jump to navigation

encore poll results December 4, 2007

Posted by Charles Noble in : miscellaneous, add a comment

Well, an overwhelming majority spoke with a clear voice and said that they approved of encores “sometimes”. Not exactly the yes or no answer that I was looking for, but I was the one who crafted the faulty poll, so I take the blame for this resounding “maybe”. Thanks to those who took part, I think I’ll be doing a regular poll feature as a result.

Here’s the breakdown:

Sometimes - 68%
Yes - 19%
N0 - 8%
Other - 5%

The “other” responses contained one that was not truncated beyond recognition: “only after 5 curtain calls”.

32 musicians resign from virginia orchestra December 4, 2007

Posted by Charles Noble in : labor issues, music, the orchestra world, add a comment

This is a sad tale - I used to play in the Prince William Symphony when I was a student at the University of Maryland. Apparently there has been a good deal of trouble there since I worked there. It underlines a basic tenet of mine: let the musicians play music, let the managers manage, let the music director take care of the artistic concerns, and keep the three as separate as possible. It sounds like the executive director there drank his own kool-aid, and decided to run the artistic side of things as well. You can find the whole story here.

Thirty-two members of the Prince William Symphony Orchestra resigned last week. The musicians said this was a result of months of difficulties with the new executive music director, David Montgomery, and the Board of Directors.

For the musicians, the firing of a 16-year member of the orchestra exacerbated the situation and led to the resignations, including the concertmaster and the personnel manager.