I suppose that many musicians are familiar with Russian online sources from where you can obtain sheet music or writings that are not yet in the public domain. In fact, it would surprise me if somebody told me that, as a musician, they had never heard of ScorSer, the Tarakanov Archive and the likes. Yet there is one case that I find particularly striking: the website www.kholopov.ru, dedicated to the work of Yuri Nikolayevich Kholopov, includes an electronic library that offers scans of comparatively recent Russian, English, and German musicological and music-theoretical publications, and as such poses multiple copyright infringements under the name of one of the most prominent Russian music scholars of the twentieth century. I imagine it is very unlikely that this is going to change, given the current situation, but that doesn’t mean we needn’t be aware of this and similar cases. — NB: In 2004, the term of copyright protection in Russia has been extended from 50 to 70 years post mortem auctoris.
How to Connect Freelance Musicians
My analysis of German music associations, professional representation of interests, and the chances and difficulties of lobbying for freelance musicians have been published in this week’s VAN Magazine. I’d love to hear your opinions and perspectives on this multidimensional topic.
GMTH International Music Theory Lectures
The Gesellschaft für Musiktheorie has launched a new international lecture series, which I am glad to have helped organise. After my colleague Stephan Schönlau came up with this idea last year, and following some months of intensive planning in the GMTH working group for international affairs, this project is now finally going to happen. The opening lecture will be held by nobody less than Kofi Agawu, entitled »Rethinking (American) Music Theory, with African Aid«. It will take place on 25 April 2022, 7.30 pm CEST, followed by a Q&A and discussion. Anyone interested is invited to register through this form.
Improvements in Association Work
Preparing this year’s general assembly of Deutscher Tonkünstlerverband Berlin, which is going to take place at the end of March. In a very productive period during the last six months, we achieved a number of milestones in the course of modernising the leadership and administration of Berlin’s largest association for musicians and music pedagogues: we passed new statutes and rules of internal procedure, launched a cloud-based administrative software and membership portal, redesigned our public relations strategy, and initiated a number of new collaborations with other organisations. The current board members, including myself as vice president, will now run for another term in office. Despite some forces aiming to prevent us from continuing our work, we are confident to keep on advocating for the interests of our freelance members and their professional representation.
Ominous Alliance of Arts and Politics
Institutional cultural life in Russia is strongly affiliated with the government. A number of distinguished artists and pedagogues in leading positions—including the rectors of both the Moscow Conservatory, Aleksandr Sokolov, and the Gnesin Academy of Music, Aleksandr Ryzhinsky—have signed a statement in support of Putin’s war on Ukraine, as a TASS article reveals. Today, pianist Elizaveta Miller filed her resignation from the Moscow Conservatory’s faculty of keyboard instruments, protesting against the institution’s official position, and thus possibly anticipating her dismissal as a teacher. Not everybody will have the courage to do so. While I maintain my strong advocacy for keeping in touch with Russian artists and musicians on a personal, non-institutional level, it becomes clearer every day that we inevitably need to discontinue all collaboration with Russian state organisations. Boycott this regime and its allies! #standwithukraine #нетвойне