Conducting Business

Last week, a Los Angeles jury found that the pop stars Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams copied Marvin Gaye's 1977 song "Got to Give it Up" in their song "Blurred Lines." The jury awarded the singer's estate $7.4 million. Gaye’s family celebrated the decision. But a lot of composers wondered if copyright is now being extended to cover not just song lyrics and melody but much else – tone, rhythm, tempo.

On this week's episode, Naomi Lewin speaks with two experts about the case's implications: Mark Swed, the classical music critic of the Los Angeles Times, and Lawrence Ferrara, a professor of music at New York University. He's also a music copyright consultant for record labels, music publishing companies and film studios, and was briefly involved in the "Blurred Lines" case.

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Our guests have vastly different takes on the case's implications. For Swed, "the tradition in music, in most musical traditions, is to build one thing on another. Rhythmic patterns, bass lines, and things like this are generally thought of as common property." Besides, Renaissance composers such as Josquin des Prez frequently built "paraphrase" or "parody" masses on preexisting Gregorian chants. J.S. Bach lifted entire from Vivaldi. Debussy quoted Wagner's "Tristan" chord.

"Everything is very vague and nobody is quite sure how this is all going to work out," said Swed, who recently wrote about the case. "Music works in a different way than the courts work. The arts are often about breaking rules and the courts are about maintaining rules."

Robin Thicke (L) and T.I. perform the song 'Blurred Lines' at the The Grammy Nominations Concert Live.

Ferrara, however, believes that the rules around copyright enforcement are clear. "One can always find works with similarities," he said, but the "feel and vibe" of a composition cannot be monopolized by one composer. "Melody tends to be the meat in a copyright issue. That's what gets you at the musical expression that's ultimately the test of whether there's ultimately been an infringement."

Listen to the full segment at the top of this page and tell us what you think below: Is plagiarism a problem in music? Should copyright laws be more or less strictly enforced?

When Frank Music Company, the last store in New York City dedicated to selling classical sheet music, closed its doors last Friday, there was much dismay about its significance: yet another brick-and-mortar store was bowing to the pressure of online competition. So without a shop where one can browse and get advice, what digital options are there for the classical musician?

On this week's episode we put this question to two digital sheet music converts: Todd Reynolds, a violinist and composer in New York who performs almost exclusively using digital formats; and Ron Regev, a pianist and head of Tonara, an "interactive" sheet music app for iPads.

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Sheet music is now accessible in a variety of digital ways, including through retail websites and online apps or free catalogs like the Internet Music Score Library Project. Downloads are instantaneous, which means touring artists are no longer forced to stuff their suitcases with fraying scores – their entire library fits onto a hard drive or the cloud.

Turning pages isn't a problem when performing from an iPad either. Some programs involve foot pedals; Tonara can detect your position on the page via the microphone on your tablet, and flip the page automatically at the right moment.

At the same time, traditional music publishers face a host of piracy concerns as scores can be downloaded and easily shared among musicians.

"The question of ownership is changing," said Reynolds. "We don't have the infrastructure in place now to really serve composers and performers well enough in terms of protecting and having the music paid for."

Regev agreed, adding: "There are a few publishers that understand the problem and are adjusting in the way that recording companies adjusted to the MP3 revolution. The problem is that many of them are trying to cling to their old models as they see their income dwindling. This is a tragedy because no one will produce this high-quality type of musical research that their editions will produce."

Listen to the full segment above and tell us in the comments box below: Are you sad to see traditional sheet music stores disappear? What is lost or gained with digital formats?

The conductor an orchestra chooses says a lot about how it sees its mission in the 21st century. Factors to consider include taste in repertoire, age, nationality, race, gender, fundraising skills -- and of course, musicianship.

The New York Philharmonic and the National Symphony Orchestras in Washington, DC are about to grapple with all of this as they look for successors to Alan Gilbert and Christoph Eschenbach, who are both leaving their music director jobs in 2017.

This week, we ask three industry watchers what are – or what should be – chief considerations for these orchestras as they begin their searches. Joining us are Zachary Woolfe, a freelance classical music critic for the New York Times; Anastasia Tsioulcas, who covers classical music for NPR Music; and Nick Matthias, a senior vice president at IMG Artists, who manages a number of top conductors.

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Christoph Eschenbach leads the National Symphony Orchestra

 For Matthias, "chemistry must be evident right from the word go, right from the point the conductor meets the orchestra in a rehearsal. Of course, no one has any control over the chemistry aspect at all. This is something very special. Once the conductor walks out on that podium, it's out of all of our hands."

Woolfe emphasizes the importance of fundraising and outreach skills. "Especially with the New York Philharmonic," he said, "you're looking at the prospect of somebody who's going to have to be a key person in the raising of a substantial nine figures for the renovation of Avery Fisher Hall." That person must excite both the musicians and the board.

