Drew McManus on the orchestra business.
Joining the discussions surrounding the Take a Friend to Orchestra program in May is none other than William Eddins, the newly appointed music director for the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. Bill is a rising start in the world of conducting, and he has a sincerely unique outlook on the future of classical music. There have been numerous articles in the media throughout the U.S. and Canada about Bill in recent months; …
Times are tough all over for orchestras, and not just in America. A recent article in Deutsche Welle reports the Berlin Symphonic Orchestra closed up shop after they failed to secure some last minute funding from government sources. The article goes on to report that the orchestra managers attempted to raise funds privately but were unsuccessful in their attempts. The most striking part of the article is the final sentence, “The …
There’s a big fuss brewing in Oregon over an the issue of artistic review. If you’re not familiar with that concept and how it relates to orchestras, it’s the process whereby a tenured musician can lose their job due to artistic reasons (their playing isn’t as good as it should be). In short, it’s how orchestras rid themselves of players who have, for whatever reason, lost it. I know most people …
I published an article today at The Partial Observer which examines some of the fundamental purpose behind the importance of enabling patrons to help cultivate the audience of tomorrow. A number of contributions from the special guest writers have begun arriving at my email door and I have to say they are really top notch pieces, much better than I even knew they would be. If, after hearing from these folks, …
One of the chief complaints I have about this business is its apparent inability to establish an appropriate frame of reference. For example, things change slowly in the world of orchestra management, so slowly that it seems like even an evolutionary timeline measures change in smaller intervals. Adequate levels of adaptation have been absent for so long that even the slightest introduction of change is heralded by some as “significant progress”. …