Drew McManus on the orchestra business.
The Partial Observer published an article of mine today which expands on the concept of whether or not there are limits to how much a community can support an orchestra. The piece examines how the past year’s round of negotiations and the current SLSO situation may be a preview of things to come.
Many readers took the time to respond to the questions posed in the article from December 30th, 2004. The vast majority of responses were related to the question, “Does owning and using these instruments make the NJSO better than or distinguish it from any other orchestra in the country?” Many of you answered the question not with a “yes” or “no” but instead took the time to convey what you do …
The recent decision by the Pittsburgh Symphony to cancel their planned European tour doesn’t come as a great surprise. It’s no secret the orchestra has been in the process of restructuring their finances in order to recover from some hefty losses as well as vamp for the required increase in pay for the musicians. Most of the people I talk to in this business tend to think Pittsburgh isn’t going to …
Due to the recent developments in Saint Louis I have been unable to finish an article about the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra-Axelrod deal. For all of the readers who have written in asking about it this week I sincerely apologize but stay tuned, it’s nearly finished and it will be published by next week. THANK YOU for your patience and enthusiasm!
It’s odd how things tend to work themselves out in this business. Yesterday the musicians of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike. However, being concerned about some timing issues regarding auditions scheduled for Monday, January 3 and Tuesday, January 4 they also approved having the musicians slotted to serve on the audition committees to continue working in order to not interrupt the audition. This gesture is …