Starting 9/28/2009, Inside The Arts will begin featuring a series of videos from Philadelphia Orchestra associate principal trumpet Jeff Curnow. A teaser of the new series, What’s Bothering Jeff?, went live yesterday and the good news is that being a trumpet geek is not a prerequisite for getting something out of his videos. Why should this concern you? You’ll just have to head over to Inside The Art’s home page to watch the video and find out…
Inside The Arts
Fun With Food Metaphors
Holly Mulcahy posted an intriguing piece earlier this week about the perils of program substitutions entitled Sorry, we’re fresh out of Mahler. The piece does an excellent job at expanding on some of the points covered in an article here from 9/3/2009 and one aspect I enjoyed most about Mulchay’s article is how it uses culinary metaphors. As an added bonus, there is a terrific comment thread that produces entirely useful considerations and straightforward solutions for any artistic administration department wrestling with issues related to budget shortfalls and programming changes…
Lynn Harrell Has Entered The Building
Inside The Arts continues to grow and today marks the launch of its latest blog so welcome Lynn Harrell, world renowned cello soloist. Lynn’s new blog, There’s Always Room For Cello, will serve as an outlet for him to share 40 years worth of experiences along with his observations and outlook on the rapidly changing world of classical music as well as serve as a conduit for regular interaction with readers through comments…
“A Ship Is Safe In Harbor, But That’s Not What Ships Are For.”
A short while ago, Joe Patti posed a question over at Butts In The Seats asking whether or not orchestras should confine their programming to just a few genres. The first thing that popped into my head when I read his original post was a quote from Mark Twain: “I was gratified to be able to answer promptly, and I did. I said I didn’t know.”
Why Do Orchestras Do That?
Joe Patti, my blogging cohort at Butts In The Seats, posted an open to the Inside The Arts bloggers that I think is best suited for just about anyone that has a connection to orchestras. Joe asks “Orchestras have some of the best trained and skilled musicians around. Why do they primarily confine themselves to a certain genre and periods of music? Why aren’t they playing all the best music out there? I know most groups have a pops series, but that still barely scratches the surface of the available material and it is separate from their main product. And really, why are the pops separate?”…