It often strikes me as being the epitome of irony that we performers, as artists who produce ephemeral products – as soon as they’re played, they’re gone – often so easily discard what is our most lasting and important legacy: our integrity. Over the past few weeks, I’ve heard about younger musicians making decisions that
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Just read a great paragraph on why having all ages and levels of experience in an orchestra is so important, and why being ignorant of this is simply to be stupid: Like fibers of a rope, not a single one of which runs the entire length, the overlapping career spans of musicians carry on the
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I caught this poster and photo campaign over at Inside the Classics, and it’s one of the most simple and brilliant musician-centered media campaigns I’ve seen from any orchestra. And it’s true. In addition, you can see each of the “rock star” posters for each musician on their own at the orchestra’s Facebook page. [click
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There has been (and ever shall be) lots of blogging on what should be done about the current state of affairs in professional orchestras – here are two viewpoints that are pretty much diametrically opposed in their solutions, but pretty much right in synch with what they perceive as being the problem. The first post
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Philadelphia Orchestra under Charles Dutoit (Chris Lee photo). The Philadelphia Orchestra’s musicians have agreed to delay a slated 4.8 percent pay raise in their current contract as well as accept the temporary elimination of their Electronic Media Guarantee (EMG) and other work rules and benefits concessions. Following the trend of other major U.S. orchestras facing
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Blair Tindall has an article in today’s Los Angeles Times about musicians who excel in more than one career. Of interest to me was the appearance of a friend of mine, former OSO principal cellist Margo Tatgenhorst Drakos, who now is Chief Operating Officer of InstantEncore.com, an online source for concert listings, downloads, and streaming
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I don’t normally pay much attention to what the musical iconoclast Norman Lebrecht writes, but I found some comfort in these uncomfortable times in his most recent column – here’s the relevent paragraph: Orchestras, too, flourish in depression. London went from one symphony orchestra to three in the post-crash period of 1930-32 and from three
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I write one of the few blogs independently-penned by an orchestra member, and I’m not sure why it’s such a lonely job description. However, a rapidly expanding area of classical music blogs are blogs that are written as part of a symphony orchestra’s public relations and/or artistic arms.Â
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For those of you who were friends, colleagues, or acquaintances of Angela Svendsen and Kjersten Oquist, who were killed by a drunk driver driving the wrong way on I-5 on February 12, 2007, you may be interested to know that the trial dates have been set for the defendant, Fivea Sharipoff, who has one prior
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The Columbus Dispatch reports that the Columbus Symphony musicians and management met at the negotiating table today for the first time since proposed cuts of musicians and weeks of the season (by 22 musicians and 12 weeks, respectively) were first presented to the musicians on January 17, 2008 (a presentation that the musicians, for better
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This past Sunday’s Columbus Dispatch profiles three musicians from the troubled Columbus Symphony: principal trumpeter Justin Bartels, violinist Joyce Fishman, and principal flutist Randy Hester.
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I read with interest an archived review by Stephen Marc Beaudoin from the Willamette Week of the OSO’s last classical subscription concert, which featured the works of MacMillan’s The Confession of Isobel Gowdie and Mendelssohn’s Incidental Music to A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It was nice to hear that the MacMillan was appreciated (I even had
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I just found out about a documentary which might provide great insight into the lives of musicians who are making ends meet in orchestras that are part-time. There is a group of orchestras in the extended Bay Area of California which are collectively known as the “Freeway Philharmonic”, because their musicians spend most of their
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In a move which will likely result in the permanent crippling of a once fine orchestra, the management of the Columbus Symphony (Ohio) is proposing massive cuts of both orchestra personnel positions and the length of the season: the former down from 53 to 31 full-time musicians, the latter from 46 to 34 weeks.
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So, should musicians have input into the programs that the orchestra presents? It’s not an easy a question to answer. With orchestras, it’s always as many times complicated as there are players in the orchestra – plus the artistic administrator and the music director, oh, and the audience.
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