An Updated Look At Top-Tier Musician Compensation

With all the news surrounding Cleveland Orchestra’s ongoing labor negotiations, it made sense to revise and double check the base musician compensation figures for the highest budget ensembles. As it turned out, the Cleveland Plain Dealer requested exactly that for an article they published on 1/6/2010 so the timing worked out nicely. As a result of those efforts, I was also able to update and expand the historic compensation review that …

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Come On Cleveland, You’re Better Than This

Regular readers know that when we talk about orchestras and new media, one recurring warning is to resist the urge to use new media outlets for press release regurgitation. After all, that’s what press pages at an orchestra’s web site are for. Likewise, using the official organizational new media and social networking outlets to disseminate one-sided information about an ongoing labor dispute is not merely bad form, but ultimately self defeating…

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Following Up On The Free BringLight.com Project

Congratulations to the Alabama Symphony Orchestra (ASO), whose application was selected for the free fundraising project at BringLight.com. With a goal of providing 10 sets of rhythm instruments for their Musicians Activating Growth In Classrooms (MAGIC) program, a course designed to provide music education for students that have no full-time music teacher, the ASO officially launched their fundraising program on Monday, 1/4/2010…

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Cleveland And Seattle: With Bated Breath

As the orchestra business watches Cleveland and Seattle with bated breath, it is difficult to wonder if events at these two larger budget organizations will have any impact on the business as a whole. And it isn’t just insiders who are paying attention, music critics, cultural reporters, bloggers, and just about any other stakeholder with a social media account is wondering aloud how events will unfold…

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Appearing At The American Orchestras Summit

From January 26-28, 2010 the University of Michigan is hosting an American Orchestras Summit. Titled Enlarging the Circle: Creating Partnerships in Research and Performance, the organizers describe their goals as “bring[ing] together arts presenters, orchestra leaders, and academics to explore potential partnerships and strategies for confronting the many challenges that face the American orchestra today.” I’ll be participating as a panelist on the 1/27/2010 11:40 a.m. session, Thinking Outside the Box: Organizational Structures and Strategies

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