Drew McManus on the orchestra business.
Artist housing is a topic long time readers know we cover every few years and over all this time, the idea has yet to catch on. At the same time, the need for affordable musician housing at summer festivals and regional orchestras is stronger than ever. Having to rely on the largesse of patrons to provide housing is not a long-term solution and the latest jump in hotel and Airbnb rooms …
Sure, building a new hall is an exciting and terrifying endeavor that can propel an orchestra to new artistic levels and provide a venue that serves as one of the city’s crown jewels. But they never tell you about the bird cost. Case in point, the 5/13/2022 edition of The Tennessean published an article by Kirsten Fiscus that reports on the Nashville Symphony’s efforts to prevent migratory birds from roosting in …
Holly Mulcahy published an article at Neo Classical about audition requirements. It serves as a follow-up to something she wrote in 2018 on the topic and spoiler alert: not much has changed for the better. “Over the last four years, the social justice movement has had a positive influence on the way orchestras approach programming while some are producing DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) statements. As we head towards what we think is …
The ever thoughtful Joe Patti published one of those right topics and the right time posts at ArtsHacker that examines the value of thinking about updating your venue images now that we have some vaccinated light at the end of the pandemic tunnel. Even pre-Covid the general guidance for promotional images and text was to focus on the audience experience. Regardless of whether the venue you perform/show your work at is …
Following yesterday’s article that referenced per-service and salary-based musician employment, a number of readers reached out asking about the difference. To that end, I’m certainly guilty of assuming too much from time to time and this is decidedly one of those issues that can be very confusing if you aren’t already familiar with the distinction. What’s A Service? Within the context of professional orchestras, a service typically consists of one rehearsal …