Blog: Page 19

The former battlefield known as the Minnesota Orchestral Association continues its explorations of the very outer limits of the envelope: Musicians returned to playing concerts for the Minnesota Orchestra this weekend, but the turmoil that has followed the organization for more than 16 months resurfaced Saturday. After a homecoming concert Friday at Orchestra Hall, musicians […]

As anyone who’s picked up a newspaper in the last few days probably knows, the Stradivarius on loan to Frank Almond, my orchestra’s concertmaster, was recovered last week and the alleged thieves detained by police: Salah Salahadyn, 41, and Universal Knowledge Allah, 36, arrested this week, are each charged with robbery, as party to a […]

It’s always humbling to write the annual In Memoriam feature for Polyphonic, but never more so than this year. The number of highly accomplished people associated with our field who were also remarkable human beings will be daunting for anyone who’s considered what their own obituary might look like. Many of those who left us […]

First Minnesota, then Milwaukee, and now … Memphis: Following in the tumultuous footsteps of its Nashville counterpart, the Memphis Symphony Orchestra announced that it is facing a financial crisis that will require “aggressive steps” to complete the current season. “The Memphis Symphony Orchestra celebrates decades of accomplishments thanks to a committed group of patrons, musicians […]

In the latest edition of Symphony Magazine, the League of American Orchestras President and CEO Jesse Rosen discusses the rise of “musician-led” ensembles such as Alarm Will Sound, The Knights, and more.  He also makes the argument that American orchestras are full of entrepreneurial musicians whose ideas should be tapped to keep orchestras at the […]

Most readers of this blog have already heard of the events of last Monday here in Milwaukee. If you haven’t, the New York Times has a good summary: It should have been one of those nights musicians live for. Frank Almond, the concertmaster of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra for nearly two decades, had just closed […]

The latest awards from the Ann & Gordon Getty Education and Community Investment Grants, administered by the League of American Orchestras, were recently announced. The grants range from $10,oo0 to $30,000 for community-based grants in the 2013-14 season, awarded to 23 orchestras. To see the League’s press release, click here. 65% of the grants were […]

As we all celebrate the end of the 15-month lockout of the Minnesota Orchestra and welcome their return to performances next month, I’d like to remind the orchestral community that another orchestra suffered a 14-month lockout back in the early 90s, and has learned a lot by that experience. My own Hartford Symphony was locked […]

In the aftermath of the most devastating conflict in human history, the epicenter of that conflict, Germany, experienced in 1945 what the Germans called “Stunde Null” – zero hour. It was an expression of the fact that communal life as they’d known it had ended but the society that would replace it was not yet […]

The attitude of professional orchestras to conductors of a certain gender is a perennial favorite of arts journalists, if not yet an actual Internet meme: Example of Internet Meme: not intended as a reflection of the author’s real feelings The latest example of such journalistic favoritism is an article on the BBC website a few […]