Blog: Page 63

… although one might need a slightly twisted view of things to find it so. An article in the September 2010 edition of Medical Problems of Performing Musicians shows us how: …in 1935, trumpeter Louis Armstrong hurt his lips from too much playing and had to lay down his horn for a year. His condition […]

This story didn’t show up on the usual arts blogging sites, but it might well have been the most important news for our field in a while: In what labor officials and lawyers view as a ground-breaking case involving workers and social media, the National Labor Relations Board has accused a company of illegally firing […]

Color me skeptical: In a bold venture that the Los Angeles Philharmonic hopes will boost its “national brand” recognition and help raise the profile of classical music from Manhattan to Orange County, the orchestra next year will transmit live performances of three of its concerts to more than 450 high-definition-equipped movie theaters throughout the United […]

The Detroit Symphony went on strike a little over four weeks ago, although negotiations broke down several weeks before that. That puts the strike clock at around 11:45PM, by normal standards – negotiations seem to begin to get serious, during an orchestra strike, after about six weeks. Why is that? Why not sooner? I think […]

Well let’s start with what isn’t a secret: Many orchestras are trying to reach out to future audiences (young people) and convince them that an orchestra concert should be on their shortlist of exciting weekend activities. An increasing number of orchestras (and other concert music organizations) are creating programs and concerts specifically catered to younger […]

One of the scariest rituals of orchestra life is the arrival of a new Chief Executive Officer. A new Music Director can be very unsettling for the members of the orchesra, of course – it’s the Music Director who has the power of economic life and death over individual musicians, and obviously no other person […]

When I first came into the business, the conventional wisdom (as expressed by Len Leibowitz at many ICSOM conferences) was that it was in musicians’ interests to propose one-year agreements and let management pay for the privilege of several years of labor peace and not having to deal with negotiating committees.

Sir Isaac Newton, generally regarded as the most influential scientist in human history, once said “if I have seen further, it is only by standing on the shoulders of giants.” Those of us who make a living playing in orchestras stand on the shoulders of giants as well. One of them, Fred Zenone, died on […]

Peter Dobrin, in an article for the Philadelphia Inquirer on the possible departure of Philly clarinetist Ricardo Morales for the New York Phil, is skeptical: Lurking in the background is the hypocrisy that has long run through orchestral personnel decisions. Both players and management have held that talent is the sole criterion for determining who […]

It’s not because they make more money, or have all that power, or gets lots of aerobic exercise from moving their arms so much. Apparently it’s because they get to stand up while working: In academic papers with titles such as, “Your Chair: Comfortable but Deadly,” physicians point to surprising new research showing higher rates […]