Poll: What Do You Think About The Numbers Of Students Graduating With Music Performance Degrees

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Last Friday’s April Fool’s post was a genuine hit but it seemed to simultaneously hit a few nerves. In particular, a number of reader replies (especially via email and social media) touched on issues related to the sheer volume of students produced by conservatories and schools of music vs. existing and potential job/opportunity capacity throughout the field. There’s no shortage on discussion about concerns over the music performance graduates vs. opportunity …

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Sometimes I Scare Myself

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I’m honored and humbled to be at the center of Joe Patti’s 58/2013 Butts In The Seats article titled “It Only Appears A Mockery of Reality” where he harkens back to a series of Adaptistration posts from 2004 and 2006. Patti drills down on a series of Mock Negotiation exercises I conducted for the MBA students from the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Bolz Center for Arts Administration and Eastman School of Music’s …

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No Love Lost

When it comes to attention grabbing headlines, Norman Lebrecht has a particular gift and he posted a doozy on 5/3/2012 at Slipped Disc that makes it plain as day how he feels about Tony Woodcock, President of the New England Conservatory of Music (NEC) and the institution’s recent decision to renew his contract.

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Should I Take The Louisville Audition?

The latest round of talks in the Louisville Orchestra (LO) labor dispute has produced no changes in the standoff. According to the 11/16/2011 edition of the Louisville Courier-Journal in an article by Elizabeth Kramer, the musicians unanimously rejected management’s latest offer.

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It’s Time For Academia To Remove The Rose Tinted Glasses

The 3/8/2009 edition of the Chicago Tribune published an article by Howard Reich that reports on the continued rise in applicants to music schools across the country. Based on a wide variety of quotes from a broad cross section of music school administrators the article paints an idyllic picture of opportunities that await graduates but the simple fact is these institutions continue to earn a failing grade at adequately preparing students for the realities of a career in this business…

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