Drew McManus on the orchestra business.
Orchestra musicians are better than they have ever been in this country. And it’s high time everyone started to recognize that higher level of artistic excellence. It’s also high time for us to establish a system of artistic evaluation. Awhile back fellow AJ blogger Greg Sandow wrote about the idea of orchestra competitions. And not the type of soloist competitions that we’re all used to, but between individual orchestras. I think …
Welcome back to Part II of our interview with Marianne Lockwood, the Executive Director for the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. Budget Issues With an annual budget of $4.3 million dollars, St. Luke’s is a mid-sized orchestral organization. Like many organizations, they try to have a small positive balance at the end of their fiscal year. Marianne indicated that St. Luke’s must have a 1% surplus at the end of their …
Listening to her voice over the phone, you’d never guess that you were talking to a cultural warrior. Her British accent flows with a composed, steady pulse that gives it a maternal quality. At the end of 2003, I had the pleasure to talk with Marianne for a few hours discussing her tenure as executive director for the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. I became interested in St. Luke’s and their success …
To continue from where we left off in Part I, this is second half of a comparison of the efficiency and effectiveness of in-school programs from two orchestras: the Brooklyn Philharmonic and the Richmond (VA) Symphony. In Part I we heard from the education directors of each orchestra and in this part we will hear from orchestra musicians about how they view their programs. Although listening to what the Education Directors …
Ok, you hear me verbally beating up on orchestra in-school programs quite a bit in this blog. However, that doesn’t mean I feel that in-school programs should be completely eliminated. On the contrary, I believe that in-school programs are a necessary component of a much broader overall education and outreach program. That being said, I apply the same standards of efficiency for these programs as I do for all orchestra initiatives. …