Some observers have suggested that New York or Washington would benefit from a woman or minority conductor in order to better reflect their diverse communities. Tsioulcas notes that while women conductors have made particular strides among regional orchestras, "I'm not sure that anyone – aside from a couple very established [women] conductors – is established enough to pivot into such a prominent role as the New York Philharmonic. We may still be a decade or more away from that, I'm sorry to say."

Listen to the full segment at the top of this page, take our poll, and tell us in the comments below: What qualities do you think are most important in selecting a new music director?

In the last week, two top violinists got a visit by the Repo Man…so to speak.

Frank Peter Zimmermann was forced to give up his 1711 Stradivarius just days before soloing with the New York Philharmonic – and before his 50th birthday – after a contract on a loan expired. Meanwhile, a Pressenda violin played by Alexander Pavlovsky of the Jerusalem Quartet was sold by a syndicate that owned it, forcing him to look for another fiddle while he's out on tour. What do these cases tell us about the market for rare violins? And is there a stronger case to be made for modern instruments?

In this week's episode, we get some perspective from Jason Price, the director of the auction house Tarisio Fine Instruments & Bows; and Ariane Todes, a writer, violinist and former editor of The Strad magazine who now writes for the website Elbow Music. 

Zimmermann never owned his Strad. Rather, he leased it from a now defunct German bank WestLB AG, whose assets are now controlled by Portigon Financial Services. The contract dates to 2002 and expired on Sunday. The violinist, who has offered to buy the instrument, declined to comment to WQXR, as "talks are continuing."

The Jerusalem String Quartet.

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Todes finds it "sad in some ways" that banks or syndicates control a greater share of the rare instrument market. "If a museum or foundation is going to understand the needs of the players and the needs of history, then it's not necessarily a bad thing," she noted. "If you get syndicates that think of these investments in a really short-term way and as [pure] investments rather than philanthropic ways to help musicians, then it's not so good."

Price acknowledges that there are problems with the current model. However, "there are so many creative solutions that allow the people who are the top of their field to be playing the top instruments." He points to the growth in foundations that buy rare instruments and lend them out to musicians.

There also remains a larger question of whether old instruments really sound better than modern ones – or are they a product of their mystique. To hear what our guests think, listen to the full segment at the top of the page.

Tell us what you think below: Do you associate Strads or Guarneri instruments with better quality? Leave your comments by clicking on the gray bar below.

After a long decline, RadioShack recently filed for bankruptcy and announced plans to shutter more than 1,700 stores. As many music lovers know, RadioShack was once the place to get speaker wire, headphones, adapters, or even a Realistic-brand stereo system. But how times have changed. 

On this week's show, Christopher Mims, the Wall Street Journal's technology columnist, tells us about the cultural shifts that are behind Radioshack's demise. In a recent article he argued that the loss of RadioShack paralleled the decline of leisure time for would-be hobbyists and tinkerers.

"The kind of leisure that we're engaging in has shifted," he tells host Naomi Lewin. "Apps and mobile devices are appealing because they let us snack during our leisure time. What we're missing is the loss of big, unbroken blocks of time that would allow somebody to be a hobbyist, to learn a new skill or repair something like a computer."

Mims remembers getting his first Tandy computer at RadioShack during the 1980s, and being "totally blown away and feeling like I was looking at the future."

What are your favorite memories of RadioShack? What will you miss or not miss about the stores? Please share your thoughts below.

Ethnic diversity remains a troublesome question for American orchestras. Just over four percent of their musicians are African-American and Latino, according to the League of American Orchestras, and when it comes to orchestra boards and CEOs, the numbers are even starker: only one percent. Ethnic diversity is also a rare sight among guest soloists and conductors.

This issue was front and center during the third annual SphinxCon conference, hosted last weekend by the Detroit-based Sphinx Organization. Its founder and president, Aaron Dworkin, joins us for this week's Conducting Business, along with two active musicians: Weston Sprott, a trombonist in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra; and Melissa White, a violinist who performs in the Harlem Quartet.

In this segment our guests discuss:

The graph below illustrates the percentages of black and Hispanic musicians enrolled in major music conservatories. Listen to the full segment at the top of this page and share your thoughts below.

Improvisation is a nearly obsolete art in classical music these days. But virtuosos used to improvise all the time. Mozart freely improvised on his own tunes, Liszt would strike up an aria from a Wagner opera and embellish it. Even legendary piano showmen of the 20th century made it part of their performance practice early in their careers – people like Vladimir Horowitz, Arthur Rubinstein and Leopold Godowsky.

In this week's episode, Clive Brown, a professor of applied musicology at University of Leeds in England, explains why it's fallen by the wayside. He believes that modern recordings, music competitions and regimented conservatory instruction have all contributed to suppressing this practice. "One of the factors that makes classical music seem stuffy and less interesting to young people is this rigidity with which we play it now," said Brown. "More or less every performance is tied to the notation."

