In Toronto, There’s No More Snooze Bar On The Diversity Alarm

There’s a wonderful article in the 5/25/2018 edition of Ludwig-van.com that serves as a sort of cautionary tale about the disconnect between what an organization says is important and its quantifiable actions on the matter. The article, by Michael Vincent, reports the Canadian Opera Company (COC) and Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO) will see $100,000 CAD and $50,000 CAD respectfully cut from their Toronto city government funding. The decision to reduce their …

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Toronto Takes Strong Action To Avert Disaster

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The Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO) has seen its fair share of rough waters over the past few seasons. In 2015, they endured the Valentina Lisitsa firestorm and 2016 was pockmarked by way of the very public annulment legal battle between former president and CEO, Jeff Melanson, and his estranged wife, Eleanor McCain. According to an article by Martin Knelman in the 5/21/2016 edition of The Toronto Star, all of these high profile …

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Toronto Symphony Appears To Be Stuck In Former CEO’s Legal Splash Zone

Splash Zone

Toward the end of March, 2016 we examined the nasty PR mess the Toronto Symphony Orchestras (TSO) has been caught up in by way of the very public annulment legal battle between former president and CEO, Jeff Melanson, and his estranged wife, Eleanor McCain. Melanson, who departed his position after 16 months on the job, recently launched a PR volley against McCain, daughter of food industrialist and 13th wealthiest Canadian Wallace McCain. The …

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Examining The Value Of Morals Clauses

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A morals clause, a provision in a contract or work agreement that prohibits or penalizes certain behaviors, have been around since the early part of the 20th century but by and large, they haven’t entered into mainstream employment agreements throughout the performing arts field. For the most part, they really aren’t applicable and/or the salaries involved didn’t rise to a level that would trigger these sorts of concerns. But the steady …

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Speaking Of Social Media Damage Control…

Social Media Response Guide

In a timely coincidence with the recent Toronto Symphony / Valentina Lisitsa social media equivalent of Godzilla vs. Mothra, ArtsHacker Phil Paschke published an article on 4/12/15 that includes a social media response flow chart by Jonathan Michael at Bplans.com that should not only be a mobile device shortcut but printed out, framed, and sitting on the desk of anyone in this field tasked with managing their institution’s social media profiles. It’s …

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