Drew McManus on the orchestra business.
With all the frenzied attention on the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) strike it almost seemed like that was the only work stoppage taking place. Almost. Once the shiny curiosity of the SFS started to wear off, it became tough to miss the hulking twin disasters that are the thirteen or so fortnight long lockouts at the Minnesota Orchestra and St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. Both work stoppages have festered for so long …
On 3/7/2013, Minnesota Representatives Jim Davnie and Rick Hansen presented a letter to Jim Nobles at the Minnesota Office of the Legislative Auditor (OLA) co-signed by 86 fellow members of the MN legislature (that’s 42 percent of all seats) requesting that his office “audit the books of the Minnesota Orchestra Association (MOA), including a review of its feasibility study for the remodeling of Orchestra Hall, a review of the use of …
During orchestral labor disputes, there is no shortage of tactics employed by both sides to distribute static messages to the general public, but few can try your patience more than the conventional editorial commentary found in traditional news outlets. To be fair, the warring factions aren’t to blame here, they’re merely taking advantage of a third party communication vehicle to deliver their talking points; instead, the outlets are to blame. For …
There was an intriguing article by Doug Grow in the 2/22/2013 edition of MinnPost.com that examines the numerous political connections between the cast of characters involved in the Minnesota Orchestra Association (MOA) and St. Paul Chamber Orchestra (SPCO) lockouts. The premise of the article wonders about the lack of direct involvement from Twin Cities political leaders in resolving the disputes. It’s refreshing to see a mainstream media outlet dive into the …
Adaptistration’s editorial cartoonist, Paul Dixon, decided the field needed a new award to help validate advances in new model thinking. And since a picture is worth a thousand words, I’ll leave it at that. And just for fun, if this wasn’t fictional satire, who would you vote for?