Drew McManus on the orchestra business.
If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a hundred times: Joe Patti doesn’t seem to be capable of writing a bad blog post. Cases in point, two of his recent posts rise to the level of must-read status. The first article went up at his blog, Butts In The Seats, and it addresses one of my growing pet peeves as of late in the form of poorly written job descriptions …
There’s a fascinating article by Peter Dobrin in the 10/18/2015 edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer that casts a frank eye toward the orchestra’s current state of strategic limbo. There are a number of thoughtful items but one in particular jumped out; specifically, the issue of what the orchestra does with musicians that no longer play at the level of necessary artistic excellence. I’d have a little more sympathy for the players’ …
Among the wave of trends following the economic downturn, moving performance events outside traditional venues is among the more popular. Groups are practically tripping over themselves to set up performances in coffee shops, bars, shopping malls, street corners, mass transit stations, and schools. You’ll even find groups using Semi Trucks, barges, and gargantuan circus tents but in the rush to get out of the concert hall, it is becoming increasingly common …
One area where social media has blogs beat is facilitating discussion; case in point, I posted a question to friends and colleagues yesterday via Facebook soliciting insight on an artistic programming related question and the replies that came back were as thoughtful as they were thought provoking. The discussion thread is fascinating thanks to the diversity of perspectives; artists, managers, listeners, conductors, etc. and it never ceases to amaze me how …
Mark MacNamara published an interesting interview with Louisville Orchestra music director Teddy Abrams in the 8/26/15 edition of San Francisco Classical Voice where the conductor advocated for a full time composition staff within existing Us orchestra organizational structure. “All major arts organizations should not only have musicians on staff but there should also be a department of composition; people who are composing for the moment…Just imagine the difference if symphonies provided …