Category - Uncategorized

1
2 Guys + 1 Guitar = Mozart
2
Musician’s Business Challenge—Reduced Resources
3
Great Performances Without all the Fuss and Bother
4
Another diaspora story
5
Greg Sandow is Riffing
6
How many basses does it take to make a video?
7
The Musicians Business Challenge—Changing Demand
8
The Naxos nexus
9
This wouldn't work for Bruckner either
10
The boss is the best organizer

2 Guys + 1 Guitar = Mozart

Someone sent me this several weeks ago, and I just stumbled upon it again while straightening up my very cluttered desktop. I used to do a variation of this with beginning clarinet students to demonstrate how good breath support made for good finger technique. They would blow into the clarinet and I would finger it.[…]

Read More

Musician’s Business Challenge—Reduced Resources

We read about orchestra financial pressures all the time. Musicians demand a decent wage and when communities and boards have difficulty supporting them, an impasse results. Of the 51 ICSOM orchestras , there are ten with minimum scales over $100,000. Not surprisingly these orchestras are in large metropolitan cities like New York, Boston, Chicago and[…]

Read More

Great Performances Without all the Fuss and Bother

Recently I wrote about several “apps” that allow users to virtually play an instrument. The Nov 1st issue of the NYTimes has a longer article about a similar idea: “Orchestra Hero”. Written by Michael Gordon, a composer, it’s an enthusiastic endorsement of the art form we all know and love, but which is unknown to[…]

Read More

Another diaspora story

A couple of weeks ago I linked to a story about one of the many musicians who formed the great diaspora of Jews from Europe during and after the Nazi era. Here’s another one: The Lost Cellos of Lev Aronson. Its sounds like the title of one of those wistful, purposely sentimental novels that seem[…]

Read More

Greg Sandow is Riffing

Many of you may follow the writings of Greg Sandow in his Arts Journal Blog.  If you do you will know that for the past couple of years Greg has been writing a book, and presenting it piece by piece in his blog.  This project went dormant for a period of time, but now he’s[…]

Read More

How many basses does it take to make a video?

I’d bet it takes quite a few, if this is the video:

Read More

The Musicians Business Challenge—Changing Demand

Ask any musician ten years older than you how business is, and he will probably say, “It’s OK, but it was much better ten years ago.” If that same person asks the identical question to another musician ten years older than he is, he will probably get the same answer.  “It’s OK, but it was[…]

Read More

The Naxos nexus

This joint venture seems like a very good idea for both parties: …Naxos of America will begin physical and digital distribution of the renowned Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s premiere record label CSO Resound.

Read More

This wouldn't work for Bruckner either

…but it’s pretty amazing nonetheless. In case you were thinking it was faked, this video will show you how it was done.

Read More

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[…]

Read More