I understand that the reclassification as “communication to the public” rather than “making
available” would generate a fair income for me and urge you to consider this.
Thank you.
Rachel S Bolt

Rachel has performed as principal viola for the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, the Philharmonia, London Sinfonietta, Britten Sinfonia, City of London Sinfonia, London Mozart Players, New London Orchestra, London Chamber Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra.

Other testimonies:

From the cellist Francis Bucknall:

As a cellist in the London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) of 30 years’ standing I feel qualified to make the following observations:-

Over the past 30 years the LPO’s quantity of studio recording work has declined to almost nothing. I attribute this to the availability of the number of high quality recordings of the repertoire now in existence, and, more recently to the ease of access to free and unlimited (by subscription) streaming of recorded music.

In contrast to this reduction in our remunerated work, I see a huge increase in the streaming of music, for which WE THE ARTISTS receive no payments whatsoever. PPL (Phonographic Performance Limited) are doing a great job in recovering what they can from radio broadcasts etc. but so far I believe that the vast profits available to the streaming service providers are beyond their reach. I do not think this acceptable in this day and age!

As a member of one of the world’s most recorded ensembles, it is sad to see so little in return for this use of my orchestra’s recordings, which I believe to go beyond the contractual agreement under which I performed.

If I had created a painting or a sculpture, or anything of worth, I would expect to hold the rights of reproduction in my name, or that of my organisation, and hence (if lucky enough to be in demand) expect a return on profits from its reproduction and sale.

From the violinist Madeleine Mitchell:

o DCMS Commons Select Committee – Evidence re Streaming etc

Thank you for looking into this situation.

As a professional musician I rely for my livelihood on live concerts, recording and a small amount of teaching. I have performed in 50 countries as a soloist over nearly 4 decades. I’ve made 17 albums, quite often broadcast on radio, some of which have been nominated for Grammy and BBC Music Awards, mainly of pieces written for me by well known British composers and 1st recordings of music by British composers such as Grace Williams (1906-77). My album last year for Naxos of her previously unrecorded chamber music with my London Chamber Ensemble was no.2 in the Classical Charts on release on International Women’s Day 2019 and Guardian CD of the Week.

In order to submit evidence for this enquiry I wrote to Spotify to ask how much I’ve received for the 46,000 plays of a track of a violin piece written for me by Michael Nyman CBE, called Miserere * They replied to say revenue is channelled through the record company or their distributer. So I wrote to NMC for whom I recorded the album In Sunlight: Pieces for Madeleine Mitchell (also including 2 works written for me by Sir James MacMillan) for which I receive an 8% royalty and they said I’ve received less than £10 in total for all the streaming/downloads since this album was released in 2005. The last biennial statement (dated 13.3.20) shows I received £1.68. For my other albums (including the Naxos album above) I don’t even receive that as there are no royalties. This sort of revenue is not channelled through PPL either, only for broadcasts (see below). I also wrote to Divine Art for whom I’ve recorded 2 albums to enquire about another popular track on Spotify – Atlantic Drift by Master of the Queen’s Music, Judith Weir CBE and they estimate $6. My payment this year from PPL was for £63.72, last year about half this amount. I pay £15 per month to Spotify as a professional musician so I can listen to music e.g. on my phone.

This is truly appalling that as an artist I do not receive anything like a reasonable amount for the plays of my recordings. It is grossly unfair that these big companies like Spotify and others don’t pay much more back to musical creators and performers.

We’re hearing from Paris Opéra musicians that Gustavo Dudamel’s agent is negotiating final salary details before the conductor signs on shortly as music director of one of Europe’s more turbulent opera houses.

Part of the deal is that Dude, 39, will remain music director of the LA Phil for an unspecified period, even though he now lives in Spain.

This will be only his third job outside his native Venezuela.

One Venezuelan newspaper, La Vanguardia, has prematurely announced his Paris appointment as a done deal. It’s close, though, likely to be sealed this week.