News Updates (11/25/03)
 
Congratulations to WCPE for exceeding its $450,000 fund-raising goal. The station’s latest drive ended on the evening of November 2. Publicly-supported radio seems to do well here in the Triangle – WUNC-FM went considerably over its goal of $600,000, too.
 
Congratulations, too, to Raleigh’s Community Music School, which recently received a grant of $10,000 and the “Coming Up Taller” award, presented at the White House by First Lady Laura Bush. The CMS obtained one of only 18 awards granted this year and the only recipient in the entire southern region of the US, according to an announcement made by ArtsNC. Details are at http://www.arts.gov/news/news03/Taller.html [inactive 3/07] and http://www.arts.gov/news/news03/Taller2.html [inactive 3/07].
 
The cash-strapped NC Symphony, which obtained extra funds from the State during the recent crisis, has secured an additional $35,000 from Wake County, too, according to an item in the 11/4 issue of the N&O . This is said to be nearly twice the County’s usual appropriation.
 
As we read the tea leaves, men are likely to remain in the ascendancy as far as leadership of NC orchestras seeking new music directors is concerned. The NC Symphony confirmed rampant speculation on 11/14 when it announced that the finalists in its conductor sweepstakes are Grant Llewellyn, Andrea Quinn, Roberto Minczuk, and Jahja Ling. For the NCS’ announcement, see http://www.ncsymphony.org/news/detail.cfm?nid=80 [inactive 9/06]. For CVNC ‘s assessments of their work here last season, see https://cvnc.org/…. Llewellyn has a standing commitment in Boston and resides in Wales. Quinn and Minczuk are committed to the New York City Ballet and NY Philharmonic, respectively. And since his engagements here, Ling has been appointed Music Director of the San Diego Symphony.
 
Meanwhile, the finalists have been named in Winston-Salem, too. They are Robert Moody, Associate Conductor of the Phoenix Symphony; Alfred Savia, Music Director of the Evansville (Indiana) Philharmonic Orchestra; John Russell, Music Director of the Windsor (Ontario) Symphony Orchestra; Alexander Mickelthwate, Associate Conductor of the Atlanta Symphony; and Michael Butterman, Associate Conductor of the Jacksonville (Florida) Symphony Orchestra and the Music Director of Opera Southwest. For Ken Keuffel’s Winston-Salem Journal article, see http://www.journalnow.com/ [inactive 2/04]. CVNC will list the concerts these finalists will lead when the full WSSO 2004-5 season is announced next year.
 
Complied by John W. Lambert