Category: Headlines

On August 9, the National Endowment for the Arts announced the release of a landmark research report on artists’ employment, specifically examining multiple jobholding or “moonlighting.” Commissioned by the NEA’s Research Division, More Than Once in a Blue Moon: Multiple Jobholdings by American Artists is unprecedented for the breadth of data examined that compares artists’ employment with that of other professions. Researchers and authors Neil O. Alper and Gregory H. Wassall reviewed thirty years of information in developing the report, primarily from the Current Population Survey, a monthly Census Bureau survey sponsored by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Among the key findings of the report is that artists moonlight at a rate 40 percent higher than other professional workers, with as many as 80 percent of artists holding second jobs at some point within a year. Also, artists indicated more often that their primary motivation for moonlighting is to earn additional income to cover household expenses. Other relevant figures for artists include unemployment rates that are twice those of other professional workers and earnings that are 12 to 23 percent less than other professionals.

According to 1995 data included in the study, 13 percent of musicians and composers held a second job. Music was the most popular moonlighting profession, with thirty-nine percent of all workers claiming music performance or composition as a second job.

Another important finding is the shifting nature of second jobs. Fifty-five to seventy-five percent of second jobs held by artists are in professional and technical fields that include the arts. However, since 1985, the number of moonlighting artists with second jobs also in the arts decreased from three in five to one in three. At the same time, the number of moonlighting artists with second jobs in fields other than the arts increased from one in ten to one in three.

General comparison of the artistic labor market with other professional labor markets revealed several significant differences. The authors characterized jobs in the arts as relatively “open,” for instance, frequently requiring little or nothing in the way of minimum education or certification. The artistic labor market is also distinguished by fewer stable and full-time jobs than in other professional markets. Even college music teaching jobs are considered less “full-time” than other types of professional work because they last only nine months, generally necessitating a secondary job during the summer.

The authors provided another description of the artistic labor market as “winner-takes-all.” In a “winner-takes-all” market, a few people earn large incomes, while the median income is relatively low. Given the openness of the artistic job market, there is a constant oversupply of artists aspiring to become wealthy and famous. Many see their occupation as a “calling” and are unwilling to give up and switch occupations.

Alper and Wassall co-direct the Cultural Arts Policy Research Institute with Ann Galligan, a fellow faculty member at Northeastern University. In an interview, Alper stressed that their goal is simply to provide information that could be used to help formulate public policy on the arts, not to advocate specific policies. This conscientiously neutral approach is reflected in the conclusions they drew from their findings.

A government program designed to ameliorate the need for artists to hold second jobs would be politically difficult for two reasons, according to Alper and Wassall: “The employment difficulties of artists are not of the same order of magnitude as those of workers with little education or job skills, such as minority teenagers or welfare mothers.” Also, there are multiple motives for moonlighting, not all of which imply job market duress.

While the authors respect the idea of government aid to artists, they also cited three reasons to doubt the effectiveness of such support. Chief among these is that when it becomes financially easier to work as an artist, more people choose artistic careers. The number of jobs remains finite, and consequently the newcomers end up “moonlighting” to make ends meet. Secondly, it is difficult to come up with a practical definition of who is an “artist” and thus deserves government support. And finally, statistics show that artists living in countries with far greater direct government support moonlight at roughly the same rate as American artists.

The Current Population Survey includes artist occupational groups such as actors, musicians, playwrights and sculptors. The authors of the study grouped musicians and composers with actors, directors, dancers, and announcers into a single group, “performing artists.” Postsecondary music teachers fall into the category of “other artists.” Neil Alper explained that had they broken their data down to the point of a separate group for musicians and composers, the sample would have been too small to be reliable.

More specific information on the plight of performing musicians and composers is available, however. Research Division Note #76, Artist Employment in 1999 was released concurrently with More Than Once In a Blue Moon. The study examines the increase in artist employment during the year and includes information on earnings and projected employment growth.

