Drew Posted March 1, 2019 Share Posted March 1, 2019 (edited) Sarah Kaufman has published a report on a legal petition by Susan Gluck regarding the Trust and, in particular, the handling of its finances by Barbara Horgan: "Susan Gluck, a trustee of the George Balanchine Trust, which administers the rights to perform Balanchine’s ballets, filed a petition Thursday in the surrogate court of the state of New York seeking a full accounting of the financial management of the trust..." Gluck expresses concern that Horgan has set things up in a way that benefits herself and disadvantages people Balanchine intended to support. As far as the petition goes, he immediate issue seems to be that Gluck requested to see the finances over a year ago, put the request in writing etc. and still hasn't been shown anything. The Washington Post is behind a paywall, but for those who subscribe: https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/theater_danc/former-ballerina-takes-legal-action-against-managers-of-balanchines-ballets/2019/02/28/f0dae524-3b95-11e9-b786-d6abcbcd212a_story.html?utm_term=.510fb2bbb8f3 Edited March 1, 2019 by Drew Post was moved to a different forum, and I cut an opening sentence referring to the other forum.. Link to comment
pherank Posted March 1, 2019 Share Posted March 1, 2019 17 hours ago, Drew said: Sarah Kaufman has published a report on a legal petition by Susan Gluck regarding the Trust and, in particular, the handling of its finances by Barbara Horgan: "Susan Gluck, a trustee of the George Balanchine Trust, which administers the rights to perform Balanchine’s ballets, filed a petition Thursday in the surrogate court of the state of New York seeking a full accounting of the financial management of the trust..." Gluck expresses concern that Horgan has set things up in a way that benefits herself and disadvantages people Balanchine intended to support. As far as the petition goes, he immediate issue seems to be that Gluck requested to see the finances over a year ago, put the request in writing etc. and still hasn't been shown anything. The Washington Post is behind a paywall, but for those who subscribe: https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/theater_danc/former-ballerina-takes-legal-action-against-managers-of-balanchines-ballets/2019/02/28/f0dae524-3b95-11e9-b786-d6abcbcd212a_story.html?utm_term=.510fb2bbb8f3 Interesting. Thanks for posting, Drew. Given that Gluck is one of the BT trustees, the fact that she doesn't really know how the finances are being arranged is troubling. Some transparency would be a good thing, but I'm not sure that trusts are subject to many of the same rules as a non-profit corporation, etc. I haven't seen any statement that the BT is a Charitable Trust. Link to comment
Dale Posted March 1, 2019 Share Posted March 1, 2019 It's very interesting, and sure to shine a light in what is the most important/powerful trust in ballet. And, I was thinking, right before some works might go into the public domain. Apollo and Prodigal Son being the oldest, most regularly performed works by Balanchine. (Maybe some of our legal people will know. There seems to be different rules for works before and after 1977) https://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/faqs/copyright-basics/ https://www.nyulawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/NYULawReview-80-6-Lakes.pdf Link to comment
sandik Posted March 31, 2019 Share Posted March 31, 2019 I skimmed Kaufman's followup to her original story about the Trust -- I was disconcerted at the news that they don't actually keep spreadsheets about their finances. Link to comment
miliosr Posted April 15, 2022 Share Posted April 15, 2022 I was reading the article "War Brings Iron Curtain Down on Russia's storied Ballet Stages" in today's New York Times and there was an incidental mention of Nicole Cornell as "Director of the George Balanchine Trust". A quick look at the Trust's Web site confirms this. Did Barbara Horgan retire or resign? Link to comment
California Posted April 15, 2022 Share Posted April 15, 2022 On 3/1/2019 at 4:05 PM, Dale said: It's very interesting, and sure to shine a light in what is the most important/powerful trust in ballet. And, I was thinking, right before some works might go into the public domain. Apollo and Prodigal Son being the oldest, most regularly performed works by Balanchine. (Maybe some of our legal people will know. There seems to be different rules for works before and after 1977) The Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act extends the duration of copyright in a work created on or after January 1, 1978, to the life of the author and 70 (previously, 50) years after the author's death. So 2053 will be a big year for those works. https://www.congress.gov/bill/105th-congress/senate-bill/505 The Copyright Law of 1976 took effect on January 1, 1978: https://www.copyright.gov/title17/ The rules were very different under the previous Copyright Acts. Link to comment
pherank Posted April 15, 2022 Share Posted April 15, 2022 9 hours ago, miliosr said: I was reading the article "War Brings Iron Curtain Down on Russia's storied Ballet Stages" in today's New York Times and there was an incidental mention of Nicole Cornell as "Director of the George Balanchine Trust". A quick look at the Trust's Web site confirms this. Did Barbara Horgan retire or resign? I think Horgan would be about 89 years old now, so it makes sense for her to step aside. I don't recall seeing any official announcement though. Link to comment
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