Year: 2020

Perspective And Pushback To Tommasini’s Commentary On Blind Auditions

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The 9/10/2020 edition of New York Times published a follow-up article to the opinion piece written by Anthony Tommasini in paper’s 7/16/2020 publication. The follow-up is intriguing in that if contains several noteworthy perspectives. The best rejoinders came from groups of respondents. The first, Weston Sprott (recent Shop Talk guest), Alex Laing, Joy Payton-Stevens, and Titus Underwood. It does a superb job at poking holes in the idea that auditions, and …

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Indianapolis Symphony Reaches Short Term Deal

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When we last examined the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra (ISO) back in July 2020, things were looking grim; the current collective bargaining agreement (CBA) was expiring in a few months and there was a protracted dispute over back pay and health care benefits. Since then, the organization announced cancelling the entire 20/21 season and fast forward a few weeks and we have a new one-year agreement that covers the length of the …

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Woo-Hoo Early Studies Support Digital Content Value

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Now that groups have been experimenting with the world of digital content delivery, we’re starting to see initial studies emerge measuring effectiveness. Ceci Dadisman published an article at ArtsHacker that examines one such study from a special edition of Culture Track that demonstrates patrons find digital content to be valuable. She also examines some specific efforts from a variety of arts orgs. Yes, People Will Pay For Digital Content

After Five Months, Orchestra Stakeholders Have Seen Big Changes In Employment Status

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Since the onset of coronavirus related shutdowns, orchestras have been laying off and reducing hours for administrators and musicians alike. We started measuring that impact in April 2020 using a weekly poll and after five months, the field has experienced various degrees of retraction. Stakeholder Groups Administrators. This group includes all staffers and managers as well as music directors and other non-union artistic staff. Salaried Musicians. These musicians earn a fixed weekly …

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Happy Labor Day! If There Was Ever A Time To Get Your Binge On…

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Take a moment to treat yourself today and get to learn about ins and outs of orchestra management from a humorous perspective by binge-reading all 157 episodes of  Who’s Minding The Score?, a satirical cartoon that provides a behind the scenes look orchestra life. It’s the ideal way to spend some of your Labor Day, really, just take a look at some of these characters… [easy-tweet tweet=”I’m spending part of my Labor Day reading …

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