Drew McManus on the orchestra business.
When it comes to planning orchestra concerts there’s a tremendous amount of logistics involved and the more venues an orchestra utilizes, the more plans need to be reviewed. As a result, one issue which appears to fall through the cracks at a number of organizations is on site review, which entails reviewing first hand the acoustic and logistical issues of each individual location. Most organizations do a decent job of reviewing …
The Boston Globe published an article today by Indira A. R. Lakshmanan about the remarkable work which is going on in Venezuela. Indira was along for the first few days of the same trip I recently attended (although Indira left just as I was coming in). It’s an excellent article which provides anyone with the fundamental information necessary to begin building a picture of what’s happening over there. In addition to …
It seems there’s an even wider range of opinion about Blair Tindall’s book than I originally thought. After posting yesterday’s article I received a digital avalanche of email messages from people in, out, around, and withdrawn from the music business. Many of the notes were filled with sincere feelings about the place of sex and this business and there were many intriguing points I had not previously considered. For example, one …
I’ve received some intriguing email from people in the business about Blair Tindall’s new book, Mozart in the Jungle. What makes the email intriguing is the wide variety of responses; it ranges from shock and anger to unrestrained giddiness. For those unfamiliar with the book, Blair discusses obtaining playing jobs throughout New York City in bed. The UK paper, the Times, quoted a passage from Blair’s book which consciously sums it …
It’s not an uncommon practice for orchestras to subcontract out the services of their ensemble to the local opera companies. Orchestras from smaller budget ROPA ensembles, like Richmond (VA) through larger ICSOM groups, like St. Louis, do it on a regular basis. However, what works in one locale does not necessarily transfer equally to another. Most organizations attempt to make the relationship as symbiotic as possible, but that’s not always how …