Musical America is the oldest American magazine on classical music, first appearing in 1898 in print and in 1999 online , at musicalamerica.com. It is published by Performing Arts Resources, LLC, of East Windsor, New Jersey.
19-735: The American Record Guide ( ARG ) is a classical music magazine. It has reviewed classical music recordings since 1935. The magazine was founded by Peter Hugh Reed in May 1935 as the American Music Lover . It changed names to the American Record Guide in 1944. Reed was its editor and publisher until 1957. Since 1992, with the incorporation of the Musical America editorial functions into ARG, it started covering concerts, musicians, ensembles and orchestras in
38-422: A $ 3,000 prize for the best symphonic work, with a contest closing date, initially December 31, 1926, but extended to April 1, 1927. The contest was open to American citizens, native or naturalized. The contest elevated its winner, Ernest Bloch , a Swiss-born American, into the international spotlight and raised international acclaim for American music and its composers. Bloch's work, America, an Epic Rhapsody ,
57-405: A bankruptcy sale on July 19, 1929, John Majeski, Weil's former assistant, purchased four of the six magazines for $ 45,200: (i) Musical America , (ii) The Music Trades , (iii) The Barbers' Journal , and (iv) Beauty Culture. After some 30 years of relative stability, effective January 1, 1960, John Majeski retired and sold Musical America and The Music Trades to Music Publications, Ltd.,
76-578: A new company named Trade Publications, Inc., headed by Walter Howey and Verne Hardin Porter (1888–1942). Included were its sister publication, The Music Trades , and The American Architect , The Barbers' Journal, Beauty Culture, and Perfumers' Journal. Shields & Company was the investment banking firm that handled the consolidation. Musical America subsequently began diversifying with articles about jazz, dance, radio, and records. Trade Publications, Inc., filed for bankruptcy in 1929; and, in
95-402: A newly formed corporation headed by two editors from Musical America , Theodate Johnson (1907–2002) and Ronald Eyer. Johnson, sister of the architect, Philip Johnson , continued as director of artists relations and Eyer continued as editor-in-chief. In 1964, Music Publications, Ltd. sold the magazine and the annual directory to High Fidelity magazine, a subsidiary of Billboard Publications,
114-676: A weekly from November 18, 1905, until 1929, solely focusing on classical music. In 1921 Musical America published the first "Guide," which later evolved into the International Directory of the Performing Arts, now the Musical America Directory. After John Freund died in 1924, Milton Weil who had been Freund's business partner continued the publication. In June 1927, Musical America consolidated with five other prominent trade publications to form
133-942: The Philadelphia Orchestra , Frederick Stock of the Chicago Symphony , and Alfred Hertz of the San Francisco Symphony . On July 29, 1929, seven months after the spectacular success of the premier, Musical America was sold in a bankruptcy sale to John Majeski. 1929: Metronome Corporation acquired Musical America Music Publications, Ltd. High Fidelity Magazine Under other publishers February 1991: Gerry M. Ritterman acquired Musical America from Capital Cities/ABC 1999: launch of MusicalAmerica.com General references Inline citations Shirley Fleming Shirley Fleming (1929 in New York City – 10 March 2005)
152-416: The 1980s. Musical America Musical America's first issue was on October 8, 1898. Its founder was John Christian Freund (1848–1924), who with Milton Weil, also founded The Music Trades magazine in 1893. Thirty-six issues appeared until June 24, 1899, covering music, drama, and the arts. In 1899 the publication was discontinued for six years due to a lack of financial resources. It reappeared as
171-655: The US. The magazine prides itself in having "500 reviews in every issue, written by a freelance staff of over 80 writers and music critics." In addition to new music releases, many issues in past years contained an overview of the recordings of a single composer's works. Most current issues do not feature these overviews. For overviews, there is an index included in every issue detailing which issue contains these overviews. The editor, Donald Vroon , had been an NPR classical radio broadcaster and record reviewer in Buffalo, New York in
190-654: The entire directory division, in 1994 to K-III Communications , later renamed Primedia. Under Primedia, the Annual Directory announced in December 1998 the launch the following year of website MusicalAmerica.com . This publishes 25 news stories per week and since April 2004 has also been issuing a weekly newsletter. Primedia sold Musical America as part of its directories division to Commonwealth Business Media, Inc. in October 2000. Commonwealth Business Media
209-528: The owners of Billboard magazine. High Fidelity incorporated the newly acquired publication as an additional insert inside certain editions of High Fidelity that were mailed to subscribers who had paid an additional fee. During this time, the Musical America was not available in the copies of High Fidelity that were sold at newsstands, but only in certain copies available only by subscription. This business arrangement continued after High Fidelity
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#1732794310384228-479: Was a classically trained violist . From 1967 to 1991, she was the editor of the magazine Musical America . She also served as editor for the publications High Fidelity , Hi-Fi Music at Home , and the American Record Guide . In 1965 she worked as a freelance writer for The New York Times and later was on that paper's music criticism staff from 1975 to 1978. From 1978 until her death of
247-541: Was an American music critic and editor . Born in New York City in 1929, she was the daughter of novelist Berry Fleming , who enjoyed popularity during the 1930s and 1940s with a series of successful works, and later in the 1980s with his Captain Bennett's Folly . Shirley grew up in Augusta, Georgia , and maintained a home there throughout her life. She earned both bachelor's and master's degrees from Smith College and
266-619: Was fired in 1983 for protesting the cutbacks in classic music coverage in High Fidelity/Musical America . In protest to Oestreich dismissal, several noted classic music editors resigned in mass to eventually join Oestreich at his new publication. The reintroduction of the first separate issue of Musical America in 1987 was mishandled by ABC since ABC did not provide copies for distribution at newsstands in many major cities. Although Musical America's tenure at ABC
285-429: Was itself acquired for $ 152 million in 2006 by United Business Media plc . Musical America has been owned and published by Performing Arts Resources, LLC, of New Jersey, since February 2013. Freund and Weil were exponents of American music and used Musical America to promote it. After Freund's death, Weil took over Musical America as editor. On December 11, 1925, Weil, on behalf of Musical America , announced
304-443: Was not very impressive, it avoided High Fidelity's fate of being sold to Diamandis and remained with ABC until 1991 when it was sold to media investor Gerry M. Ritterman. During most of this time, Shirley Fleming served as the magazine's editor from 1967 to 1991. Faced with declining sales and rising costs, Ritterman tried to turn the magazine around by firing the entire editorial staff and implementing cost saving measures, but
323-538: Was premiered simultaneously on December 20, 1928, in six American cities: San Francisco , Ann Arbor , Providence , New York , Cincinnati , and Los Angeles . Bloch's composition was selected among nine-two anonymous submissions. The judges were conductors of five major orchestras: Walter Damrosch of the New York Symphony , Serge Koussevitzky of the Boston Symphony , Leopold Stokowski of
342-439: Was sold to ABC Consumer Magazines in 1974. ABC continued this publishing arrangement until 1986 when ABC decided it needed to revive Musical America as a separate monthly publication (which later became bimonthly) to fight back against the loss of readership caused by the founding of a new competing classic music publication by a James R. Oestreich called Opus . Oestreich was a former High Fidelity classic music editor who
361-512: Was unsuccessful. A few months later, he announced that he was shutting down the magazine with the publication of the January/February 1992 issue being the last. However, Ritterman said he was going to continue to publish the lucrative Annual Directory, a separate publication that followed the magazine in its journey through several change of ownership. Ritterman kept the Annual Directory for two more years before selling it, along with
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