The Airlines Strike Back

Adaptistration People 127

Apparently, it doesn’t matter how many laws are passed, orchestra musicians are going to get hassled over bringing instruments on board as carry-on baggage. The latest incident involved British Airways and the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO), or at least three of its musicians. The 9/6/2015 edition of The Boston Globe published an article about a run-in with British Airways gate agents on a full flight and the size of Principal Trombone …

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Brassball SmackDown

Adaptistration Guy Baseball

Admittedly, it was a mystery to me which teams were even in this year’s World Series until the wonderfully entertaining video from the respective brass sections at the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) and Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) went live on 10/22/2014. The clever bit is the brainchild of SLSO Principal Trumpet Karin Bliznik and BSO Fourth/Utility Trumpet Michael Martin. I asked Martin about what went into making the video and …

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The Leinsdorf Exit Interview

I’m back in Chicago after a wonderful working vacation at the Grand Teton Music Festival and am in the process of getting my head above the sea of emails, voice messages and the rest. As such, today’s post is a quick link over to a fascinating series of videos from 1969 at the WGBH website titled Tanglewood Tales: The Leinsdorf Exit Interview. It is fun to see the predictions juxtaposed against how things actually changed.

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Pushing The Sky Up In Boston

The Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) recently wrapped up a new three year collective bargaining agreement (CBA) that flies in the face of the Chicken Little Think Tank sky is falling doctrine. Normally, we wouldn’t spend time looking at what amounts to a typical contract with standard improvements but given the recent concessionary agreement in Philadelphia, it seems appropriate to examine some of the contract provisions.

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Is Philly Still Competitive? Let's Examine Some Numbers

Among the largest budget orchestras, one of the most competitive issues is the ability to attract and retain the very best talent and perhaps unsurprisingly, one of the primary components in that equation is base wages. So I thought it would be helpful to take a look at what sort of impact the recent Philadelphia Orchestra concessionary agreement has on the big budget orchestra competition landscape.

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