Special Mid-Day Update: News From Detroit

The Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) released a bevy of PR content this afternoon following today’s annual meeting. There aren’t any surprises but if there are any quick and dirty key points to take away from the DSO’s meeting recap and a letter from the DSO Executive Committee to the Board it is this: we have no plans to cut our executive loose and we are not backing down

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Riots And Grand Resignations

Here in the US, arts cuts play out far too often as stereotypical management vs. labor dramas. But in Europe, they take a different approach to dealing with perceived bean-counting decision making. Two items of note, from Estonia and Italy, are worth particular attention…

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The Fast Track To Getting Typecast

Last week’s article that focused on comments made by Joe Horowitz to WDET News has generated a great deal of thoughtful, and sometimes verbose, feedback, including two comments from Horowitz. Horowitz also posted an article on 12/5/2010 more at his own blog and to date, the trio of comments to that post have been short of sympathetic…

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Slatkin Speaks (sorta)

The 12/3/2010 edition of the Detroit Free Press published an article by Mark Stryker that reports Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) music director, Leonard Slatkin, referenced the two month old strike in a piece he wrote for his website, leonardslatin.com. Slatkin starts out by writing “Weather forecast. Stormy with little chance of sun. Temperatures remain chilly throughout the month. Expect a break in the clouds if the pressure lets up.”…

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Louisville Bankruptcy Has All Eyes On January 6th

On Friday, 12/3/2010 the Louisville Orchestra (LO) announced that it filed for Chapter 11 (reorganization) bankruptcy stating that it seeks to break its collective bargaining agreement with the musicians. According to a press statement, the LO acknowledges that the “musicians may not be able to agree to voluntarily restructure the Orchestra” but the players won’t be the only voice in the bankruptcy proceedings…

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