It’s an orchestra manager’s nightmare: when internal factions go to war over artistic issues and when it comes to a topic that’s sure to spark emotion in the office, it’s artistic control. Everyone wants to have dominant control over what’s performed and more often than not, front line managers get caught in the cross fire.
Artistic Administration
Audition At The O.K. Corral
On 5/27/2011, WQXR published an article by Corinne Ramey that examines when musician openings in orchestras go unfilled. Ramey does a great job at covering the issues related multiple season vacancies created by mutual agreement between the orchestra association and the musicians. At the same time, there are occasions when long term vacancies are the result of what are perhaps best described as the artistic equivalent of a Mexican Standoff…
A Bad Situation Ends Badly In Detroit
The brouhaha sounding violinist Sarah Chang’s recital at Orchestra Hall in Detroit came to an end when the soloist announced that she was cancelling due to private email messages that she characterized as crossing a line into physical threats and career intimidation. The Detroit Free Press reported the news in an article by Mark Stryker in an article published Sunday evening…
Labor Oversupply: Reversal To The Rule
The 7/5/2010 edition of the New York Times published an article by Dan Wakin that examined the uncharacteristically large number of section, fixed chair, and principal positions open among the largest budget US orchestras. What’s interesting here is the groups in Wakin’s article are destination level ensembles, meaning these are the orchestras where the very best musicians aspire to win a position, it won’t be surprising to see these groups adopt practices usually associated with labor shortages…
Artistic Quality And Dynamic Consequences
It is no secret that the field as a whole is working day by day to manage debt and maintain stability. At the same time, maintaining artistic quality in light of necessary budget cuts is a tight rope no one enjoys walking but it gets a little easier if everyone works together. Failing that, decisions with the best intentions and under the greatest pressures can produce dynamic consequences that end up making the cure worse than the disease…