Blog: Page 65

When asked about the difference between American and European orchestras, most observers would first point to the fact that American orchestras receive comparatively little government funding. A segment on NPR’s All Things Considered yesterday reminds us that there is actually quite a lot of government funding of large-ensemble performance in the US – and how […]

is now online! To be more precise, an analysis of what happened at the AFM Convention in June has been published in Union Democracy Review, the newsletter of the Association for Union Democracy, and can be read here. Also at that address are links to articles on some of the issues that dominated the Convention. […]

In my February 1, 2010 blog I wrote about the Baltimore Symphony’s plans for a  fantasy camp, (my words) for adults, and how the amateur musicians would be working with the pros of the orchestra.  It is the brainchild of Marin Alsop and apparently it has legs.  Two hundred fifty amateur musicians, now called “Rusty […]

While not unexpected, this is not good news: Eleventh hour talks on Friday to head off a work stoppage at the Detroit Symphony Orchestra failed to settle a rancorous labor dispute between management and musicians…No further negotiating sessions are scheduled and DSO President Anne Parsons said Friday afternoon that management is now implementing the terms […]

Anne Midgette writes (or, more fairly, implies) in the Washington Post that the Detroit negotiations center on …a proposal that involves not only a hefty salary cut, but a formal redefinition of the job of an orchestral musician, making outreach, teaching, and chamber concerts a part of the deal. As Stryker points out, most musicians […]

The bad news arrived on such a regular basis this summer that it was a shock to see two bits of very good news arrive last week with a day or so. The first item was news of a startlingly successful fundraising campaign by the board of the New Jersey Symphony. The NJSO is an […]

Orchestras are different in lots of ways from most institutions in our society. But there are commonalities. One was brought home to me today when I read a blog post by a UC Berkeley prof on the tension between academics and university administrators: …university administrators and ordinary academics have totally different ideas of what counts […]

Strings magazine has an article on gender discrimination in its most recent issue that’s worth a look. While the writer, Rory Williams, focuses on the ongoing saga of how many women have really been hired by the Vienna Philharmonic, there is also quite a bit on the situation in the US as well: The latest […]

… how was your summer? While not as bad as Mrs. Lincoln’s, the summer was a downer for the orchestra industry. I’ve long suspected that orchestras were trailing indicators for the health of the economy as a whole, which is to say that orchestras get sicker and get well later in an economic downturn than […]

The short answer is that it’s something that’s about to bite the Detroit Symphony management very hard. The long answer follows after the jump.