The Current Population Survey showed that for the 271,000 people working as musicians, 36.5% considered it a second job, a higher percentage than any other group of artists. According to the Occupational Outlook Handbook prepared by the BLS, the median salary for musicians, singers, and related workers was $30,020 in 1998 and the projected increase by 2008 falls between 10 and 20 percent. This calculation does not include salary information for music teachers.

Based on the CPS, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that there were 12,000 fewer musicians and composers in the labor force in 1999 than in 1998. This can be broken down into 1,000 fewer unemployed musicians and 11,000 fewer employed musicians; in plain English, this means that 12,000 musicians or composers have retired or found work doing something else.

In 1999, the unemployment rate among musicians and composers was 4.8%. This is down from 5.2% in 1998 and 7.1% i
n 1997. The unemployment rate is calculated based on the number of people declaring their primary occupation as that of musicians and composers. Of the eleven artist occupations listed, musicians and composers ranked 5th in terms of total unemployment. Teachers of art, drama, and music had the third-lowest unemployment rate, only 2.8%. The general civilian unemployment rate in 1999 was 3.9%.

More Than Once in a Blue Moon: Multiple Jobholdings by American Artists is available, for $11.95, by writing to Seven Locks Press, P.O. Box 25689, Santa Ana, CA 92799, or by calling 800-354-5348.

Musicmaker.com recently unveiled its new web site featuring expanded classical music offerings. Music lovers and collectors can now access a library of more than 60,000 licensed classical tracks and create custom CDs from their computers. Among the company’s classical offerings are tracks from labels such as EMI, Naxos, Koch, Newport Classic, Platinum, AVC, Nimbus, and Vox.

To organize, present and curate music in each genre, Musicmaker.com has enlisted some of the leading experts in each field. Anne Midgette is Musicmaker.com’s classical music editor; she also covers music and culture for such publications as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, and Opera News.

To create custom CDs at Musicmaker.com, the user chooses music from any genre and may personalize their CD with a title and cover art. A 10-track CD is $14.95 plus shipping and handling, and arrives in the mail within a matter of days. In addition, visitors may download songs in any category from a collection of over 100,000 tracks via MP3 or Microsoft Windows Media format at $1.

Currently, of the 60,000 classical titles currently posted on the site, about half were written after 1900, according to Midgette’s estimate. Part of her job is to create six suggested compilations that run on the site for two weeks. One of the compilations posted in August was entitled All-American Classics, and included the works of Barber, Foster, and John Philip Sousa. This type of compilation is obviously intended to reach a wide audience; for the more experienced listener, the site offers a promising collection of recordings for download. Classical composers whose works are posted on the site range from John Luther Adams to Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, with some pleasant surprises in between, such as Kenji Bunch‘s recent Fantasy for Violin and Orchestra. There is also an extensive jazz catalog available on the site.

“The classical recording industry doesn’t do much for new composers,” Midgette said in an interview, “whereas this site will allow different kinds of music to find a niche audience without resorting to ‘crossover’ recording. It will be possible to market music that reaches only thirty people.”

Much like Musicnotes.com, Musicmaker.com has the luxury of purchasing and posting music that may sell only a few copies. It is obviously more cost-effective to produce one digital file that can be downloaded by multiple users than to print many CDs that will sit in a warehouse gathering dust. Musicmaker.com is also able to rope in the tentative new-music listener, the person unwilling to spend twenty dollars on a CD she may not like, but quite willing to give one or two tracks of an unknown piece a try.

Midgette hopes that the ability of Musicmaker.com to market new music in a cost-effective way will encourage record companies to revitalize their commitment to more esoteric projects. She is also looking for situations in which recording companies are not involved at all. This could benefit a well-known composer, for instance, who wants his or her “pet project” to reach a national audience, but fails to elicit interest on the part of major recording labels.

Unfortunately, despite the possibility of posting as-yet-unreleased recordings, Musicmaker.com is not about to function as a clearing-house for the homemade CDs of emerging composers. Midgette stressed that the editors of the site try to maintain a well-groomed “profile” by carefully selecting music on the merit of its high quality. They also only post those tracks that they think will sell at least a few copies.

