A Cautionary Tale And A Bad PR Look In One Ugly Package

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The 8/16/22 edition of the Buckeye Flame published an article by Ken Schneck that reports on a lawsuit filed against the Cleveland Orchestra (CO) and Business Administrators & Consultants Inc (BAC), CO’s contracted healthcare administrator, for discrimination after they refused to cover a necessary surgery. According to the plaintiff, Rem Wransky who works as a full stack developer for the orchestra, the organization denied her surgery because she is a trans woman. …

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That Hidden Bird Cost Will Get You Every Time

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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 …

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#TBT Just In Case You’ve Been Living Under A Rock, Plácido Domingo Is Back In The News

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At the end of last week, news broke about Plácido Domingo’s alleged ties to an Argentinian crime syndicate. Nutshell: law enforcement has wiretap recordings that include an individual they believe is Domingo making arrangements with a representative of the crime syndicate for a clandestine meeting with a sex worker. While Domingo is not being sought by Argentinian authorities, the individual on the phone call has been arrested and several other classical …

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Show Of Hands: Who Is Interested In On-Demand Ticket Printing?

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H/T Michael Granados for posting a link to a blog post by on-demand ticketing provider WW&L where they espouse the benefits of on-demand event ticketing. Nutshell: instead of paying for ticket printers, stock, and related labor costs, performing arts organizations can outsource the entire thing to a third-party provider. I’ve had a number of conversations with colleagues over the years about this idea and while there are a few groups like …

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When Orchestra And Chorus Policies Collide

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It was bound to happen. An orchestra’s guidelines requires as much masking for on stage musicians as possible. A chorus that operates as a separate entity has a different policy and refuses to wear masks. As a result, any works that require a chorus are removed from the program. An article by Peter Dobrin in the 8/19/2022 Philadelphia Inquirer reports on this exact scenario and to make matter even stickier, it …

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