Artistic Administration

Context, Urtext, Or Just Plain Perplexed?

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Ron Spigelman managed to churn up the cultural blogging waters a bit in a recent post entitled It needs to be about CONTEXT not URTEXT!!!! wherein he pushes some tried and true artistic hot buttons. Nothing inspires passionate debate (A.K.A raises the hackles) quite like discussions of artistic nature and the comment thread has taken a life of its own (and includes input from several well known cultural bloggers). Give the …

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Concessionary News From Baltimore

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The 3/25/2010 edition of the Baltimore Sun includes an article by Tim Smith that reports on the recent concessionary contract between the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) and its musicians. According to the article, the base musician salary will drop 16.6 percent to $67,600, “essentially the same as it was in 2001.” But what’s really interesting is some of the information Smith will almost certainly address in subsequent articles once the BSO releases additional information; such as details surrounding a new post-conservatory Fellows program…

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When Is The Philadelphia Orchestra Not The Philadelphia Orchestra?

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Most folks have likely noticed the news about the Philadelphia Orchestra musicians accepting pay and hiring freezes for most positions along with some hefty pension concessions. The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Peter Dobrin reports on those concessions in an article from 2/27/2010. In and of itself, there’s nothing remarkable here; the Philadelphia players are mirroring what their colleagues elsewhere are doing by accepting concessions that help reduce immediate financial pressure. What is of interest is this nugget buried at the bottom of the article…

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When Did “Older” And “Exciting” Become Mutually Exclusive?

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Since publishing yesterday’s post about the Boston Globe article examining the New Hampshire Music Festival’s abandoned plans to revamp the festival’s artistic structure, the Globe article has been attracting some fascinating comments. One theme throughout those comments is the notion that younger musicians equal exciting performances. Some comments replying to that sentiment supported the notion that musicians get lazy, sloppy, and lackluster with age and subsequent complaints from these musicians are …

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Yep, Process Still Matters

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All things being equal, something like this might have slipped by under the radar but thanks to the Boston Globe’s Geoff Edgers, events at the New Hampshire Music Festival (NHMF) have taken center stage. According to Edgers’ article from the 1/11/2010 edition, the NHMF’s board and administrative leadership attempted to implement sweeping changes that were the result of re-conceptualizing the artistic model…

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