Drew McManus on the orchestra business.
The Partial Observer published an article of mine today which expands on the concept of whether or not there are limits to how much a community can support an orchestra. The piece examines how the past year’s round of negotiations and the current SLSO situation may be a preview of things to come.
Many readers took the time to respond to the questions posed in the article from December 30th, 2004. The vast majority of responses were related to the question, “Does owning and using these instruments make the NJSO better than or distinguish it from any other orchestra in the country?” Many of you answered the question not with a “yes” or “no” but instead took the time to convey what you do …
I had the opportunity to talk with St. Louis Symphony Piccolo/Flutist and negotiation chair, Jan (pronounced “Y
The recent decision by the Pittsburgh Symphony to cancel their planned European tour doesn’t come as a great surprise. It’s no secret the orchestra has been in the process of restructuring their finances in order to recover from some hefty losses as well as vamp for the required increase in pay for the musicians. Most of the people I talk to in this business tend to think Pittsburgh isn’t going to …
Every time an orchestra announces a vacancy and schedules an audition it’s actually holding a referendum among the world’s professional musicians. That referendum is whether or not that orchestra is artistically worthy of attracting a certain level of player. On January 3rd and 4th, the St. Louis Symphony had scheduled just such a referendum among the French Horn and Double Bass players in the industry, they had an audition. There are …