Articles: Page 9

Dr. William Mesa is a professor of management and accounting at Colorado Christian University and an amateur musician who plays percussion in two community orchestras in Denver. His interest in both music and business lead him to a doctoral dissertation that, in part, discussed, organized and categorized the articles found in Harmony. (A MAP TO READING AND FINDING TOPICS IN HARMONY: Eight Years of Research, Studies, and Articles)
This series of four articles, published in installments here, represent his research interests in strategic management and organizational behavior, and applying that knowledge to the two community orchestras in which he plays. In Dr. Mesa’s words, “Understanding the significance of how IC (intellectual capital) is a resource for organizations, particularly NPOs (non-profit organizations) (like community orchestras), means recognizing the significance of what is at root of what motivates volunteers in the NPO or community orchestra. Why do community orchestras exist? Why do they perform?”

Dr. William Mesa is a professor of management and accounting at Colorado Christian University and an amateur musician who plays percussion in two community orchestras in Denver. His interest in both music and business lead him to a doctoral dissertation that, in part, discussed, organized and categorized the articles found in Harmony. (A MAP TO READING AND FINDING TOPICS IN HARMONY: Eight Years of Research, Studies, and Articles)
This series of four articles, published in installments here, represent his research interests in strategic management and organizational behavior, and applying that knowledge to the two community orchestras in which he plays. In Dr. Mesa’s words, “Understanding the significance of how IC (intellectual capital) is a resource for organizations, particularly NPOs (non-profit organizations) (like community orchestras), means recognizing the significance of what is at root of what motivates volunteers in the NPO or community orchestra. Why do community orchestras exist? Why do they perform?”

Justin Locke spent 18 years playing with the Boston Pops, the Boston Ballet, and all the other many freelance gigs in New England. He is now an author and speaker, and in his musical memoir, “Real Men Don’t Rehearse,” he shares some truly outrageous and hilarious gig disaster stories. One of several excerpts appears below. “Real Men Don’t Rehearse” is now in its sixth printing. You can see more at his website, www.justinlocke.com.

Justin Locke spent 18 years playing with the Boston Pops, the Boston Ballet, and all the other many freelance gigs in New England. He is now an author and speaker, and in his musical memoir, “Real Men Don’t Rehearse,” he shares some truly outrageous and hilarious gig disaster stories. The first of several excerpts appears below. “Real Men Don’t Rehearse” is now in its sixth printing. You can see more at his website, www.justinlocke.com

This article first appeared in the June 2010 issue of Allegro, the newspaper of the New York City musicians’ union (AFM Local 802). It is reprinted with permission.
Harvey Mars, counsel to Local 802 in New York city, answers two questions of great concern to AFM members: Why does the pension fund claim that it will be solvent for 40 years, and should we trust what the pension fund is telling us?

Michael Kaiser, CEO of the Kennedy Center, has been touring the country, visiting all 50 states (69 cities all-together – New Haven CT was number 58), offering his advice about how arts organizations can weather the current economic downturn. Thursday, June 10, 2010 was his day to be in Connecticut – he gave two presentations: one at the Yale Art Gallery in New Haven and one at St. Joseph’s College in West Hartford. The session was moderated by Diane Smith, a well-known CT television and radio personality who has recently done a lot of award-winning work with CT public television.
Michael Kaiser has been called “the turnaround king” because of his success with several arts organizations, including the Kansas City Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, American Ballet Theater, and London’s Royal Opera House. Indeed, his 2008 book is titled The Art of the Turnaround: Creating and Maintaining Healthy Arts Organizations.
In 2001, Michael created the Kennedy Center Arts Management Institute to provide advanced training for young arts administrators, and has developed a series of programs to help train others in the field. He created a Capacity Building Program for Culturally Specific Arts Organizations, which offers mentoring services to the leaders of African-American, Latino, Asian-American and Native-American arts groups across the United States. In February 2009, he created Arts in Crisis: A Kennedy Center Initiative, a program that has provided free arts management consulting to 650 arts organizations around the US.
While he has some very serious advice to offer, he is also very entertaining and inspiring. Many of the points he made in his talk this morning are discussed in much greater detail in his book, but this article provides a summary of some of his main points. (Comments in quotes are in first person and are close to what Michael or Diane actually said, but may not be verbatim.)
Diane started the session off with a big laugh as she complimented him on his wonderful photo on the cover of his book. (It’s actually a very striking photo of a dancer from the Alvin Ailey troupe!)

Mary McGeer, is a freelance musician who has carved out a unique niche in Toronto’s rich music scene by creating Talisker Players Chamber Music, an organization that presents chamber works for voice and small instrumental ensembles. The article explores the benefits and challenges of creating and maintaining a small budget performance organization as one part of an urban freelance career. Laura finds that although the rewards are significant in terms of creative expression, community connection, and the satisfaction of providing meaningful work for professional musicians, the price for those at the helm can be high. Countless hours of unpaid work are often required in order to maintain standards and stay within budget.

Dan Trahey, Artistic Director of OrchKids, worked for the Education Department at the Hartford Symphony for many years; he contacted me and suggested that I come down and take a look at the OrchKids program for Polyphonic. I spent 3 days at the Lockerman- Bundy Elementary School, home of OrchKids, in April, 2010, and decided the best article I could write for Polyphonic would describe the nitty-gritty of how OrchKids engages the kids, both during regular school hours and in the after-school program. In other words, what does the program actually do with all the kids?
CBS’ 60 Minutes aired a story about Gustavo Dudamel, YOLA (Youth Orchestra LA) and OrchKids on May 16; you can watch it by visiting www.cbsnews.com.
The Baltimore Symphony also has a video about OrchKids on their website: OrchKids.
I must apologize for the quality of the photos. My digital camera died on the way to Baltimore (may it rest in peace) and I bought a throw-away camera at CVS. I think it’s more important to give you a sense of how the program works than to worry about the horrible graininess of the photos, so I’ve used some of them here.

The Knights are not your typical orchestra. A hip young collective of New York City musicians, The Knights challenge the boundaries of convention through their innovative structure, communal rehearsal process, and creative programming. Collaborating with artists ranging from Dawn Upshaw and Gil Shaham to singer-songwriter Christina Courtin and fiddler Mark O’Connor to Middle Eastern musicians, The Knights have appeared at venues as diverse as Carnegie Hall, Central Park, Le Poisson Rouge, the Dresden Musikfestspiele, and the National Gallery in Dublin, and will soon debut at Ravinia and at the Caramoor Festival with Yo-Yo Ma. The Knights have recorded two albums for SONY Classical, the second of which, New Worlds, was just released in the U.S. (New Worlds is available by clicking here).
I had the pleasure of speaking with the charismatic young conductor and cellist of The Knights, Eric Jacobsen, who formed the orchestra with his brother, violinist Colin Jacobsen. Eric describes how the orchestra gradually emerged from a group of friends reading chamber music into a critically-acclaimed ensemble that embraces the spirit of collectivity and collaboration and expands the possibilities of contemporary orchestral performance. For more information about Eric Jacobsen and The Knights, please visit http://www.jacobseneric.com/ and http://www.theknightsnyc.com/index.php.
– Kirsten Jermé

The April issue of Allegro, New York City local 802’s monthly newspaper, focuses on the state of the AFM pension. Mikael Elsila, editor of Allegro, describes how the current economic situation impacts pension benefits for individual AFM members. He also explains how the fund works in terms of vesting, multipliers, employer responsibilities and how to get a pension forecast from the fund.
See the companion article by Harvey Mars, 802 member counsel, where he describes in detail but plain language the legal ramifications of the AFM-EP fund being in the red zone.