Archive - 2010

1
Such a versatile instrument
2
Mein Vaterland, Mein Gott!
3
Sometimes it's hard to have a screened audition
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Tab dump 1/14/2010
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The model's not broken
6
Popcorn and Der Rosenkavalier
7
More on Your Brand—Know Your Image
8
The ultimate downbeat
9
Tab dump 1/7/2010
10
NHMF hits the Reset button

Such a versatile instrument

You’ve probably already seen this; it’s been doing the rounds at lightning speed. But, if not…

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Mein Vaterland, Mein Gott!

I had a library nightmare over the holidays, and I don’t mean that figuratively.  You know those performance anxiety nightmares players can have over a particular piece that’s difficult or a recurring worst-case scenario?  Well, instead of dreaming my hand wouldn’t stay on the violin fingerboard or I couldn’t identify the proper chords on the[…]

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Sometimes it's hard to have a screened audition

The New York Times reported yesterday on an odd incident at the New York Philharmonic: During a run of concerts that included Rachmaninoff’s Second Symphony at Avery Fisher Hall, ending on Tuesday evening, the Philharmonic declined to identify a substitute principal clarinetist even though the music director, Alan Gilbert, had singled him out for a[…]

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Tab dump 1/14/2010

An interesting career path. An even more interesting career path. A good argument for screened auditions. The NY Times likes opera in popcorn palaces too. The CBC Radio Orchestra is born again as an Internet broadcaster. The Cleveland residencies are crossing paths with the Cleveland negotiations.

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The model's not broken

The symphonoblogosphere has been abuzz with stories about the labor troubles in Seattle and Cleveland, and these are indeed big stories. But there are other negotiations hanging fire as well. Unless I missed something, the Met management’s proposal to cut salaries by 10% has still not been resolved, while Detroit’s been having an extremely difficult[…]

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Popcorn and Der Rosenkavalier

I had been wanting to see one of the Met’s new HD-in-theaters productions, but not quite enough to trek half-way to Chicago to the nearest theater that carried them. Recently, though, one of our local movie theaters began carrying the live HD productions, and our new music director, Edo de Waart, was asked to do[…]

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More on Your Brand—Know Your Image

For a professional musician this is important.  Your image lives within the minds of the market, and not within your wishful thinking. You can try to put forth the image that you want, but your audience (in the broadest sense of the word—co-workers, contractors, conductors, producers, etc.), actually creates that image. Image, Identity and Positioning—What’s[…]

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The ultimate downbeat

I glad I didn’t have to try to follow this guy; not only would I have messed up, but I would have felt a little… violated as well.

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Tab dump 1/7/2010

This kind of bullsh*t ought to be beneath the dignity of all involved. Come on, folks; isn’t running an orchestra hard enough already? Interesting idea. The League goes virtual. I wish I wrote this well. A post worth reading in full. But what’s the hourly rate?

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NHMF hits the Reset button

I’ve been forwarded the text of a letter from the board of the New Hampshire Music Festival which would suggest a course reversal on their part: The Board of Directors met on December 17th to review our artistic goals and the options available to us to achieve them starting with the 2010 season. After a[…]

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