Category - Classical Music

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Orchestras on Tour
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Baumol’s Cost Disease Is Killing Me!
3
The Struggle of Harmony and Invention
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Polly Kahn Describes Community Outreach
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The Third Estate
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Looking for Perfection in an Imperfect Process
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New Classical Music Blog by Steve Metcalf
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Be An Entrepreneur! Get Outside Your Comfort Zone!
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You Are Your Best Audience
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Donald Rosenberg’s Take on “Spring for Music”

Orchestras on Tour

Polyphonic has published several “travelogues” by touring orchestra members. Two writers that are particularly eloquent are Charles Rex, violinist with the New York Philharmonic, and Yvonne Caruthers, recently-retired ‘cellist with the National Symphony. Charles wrote about the NY Philharmonic’s tours to Vietnam and North Korea. While he was in North Korea in 2007, he sent[…]

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Baumol’s Cost Disease Is Killing Me!

My Editor’s Choice post this time around is a blog/article that was just published a few days ago. It centers around Baumol’s curse. If you aren’t familiar with that term you will be after you read this article by Duncan Webb. And if you’re really into it you can find it discussed in eight different[…]

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The Struggle of Harmony and Invention

The concert was a joy from start to finish. Aisslinn is not just a gifted Baroque violinist playing with true style and power, but a great performer and communicator whose energy and passion for the music set the audience alight

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Polly Kahn Describes Community Outreach

Polly Kahn recently stepped down from her position as Vice President and Leadership Development  at the League of American Orchestras after 14 years of devoted service. (She hasn’t left the orchestra field, however; I’m certain we will all benefit from her vision and wisdom in the future.) Polly was immersed in training individuals to make[…]

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The Third Estate

If one wishes to contribute to the conversation about how to expand the audience base for American orchestras, then one must talk about what those orchestras are presenting — and right now that’s a taboo subject. The fact is that the discussion about WHAT exactly orchestras are presenting has never taken place. The arbitrary distinction[…]

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Looking for Perfection in an Imperfect Process

We recognize that the use of beta-blockers by musicians is a serious and controversial topic.  Nonetheless, we feel it is better to discuss it than to pretend that it doesn’t exist.  We neither condone or condemn the use of beta-blockers, but wish to have an objective discussion about its use.  Feel free to join the[…]

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New Classical Music Blog by Steve Metcalf

I’d like to call your attention to a new weekly blog post by a renowned name in classical music writing. Steve Metcalf, former music critic of the Hartford Courant and curator of the Richard P. Garmany Chamber Music Series at The Hartt School, has started writing a weekly blog on classical music for Hartford’s local NPR station,[…]

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Be An Entrepreneur! Get Outside Your Comfort Zone!

How many times have we musicians heard those phrases? Do they mean that we should try to be like Janice Martin, the violinist who plays while hanging upside down?  My most recent experience is not quite that dramatic….. “What time is the lunch break?”  I asked the stage manager, knowing that he was the one[…]

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You Are Your Best Audience

Today’s post is the fourth post in our August Guest Blog Series!  Elizabeth Erenberg is a flutist and co-founder of the website www.Musicovation.com, a site dedicated to sharing and generating positive music news.  In the fluidity that is a music career, I define myself differently almost every day. Today, I am a blogger. Last week,[…]

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Donald Rosenberg’s Take on “Spring for Music”

In the spring issue of Symphony magazine, Don Rosenberg, former music critic of the The Cleveland Plain Dealer and the newly-appointed editor of The Magazine of Early Music America wrote a very interesting overview of the “Spring for Music” (S4M) Festival, that presented its final week of concerts this past May at Carnegie Hall, contrasting[…]

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