Federal Oversight for Australian Orchestras

In Australia, the federal government recently began an audit to determine the financial viability and assess the board governance of their six state symphony and two pit orchestras. Furthermore, the audit will consider how the Australian government and orchestral groups can improve their relationship to ensure the long-term sustainability of Australia’s orchestras. This decision comes after several of their orchestras declared large operating deficits following a long period of financial health.  …

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Seeing Past The Anger

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I recently received a letter from a violist in a Texas orchestra who submitted their letter with the moniker “Pissed Off Violist”.  They had a great deal to rant about: Thank you for your multiple articles on the unbalanced salary issue with Executive Directors and Music Directors.  I am a violist in a medium sized full time orchestra and I resent not only the difference in my salary and our conductor …

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Reader Response: Reassessing The Music Director

Last weeks’ series on music directors generated a great deal of email from readers, most of which were musicians, and they have generously granted permission to include excerpts from their correspondence in today’s Reader Response.  But first, I wrote to JoAnn Falletta to ask a few questions about her role as music director for both the Buffalo Philharmonic and the Virginia Symphony.  Ms. Falletta graciously responded with these thoughts about her position in both orchestras:

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Video Game Music and Music Director Feedback

I have an article published at The Partial Observer today that deals with the issue of video game music.  On May 10th, the L.A. Philharmonic gave a performance featuring music from the video game “Final Fantasy” and tickets sold out with three days of going on sale.   But the concert wasn’t their idea; the orchestra was hired, reluctantly, by the company that designed the video game. Fellow AJblogger Greg Sandow published …

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Diagnosing The Problem – Short and Sweet

Fellow AJ Blogger Tyler Green posted an article this week where he sums up one of the leading problems with non profit management in two succinct sentences: “The best non-profit administration is done in private, so seemlessly that no one outside senior staff and the board knows what’s really going on. That makes it all the more fascinating when a non-profit completely messes it up “ And orchestra management is no …

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