Guest Posts

Building Concert Halls, Part 2: Well-worn paths to failure

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Adaptistration People 016

Performing arts venues are built for a variety of reasons, artistic, social, and political. Their operational success can often be predicted by how these reasons are prioritized. Halls built primarily for political reasons such as prestige and civic pride sometimes overlook basic needs and desires of performers and audiences in favor of some grand architectural monument representing civic identity. These are the halls I sometimes describe as being built from the …

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Building Concert Halls, Part 1: What makes a great concert hall?

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Adaptistration People 016

In 2002 my company, Akustiks, was hired to design a new concert hall for the Nashville Symphony Orchestra. The orchestra had been playing for many years in a large multi-purpose theater under the direction of Maestro Kenneth Schermerhorn. Increasing difficulties in scheduling the theater to accommodate what was becoming a full-time orchestra in part led to the realization that if the orchestra was to reach its potential, a new home would …

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An Insider’s Look At The Classical Music Recording Business

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While I’m away on business, I asked Sean Hickey, National Sales & Business Development Manager Naxos of America, Inc., to step in as a guest author and write something about classical music and the recording business. I’m pleased to say that he accepted the invitation and delivered some thought provoking perspective from his position within Naxos and as a composer ~ Drew McManus…

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An Insider’s Look Into Shop Talk

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Ever since this blog launched in 2003, readers have always been more inclined to share thoughts via private email. Even though those exchanges regularly contain insightful content, their very nature prohibits public consumption. Nonetheless, guest blogger Chris Blair and I ended up having a fascinating exchange in the process of determining whether or not Chris would participate in this year’s guest blogging and ultimately, Chris decided that sharing the email exchange was in and of itself, a good guest author post…

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Educating for the Orchestra of the Future

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Anyone attending the League of American Orchestra’s recent conference in Atlanta was surely struck by the industry’s determination to adapt and change. At the opening “Orchestra R/Evolution” session, attendees were polled and not a single vote supported the status quo. Russell Willis Taylor general session keynote the next day, “There Are No Crises, Only Tough Decisions,” took the reverse approach, lecturing attendees ironically on the best strategies for going out of business and fast.

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