Category - Orchestra Life

1
Saving the Hartford Symphony
2
Optimism in Omaha
3
Encouraging News from the Cincinnati Symphony
4
Flying with Instruments: A New Era?
5
James Stewart on the Metropolitan Opera Negotiations
6
Conductor Alan Gilbert’s Thoughts on the Future of Orchestras
7
On The Future of America’s Orchestras
8
Politics and Music, as Considered by Alex Ross
9
What Should We Wear Onstage?
10
An Interview with Elaine Douvas, Principal Oboist with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra

Saving the Hartford Symphony

As you may have noticed, tensions between the management and the musicians of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra have been heating up as the two sides try to agree on a new contract. Management, which basically now means the Bushnell [Center for the Performing Arts] under an administrative arrangement put in place a little more than[…]

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Optimism in Omaha

An article came out a couple of weeks ago on Omaha.com with some positive news from the Omaha Symphony.  Attendance during the Symphony’s 2014-15 season was record setting, and even subscription packages to multiple concerts are on the rise. Pretty exciting.  Of course, the question is why. Why are more people coming to the symphony[…]

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Encouraging News from the Cincinnati Symphony

While there is plenty of negative press about the struggle of orchestras in the 21st century, here is a New York Times article about recent successes at the Cincinnati Symphony that is quite encouraging.

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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[…]

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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[…]

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Conductor Alan Gilbert’s Thoughts on the Future of Orchestras

The Guardian recently published an edited version of NY Philharmonic Music Director Alan Gilbert’s 2015 Royal Philharmonic Society Lecture.  In the lecture, Gilbert describes his view of where we are today – how orchestras are doing some serious soul-searching to discover what role they will play in their communities going forward.  Orchestras are trying all[…]

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On The Future of America’s Orchestras

As I write this introduction to my Editor’s Choice for this month, at top of mind for me is the former Director of the Eastman School of Music, Robert Freeman. In 1972 he was named director of Eastman, a position he held for 24 years. He returned to Eastman this week to be formally honored[…]

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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[…]

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What Should We Wear Onstage?

As it most likely true in all orchestras, mine has a decided rift amongst the women members in terms of what is appropriate to wear at a Masterworks concert. Being of a certain age, I always wear a floor-length skirt and a fancy top, usually velvet. It irks me to see 20-something women dressed as[…]

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An Interview with Elaine Douvas, Principal Oboist with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra

Last May, as the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra musicians were facing a difficult negotiation, Local 802 published a lovely and insightful interview with Elaine Douvas in Allegro, their monthly newspaper. Bob Pawlo, Local 802 recording rep, asked her many questions that delved into the complex life of a principal player in perhaps the world’s most demanding[…]

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