15 seconds
February 22, 2016Every couple of years or so, someone in the mainstream media decides that Orchestral Auditions Are Interesting and does a story on them. This better-than-most iteration, written by Janelle Gelfand, appeared online at cincinnati.com, the website of the Cincinnati Enquirer: “If a candidate has made it to the final round of our audition process, they […]
It's A Pitch
October 6, 2014This post first appeared in Symposium, the journal of the College Music Society. It is reprinted here with permission. I’ve had two careers in my lifetime: as a symphony orchestra clarinetist and as a technology executive. One of the advantages these dual careers have given me has been the ability to apply my business experiences […]
Be An Entrepreneur! Get Outside Your Comfort Zone!
September 29, 2014How many times have we musicians heard those phrases? Do they mean that we should try to be like Janice Martin, the violinist who plays while hanging upside down? My most recent experience is not quite that dramatic….. “What time is the lunch break?” I asked the stage manager, knowing that he was the one […]
I really should have practiced harder
October 19, 2012Although maybe it’s the hair? Keira Knightley is working with violist/conductor Yuri Bashmet as a narrator: Keira Knightley and Yuri Bashmet again on one stage! When, in 2010 at the Winter Arts Festival in Sochi after the second intervention with Maestro Bashmet, Keira Knightley asked – not whether he is now developing the genre and […]
When’s it OK to ask musicians to work for free?
September 26, 2012For sure it’s not when the person asking has raised $1.2 million for her new album but doesn’t want to pay back-up musicians on the road. Fortunately for all concerned, she (very grudgingly) changed her mind after considerable public outcry. Many AFM locals had a prohibition in their bylaws about members working for free, at […]
Technology in Music – The Wave of the Present
June 11, 2012Ask any musician who is ten years older than you how business is, and he or she will probably say, “It’s okay, but it was much better ten years ago.” If that same person asks the identical question to another musician ten years older than he is, he will probably get the same answer. “It’s […]
Someone is Stealing Your Stuff-Attitudes About Copyright are Morphing
August 17, 2011If you’re an older person with copyrighted material you probably have a different view toward protecting and publishing your creative work than a younger person. Here’s an interesting blog from Andrew Taylor in Arts Journal that was posted on 6/7/11. It seems that times could be a changin’. On profits, proliferation, and piracy It’s a […]
Arts Entrepreneurship — Policy Opportunity?
March 10, 2011I don’t think anyone would argue that we’re in a period of policy transition in the arts and culture sector. I would even characterize it as the most significant period of policy reexamination since the 1960’s. The difference is huge, of co…
A substitute orchestra in Detroit?
February 20, 2011In a front-page article in the Detroit News, Michael H. Hodges is pessimistic about the future of the DSO: …outsiders warn that suspending the season involves a leap into the unknown, one that not only threatens the orchestra’s current hold on audiences and donors, but could put the 2011-2012 season and the orchestra’s entire future […]
Make the Client Feel Good
February 14, 2011This short phrase, “Make the client feel good,” is one of the most important things to remember in business. Often when doing recording sessions for television and radio commercials (read: jingles) the “com- poser” may be a person of little of no musical knowledge. He may not even read music or be able to put […]