Name That Anthem

Remember when everyone was up in arms at the past few Olympics over the deplorable rendition of the U.S. National Anthem? Well, it seems that the 2010 Winter games in Vancouver have broken free of that dark cycle by reinstating a more ‘merican version of the National Anthem (IMHO, it’s a little slow but I like it). Frankly, no one out-anthem’s the Chicago Blackhawks version with Jim Cornelison. If you want to have some real anthem related fun, slate magazine published a guess that anthem listening quiz on 2/11/2009, but before you head over, listen to the Blackhawks version below…

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Every Veiled Insult Conceals A Shit-Eating Grin

One of the real challenges of communicating solely though print is the inability to rely on body language or inflection to convey intent. Case in point, in his Huffington Post article from 2/16/2010 Michael Kaiser writes that he is sorry for causing any arts manager grief if their institutional stakeholders pushed back against proposed artistic cuts using Kaiser’s mantra that fiscal health and large, important artistic projects are not mutually exclusive…

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The Three Keys To Social Media Marketing For Orchestras

Hugh MacLeod published an article at his blog on 2/14/2010 entitled “the three keys to social media marketing.” If MacLeod’s name is familiar, that’s a good thing. He’s the author of one of my favorite books, Ignore Everybody: and 39 Other Keys to Creativity, which serves as source material for the series of articles here under the tag keys to creativity. In his blog post, MacLeod suggests that sincere gift giving leads to successful social media marketing. In his case, the gifts are his cartoons but that got me wondering how this could apply to the orchestra business…

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San Antonio Announces New Music Director SPOILER!

The San Antonio Symphony (SAS) plans on announcing their new music director today at 10:30am CT but one of Adaptistration’s moles inside the organization has gone to great lengths to leak the name in advance of the announcement. As is the trend, the SAS opted for a young conductor; someone with boundless energy who isn’t afraid to teeter on a ledge to get the most out of ensemble. Adaptistration has obtained confidential video of the young dynamo in action. Read on for the spoiler announcement…

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Alex Ross Is Absolutely Right

The 2/3/2010 edition of the New Yorker published a piece by Alex Ross that examines attendance trends throughout the nonprofit performing arts. Unlike most of the shoulder shrugging set in this field, Ross decides to look at the issues in practical terms and concludes that in order to begin attracting members from Generation X to replace those from previous generations, it will take far more direct contact and one-on-one efforts. I couldn’t agree more…

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