There’s a music blog on ArtJournal.com called Creative Destruction, but no author is indicated. Instead this descriptor appears under the link, “Fresh ideas on building arts communities.” I was curious so I checked it out and found that the blogger is John Thomas Dodson. He’s a conductor. You can find out more about him here.[…]
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I had a library nightmare over the holidays, and I don’t mean that figuratively. You know those performance anxiety nightmares players can have over a particular piece that’s difficult or a recurring worst-case scenario? Well, instead of dreaming my hand wouldn’t stay on the violin fingerboard or I couldn’t identify the proper chords on the[…]
Read MoreEverything you wrote makes sense. Certainly on the large scale. However, I've been trying to narrow the focus recently, instead…
A few weeks ago the NEA published its, “2008 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts.” In it, and most notable for music and musicians, is the reported decline in concert attendance. I won’t argue with their numbers. They sound reasonable to me. But being a professional musician, it doesn’t make me feel good to[…]
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It’s a beer bottle orchestra, and it’s not a bad idea on lots of levels: It humanizes the orchestra, makes the players seem “normal,” gives the orchestra some media exposure and hopefully brings in some money to the coffers. Doesn’t about every mid-size city and larger have a favorite local beer? Note to orchestra marketing[…]
Read MoreMusic educators have been doing a fantastic job. The level of musicianship of college-age music majors continues to rise each year. Jazz players are entering as freshmen at skill levels equal to graduate students of years past, and “classical” musicians always seem to raise the bar with their technical prowess. Of course, one can always[…]
Read MoreThis weekend DFW area musicians began protesting the Texas Ballet Theater’s Nutcracker performances which will run in both Dallas and Fort Worth – without an orchestra. For those of you who have been following this fiasco, you know that we have been protesting the TBT’s performances sans live music for more than a year now.[…]
Read MoreIsraeli conductor Itay Talgam uses leadership on the podium as a metaphor for leadership in business. Some good stuff here, worth watching, especially the last clip of Bernstein.
Read MoreFor the past four days I’ve been in San Diego, CA where the Eastman School’s Institute for Music Leadership, of which I am Director, presented a pre-meeting workshop at the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM) annual meeting. The title of the workshop was, “The Entrepreneurial Music School in a Challenging Economy.” Since it’s[…]
Read MoreAs a non-playing orchestra librarian (well, mostly anyway), I don’t get to hear the orchestra on stage as much I did when playing more often and in the midst of the music. Yes, we always have the monitor on so we “hear” the rehearsals and concerts, but that’s clearly not the same as either participating[…]
Read MoreEvery year I look down in late August when we start our season, and by the time I am able to look up and catch a breather, it’s almost the end of October. And every year I say it’s not going to happen this year, that I will take more time to get out of[…]
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