ArtsWatch

Six positions are being eliminated at the Kimmel Center. The cuts are for organizational rather than financial reasons, says new president Anne Ewers, though she says money will be saved. Gone is the Kimmel's part-time staff lawyer and very full-time head of development. Four less-senior-level positions are being created. Unrelated to the cuts are two other Kimmel departures: marketing and PR head David Wyeth, and PR director Paul Marotta. Those jobs will be filled, Ewers said ...The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia has a deal for four CDs over the next four years, plus two more with their artistic director Ignat Solzhenitsyn as pianist, with record label Glossa Music. Solzhenitsyn has also signed on for another four years as music director through Oct. 2011 ...The Barnes Foundation has hired Margaret B. Zminda away from the Philadelphia Orchestra. She will remain the orchestra's CFO until December, when she takes over as the Barnes' senior vice president of business strategy and operations ... A total of $159,253 will go to 110 individual artists and community organizations in the five counties of southeastern Pennsylvania through the 5-County Arts Fund, a program of the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance and the Pennsylvania Partners in the Arts...The Philadelphia Boys Choir & Chorale is 40 years old, and the group was recently honored by City Council with a proclamation from the City of Philadelphia at City Hall ...The Print Center announced the appointment of John Caperton as the new curator of prints and photographs, and Hester Stinnett as the new president of the board of governors ...The Curtis Institute of Music has three new faculty members: Shmuel Ashkenasi, the much-admired first violinist of the Vermeer String Quartet; pianist Robert McDonald, the busy chamber musician and frequent recital partner to Midori; and Jennifer Montone, principal hornist of the Philadelphia Orchestra.