Michael Kaiser Photo courtesy of Cornhill Publications Limited

The Kennedy Center announced on July 19 that Michael Kaiser has been named to replace Lawrence J. Wilker as president of the national center for the performing arts. His is slated to begin his new post in February 2001.

Kaiser, 47, is currently the executive director of the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden in London. He is widely credited with engineering the financial turnaround of the beleaguered institution in his 19-month tenure: he erased its deficit of £19 million, completed a £214 million redevelopment of the facility, created a £20 million endowment fund, and greatly increased its level of support from the private and public sectors. Prior to Covent Garden, Kaiser worked a similar reversal at the American Ballet Theatre, where he was the Executive Director from July 1995 to November 1998. Under his guidance ABT eliminated its accumulated deficit, increased box office sales and touring activities, inaugurated a junior company and three summer schools, and expanded its education, access, and outreach programs considerably. Kaiser recently announced his intention to resign from the Royal Opera House because of continued internal politicking and bickering.

In the realm of contemporary music, the Royal Opera House now produces performances of chamber and new works in its 450-seat Linbury Studio Theatre and a series of experimental works in its Clore Studio. Broadcasting contracts between Covent Garden and the BBC have augmented the audience numbers for these events.

When asked by NewMusicBox what his plans were for the promotion of new American music, Kaiser responded: “I believe that a center as large and diverse as the Kennedy Center has an obligation to present a wide spectrum of art – from the classics to the contemporary. I am deeply committed to new music, particularly new American music, and look forward to working with Leonard Slatkin to bring new music to the Kennedy Center.” Kaiser declined to provide what specific goals or criteria he would pursue in rectifying the Kennedy Center’s indifference toward producing works by American composers. As evidence of his support of new music, he cites his commission of the ballet Othello from Elliot Goldenthal while at American Ballet Theatre.

In addition to ABT, Kaiser has also previously served as Executive Director of the Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre Foundation and as Associate Director of the Pierpont Morgan Library and the State Ballet of Missouri. He has founded and directed two consultancies: Kaiser Associates and Kaiser/Engler, whose clients included Glimmerglass Opera, the National Museum of African Art, the Detroit Symphony, and the Market Theatre of Johannesburg. Originally from New York, Kaiser received his Master’s degree in management from MIT and his B.A. in economics from Brandeis University.

President Jerry Wilker’s announcement in April that he intended to leave the Kennedy Center at the end of this year to launch an Internet arts and entertainment venture prompted the search for a replacement. The search committee, which includes including Sen. Edward Kennedy and board Chairman James A. Johnson, voted unanimously to hire Kaiser; this decision was ratified by the full board of trustees.

“The news of Michael Kaiser’s appointment is indeed exciting,” said Placido Domingo, artistic director of the Washington Opera, in a statement from Bayreuth, Germany, where he is rehearsing a new production of Wagner‘s Ring cycle. “He brings with him such an impressive track record of giving extraordinary stability to arts organizations. While he was at Covent Garden he and I had a wonderful relationship, and from a personal standpoint I am especially delighted at this appointment, because in future Kennedy Center dealings I will remind him of our own past and the fact that he was at one time in the 1980s a member of the Washington Opera board.”

The Kennedy Center has recently launched a $100 million fundraising campaign, of which $70 million has already been received; Kaiser’s experience in fundraising is certain to be beneficial in future such endeavors. A search for a new artistic director of the center has been put off until Kaiser assumes control and can be involved in the search.

Daniel Steiner Photo by Paul Foley

Daniel Steiner was recently named President of the New England Conservatory of Music by Board Chairman David W. Scudder. Steiner has been serving as Acting President since July 1999.

