Archive - 2012

1
I really should have practiced harder
2
The rest of the ugly
3
Do As I Say: Music Conservatory Culture and its Contribution to Discontentment Among Professional Orchestral Musicians
4
Minnesota by the numbers
5
My kingdom for a decent news article
6
The reason why
7
Gold in them thar toobs?
8
Didn’t work
9
Why Music Is Important: El Sistema Makes the Case to the World
10
One Wow and One Uh-Oh

I really should have practiced harder

Although maybe it’s the hair? Keira Knightley is working with violist/conductor Yuri Bashmet as a narrator: Keira Knightley and Yuri Bashmet again on one stage! When, in 2010 at the Winter Arts Festival in Sochi after the second intervention with Maestro Bashmet, Keira Knightley asked – not whether he is now developing the genre and[…]

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The rest of the ugly

Although the guts of the Minnesota proposal (and the damage done by it) lie in the economics, there is plenty of other stuff not to like as well. In particular, there are loads of changes proposed to work rules; far more than one would expect in a normal negotiation, much less one in which the[…]

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Do As I Say: Music Conservatory Culture and its Contribution to Discontentment Among Professional Orchestral Musicians

Today we add a new feature to Polyphonic.org–the Editor’s Choice.  Since we launched our site in 2006, we have a accumulated a vast amount of content. In addition, we also have the articles that were published in Harmony, the periodical of the Symphony Orchestra Institute. Much, if not most, of this content is still relevant[…]

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Minnesota by the numbers

In an act of remarkable generosity, Drew McManus not only obtained the actual proposal made to the Minnesota Orchestra by management but posted it on his Adaptistration website. I know he’s planning on some analysis, but it was too tempting a document for me to resist reading and writing about any longer. So here are[…]

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My kingdom for a decent news article

ICSOM Chair Bruce Ridge has joined the ranks of those writing about the underlying causes of the current situation in our industry, although of course he is hardly new to the party, having written extensively about the problems in the orchestra business for Senza Sordino over the years. It’s an interesting piece in many respects;[…]

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The reason why

It seems inherent in human nature to look for someone to blame when bad things happen. Bad things have been happening in our field of late (or at least to a higher-than-usual number of orchestras), so those on the receiving end – who are mostly, although not exclusively, musicians – look for an enemy who[…]

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Gold in them thar toobs?

Think “orchestral institutions” as “artists” in this article and some interesting questions emerge: Are we finally entering the age of the digital cultural entrepreneur (DCE)? That is, has it now become possible for a gifted artist or writer to control the reins of his or her career from a laptop, scheduling gigs, selling books or[…]

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Didn’t work

The Los Angeles Philharmonic has pulled the plug on its attempt to emulate the Metropolitan Opera’s successful series of live broadcasts to movie theaters: When the Los Angeles Philharmonic launched its series of live broadcasts to cinemas in 2011, the organization touted it as an innovative program intended to broaden the popular reach of the[…]

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Why Music Is Important: El Sistema Makes the Case to the World

In 2008, I made my first visit to Venezuela to see El Sistema. By then, I had heard several colleagues’ reports about the miracle that was happening in this developing country. But nothing prepared me for the powerful impact of music and music-making I experienced.

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One Wow and One Uh-Oh

This letter appeared in Saturday’s Minneapolis StarTribune: As former music directors of the Minnesota Orchestra, we came to the state because we believe that it wants and deserves to have a world-class orchestra. We are proud of the cultural gem we have built, with the musicians, for more than half a century. It required long[…]

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