Month: September 2004

Eastman Students Negotiate Their Future Part 1

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Last Monday, September 27th, 2004 I had the honor of serving as a guest speaker for the “Realities of Orchestral Life” course offered by Eastman School of Music’s Institute for Music Leadership. I had a wonderful time working with the students and was an honor to open their minds to issues they may not have previously considered.  Collectively, they were sharp, engaging, and participated actively in the lecture and interactive portion …

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Saving Or Selling Out Their Future In Baltimore?

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Last Sunday, the Baltimore Sun published an article by Paul Adams and Tim Smith which reports that in order to manage their planned $12 million deficit, the Baltimore Symphony is considering selling their performance venue; Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. According to the Sun article, here are the details for the plan: “Under the scenario presented, [a] new nonprofit subsidiary would pay $30 million for the Meyerhoff and pass the money – minus …

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Sex, Drugs, And Classical Music?

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A few weeks ago I published an article at The Partial Observer about some of the ways classical music uses sex to sell itself.  This week I’m following up on that idea by discussing the growing drug use debate (no, not that kind of drug use). The article, Performance Enhancing Drugs for Musicians?, will be available after 9:30AM EST. Today I’m off to Eastman and when I return we’ll see how …

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Concert Companion or ORBIT Part 1

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It’s time for an exercise in thinking like an orchestra manager.  Here’s the setup:

  • Your orchestra is loosing its audience and you’re considering the benefits of using a technology based product to help build it back up again.
  • Like all orchestras your marketing dollars are limited and the man-hours you can use for writing grant proposals are at their limits.
  • You hear about two new technology based audience development initiatives, each in initial stages of deployment but having a certain amount of promise.
  • One option has received some positive national media attention in a prominent New York City newspaper (and a little bad press too) but the other option is already up running on a regular basis with a few orchestras.

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Keeping Their Heads Above Water

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There’s been a great deal of national attention devoted to contract negotiations and musician salary these past several weeks – from this column and many others across the country.  And the majority of those discussions focus on how much players earn in the “Big 5” as well as examining other types of benchmarks used to differentiate an international orchestra from a regional ensemble. Fellow AJ blogger, Greg Sandow touched on both …

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