Author - Robert Levine

1
New Notes on the Autism Scale
2
Opinions regarding the Carnegie mess are indeed divided
3
Governance fail at Carnegie Hall
4
George Cleve
5
A must-read piece on performance anxiety
6
Lincoln Portrait and the Fourth of July
7
Some thoughts on Hartford
8
Cavalcade of baby conductors
9
You had two jobs…
10
The Vampire Squid and nonprofits – a real thing?

New Notes on the Autism Scale

While the Fall 2015 issue of Symphony magazine (the publication of the League of American Orchestras) contained a range of interesting and positive articles, one particularly caught my interest. Titled “New Notes on the Autism Scale,” it was about concerts given for people on the autism spectrum by a number of American orchestras and the[…]

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Opinions regarding the Carnegie mess are indeed divided

As I suspected, there are two radically different schools of thought regarding the Great Carnegie Hall Governance War. The first is expressed well by Norman Lebrecht, who wrote: When Ronald Perelman took over as chairman from Sandy Weill in February, he announced he wanted changes – more rock music and contemporary culture, less of the[…]

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Governance fail at Carnegie Hall

Added to the age-old question – “how do you get to Carnegie Hall?” – may be a new one: “how do you run Carnegie Hall?” It look as if the answer might turn out to be “don’t serve on the board of directors.” Two days ago the Wall Street Journal reported on a dispute between[…]

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George Cleve

Facebook brought me the news this morning that George Cleve died yesterday. I knew he’d had health issues for a long time, but this hit me like a brick anyway. I first worked for George in 1974 upon my return from studying at a rather strange school in Switzerland known as the Institute for Advanced[…]

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A must-read piece on performance anxiety

The New Yorker continues to be the best magazine in the English-speaking work for coverage of arts issues (as opposed to arts news), as demonstrated by an article-length review of Sara Solovitch’s book Playing Scared: A History and Memoir of Stage Fright: Stagefright has been aptly described as “self-poisoning by adrenaline.” In response to stress,[…]

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Lincoln Portrait and the Fourth of July

Copland’s Lincoln Portrait is not terribly popular with orchestra musicians, mostly (I suspect) as a result of over-exposure to bad performances. It invariably gets scheduled on pops programs and outdoor concerts, usually with the lowest-ranking staff conductor who’s in town at the time, and generally with narrators chosen more for who they are rather than[…]

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Some thoughts on Hartford

The Hartford Symphony has been in the news recently, and not in the way that orchestras want to be: Behind the two-year dispute between the Hartford Symphony Orchestra and the musicians union over a new labor agreement is the symphony’s effort to remake itself to appeal to changing audiences and tastes. The orchestra says it’s[…]

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Cavalcade of baby conductors

My orchestra had auditions for assistant conductor today. We saw six candidates for about 30 minutes each. It was an interesting experience, although not very enjoyable. A few I liked; a few I didn’t. But what struck me most was what always strikes me when dealing with young conductors; their failure to follow my two[…]

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You had two jobs…

Two things I’d like to see conductors do: Not let the orchestra slow up when it shouldn’t Not let the orchestra speed up when it shouldn’t Is that too hard? Apparently it is. That is all.

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The Vampire Squid and nonprofits – a real thing?

Back at the height of the War on the Northern Front, I speculated about how the involvement of key leaders at the two largest banks in the Twin Cities might be making things worse: …there is no third party willing to wade in and lean on the Minnesota Orchestra board to abandon an approach which[…]

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