The appointment concludes a year-long search by a Presidential Search Committee and follows its recommendation. “In little less than a year, Daniel Steiner has shown himself to be a leader of rare and exceptional strengths,” said Scudder. “He has been able to bring a strong sense of focus on key priorities of the Conservatory. His leadership abilities will enable the Conservatory to chart a well-planned and enthusiastic course for the future.”

Faculty Senate President Robert Paul Sullivan commented, “…a wise and skillful administrator, Daniel Steiner will provide the decisive leadership NEC needs at the beginning of the 21st century.”

When asked about his role in promoting new American music, Steiner commented to NewMusicBox: “As an American conservatory, we have an on-going and active responsibility to encourage American composers and to help bring about the performance of their works. Our renewed relationship with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project is an example of how we carry out that responsibility. We also have, of course, an active composition department that fosters the careers of American composers and the performance of their compositions.”

Prior to joining NEC as Acting President in July 1999, Daniel Steiner’s career as a lawyer had focused on higher education. He taught at the Kennedy School of Government from 1993 to 1996 and was General Counsel and then Vice President and General Counsel at Harvard University from 1970 to 1992. While at Harvard, Mr. Steiner was responsible for all the University’s legal affairs and assumed management responsibilities at various times for the security, human resources, real estate and international departments.

He is the author of several articles on individual and institutional ethics; he co-chaired the American Medical Association Task Force on Association/Corporation Relations in 1997-98.

An active supporter of Boston‘s cultural life, he chairs the Boards of Boston Baroque, Mind/Body Medical Institute, and Harvard Magazine and is a director of WGBH, Cambridge Community Foundation, Cambridge Trust Company and New England Conservatory.

At New England Conservatory, as an Overseer since 1994 and Trustee since 1995, Steiner served on and chaired many board committees, including the Admissions and Financial Aid Visiting Committee and the Faculty Development Committee, before becoming Acting President in 1999.

Recognized nationally and internationally as a leader among music schools, New England Conservatory, the only music school in America to be designated a National Historic Landmark, was founded in 1867. New England Conservatory presents more than 600 free concerts each year in NEC’s Jordan Hall and throughout New England. The college program instructs more than 775 undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral music students from around the world, and has a faculty of 225 artist-teachers and scholars.

Through its Preparatory School, School of Continuing Education, and Community Collaboration Programs for pre-college students, adults, and elders, NEC offers a complete music curriculum. Educated as complete musicians, NEC alumni fill orchestra chairs, concert hall stages, jazz clubs, and recording studios worldwide. Nearly half of the Boston Symphony Orchestra is composed of NEC faculty and alumni.

Tom and Arnold Broido Photo courtesy of Theodore Presser Co.

The Theodore Presser Company recently gave a glimpse of what music publishing in the 21st century will look like. By teaming up with a CD-ROM company called CD Sheet Music, the company recently began publishing sheet music as PDF files on CD-ROM disks. This means that thousands of pages of sheet music can fit onto one CD-ROM.

The first 15 CD-ROMs to be released include the complete solo piano music of Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Mozart, and Schumann, as well as “The Ultimate Collection of Piano Studies and Exercise” which includes exercises by Berens, Burgmuller, Czerny , Gurlitt, Heller, Kohler, Pischna, and others.

Most of the CDs cost $15 dollars each and include Adobe Acrobat software that enables users to view the sheet music on their computer screens and print it out on 8.5″ x 11″ paper. Users are also allowed to print unlimited copies of the music.

Currently the CDs contain only scans of the sheet music, although future releases may include opera and possibly other CDs with MIDI accompaniment files. By the end of 2002 the company plans to sell a series of 110 discs.

More probably than any component of NewMusicBox, SoundTracks inevitably reflects the diversity and ultimately uncategorizability of the music being created by American composers. Whereas each issue of NewMusicBox looks at a specific, albeit different, aspect of American music, SoundTracks always aims to be a reflection of what is being released on CD right now without any specific editorial guidelines other than that it is music by American composers that is submitted to us for our inclusion on the site.

