Commentary

Another Step Toward Monetizing Socially Distanced In-Person Concert Events

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Jim Farber has been following classical music organizations making the leap from testing free in-person socially distanced events to those that are strictly admission based. His latest article in the 9/14/2020 edition of the sfcv.org examines Mainly Mozart’s efforts over the summer that have evolved into a sort of live concert terrarium testing environment. The article takes a look at the efforts from business, artistic, and operations perspectives. The organization plans …

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CAMI’s Closure Isn’t A Canary In The Coal Mine Event

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Late last week, Columbia Artists Management Inc. (CAMI) announced that after 90 years it was shutting down. Any time a company with such a long history and prominent influence in the field shuts down is an event of note. Having said that, it shouldn’t be interpreted as the canary in the coal mine event I’m seeing in some social media discussions and classical music outlets. What I’m about to provide is …

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Remember That Time When Plácido Said He Accepted Full Responsibility For His Actions?

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After multiple accusations and two formal investigations found a large number of sexual harassment allegations were credible, opera star Plácido Domingo issued multiple apologies. Back in February, I wrote “only time will tell if Domingo decides to make a tangible connection between regret and contrition” and as it turns out, it didn’t take much time at all to find out we shouldn’t expect much for either. This week, Domingo came out …

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Those Soft Landings Are A Sharp Double Edged Sword In Disguise

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Joe Patti published a fascinating piece based on something from Vu Le about the notion of soft landings for executive leaders. While I read Le’s post when it came, but I didn’t consider writing anything about it until seeing it through Patti’s lens. In a nutshell, the “soft landing” concept here applies to the way conservatives (yes, in the political sense) approach caring for executive leaders. Le provides a pretty succinct …

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It’s Time To Get Political

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Now that the national election appears to be on in earnest, it’s time for arts advocacy groups and arts supporters to begin holding elected officials accountable for their position on the arts and arts funding. It’s no secret where the current administration stands on the arts: with its figurative shoe planted on its throat. Consequently, that choice should be self-evident. But there are plenty of other political races to watch, such …

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