Greed and Avarice

The Partial Observer published an article of mine today which presents a detailed examination into some of the origins behind the collapse of the Audubon Quartet. There’s a good bit of new material not readily available in articles currently in print. Remember Greed and Avarice is an just an anagram for Crave, Rage, and Die. Poetic, isn’t it?

The Audubon Tragedy

violin

What a mess. This business with the Audubon Quartet is worse than the recent debacles at St. Louis, Philadelphia, and Baltimore combined. Just in case you’re not up to speed on the details of this disaster, there are two excellent articles by Dan Watkin in the New York Times (here and here), go read those and then come back. The whole scenario unfolds like a Shakespeare tragedy; in the end, everyone dies before they learn the lessons they should have already known. Nevertheless, I think the worst part is most of the unpleasantness could have been easily avoided…

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A Flood of Responses To Lowering Ticket Prices

Monday’s article on the reduced ticket price initiative at the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra has generated a great deal of private responses from professionals inside the business. More impressive than the number of responses was the sheer variety of opinions, I simply can’t think of another issue here at Adaptistration which generated such an assortment of opinions. Everything from absolute support to condemnation has come through my email…

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Gathering Support For Lower Ticket Prices At The SPCO

It’s an old story, but one which has become more relevant in recent years: someone in the administration has a plan for audience development but it would initially require losses and results aren’t expected for at least a few years; of course, that’s assuming there are any positive results at all. So how do you sell an idea which necessitates a year or two of red ink?

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Today on Soundcheck – Applause!

An Arts Journal blogs first: two AJ bloggers will be appearing on WNYC’s Soundcheck with John Schaefer to discuss an issue that’s been bouncing back and forth between their blogs over the past two weeks. Namely, Doug Ramsey, proprietor of Rifftides, and I will be appearing during the 2:00P.M. – 3:00P.M. hour. We’ll be John’s guests as we add some input on the whole “to clap or not to clap” issue. …

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