Month: November 2012

What’s A Music Director To Do?

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The 11/15/2012 edition of the Star-Tribune published an article by Graydon Royce which examines a letter written by Minnesota Orchestra music director Osmo Vänskä and addressed to the orchestra’s board and musicians. The Star-Tribune generously provided a copy of the letter, which contains a great deal of heartfelt anxiety from Vänskä about the current work stoppage and the orchestra’s future. What’s interesting about the Vänskä letter is how quickly both sides …

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Some Advance Hindsight For The Season Of Discontent

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When all is said and done and the field has moved past the conflicts defining the Season of Discontent, it will be surprising if hindsight doesn’t identify a profound and nearly universal lack of public relations and communication unpreparedness among musician stakeholders. To date, some efforts have been so ham-handed it’s akin to watching a trapped animal trash about in a net only to make their entanglement worse. To be clear …

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Irony, Thy Name Is Delta

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Renowned cellist and Inside The Arts author Lynn Harrell published an article yesterday that recounts a recent experience with Delta Airlines and their decision to excommunicate his cello from their frequent flyer program. Oh, they took away all of his miles too and banned him from ever joining the program again. It’s turned into a viral hit and since publishing the post, one of his eagle-eyed readers posted a comment mentioning …

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A Touching Veterans Day Story

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Although technically speaking, Veterans Day was yesterday there was a sincerely touching must-see feature on CNN that’s worth pointing out today. It is about US Army Col. Harold Van Heuvelen and the symphony he composed about WWII more than 60 years ago and was just recently premiered.

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