Year: 2020

Colorado Springs Philharmonic Decided To Follow The Path of Louisville, c. 2011

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In 2011, the Louisville Orchestra had the dubious distinction of becoming the first professional US orchestra to attempt to cancel the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) and replace those employees with replacement musicians. It didn’t end well. The orchestra’s executive leadership took a beating in the court of public opinion and the dismissed musicians and their union colleagues across the country managed to hold firm. Along with their supporters, they managed to …

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You Want Me To Do What With My Data?

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I was all kinds of excited to see the latest post from Joe Patti at ArtsHacker. The title alone triggers one of my biggest pet peeves: Yes, Data Driven Decision Making. But What Data Is Important?. It’s exactly the right question and at the core of a conference session I present on this very topic. Seeing the reference to vanity data was especially nice. The most valuable data for an organization …

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Get Early Access With A Subscription

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Tuesdays are working out as a great option for publishing new episodes of Shop Talk but who doesn’t love getting to watch programs early? To that end, for those interested in getting access to episodes a day early, you can become a subscriber at Shop Talk’s YouTube channel. Subscribe Adding subscribers will also open up some features once we reach a point where we introduce some livestream specials.

Shop Talk S01E04: Fostering BIPOC And Women Composers

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Who says COVID shutdowns mean you can’t have a new music workshop? Nonsense! Necessity is the mother of invention and in this installment of Shop Talk we sit down with the trio of big musical brains responsible for putting together The Great Plains Composition Workshop at the Wichita Symphony Orchestra (WSO), which reached out to BIPOC/women/underrepresented people to apply. And boy did they… Attendees worked directly with today’s podcast guests: Emmy-nominated …

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Even More Research Into Making Concert Halls Safe

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There’s a fascinating interview in the 9/25/2020 edition of KUER.com, NPR Utah, where host Caroline Ballard examines a recently completed project by a team at the University of Utah led by scientists Tony Saad and James Sutherland that studied Abravanel Hall’s airflow to help identify risk for musicians in the Utah Symphony. You can listen to the full interview at the radio station’s website, but a few bits that jumped out …

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