Drew McManus on the orchestra business.
I read an article in the San Antonio Express-News about how the struggling San Antonio Symphony lost $400,000 in badly needed funds when the organization failed to score a high enough rating as determined by the San Antonio Office of Cultural Affairs staff and volunteer panels. The orchestra reportedly scored the lowest in the category of audience development. The article went on to say that newly appointed San Antonio Symphony CEO …
Today’s Wisconsin State Journal featured an article by Anita Clark detailing the exceptionally large private gift by W. Jerome Frautschi to build the new Overture Center in Madison Wisconsin. The $205 million gift was presented by Frautschi because he simply believes that private money, not public funds, should pay for the new Performing Arts Center. This sort of philanthropy harkens back to the days of Andrew Carnegie and George Peabody, men …
I just want to direct your attention to the Columbus (OH) Symphony Musicians website today. The Columbus Symphony is another orchestra among the many financially troubled organizations across the country. I wanted to point out this particular website because it’s a very good example of how one side of a very tense labor negotiation should design an informative website. Unlike the garish, propaganda laden website published by the Philadelphia Orchestra Association (POA), the Columbus …
It’s been a few months since the Los Angeles Philharmonic performed selections from the soundtrack for the video game Final Fantasy. And since that time there’s been some interesting discussion about the outreach true potential of video game music. Since that time I’ve directed a considerable amount of thinking toward this topic and I’ve come to the conclusion that video game music has a tremendous amount of potential, not just at …
Ever since the POA launched their public relations campaign to promote their side of the contract negotiations I’ve wondered why board chairman, Richard Smoot, took such a hard line position so quickly. Unfortunately, I can only speculate as to why. I’m still waiting to hear back from the POA spokesman, Steve Albertini, with an answer to that question and others; hopefully I’ll hear something soon. But I feel that chairman Smoot’s …