A week from tomorrow my fifteenth season with the Oregon Symphony begins. I wrote a post last winter about the concerts that I was most looking forward to in this coming year, and since then there have been some noteworthy additions to the concert calendar. Here they are Continue reading
Monthly Archives: August 2010
detroit round-up
Detroit skyline: http://www.flickr.com/photos/picsfromjos/
As the talks in Detroit enter the 11th hour, here’s a round up of recent articles and blog posts about the situation:
- DSO pay feud: Is world class stature at stake? – [freep.com]
- How salary proposals compare with other top U.S. orchestras – [freep.com]
- Detroit Explores the Net Value of a Symphony Musician – [blogcritics.org]
- A Struggling City — and Symphony – [time.com]
- Detroit Symphony Orchestra musicians set concerts – [freep.com]
- Stalled talks and money woes major threat to DSO – [detnews.com]
- Detroit Symphony talks break down – [latimes.com]
- Detroit Symphony crisis a warning sign for all orchestra – [sacbee.com]
- DSO wants to cut musicians’ salaries – [myfoxdetroit.com]
- What the two sides are proposing – [detnews.com]
- What to expect in Detroit – [adaptistration.com]
talk: it’s not just cheap – it’s actually good!
Today is the last day of the 2010 Sunriver Music Festival, and after the morning rehearsal we had what has been an annual tradition for virtually the entirety of the 33 year old festival: the board/musician luncheon. It’s a great example of how communication should be handled between all the major stakeholders of an arts organization.
Several days before the luncheon, the musicians’ representative(s) meet with the board chair and executive director to identify areas of concern to both the musicians and the staff and board. The players then meet privately to talk over the ramifications of these areas of concern and to discuss possible responses and suggestions that might be presented to the board and staff. At the luncheon, the board chair and executive director give a “state of the union” snapshot of what is happening and how finances are shaping up, followed by the musicians’ representative(s) presentation of concerns and suggestions for the upcoming fiscal year.
The best thing about this process is that it allows each “side” to really hear and understand where the other is coming from, and to have a chance to speak to each other face to face in a relatively confrontation-free zone about matters that they care deeply about. It’s hard to vilify someone to their face, and accommodations are much more easily reached if one realizes that everyone around the table is a human being.
We so appreciative of the board and staff of the SRMF – they’re tireless in their dedication to the welfare of the festival and its musicians and patrons!
mt. bachelor climb
Yes, today was the day that I chose to do my annual ride from Sunriver up to Mt. Bachelor. It’s not that big a climb for people like Alberto Contador, but for people like me, it’s a long, hard slog. I was expecting to show a lot of improvement this year in speed and general feelings of wellness, but Mother Nature had other plans: a headwind for the entire climbing portion of the ride. Oh, well. It was awesome coming down, however!
UPDATE: after crunching the numbers, it appears that I was 20 minutes faster on this route than last year, over half of which was on the uphill portion of the ride – not bad!!
power vacuum
It is said that Nature abhors a vacuum, and the same could be said of human nature as well. This is especially true in orchestras of any budget size or artistic merit. The one truism that I’ve come to dislike very intensely? That those who seek to gain power in the absence of strong leadership are to a one uniformly weak and cowardly. If they were otherwise, then they wouldn’t have to seek leadership in such craven ways. Continue reading