Archive - January 2012

1
What a good board looks like
2
“You’ve Cott Mail”
3
Being a Successful Entrepreneur— Don’t Be Embarrassed about Making Money
4
2011 Best Reads from the Savvy Musician
5
Of models old, new, and broken
6
Let’s make a commercial!
7
About that Strad vs modern violin study thingy…
8
Diversity and the theater world
9
Being a Successful Entrepreneur — Don't Dilute Your Product in Order To Make Money
10
Journalist in need of Fisking

What a good board looks like

It’s axiomatic in the non-profit sector that, more than any other single factor, it’s the quality of the board of directors that determines whether institutions succeed or not. Of course, it’s axiomatic that the way to make money in the market is to buy low and sell high. That doesn’t mean it’s helpful advice. But,[…]

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“You’ve Cott Mail”

One of the listservs to which I belong is Thomas Cott’s, “You’ve Cott Mail.”  As Cott says, “It’s a free service for professionals in the arts,” and he sends it most weekdays. I’m interested in it because it doesn’t just cover music, and we musicians can learn from our brethren in other areas of the […]

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Being a Successful Entrepreneur— Don’t Be Embarrassed about Making Money

My previous blog referenced Grammy-winning composer Maria Schneider. In talking with her further, she had an interesting take on the stereotypical starving artist.  She theorizes that part of the reason record companies are able to make huge profits while the artists often make so little is because many musicians have the idea that being a […]

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Of models old, new, and broken

There’s been lots of chatter in the arts blogosphere the past few days over “the model,” most prominently in the email publication You’ve Cott Mail for January 11, which cited a number of online commentaries on the subject, including a very good one from Drew McManus at Adaptistration. But the commentaries invariably miss crucial points[…]

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Let’s make a commercial!

My orchestra did, and it was kinda fun: When Joshua Phillips signed on this season as a French horn player in the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, he had no idea the job description included taking a snowball to the head. “I was trying to do what I was told,” he explained. The instructions were coming not[…]

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About that Strad vs modern violin study thingy…

My colleague Frank Almond did a very thorough take-down of the whole thing here: “These instruments were loaned with the stipulation that they remain in the condition in which we received them (precluding any tonal adjustments or even changing the strings), and that their identities remain confidential. All strings appeared to be in good condition.”[…]

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Diversity and the theater world

Tom Loughlin, who is chair of the Department of Theatre and Dance at SUNY Fredonia and has considerable performing experience in professional theater, takes on the diversity issue in his world and comes to some conclusions that could fairly be called politically incorrect: According to The Broadway League 2010-11 Demographic Report, the Great White Way[…]

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Being a Successful Entrepreneur — Don't Dilute Your Product in Order To Make Money

Some musicians feel that they must dumb-down their music in order to be “successful.” I once had a conversation with Maria Schneider in which she made an interesting observation: many musicians who are focused solely on making money underestimate their audiences.  She commented that some musicians seem to think that if they write or present […]

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Journalist in need of Fisking

It’s hard to read most of the arts reporting in this country and not wonder what else the media gets wrong. The latest example of this, an article on the Dallas Symphony’s current situation titled How Long Can The Dallas Symphony Afford To Play In The Red? popped up yesterday: That the symphony is in[…]

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