Things That Make you Go “Buh?” NHMF

Thanks to an astute reader for posting a comment to yesterday’s article, pointing out an item of interest at the New Hampshire Music Festival (NHMF) website. The reader noticed that the NHMF website features a picture of Festival Director, Henry Fogel, on the home page along with a related press notice but there is no musician roster listed anywhere throughout the website. This touches on an old topic, dating all the way back to one of Adaptistration’s very first articles from 11/6/2003 titled I Go To The Symphony For Their Executive Director?

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When Did “Older” And “Exciting” Become Mutually Exclusive?

Since publishing yesterday’s post about the Boston Globe article examining the New Hampshire Music Festival’s abandoned plans to revamp the festival’s artistic structure, the Globe article has been attracting some fascinating comments. One theme throughout those comments is the notion that younger musicians equal exciting performances. Some comments replying to that sentiment supported the notion that musicians get lazy, sloppy, and lackluster with age and subsequent complaints from these musicians are …

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Yep, Process Still Matters

All things being equal, something like this might have slipped by under the radar but thanks to the Boston Globe’s Geoff Edgers, events at the New Hampshire Music Festival (NHMF) have taken center stage. According to Edgers’ article from the 1/11/2010 edition, the NHMF’s board and administrative leadership attempted to implement sweeping changes that were the result of re-conceptualizing the artistic model…

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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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