Drew McManus on the orchestra business.
Following the tradition of North American conductors changing their names to sound more European, conductor Osmo Vänskä announced he is changing his name to a series of emoji, the ideograms, or smileys, used in digital communication. “I got the idea while guest conducting in Japan,” explained Vänskä. “I had never seen emoji before but I was fascinated at all of these kids having entire conversations using nothing but those symbols. It …
You know it, you love, it, and it just isn’t the holiday season without it: The Messiah Organist On Crack. If this holiday classic is new to you, give it moment and hang in there until the end; I’m sure you’ll agree that it’s 0:43 of unfiltered Messiah goodness.
It has been 21 months since Paul Dixon inked the final entry in his weekly cartoon Who’s Minding The Score?, which chronicles the behind the scenes governance of the fictional Ft. Fitzer Philharmonic (FFP). Although it may come across as using absurdist humor to parody the complex issues related to contemporary orchestra governance, anyone with some insider perspective can pick out the strong threads of realism. In the end, that’s what …
In what might be one of the funniest things to hit the field since Ryan Gosling, Arts Administrator, an orchestra version of the long running Downfall meme hit YouTube on 10/11/2014. If you aren’t already in the know, the Downfall meme is a series of videos based on the climactic scene from the 2002 German film Der Untergang (Downfall), a movie about Traudl Junge, the final secretary for Adolf Hitler, recounts …
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) released a statement late last night announcing the search committee tasked with finding a replacement for outgoing President Deborah F. Rutter has secured a candidate months ahead of schedule. Beginning Monday, September 1, 2014, outgoing Minnesota Orchestra Association President & CEO Michael Henson will replace Deborh F. Rutter as the CSO’s new President & General Director. In a fortuitous turn of events, I ran into the …