This month we feature two very different new operas. William Mayer’s A Death in the Family, based on a novel by James Agee, was staged in December 1999 at the Manhattan School of Music. Steve Mackey’s Ravenshead, a one-man tour-de-force starring Rinde Eckert (who also wrote the libretto) was staged across the street at Columbia University, but they are worlds apart. Likewise, very different sound worlds are communicated in the symphonies by the late Samuel Barber and Irwin Bazelon, and the recent string symphony of Libby Larsen or the Concerto Per Corde by Christopher Rouse, also for string orchestra. A series of solo piano discs released this past month is also full of surprises, whether its Scott Kirby‘s latest survey of Terra Verde (new ragtime) or Anthony DeMare‘s homage to three of America’s greatest maverick composers, a survey of piano works by David Kraehenbuehl or a collection of 20th century piano works performed by Gloria Cheng.

The variety of approaches to the voice is reflected in new discs featuring John Kennedy‘s haunting music for countertenor, Michael Torke‘s brilliant renditions of the Book of Proverbs as well as a collection of songs by the early American composer John Alden Carpenter, Diane Hubka‘s post-Shiela Jordan jazz vocals and Djola Branner‘s tribute to gender-bending soul star Sylvester.

There are staggering number of chamber music releases this month, from discs dedicated to works by James Newton, Harold Farberman, William Bolcom, David MacBride, John Cage, and Donald Grantham to two collections featuring flute works by David Leisner, Aaron Copland and Arthur Foote. While Leon Lee Dorsey‘s new quartet disc is clearly within the realm of straight-ahead jazz, Wadada Leo Smith‘s all-star quartet with Anthony Davis, Malachi Favors and Jack DeJohnette builds on the 40 year tradition of free jazz experimentation, and the latest release by PRISM, a saxophone quartet who blur the lines between jazz and contemporary classical music, adds a variety of guest musicians into the mix. Another disc that blurs the lines between composition and improvisation features music by Graham Reynolds played alternately by the Golden Arm Trio and the Tosca String Quartet. And Maya Beiser‘s latest CD, featuring cello compositions based on gamelan, Middle Eastern music and Cambodian traditional music blurs geographical as well as stylistic boundaries.

Audiochrome, the latest disc by Larry Kucharz, blurs the line between contemporary composition and techno music while new discs by Neil Haverstick and Erik Hoversten, both of whom have contributed to this month’s Hymn & Fuguing Tune, lie somewhere in between the realms of new experimental music and alternative rock.

Alan Hovhaness Photo courtesy of C.F. Peters

Alan Hovhaness, a prolific composer who melded Western and Asian musical genres, died in Seattle on June 21, 2000. He was 89 and had suffered from a severe stomach ailment for the last three years.

Hovhaness was born in Somerville, MA, on March 8, 1911 to Haroutiun Hovhaness Chakmakjian, a chemistry professor, and Madeline Scott Chakmakjian. His Scottish mother thought her husband’s Armenian last name sounded too foreign for a young child growing up in a suburb of Boston, so she changed his name to Alan Hovhaness when he was still quite young. Hovhaness began improvising even before he had piano lessons, and began writing music as soon as he learned to read it at the age of seven. By age 13, Hovhaness had already written two operas, Bluebeard and Daniel, as well as a number of smaller works. His early piano teachers were Adelaide Proctor and Heinrich Gebhard, and his first composition studies were with Frederick Converse at the New England Conservatory of Music (following a brief period at Tufts).

The pivotal moment in Hovhaness’ development as a composer was in 1942, when he won a scholarship to study at Tanglewood. It was there, in Bohuslav Martinu‘s master class, that Hovhaness was first exposed to Eastern music. He subsequently worked with priests of the Armenian church and Eastern Troubadours who still sang the pure intervals of their ancient music. This precipitated for him a new way of creating melodic lines which were free from equal temperament in pure modes. As he wrote in the Music Clubs Magazine of February 1965: “To me the hundreds of scales and ragas possible in Eastern musical systems afford both disciplines and stimuli for a great expansion of new melodic creations. I am more interested in creating fresh, spontaneous, singing melodic lines than in the factory-made tonal patterns of industrial civilization or the splotches and spots of sound hurled at random on a canvas of imaginary silence. I am bored with mechanically constructed music and I am also bored with the mechanical revolution against such music. I have found no joy in either and have found freedom only within the sublime disciplines of the East.”

