Shop Talk S02E01: Navigating COVID Era Agreements

Season 2 comes out of the gate at full speed and my captivating guests include a group of stakeholders from the Toledo Symphony Orchestra who were brave enough to talk about one of my absolute favorite topics: contracts. More to the point we talked about how this orchestra went about navigating the waters of COVID era agreements. We all know about the organizations that decided to shut down and force as …

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Shop Talk S01E16: Academia/Pro Divide

“I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I ended up where I needed to be.” That’s one of my favorite lines from Douglas Adams’ Dirk Gently series and it’s a perfect way to describe my conversation with guests Eric Esparza and Michael Lewanski. We started off talking about the academia/pro divide but that ended up evolving into an even more fascinating conversation about the double standard that …

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Shop Talk S01E15: Musician Injuries Could Soar After COVID: Musician Perspective

This is the second in a series of podcasts focusing on the topic of what orchestras of all budget size should be considering when planning for post-COVID concert activity. This installment focuses on what musicians think so I invited a trio from each major section of an orchestra: strings, brass, and winds. Guests Jon Boen, Catherine Chen, and Yumi Hwang-Williams, talk about their views on the topic. It is an all …

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Shop Talk S01E14: Musician Injuries Could Soar After COVID: Artistic Decision Makers Perspective

This is the first in a series of podcasts focusing on the topic of what orchestras of all budget size should be considering when planning for post-COVID concert activity. This installment gets right to the heart matter by talking to artistic decision makers. Guests Tito Muñoz, Phoenix Symphony Music Director, and Jennifer Arnold, Richmond Symphony Director of Artistic Planning and Operations, talk about their views on the topic. It is an …

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Shop Talk; Last Call: Nothing A Little Property Damage Can’t Fix

When I invited guests David MacDonald and Sam Merciers to do the show I knew we had to set aside some time to talk about their groundbreaking  SoundNotion podcast series, which ran from 2010-2016. It’s the perfect topic for Last Call in that it’s loaded with just the right amount of fun and meta that everyone feels like an insider. If you aren’t already familiar with SoundNotion, it was a podcast …

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