Month: April 2009

2009 TAFTO Publication Schedule

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The 2009 Take A Friend To Orchestra (TAFTO) publication schedule has been finalized so mark your calendar: Monday 4/20: Matthew Guerrieri Monday 4/27: Brian Bell Tuesday 4/21: Janelle Gelfand Tuesday 4/28: Sir Andrew Davis Wednesday 4/22: Molly Sheridan Wednesday 4/29: Andrew Patner Thursday 4/43: Giancarlo Guerrero Thursday 4/30: Curtis Long Friday 4/24: Alan Valentine Friday 5/1: Philip Paschke

Process Still Matters

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The 4/6/2009 edition of the Star Tribune published an article by Graydon Royce that examines a recent round of budget and pay cuts at the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra (SPCO). The article reports that the organization’s president indicated that pay cuts for management and staff took place before approaching musicians. This is the same procedure most organizations instituting pay cuts this season have demonstrated and on the surface it sounds fine, but in reality it contains a fundamental procedural flaw…

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The First Minute Of A Ten Thousand Hour Journey

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Recently, I had the pleasure of talking to Joff Schmidt, Associate Producer of CBC Radio One’s Definitely Not The Opera (DNTO), about what it means to be a professional musician; or, more specifically, the difference between amateurs and professionals. You can almost smell the loaded questions with this topic, can’t you? Nonetheless, the discussion was great fun and the folks at DNTO ended up putting together a fascinating segment which you can listen to in the following audio clip…

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Thinking Outside The Box (Seats That Is)

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Or at least that’s the focus of Holly Mulcahy’s latest article at Neo Classical that proposes the notion that it might be time for orchestras to consider the long tail merits of a managed referral program to aid audience development efforts. Over the last several years, I’ve had discussions with colleagues and clients about this idea on and off and the response has been mostly chilly. We even examined the idea back in 2004 (read) and the response was more of the same; but then again, when you’re in a serious situation, it might be in your best interest to consider doing things that you might otherwise think are unacceptable…

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News Of Phoenix’s Budget Troubles (sort of)

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The 4/1/2009 edition of The Arizona Republic published an article by Jahna Berry that reported news about revenue woes at the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra (PSO). Unfortunately, the article is short on details although it does report about some revenue shortages. At the same time, there is mention of some cost cutting measures already enacted by the PSO…

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