In 1948 Hovhaness joined the faculty of the Boston Conservatory of Music. He left this post in 1951 to move to New York in order to pursue composition full time. He was a Fulbright Research Scholar in India from 1959-1960, during which time he was invited to participate in the annual Music Festival of the Academy of Music in Madras. He was also commissioned by All India Radio to write a work for an orchestra comprised entirely of Japanese instruments, which he called Nagooran. He served for six months as composer-in-residence at the University of Hawaii and became a composer-in-residence with the Seattle Symphony in 1966.

He was presented with the National Arts and Letters Award, twice with the Guggenheim Fellowship, and twice with an honorary doctorate in music (from the University of Rochester and Bates College). In a note submitted with a biographical survey to the American Music Center in 1949, however, Hovhaness wrote, “No important awards–see list of works–It is best that no mention be made of my scholarship or education because my direction is completely away from the approved path of any of my teachers–thus the responsibility will be inflicted on no one but myself.” The tonality of Eastern music, particularly Armenian and Indian music, was especially influential in his development.

In an article in the Musical Quarterly of July 1951, Henry Cowell wrote, “Western composers who go back to pre-16th century styles deliberately avoid any air of modernity, and call themselves ‘neo-classical.’ Their music often sounds inhibited, for their attitude represents an extreme of conservatism. Hovhaness’ music…sounds modern (but not ultra-modern) in a natural and uninhibited fashion, because he has found new ways to use the archaic materials with which he starts, by following their natural trend towards modal sequence and polymodalism. His innovations do not break with early traditions. His is moving, long-breathed music, splendidly written and unique in style. It is contemporary development of the archaic spirit and sounds like the music of nobody else at all.”

Program notes from a performance by pianist Joel Salsman in honor of Hovhaness’ eightieth birthday vividly describe the process by which Hovhaness composed: “He writes every night, getting more and more creative as the night goes on. By dawn he is wildly creative; composing in a sweep, he leaves corrections and revisions until later. Quite often the entire score complete with orchestration comes at one time. His total output of compositions is impressive, even more so when one hears that he has destroyed whole periods of work.” In 1940, Hovhaness burned over a thousand of his works, including several operas and two symphonies, saying that he had not been critical enough when writing them. His total surviving output includes more than 400 pieces, including at least nine operas, two ballets, more than 60 symphonies, and more than 100 chamber pieces. Among his best-known works are And God Created the Great Whales (a music-dance drama), Mysterious Mountain (Symphony No. 2), the Mount Saint Helens Symphony (Symphony No. 50), and the Easter Cantata.

See Alan Hovhaness’ submission to the AMC Biographical Survey from 1949

click here for larger version

click here for larger version

It is perhaps poetic justice that concurrent with our issue inspired by the winner of the 2000 Pulitzer Prize in Music that Bridge Records has released the world premiere recording of the Pulitzer winner from 1999, Melinda Wagner’s Flute Concerto. There are a number of other Pulitzer alumni among the featured composers this month: Howard Hanson (Winner of the 1948 Pulitzer), represented here by his little-known solo piano music; Mario Davidovsky (Winner of the 1971 Pulitzer), represented with a retrospective disc featuring mostly works of the past decade; Ned Rorem (Winner of the 1976 Pulitzer), who is included on a disc of recent choral music; and Samuel Barber (two-time winner), who is one of 11 composers featured on a recital disc dedicated to art songs based on the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins. And they’re not the only winners represented here. Michael John LaChiusa’s Marie Christine has been nominated for a Tony Award for Best Original Musical Score. And, three-time Academy Award-winning composer Miklós Rózsa is represented by a disc of his should-have-received-major-awards-but-didn’t concertos. (Another disc this month features concert works by five American film composers.)

