Community Engagement

Check out this exciting new opportunity announced recently by the League of American Orchestras: The League of American Orchestras has launched The Ford Musician Awards for Excellence in Community Service, a new program supporting orchestra musicians and the essential work they do in their communities. The program is made possible by Ford Motor Company Fund. […]

The League of American Orchestras recently announced their new five-year strategic plan. You can read an executive summary, an abridged version, or the entire plan by clicking here. The summary begins with a quote from Jesse Rosen, President & CEO: This plan was developed in a moment of great possibility. It builds on the momentum […]

The Minnesota Orchestra held its Annual Meeting on December 3rd and not only announced a surplus of $15,000 but accepted an amazing gift from the musicians. The players, who formed the non-profit Musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra while there were locked out for 16 months, have dissolved this organization and donated the monies raised from self-produced […]

The summer issue of Symphony magazine had an article by Michael Stugrin about the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation’s Education and Community Envestment grants, awarded to 22 orchestras in 2014-15. The grants rage from $13,000 to $27,500, and are granted to orchestras of all budget sizes. Mr. Sturgin’s article focuses on four recipients: The Central […]

Recently I attended a presentation by Mitchell Korn, who conducted an in-depth analysis of my orchestra’s educational programs. He had many critically interesting ideas to convey to us musicians, and kept coming back to “professional development.” I think, for most of my colleagues, this conjurs up a vision of a truly boring session with some consultant […]

Michael Stugrin, writing in the spring 2015 issue of Symphony magazine (page 42), presents an interesting overview of a new trend among orchestras − performing with amateurs. Most orchestras have been doing “side by side” performances with their local youth orchestra for decades (I played such a concert with the Boston Symphony at Symphony Hall way back […]

The Guardian recently published an edited version of NY Philharmonic Music Director Alan Gilbert’s 2015 Royal Philharmonic Society Lecture.  In the lecture, Gilbert describes his view of where we are today – how orchestras are doing some serious soul-searching to discover what role they will play in their communities going forward.  Orchestras are trying all […]

In “today’s arts climate,” which is often characterized by tales of diminishing audiences, revenue, and interest, why would anyone start a new orchestra? That is a question that Jennifer Melick considers in an intriguing article in the recent Symphony Magazine.  Melick spotlights eight recent orchestra startups and looks at the goals and creative ideas behind […]

In the fall of 2014, the Wallace Foundation published a report by market research expert Bob Harlow: The Road to Results: Effective Practices for Building Arts Audiences. The study profiles ten arts organizations that received funding from the Wallace Foundation to develop audience-building initiatives. Among the ten are the Boston Lyric Opera, Minnesota Opera, Pacific […]

Last November, Dr. Geoffrey Baker, a music lecturer at the University of London’s Royal Holloway College, published a book that is quite critical of the founder of the El Sistema movement in Venezuela, Dr. José Abreu, and the El Sistema program itself. Various reviews of Baker’s book, El Sistema: Orchestrating Venezuela’s Youth (Oxford University Press, […]