Drew McManus on the orchestra business.
At one point or another, we’ve probably all crossed paths with a fraud of a conductor; you know, the type who spends more time dancing on the podium and wallowing in baton shtick thinking it “looks good” rather than inspiring a stage full of musicians and serving as the catalyst for a transcending live concert experience. Fortunately, for those who may not be 100 percent certain, there’s now a quick and …
Amidst accusations of playing shell games with assets and failing to bargain in good faith, it looks like Delaware Symphony Orchestra (DSO) may manage to squeak out a 2013/2014 season. According to a few media reports, the DSO’s board chair, Tatiana Copeland, and AFM Local 21 Secretary/Treasurer, Glenn Finnan, hammered out a tentative agreement in face-to-face meetings, even after the DSO had already spent more than $60,000 in legal fees that …
Although not exactly a buzz cut compared to their peers, the musicians of the Oregon Symphony (OS) recently agreed to midterm amendment to their existing collective bargaining agreement that reportedly waives a lump sum end of season payment along with the planned 2.6 percent base salary increase for the 2013/14 season. The 5/28/2013 edition of The Oregonian published an article by David Stabler where the author describes the latest round of …
Last Sunday’s SoundNotion.tv program was a great deal of fun; as always, thanks to show co-hosts David, Patrick, and Tim for inviting me along for the fun. If you’re new to SoundNotion, the program is a weekly live video podcast on classical music news, discussion, analysis, and interviews with composers, performers, bloggers, and arts professionals. This installment covered a number of topics, but the primary thrust focused on the orchestra field, …
The Annual Orchestra Website Review examines more than 80 professional orchestras in the United States and Canada and rank them by a detailed series of quantitative criteria but due to Orchestra Crisis 2012/13 (details here) we had to postpone and scale back the reviews. As it turns out, the delay was fortuitous in that it set the stage for ideal timing to focus the review efforts exclusively on what is easily one of …