Too Much Snow And Cold

Due to the heavy snow in the Northeast  it was quite a chore shoveling all the snow from the driveway – Keeping Up With The Jones’ In New Jersey Part 3 will be delayed until tomorrow.  If you missed Part 1 or Part 2, now’s a good time to catch up. In the meantime, there’s a great article from Sunday’s Dallas Morning News by Scott Cantrell which examines the Dallas Symphony’s …

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Keeping Up With The Jones’ In New Jersey Part 2

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To continue where Part 1 left off, this article will examine more of the NJSO Internal Review Report to help determine why the NJSO decided to buy the Axelrod string instrument collection. A Review The Short Version The Trustees responsible for the report, Bill Baroni, Alan Danzis, John Forrest, labored to produce a document that is concise and very easy to read; it says exactly what is needed without unnecessary pontification.  …

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Keeping Up With The Jones’ In New Jersey Part 1

Adaptistration People 098

Since publishing the last article about the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra instrument purchase a number of readers sent in some additional points of view, once came from a professional orchestra violinist (not in New Jersey).  They said that historically, the media may be a contributing reason for the decision to buy the instruments, “There is no doubt a better player is more important than a better instrument. Especially in reference to …

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More On The Political Value Of Health Insurance

Yesterday’s article examined the decision by the St. Louis Symphony management to cancel the musician’s health insurance because of the current contract negotiation impasse.  Historically, the situation during the 1996 strike by the San Francisco Symphony musicians demonstrated that this approach to force an end to a work stoppage has never been very successful. By all accounts, the decision to cancel the musician’s health insurance was made without much examination of …

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Cutting Off Their Nose In Spite Of Their Face

Sunday’s issue of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch contained an article by music critic Sarah Bryan Miller.  Sara’s article does a good job at showing the latest development in the contract negations between SLSO management and musicians that is turning into a quagmire before our very eyes. This latest development has to do with health insurance. According to the Post-Dispatch article, the SLSO management has canceled the musicians’ health insurance benefits on …

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