Author - Ann Drinan

1
National Symphony’s Residency in Kentucky
2
Brahms and Ravel on the Vuvuzela
3
League Conference: Diversity Panel
4
League Conference: Atlanta Symphony's War Room
5
League Conference: Digital Media Rights Session
6
League Conference: Russell Willis Taylor – How to put your organization out of business
7
League Conference: Musicians' Session
8
League Opening Session Part 2
9
League Conference Opening Day
10
Michael Kaiser's 10 Commandments

National Symphony’s Residency in Kentucky

Once again, NSO cellist Yvonne Caruthers is sending daily “postcards” to Polyphonic about their residency – this year in Kentucky. Here’s a link to some pre-concert publicity from the Commonwealth Journal in Somerset, Kentucky; and here’s a link to the NSO’s blog about their Residency, which includes some fun photos of the musicians (including Yvonne)[…]

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Brahms and Ravel on the Vuvuzela

Ralph Locke, a musicology professor at Eastman, sent Polyphonic a link to a pretty amusing video: I think you’ll enjoy this.  The narration, gestures, etc., are all perfect — a kind of tongue-in-cheek critique of typical classical-music presentations.

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League Conference: Diversity Panel

Friday morning again had multiple sessions, each presented twice. The Diversity panel, moderated by Beth Wilson, Director of Student Musician Development at the Atlanta Symphony, showcased the ASO’s Talent Development Program (TDP),  a program for talented young African-American and Latino classical musicians in the greater Atlanta community. The panel included Edie Bostic, TDP Trustee and[…]

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League Conference: Atlanta Symphony's War Room

Friday afternoon was for Symposia – six simultaneous sessions, each repeated once. “The Atlanta Symphony War Room: A New Approach to Collaborative Decision Making” featured Robert Spano, music director, John Sparrow, vice president for orchestra initiative and general manager, and Charlie Wade, vice president of marketing. Again, my notes may not be verbatim but hopefully[…]

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League Conference: Digital Media Rights Session

Thursday morning started off with a session about digital media rights, moderated by John Sparrow, VP of Orchestra Initiatives in Atlanta. The panel: Jonathan Brill, Executive VP of Opus 3 Artists; Joe Kluger, Partner at WolfBrown and former President of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and Robert Levine, Principal Violist of the Milwaukee Symphony [and a Senior[…]

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League Conference: Russell Willis Taylor – How to put your organization out of business

Thursday afternoon’s general session began with a performance by the ASO brass quintet. Jesse Rosen then recounted an experience he had playing bass trombone in the NYU orchestra. He was preparing his part for Brahms’ Requiem and was pleased to see that he had a lot of notes, including a few melodies. At the first[…]

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League Conference: Musicians' Session

On Thursday we had a musicians’ session, with Bob Wagner moderating. Bob is the principal bassoon of the New Jersey Symphony, a board member of the League, and former ICSOM rep and Orchestra Committee chair of the NJSO. There were perhaps 15 of us: we talked about a lot of things: I asked about the[…]

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League Opening Session Part 2

The keynote speaker at the conference opening session on Wednesday, June 16, was Ben Cameron, program director for the arts at the Doris Duke Charitable Fund. He is the former executive director of Theatre Communications Group. Excerpts from his address follow (he’s a very fast talker so this is not verbatim): According to Bill Moyers,[…]

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League Conference Opening Day

The League of American Orchestra’s annual conference opened on Wednesday, June 16. Musicians, conductors, artist administrators, and music publishers were invited to an open rehearsal of the Atlanta Symphony at Woodruff Arts Center for the Atlanta School of Composers concert to be held on Friday, followed by a luncheon with comments by Music Director Robert[…]

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Michael Kaiser's 10 Commandments

Michael Kaiser, CEO of the Kennedy Center and author of The Art of the Turnaround: Creating and Maintaining Healthy Arts Organizations, has been travelling the country, speaking in all 50 states about how non-profit arts organizations can weather the current economic downturn. On June 10 he came to Connecticut; I attended his New Haven session[…]

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