Regardless of your view on whether or not the average ticket price at professional US orchestras is an accurate representation of the overall experience’s value or is artificially inflated to help pad earned income shortfalls (or a little of Column A and a little of Column B), Joe Patti presented a fascinating point of view on all of this at Butts In The Seats in a post from 1/18/2012. Whether intended or not, Patti presents a potentially useful option to help groups take a permanent step back from current pricing levels without looking like they’ve been gouging ticket buyers all along.
Science Schmience: Violinists Blast Holes In Violin Experiment
Since the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published a paper titled Player preferences among new and old violins which chronicles their experiment during the Violin Competition of Indianapolis from September, 2010 the results have received a good bit of attention. Initial reactions were mostly positive but that ended up being short-lived honeymoon.
"Do Some Orchestras Exaggerate Their Financial Position For Negotiation Leverage?"
A blogging colleague sent me an email last week asking the question in today’s title: “Do some orchestras exaggerate their financial position for negotiation leverage?” The smart alec in me wanted to write back with the following single sentence response: “Does a bear blog in the woods?” But thankfully my conscience kicked in and reminded me that (fortunately) not everyone is so jaded and I shouldn’t be such a schmuck.
“Do Some Orchestras Exaggerate Their Financial Position For Negotiation Leverage?”
A blogging colleague sent me an email last week asking the question in today’s title: “Do some orchestras exaggerate their financial position for negotiation leverage?” The smart alec in me wanted to write back with the following single sentence response: “Does a bear blog in the woods?” But thankfully my conscience kicked in and reminded me that (fortunately) not everyone is so jaded and I shouldn’t be such a schmuck.
NEC Cuts Zander Loose
An associated Press article from 1/12/2012 reports that the New England Conservatory of Music (NEC) announced that it had removed Benjamin Zander from all positions associated with the school. What brought additional attention to the issue was the information provided by NEC that it “had disciplined a faculty member who retained a videographer he knew was a registered sex offender to record rehearsals and performances of preparatory school students over the past decade.”