Governance

Quality Is Still King And Yes, People Know The Difference

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Adaptistration People 008

There’s an intriguing article in the 1/28/2015 edition of the Chicago Tribune by Chris Jones (h/t You’ve Cott Mail) that examines the resurgence of suburban theater in the greater Chicago area. Among the reasons Jones’ lists for their recovery is a new dedication to quality, such as reversing trends toward using synthesized or recorded music accompaniment along with a migration from the for profit to nonprofit business model. After years of …

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Risk, Return, And Responsibility: An Opera In One Unnatural Act

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The 8/6/2014 edition of New York Times published an article by Anthony Tommasini titled “Let’s Talk About Risk at the Metropolitan Opera” and from a perspective limited purely to the confines of traditional music criticism, it’s a pretty good article. Regrettably, that’s one of the least useful perspectives to evaluate risk as it applies to the business of arts so it seems poignant to take a moment to expand the conversation. …

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The Death Of Ethics

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Dark

Last week’s orchestra compensation reports produced one of the most troubling instances in its nearly decade long history by way of discovering the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) implemented a policy designed to obfuscate their music director compensation. Moreover, when asked about the compensation data, the DSO refused to release the information, even though their music director provided his employer with permission to do exactly that. For the sake of perspective, the …

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Alex Ross Couldn’t Be More Right (again)

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ADAPTISTRATION-GUY-003

The 6/25/2014 edition of The New Yorker published an article by Alex Ross which examines the Metropolitan Opera’s (Met) ongoing “Klinghoffer” saga. Ross adds yet one more prominent voice of reason to the growing chorus of negative feedback surrounding the Met’s series of executive decisions that produced their decision to cancel the opera’s broadcasts. At the same time, Ross adds an additional bit of observational insight that connects “Klinghoffer” with the …

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More Pushback Against A Surprise Shutdown Announcement

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ADAPTISTRATION-GUY-083

In early May, 2014 the Green Bay Symphony Orchestra (GBSO) board of directors announced their decision to shut down the institution after the 2014/15 season. The board has held firm to that decision in the wake of patron support efforts to convince them otherwise but now some of the GBSO musicians are publicly resisting the effort. The 5/27/2014 edition of the Green Bay Press-Gazette published an article by Paul Srubas that …

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