Drew McManus on the orchestra business.
I’m off to Caracas for a few days for my excellent Venezuelan adventure (details of which were posted a few days ago). If I can wrangle some internet access while I’m away I’ll post a play by play of the events. I received a note from Ben Zander, who is already on site, this morning telling me that I can’t expect what’s about to hit me. He described the classical music …
Following the article from 6/13/05 about musician tenure and artistic review issues, I received a flurry of email on the subject. Most of it was from musicians, ranging from those just entering the business to seasoned veterans.
After going through all of the messages there was a central theme beginning to emerge which nearly every responder touched on; preventing the need for artistic review related arbitration in the first place.
Starting Thursday, I’ll be away for several days as I’ve been invited to Caracas, Venezuela to follow Benjamin Zander and the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra at the New England Conservatory as they perform along side the Venezuelan National Youth Orchestra. Although the trip has been put together last minute, I’m fully expecting it to be a very rewarding experience. Furthermore, the trip should produce some timely follow up material to the articles about …
The Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony’s new “merit based pay” structure is something that has caught the attention of a few managers and musicians alike here in the U.S. Initial word of the deal came out several weeks ago and the most recent article in the 6/12/05 edition of the New York Times by Makiko Inoue reveals a few new details.
Charles Noble, the Oregon Symphony’s assistant principal viola, has a beef with newspapers who think “viola” is a typo. At his blog, he points out one of the latest offenses by from the Minnesota Star Tribune, who called violist Sam Bergman (Art’s Journal’s very own news editor) a violinist. I think the problem demonstrates just how much orchestras are removed from the cultural consciousness. Either way, it’s another example of just …