Gabriela Montero, pianist

There are a few performers who have taken up the improvisation mantle, including pianist Gabriela Montero. In both recitals and as concerto encores, she spins out elaborate original creations based on a given theme; sometimes she even asks audience members to sing melodies on which she elaborates. But she notes that despite public interest, this has become a double-edged sword, with some music executives mistakenly labeling her a crossover artist.

"There are so few of us that do it on the concert platform that you become an oddity," Montero said. "The way the business is set up, people pigeonhole you and they have to find a label for you. So if you improvise, you're too creative or too free to be a classical concert pianist, which is absolute nonsense."

Montero maintains that artists must resist "the pressures of careers or the imaginary limitations that people impose on themselves."

Listen to the full segment at the top of this page and share your thoughts below: Do you think classical musicians should be freer with their interpretations and improvise?

Some 31 million American adults said they wanted to go to an arts event in the past year but chose not to. The NEA has published a study exploring a few reasons why.

Usually, a polite discourse pervades arts journalism, but two recent cases underscore the tricky relationships between classical music organizations and the media that covers them.

After Opera House Revokes Critics' Tickets, Examining Practice of 'Freebies'

Last month, Opera Australia removed a music critic for the Sydney Morning Herald from its complimentary press ticket list after the company's artistic director was reportedly "very offended" by a piece on the newspaper's arts website. This was followed Jan. 2 by a similar “comp” list ban against a critic for the publication Stage Noise. And in New York, a theatrical press agent blacklisted Wall Street Journal writer Joanne Kaufman, after she admitted to "bolting" from Broadway shows during intermission.

These cases together raise ethical questions about the relationship between critics and the organizations they cover, and especially, the practice of providing free press tickets to reviewers covering a performance. Joining us to look more closely at this practice is Kelly McBride, a media ethicist who is vice president for academic programs at the Poynter Institute.

"In the ideal world, I think journalism organizations would pay for their own tickets all the time," McBride tells host Naomi Lewin. "But we do not live in an ideal world," she added, referring to the difficult financial environment at many news organizations.

That being said, "the audience does expect those journalists to put their loyalties with the audience. If journalists don't do that, and it becomes apparent to the audience, they'll lose credibility."

Listen to the full segment above.

Colorado Symphony and Radio Station Part Ways

Colorado Symphony at Boettcher Concert Hall in Denver

The complex relationship between arts organizations and the media was brought to light in another recent case. Late last year, Colorado Public Radio announced that it will no longer carry broadcasts of the Colorado Symphony, ending a 15-year partnership. The reasons are varied, but the key sticking point was editorial: specifically, the orchestra wanted a lot more positive coverage on the radio. Ray Rinaldi, the fine arts critic of the Denver Post, tells us what was at the heart of the split.

"Basically the orchestra wanted the radio station to collude with it in turning the live broadcasts into marketing for the symphony," he explained. "The station didn't want to be promoting the symphony. They were happy to be a neutral party in bringing the concerts to the community, but they didn't want to appear to be doing marketing in favor of one organization over the other."

There were other issues in the breakup as well. The Colorado Symphony also bought underwriting on the station, anywhere from $50,000 to $100,000 worth, and expected more preferential treatment as a result.

Rinaldi tells us where things went off the rails and why this is significant in an age of Internet distribution.

Listen to the full podcast above and tell us what you think by clicking on the gray comments bar below.

New York's Department of Cultural Affairs is embarking on the first comprehensive effort to measure diversity at the city's museums, venues and performance groups. The survey, announced on Monday, will collect information on the demographics of employees, boards, and visitors at arts organizations. The goal: to determine if these groups are keeping up with the increasingly multicultural makeup of New York.

"The statistics that we've seen elsewhere show that a very large sector of the employees and boards at cultural institutions are white," said Tom Finkelpearl, commissioner of the Department of Cultural Affairs. "We're in a city now where 60 to 65 percent of people do not describe themselves as white. This is about the future and what the place of cultural institutions in New York City should be in the future."

The city agency plans to survey about 1,200 arts organizations and use the data to draw profiles of various professions, be it orchestra administrators, museum curators or choreographers. "Then we'll know where the most work needs to be done," said Finkelpearl.

Tom Finkelpearl, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in the WQXR studio.

Previous studies have shown that the classical music field particularly falls short when it comes to participation among Blacks and Hispanics, and the League of American Orchestras has found that these groups represent less than four percent of orchestra players. Finkelpearl says this points to a larger "pipeline" problem, of getting young minority musicians on a career track (and providing resources to manage student debt).

"It's all fine and good to get kids in high school playing instruments," he notes. "What gets them into conservatory? What gets the kids in conservatory to stay on and have a classical music career?"

In the interview Finkelpearl also talks about:

Listen to the full interview above and share your reactions by clicking on the gray comments bar below.