Archive - 2013

1
3:30 a.m.
2
NAC Orchestra’s Community Engagement Programs
3
Ghosts
4
The Coolest Band in the World
5
If I were a musician, what would I want to know about management?
6
Big Tent Thinking
7
Orchestra Management Fellowship Program
8
Are dinosaurs falling? Are deficits “structural”?

3:30 a.m.

My top priority — of course — is to protect the young people who study here, our faculty and staff, and all the many thousands of concert visitors we have every year. But this mandate necessitates negotiating a way through a challenging Scylla and Charybdis of choices.

Read More

NAC Orchestra’s Community Engagement Programs

Many orchestras are designing outreach programs, in order for their musicians to become more involved with their community. One of the more successful community engagement programs is that of the National Arts Centre Orchestra (NAC Orchestra) in Ottawa. In 2006 Polyphonic published two articles about NAC Orchestra’s outreach to Canada’s aboriginal population. NAC tours nationally[…]

Read More

Ghosts

Why do we love terrifying ourselves? I am sure we’ve all experienced those spine-tingling moments as a child telling the most frightening stories late at night when parents are asleep.

Read More

The Coolest Band in the World

The Berliners’ model should lead us all to imagine more flexible and responsible organizations that have music as their mission, and the community as their foundation.

Read More

If I were a musician, what would I want to know about management?

Peter Pastreich held the position of Executive Director of the San Francisco Symphony for 21 years, retiring in 1999. By all accounts that I’ve seen or heard, he is one of the most respected orchestra managers—maybe it’s because he’s retired now. Anyway–the article that follows is an account of his 2009 presentation at the League[…]

Read More

Big Tent Thinking

History is filled with people who have tried to define art.  They have all been wrong, and there is no reason to suspect we are any better at it than they were. Changes to what experts call “Art” happen all the time.  There was a time when people questioned whether photography constituted fine art.  Some[…]

Read More

Orchestra Management Fellowship Program

Polly Kahn, Vice President for Learning and Leadership Development at the League of American Orchestras, asked Polyphonic to post information about the upcoming February 1st deadline for applications for their prestigious Orchestra Management Fellowship program. The Orchestra Management Fellowship program is the League’s premier leadership training program, and is designed to launch executive careers in[…]

Read More

Are dinosaurs falling? Are deficits “structural”?

NPR had a story yesterday morning on Morning Edition that, rather than commit what used to be considered journalism, rounded up the usual suspects on the subject of whether orchestras in their current form are unsustainable (come to think of it, he said/he said different is what’s considered journalism these days): 2012 will go down[…]

Read More