Sandow on Ricker on diversity
January 24, 2010 In: UncategorizedMost readers of this blog will know of Greg Sandow, if only for the work that he’s done for Polyphonic. But he’s done a great deal of other stuff, including writing a blog for ArtsJournal.com. He recently did a post on something that Ray Ricker had written for this blog, and it’s worth reading in […]
Thought for the day
In: UncategorizedMusicians are the only people who use “and” as a noun: Do you want us to do a crescendo on the and of three?
Such a versatile instrument – Part 2
January 23, 2010 In: UncategorizedFrom our colleagues in Minnesota:
Some thoughts about auditions
January 22, 2010 In: UncategorizedAuditions are a big subject; Polyphonic did a virtual discussion panel on the topic about three years ago and barely scratched the surface. We had two days of violin auditions at the beginning of the week, which gave me both a lot of time to think and some material to think about. So I thought […]
Bragging a Little–Thanks Robert
January 21, 2010 In: UncategorizedOver the past couple of months, many of you have followed the plight of the musicians of the New Hampshire Music Festival here on the Polyphonic blog. Senior Editor and Blog-Meister, Robert Levine did an outstanding job of bringing the musician’s case to the broader public, and was undoubtedly instrumental in the favorable outcome for […]
Reactions to Cleveland
January 20, 2010 In: UncategorizedThe Cleveland strike, and the rapidly-ensuing settlement, were the subject of more coverage in the media since… the last round of Big Five orchestra strikes. And the coverage was pretty much the same; talk of how the strike was symptomatic of fundamental issues with the health of orchestras (it wasn’t), talk about how the musicians […]
Cleveland strike is over
In: UncategorizedIt seemed to me that this might be a short strike; in the end, it came as close as a strike could be to not being a strike at all. The only work canceled was a concert in Bloomington IN, which will likely be re-scheduled. What is reported about the settlement makes it sound like […]
More on Cleveland
January 19, 2010 In: UncategorizedThe Cleveland strike was still ongoing as of late Monday night, at least according to Google News. The New York Times had a long article on the subject by Daniel Wakin, which seemed generally balanced and well-informed. It did include this tidbit, though: Many of the nation’s top orchestras have reduced staff positions and administrative […]
Nepotism, Diversity and the Audition Process–This Could be an Opera Plot
January 18, 2010 In: UncategorizedI’m going to riff a bit on Robert Levine’s January 15th blog post, Sometimes it’s hard to have a screened audition, where Robert points out the absurdity in the New York Philharmonic’s decision not to identify clarinetist, Burt Hara, who was playing what most musicians would call a trial week. The NY Phil is looking […]
Cleveland on strike
In: UncategorizedAt least for Monday: Oboist Jeffrey Rathbun says he and the other musicians are “sorely disappointed” management hasn’t acknowledged sacrifices they’ve made in their last two contracts or their offer to continue to work for the next contract year with no increase in salary or benefits. The musicians’ contract expired last summer. The musicians say […]