Author - Ann Drinan

1
Grand Rapids Symphony’s Music for Health Program
2
Baltimore’s Adult Camp
3
An Interview with Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, Los Angeles’ New Assistant Conductor
4
Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society Turns 200
5
Yale Symposium 2015: Music in the Schools
6
Creating a Great In-School Ensemble Program
7
Pro-Am Orchestra Events: Trending Across the Country
8
Flying with Instruments: A New Era?
9
James Stewart on the Metropolitan Opera Negotiations
10
Politics and Music, as Considered by Alex Ross

Grand Rapids Symphony’s Music for Health Program

Nathan Kahn  of the AFM’s Symphony Services Division has been telling me about the wonderful music wellness program designed by Grand Rapids violinist Diane McElfish Helle, and I plan to find out more and write an article about their work. Today I noticed that Paul Austin, former ROPA Vice President and Grand Rapids hornist, had[…]

Read More

Baltimore’s Adult Camp

NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday with Scott Simon had an interesting piece this past weekend about the Baltimore Symphony’s Academy Week, which was held June 21 to 27th. Amateur musicians spend a week rehearsing with BSO players, and attending sectionals and private lessons. The week culminates in a public performance of the participants and BSO musicians[…]

Read More

Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society Turns 200

Claiming to be the oldest continuously performing orchestra in America, the Handel and Haydn Society celebrates 200 years this year. The Society gave the American premiere performances of Verdi’s Requiem in 1878 and Bach’s St. Matthew Passion in 1879. The Society was created at the conclusion of the War of 1812, giving a performance of[…]

Read More

Creating a Great In-School Ensemble Program

Recently I attended a presentation by Mitchell Korn, who conducted an in-depth analysis of my orchestra’s educational programs. He had many critically interesting ideas to convey to us musicians, and kept coming back to “professional development.” I think, for most of my colleagues, this conjurs up a vision of a truly boring session with some consultant[…]

Read More

Pro-Am Orchestra Events: Trending Across the Country

Michael Stugrin, writing in the spring 2015 issue of Symphony magazine (page 42), presents an interesting overview of a new trend among orchestras − performing with amateurs. Most orchestras have been doing “side by side” performances with their local youth orchestra for decades (I played such a concert with the Boston Symphony at Symphony Hall way back[…]

Read More

Flying with Instruments: A New Era?

Congress passed a law three years ago to address the problems musicians have encountered flying with their instruments, but the regulations, which will cause the airlines to implement the law, were only published in January, 2015.  And then the airlines had 60 days to get things in order to implement the new regulations. Thanks to the efforts[…]

Read More

James Stewart on the Metropolitan Opera Negotiations

James Stewart, author of Den of Thieves and many other prize-winning investigative works, has turned his talent to exploring the recent contract negotiations at the Metropolitan Opera. In the March 25, 2015 issue of the New Yorker magazine, Stewart presents an amazingly detailed analysis of these negotiations and what led up to them. As one[…]

Read More

Politics and Music, as Considered by Alex Ross

Alex Ross, the music critic of The New Yorker, always has interesting things to say about classical music. In a recent essay written for Symphony magazine, Mr. Ross writes about the role of politics in classical music by posing the question: Do musicians and composers have an obligation to speak out on political matters? He[…]

Read More