Drew McManus on the orchestra business.
While I can let a number of habits slide when it comes to audience behavior, one that continuously drives me insane is when audience members talk during the event. Sure, announcements about silencing phones is common but I can’t recall the last time I heard one that included a STFU component. If nothing else, imagine the pre-concert message you could create by incorporating some of the stories musicians and staff have …
While discussion about musician stage dress, especially tuxedos, is nothing new that doesn’t mean the topic is stale. For example, most know that tuxedos have been a part of orchestra musician attire for a century, but how long has the tuxedo itself been around and why did orchestras adopt it? That critical point gets overlooked more often than not but violinist Holly Mulcahy decided to take a deep dive into the …
I want to toss out a short academic exercise in the form of thinking about how the ubiquitous curtain speech will fit into post-COVID concerts. Even before the shutdowns, curtain speeches were pushing the envelope of ticket buyer patience and starting to have a negative impact on the overall concert experience. At the same time, we all know why they exist. Those reasons will only be exacerbated in the wake of …
If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a dozen times, the ability to engage with readers on social media is a double-edged sword. Case in point, yesterday’s article about Jeremy Reynolds’ Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article on conductor body language produced a thought-provoking discussion thread yesterday…on my Facebook wall. That means even though the comment section at the blog post was digital crickets, things were hopping on my wall. Fortunately, I keep …
The 11/11/2019 edition of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has a terrific article by Jeremy Reynolds, who came up with the idea to have a body language expert examine orchestra conductors and provide feedback. It’s as interesting as you can imagine and a few steps short of what I would love to see next: observations of musicians and patrons during a live concert. While I get why something like this begins with music …