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I just caught this on a feed that I regularly watch. It’s an open letter from the lead singer of the band OK Go to the band’s fans explaining why they cannot embed the band’s YouTube videos on their blogs or websites. It shows how slow the industry (major record labels) is to respond to [...]
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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 is [...]
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As promised – enjoy!
Philadelphia’s search for a new executive director hits the one-year mark.
Washington Post critic doesn’t care for Alan Gilbert’s debut in NYC.
Canada gets its broadcast orchestra back.
Christoph Eschenbach is a workaholic.
Charlotte Symphony gets two $1 million donations in one day.
Honolulu Symphony gets local grown CEO.
Charlotte Symphony funding cuts in the balance.
NY Philharmonic gets [...]
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Holly Mulcahy has a wonderful article up at The Partial Observer about the rash of program/artist substitutions prompted by the funding crisis at US orchestras. Here at the Oregon Symphony, there haven’t been any mid-course corrections, as such, but guest artists have had their contracts renegotiated at lower rates, and some pieces were not programmed [...]
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Just observing a few trends from the latest rounds of labor negotiations for US orchestras:
Unpaid furloughs seem to be the way of dealing with labor costs, rather than lowering the pay rate (either per week or per service).
Managements are trying to trim costs in their own offices as well as in the ranks of the [...]
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Conductor Bill Eddins has a great post on the issues facing orchestras in the face of massive shrinkage of their endowment principal and subsequent attempts to adapt to what many are referring to has “the new normal”. Here are two paragraphs that I found particularly interesting:
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UPDATE 4/08 [link] The Utah Symphony/Opera cut 11.5% of of their benefits plus Keith Lockhart takes 10% pay reduction.
[link] The Atlanta Symphony musicians have reopened their previously negotiated CBA (which ran through 2011) and will be taking an 8.8% pay cut by the end of 2011 (the first drop will be 5% for 09/10, then [...]
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Robert Levine has an excellent post today that goes along very well with my post of a couple days ago. It’s a response to a recent posting by Greg Sandow, which you can find here.
Here’s the first two paragraphs of Robert’s excellent response:
Greg Sandow recently wrote a typically insightful and provocative post on “ways that [...]
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I don’t know how one could actually come up with a list like this and keep a straight face, but I guess it’s akin to the coaches/journalists polls that determine college football/basketball rankings. At least orchestras don’t have to navigate the inanities of the BCS system…
UPDATE: Robert Levine skewers this idiotic ranking with his usual [...]
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Sam Bergman over at Inside the Classics Arts writes today about the efforts to attract the elusive (and some say mythical) 18-40 year old audience to orchestral concerts. He offers the idea of a later concert that might synch up with the predilictions of that age group:
But there are ways to massage these things, and [...]
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The OSO players will be getting a briefing on the state of the orchestra’s finances tomorrow between rehearsals at the hall. If I’m allowed to share some of that information, I will, but if not, I’ll give a broad-brush, impressionistic version (basically: thumbs-up, thumbs-down, or thumbs-sideways). My hunch is that we’re going to be ok [...]
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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 to [...]
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Entropy is the Second Law of Thermodynamics (also known as the entropy law). Here’s the jargon:
A measure of the amount of energy in a physical system not available to do work. As a physical system becomes more disordered, and its energy becomes more evenly distributed, that energy becomes less able to do work.
Source: entropy. [...]
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Towards the end of any orchestra’s season, you tend to hear a lot (make that a LOT) of armchair quarterbacking by the rank and file about the leadership of any conductor within rock throwing range. Some even make the entire organization’s woes solely the responsibility of the stick waver. I’m sure that’s gratifying [...]
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