Commentary

#TBT: Maybe It Wasn’t A Joke After All

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Recently, a reader reached out with an ironic life imitating art observation that connects the whole Juilliard student protests in response to tuition increases with an April Fool’s post here from 2018. The gag focused on a tongue-in-cheek music conservatory, “Juiliard Institute” (spelling error intentional), that started offering students financial aid with repayment in the form of securing a percentage of their future earnings. New Tuition Assistance Program Aspires To Reinvent Escalating …

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Colorado Springs Discord Continues

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The Colorado Springs Philharmonic Orchestra (CSPO) labor dispute continues with little change from where they were months ago. What this means is while other orchestras are tooling back up for performance activity and moving ahead, the CSPO continues to shrink in their rearview mirror. While both sides in the dispute remain in arbitration, there is no progress to report. What has changed is an increase in local attention where KKTV recently …

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More On The Dynamic Impact Of COIVD

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Usually, these posts focus on how the pandemic generates dynamic expenses and considerations for the organization but today we’re going to focus on musicians; specifically, string musicians. This dynamic cost consideration is really more of a double-edged sword. On one hand, if a string musician was playing considerably less over the pandemic, the need for regular maintenance items like changing strings or getting bows rehaired has been lower. At the same …

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Good Problems To Have

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The more attention we focus on the processes used to enter the post-pandemic period of concert activity, the better. Case in point, there’s an excellent article from Jim Farber in the 5/24/2021 edition of San Francisco Classical Voice that includes interviews with the CEOs from New York Philharmonic and San Francisco Symphony about how both groups are approaching the return to more in-person events. A few things caught my eye such …

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Back In The In-Person Concert Saddle

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Over the weekend, I attended my first in-person orchestra concert in 15 months and the experience was fantastic. To a large degree, the entire experience reinforced what I have been hoping would be the case in that there are opportunities and advantages connected to socially distanced concert events. This was my first time attending a South Bend Symphony concert. The program included Beethoven Symphony No. 5 and The Rose of Sonora, …

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