I am officially declaring defeat on finding a pair of CEO guests to for the executive decision maker installment of the series of podcasts I was doing about what orchestras of all budget size should be considering when planning for post-COVID concert activity.
It is genuinely disappointing to see that this is such a third-rail topic among executives and if nothing else, that should raise the alert level among musician stakeholders.
Fortunately, artistic decision makers and musicians were entirely willing to engage these challenging questions head-on and you can benefit from their candor in both Shop Talk episodes on this topic. If you’re a musician who is concerned about injury due to the physical demands of overly demanding programming, you need to approach your committee to see what they are doing to make sure it isn’t a concern. Because even if executives aren’t comfortable addressing the issue publicly, they can’t ignore an orchestra committee knocking on their door asking about it.
If you've been watching any of the early efforts from orchestras experimenting with socially distanced concerts, you've probably noticed that on-stage musicians are wearing…