Crains New York - May 6, 2013 - (Page 21)

INSIDE HELLUVA TOWN Source Lunch Charlie O’Donnell knows his startups P. 26 Out and About Lower Manhattan Culture Council’s birthday P. 27 Nu? Some Yiddish video? The Jewish Daily Forward website is doubling down on video. The online operation of the 116-yearold Forward newspaper, which also publishes a Yiddish edition every two weeks, has partnered with Manhattan startup Magnify.net to expand its video channels in both Yiddish and English. “We can now curate not only our own material, but that of others,” said Forward Publisher Samuel Norich. Who knew Yiddish videos were so popular? There are “hundreds of thousands” of them online, said Steven Rosenbaum, founder and CEO of Magnify, which also manages platforms for the likes of New York magazine and Time Out. The company’s patented “curation technology” scours the Web for suitable content, and then lets the sites’ editors pick and choose. The Yiddish Forward site gets about 10,000 visitors monthly, Mr. Norich said. They include young people who are learning Yiddish in college, children of Holocaust survivors and Hasidim. So far, the Forverts Video Channel, on the Yiddish site, is carrying material it produces itself, including a comedy series featuring Yiddish-speaking actor Shane Baker, and pieces on Jewish culture. “In English especially, and in Yiddish, we’re going to start bringing in more,” Mr. Norich said. —matthew flamm Going for Baroque Musicians strive for authentic sound using priceless instruments Musical workout WEN YANG is reworking one of her basses to make it sound like a Baroque period instrument. buck ennis The executives at Crunch understand that New Yorkers occasionally take time off from their workouts to catch a play, so they’re exercising some marketing muscle in the theatrical arena. For the first time, the company is sponsoring an off-Broadway musical, and not surprisingly, it is about working out. Spandex tells the story of a housewife and a former gymnast who become friends through their love of Jane Fonda exercise videos. Crunch provided fitness consulting and audition and rehearsal space. It also paid for half the T-shirts that will feature both the Spandex and gym logos and will be sold at the show. It also bought a big block of tickets for the show, which opens later this month. “We liked the humor, the retro setting and the group workouts,” said Alexis Kendall, marketing director for the company, which has 12 gyms in the city. The gym isn’t sharing in any of the show’s revenue or profits, but with its name featured in the ads and playbill, it is hoping that those who catch the exercise bug from the performance will head to Crunch. —theresa agovino W BY THERESA AGOVINO en Yang became a fan of Baroque music while earning her master’s degree at the Yale School of Music. She was especially drawn to the idea of performing with period instruments—either antiques or high-end reproductions—that can cost a small fortune but allow an ensemble to sound as it would have centuries ago. ¶ “I liked the sound; it was richer; it had more color,” explained the 31-year-old from China who plays the double bass and the viola da gamba, a cousin of the cello that was commonly used during the Baroque era. ¶ Last year, she started New York Baroque Inc., an orchestra with about 20 musicians who play the works of such composers as Handel, Bach and Vivaldi. ¶ She’s not the only one following her passion for music from the 1600s and 1700s. At least four such groups have sprung up in the city in the past three years, with the largest and best-known being the Trinity Baroque Orchestra. They join such longstanding ensembles as the American Classical Orchestra See NEW YORK on Page 22 and Early Music New York. $175K VALUE of a 1690 violin to be played at the American Classical Orchestra’s June 4 concert $2.5M VALUE of all the instruments at the concert May 6, 2013 | Crain’s New York Business | 21 http://www.Magnify.net

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Crains New York - May 6, 2013

THE INSIDER
IN THE BOROUGHS
IN THE MARKETS
BUSINESS PEOPLE
REAL ESTATE DEALS
SMALL BUSINESS
OPINION
GREG DAVID
REPORT: DIVERSITY
THE LIST
CLASSIFIEDS
NEW YORK, NEW YORK
SOURCE LUNCH
OUT AND ABOUT
SNAPS

Crains New York - May 6, 2013