Author - Robert Levine

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Play ball!
2
Cello humor
3
The boss is the best organizer
4
Management by waving (sticks) around
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Noises off
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Department of Conductorial Humor
7
Orchestra (but not money) can go to Cuba
8
Philly hires a new CEO
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A rather blunt headline
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Fun with audition ads

Play ball!

Anne Midgette riffs on the propriety of performing the National Anthem at concerts: Does it have a place? It can seem slightly odd. The concert hall is aglitter with expensive evening gowns and tails; the audience is seated; the lights go down; the conductor comes out; and suddenly the lights come up and everyone stands[…]

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Cello humor

I’m glad that a) this kid isn’t a violist, and b) that I’m not on his radar screen.

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The boss is the best organizer

It’s good to be reminded now and then of what an orchestra looks like in the wild, and why virtually every professional orchestra in the known universe is unionized: Musicians, however, look to a conductor for musical guidance, and they say [Illinois Symphony Music Director Karen Lynne] Deal simply doesn’t do enough homework to provide[…]

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Management by waving (sticks) around

The Globe and Mail apparently believes that conductors have something to teach the corporate world: As a rookie conductor, Roger Nierenberg thought his job as leader was to tell people what to do. But in 14 years as director of the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra in Florida, he learned that being overly controlling is destined to[…]

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Noises off

So there we were, in the middle of the introduction to the first movement of the Beethoven 7th on Saturday night, when we heard a loud noise from backstage that sounded as if someone had dropped a kitchen sink from a very great height. I’ve played thousands of concerts, but never heard anything quite like[…]

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Department of Conductorial Humor

Overheard at work this morning: Keyboardist: Edo, did you say something to the piano? Conductor: More like to the pianist. But the piano will follow you. And all these years I thought the Dutch were a humorless sort. Edo has proven to be quite the opposite. What’s more impressive is that he uses the humor[…]

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Orchestra (but not money) can go to Cuba

US policy towards Cuba has claimed another victim: The New York Philharmonic scratched its planned trip to Cuba at the end of October because the United States government was barring a group of patrons from going along, the orchestra said on Thursday. Without them and their donations, the Philharmonic said, it could not afford the[…]

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Philly hires a new CEO

It’s official: Allison B. Vulgamore, president of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra since 1993, will take over the Philadelphia ensemble at a time when it has been badly shaken by financial turmoil. She is expected to start work as president and CEO no later than Feb. 1. “I think that we have found a leader who[…]

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A rather blunt headline

The press in Montana does not mince words.

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Fun with audition ads

I’ve been reading audition ads in the International Musician for a long time now, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen one that caused me to scratch my head quite as hard as the one placed by the Philadelphia Orchestra in the September 2009 issue of the IM for “Viola Substitute Pool.” I’ve seen ads[…]

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