Dear Mr. President

Dear Mr. President,

As your administration approaches the many challenges facing our country, I hope you will consider a bold program of cultural diplomacy as one answer to the problem of improving and maintaining international relations. In particular, I urge your administration to implement a widespread and fully sponsored international touring and residency campaign along with a variety of cultural exchange programs, all of which would involve a comprehensive collection of professional American orchestras.

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Yep, It’s Time For Conductor Finishing School

Holly Mulcahy published the first in a series of articles today entitled “How To Alienate Your Audience In 10 Easy Steps.” Although written from a satirical point of view, the article does an excellent job at identifying some of the fundamental problems that turn good conductors into not-so-good conductors, all of which leads to alienating the audience for classical music. The article reminded me of my time with the post-graduate orchestral conducting students at Arizona State University (ASU) in 2007 when we had a frank discussion about pitfalls that ensnare many conductors…

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Some Mid-Week Cross Blogging

The week has been filled with some excellent cross-blogging between a few of my Inside The Arts blogging neighbors. First off, Ron Spigelman offers some first-person perspective on the dynamic impact of the Kansas City Symphony (KCS) lawsuit on local Missouri orchestras. Next, Joe Patti posted a blog about the Yo-Yo Ma appearance on The Colbert Report a day before I posted yesterday’s poll (if you haven’t voted yet, there’s still time). I always enjoy Joe’s take on orchestra-centric stuff…

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The Nutrition Diva Has Entered The Building

Inside The Arts continues to grow and today marks the launch of its latest blog so welcome Monica Reinagel, the aka the Nutrition Diva™. Monica, a professional singer, board-certified Licensed Nutritionist, and professionally-trained chef offers advice and answers your questions about specific health and nutrition challenges faced by performing artists…

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The All New Inside The Arts

The Inside The Arts platform upgrade is almost entirely complete. Over the weekend, the redesigned Inside The Arts homepage was launched along with redesigned versions of non divisi and Scanning The Dial. Sticks and Drones as well as the Inside The Arts Podcasts will be completed in a few days and the all new Adaptistration will be launched by the end of September to coincide with the 2009 Orchestra Website Reviews. All of the redesigned blogs have enhanced usability and the Inside The Arts homepage now features an RSS feed for each week’s Noteworthy and Popular articles.

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