Drew McManus on the orchestra business.
I had the pleasure of chatting with Cathy Wurzer on Minnesota Public Radio’s Morning Edition to discuss the recent Minnesota Orchestra Association (MOA) and St. Paul Chamber Orchestra (SPCO) labor disputes and what might be needed in order to bring about some positive change. Given the level of public rancor between each group and its respective musicians, it seems as though things are going to get worse before they get better. …
It appears that the Spokane Symphony Orchestra (SSO) and its musicians reached an agreement thereby ending a month long strike. Details are slim; the SSO press statement and the musicians’ website announced that a deal was struck but neither sources provide data. However, the 12/5/2012 edition of The Spokesman-Review published an article by Chelsea Bannach that reports the agreement will last for two years and includes an 11 percent reduction in …
My Inside the Arts blogging colleague, conductor Bill Eddins, recently reminded me why it’s wonderful to be associated with a collection of sharp, insightful authors. Eddins published an article at Sticks and Drones on 12/3/12 that appears to be his final word on the Minnesota Orchestra Association (MOA) labor dispute. His sayonara post is brutally honest, yet brilliantly written, advice and insight for each of the intuition’s stakeholders. One aspect Eddins …
They say there’s no such thing as bad press but the Palm Beach Symphony (PBS) might be testing that adage in the wake of a 12/2/2012 article in the Palm Beach Daily News by Jan Sjostrom that reports the orchestra is once again at the center of a labor controversy. The last time the PBS found itself in the hot seat was toward the end of the 2011-12 season when a …
The economic downturn doesn’t appear to be having much impact on nonprofit thieving. Last week the Woodruff Arts Center (WAC), parent organization of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO), announced that they paid nearly $1.5 million to a fake company for more than five years and it just so happens that the company was connected to a former employee. In English, that means WAC had an embezzler in their midst for half …