In Toronto, There’s No More Snooze Bar On The Diversity Alarm

by

There’s a wonderful article in the 5/25/2018 edition of Ludwig-van.com that serves as a sort of cautionary tale about the disconnect between what an organization says is important and its quantifiable actions on the matter. The article, by Michael Vincent, reports the Canadian Opera Company (COC) and Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO) will see $100,000 CAD and $50,000 CAD respectfully cut from their Toronto city government funding. The decision to reduce their …

Read more

A Quick Update On The Upcoming Seattle Pension Article

by
Adaptistration People 087

A number of readers have written in to ask about the deep dive into Seattle Symphony Orchestra’s (SSO) new musician retirement plan and the process used for the migration. Thanks to some fortuitous scheduling, I’ll have the opportunity to sit down with some of the SSO’s stakeholders face to face for an interview. To take advantage of that benefit, it meant pushing the publication back a bit to accommodate the June …

Read more

Happy Memorial Day!

by
Adaptistration People 118

Whether you’re home all day enjoying the holiday with family and friends or your orchestra is putting on a performance today, try to take a few moments to remember the reason for the holiday. Band Facts              

Top-Tier Musician Compensation 2018

by

It’s time to revisit base musician compensation levels at the top eight highest paying orchestras. For a number of these orchestras, the 2017/18 season marks the end of their existing collective bargaining agreement (CBA) and they have yet to ratify a new contract. In each of those instances, the outcomes will have a large impact on what many orchestra musicians consider their organization’s ability to compete for the best on-stage talent. …

Read more

#TBT Commencement Season

by
Adaptistration People 150

It’s that time of year when colleges are sending their recent crop of graduates into the great unknown and that means commencement speeches. Based on experience, I try to avoid commencement speeches but every now and then, something really special turns up. Case in point, I posted something back in 2012 about Neil Gaiman’s Commencement Speech at the University of the Arts: Make. Good. Art. Fortunately, there’s an excellent quality video …

Read more