Many of the great names in American music who made it into our “Why Didn’t They Ever Win A Pulitzer?” Hall of Fame are here as well: Otto Luening, with a beautifully-packaged collection of his art songs; Earle Brown, with a remarkable re-issue of some of his early masterpieces; Morton Feldman, with a complete collection of his music for violin and piano featuring the bizarre For John Cage (one of his rare forays into microtonality); George Antheil, with yet another recording of his until-this-year long unavailable symphonies; Ruth Crawford Seeger, with a brilliantly-performed set of chamber works; and John Adams, with a new recording of his violin concerto. Philip Glass’s violin concerto is featured in two separate recordings this month: the first paired with the Adams, the other on an all-Glass Naxos disc (pretty amazing, huh) featuring some mysterious booklet notes. There’s even a new all-Glass CD on Nonesuch featuring the long awaited Symphony No. 3 which I’m thrilled to finally hear in not-bootleg-quality fidelity!

There are also three discs of free improvisation featuring Joel Futterman (provocatively-titled Authenticity, Relativity, and Revelation), and a new disc of orchestral music by Victor Herbert, as well as discs featuring big band compositions by Sam Rivers, vocal music by Daniel Asia, solo piano music by Carson Kievmann and another disc featuring solo piano works by seven different composers, small combo jazz recordings by Hal Gamper and Ravi Coltrane, a disc of chamber music by Richard Wilson, and a disc of chamber works by four SCI member-composers that blurs the boundaries between classical chamber music and jazz.

Just when you thought you heard it all before, there’s always something startlingly new that lands on the desk and this month is no different. Jay Cloidt‘s collection of altered cat and baby sounds and disco-savvy string quartet is a good way to lighten up a potentially cynical morning. Sampler pioneer Barton McLean‘s Happy Days, included on a new collection of his electronic works on CRI, is also guaranteed to brighten up the room. A re-issue collecting works by Edwin London features some really surprising extended vocal writing and two new discs devoted to works by members of the Bang On A Can all-stars take the notion of totalism ever further than the term normally implies. The music of Nick Didkovsky combines the sonic universes of post-Bitches Brew electric free jazz and the post-modernist string quartet. And Evan Ziporyn combines progressive rock and Balinese gamelan.

Gideon Waldrop, circa 1961 Photo by Helen Merrill, courtesy Boosey & Hawkes

Gideon Waldrop, a composer and administrator, who served as dean of the Juilliard School of Music for 24 years and was president of the Manhattan School of Music for nearly three years, died on May 19 at his home in Manhattan. He was 80.

Waldrop was born on September 12, 1919 near Abilene, Texas. After receiving a Bachelor of Music degree from Baylor University in Waco, Texas, he went on to Eastman, where he received a Ph. D. in Composition in 1952. During World War II he served in the intelligence division of the Air Force during World War II, for which he was awarded the Bronze Star.

His involvement in the administrative field began in the 1950’s when he was editor of the Review of Recorded Music as well as the Musical Courier. He also served as a music consultant to the Ford Foundation. In 1960 he became the assistant to the president of Juilliard and was appointed dean the next year. During his tenure at Juilliard, the school moved from its old building on Claremont Avenue in Morningside Heights into its new $30 million building at Lincoln Center.

Waldrop with Leontyne Price, photo courtesy Boosey & Hawkes

Mr. Waldrop served as acting president of Juilliard in 1983, following the death of the school’s president Peter Mennin.

From 1986 until 1989, Waldrop was president of the Manhattan School of Music, which had taken over the old Juilliard building on Claremont Avenue. He resigned this post over disagreements with the board.

Waldrop’s orchestral compositions include a symphony (1952) and the suite From the Southwest (1964); he also wrote chamber works, choral pieces, and songs.