Year: 2021

Why Orchestras Plan So Far In Advance

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During my unexpected week off, Joshua Kosman published an article at datebook.sfchronicle.com that cast an eye toward the way orchestras approach programming at the onset of the last century. In a nutshell, seasons weren’t planned years in advance and programming choices happened within the current season. Kosman suggested this is exactly the approach organizations should adopt in a post-COVID environment. He included support for the idea from none other than San …

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Shop Talk; Last Call: Nothing A Little Property Damage Can’t Fix

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When I invited guests David MacDonald and Sam Merciers to do the show I knew we had to set aside some time to talk about their groundbreaking  SoundNotion podcast series, which ran from 2010-2016. It’s the perfect topic for Last Call in that it’s loaded with just the right amount of fun and meta that everyone feels like an insider. If you aren’t already familiar with SoundNotion, it was a podcast …

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The Latest In The Met’s Labor Problems

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Just a quick pointer today to Norm Lebrechet’s Slippedisc where he published a letter from Metropolitan Opera General Manager Peter Gelb to the union orchestra musicians. Along with Gelb’s letter is a reply from the Local union president Adam Krauthammer. We’ll examine both early next week.

Gelb’s Puzzling Threshold For “Best Relationships”

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The Associated Press published an article on 1/28/2021 by Ronald Blum that examines The Metropolitan Opera’s finances. Nutshell: they saw the same drop in earned income other groups are experiencing but offset that in part by increased unearned income. In and of itself, there’s nothing remarkable there but what should catch your eye is the spin Met general manager Peter Gelb put on that story. “The good news is that we’ve managed …

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Shop Talk S01E13: Composers In Academia

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Guests David MacDonald and Sam Merciers swing by the pod to talk about composers and academia. A fast paced conversation, we cover the intersection of technology and music, how career paths for composers are evolving,  ethical concerns around accepting students into composing degree programs, and more. We wrap up the episode with a bit of visioning and I ask both guests if there was one thing you could change about the relationship …

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