Editor’s Choice: Page 6

Events in the Twin Cities this season have both horrified and fascinated those who care about orchestras and orchestra musicians. Events of such magnitude usually have a backstory, and the months-long lockout of the musicians of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra has a very rich backstory indeed. In 2002 and 2003, the board, staff and […]

This article by Michael Drapkin was first published in October of 2011. In it, Michael describes a different orchestra financial model–how the financial stakeholders of an orchestra i.e., the musicians, staff, conductors could share in the economic success or failure of their orchestra. There is definite risk/reward here, if instituted by an orchestra it would […]

Many orchestras are designing outreach programs, in order for their musicians to become more involved with their community. One of the more successful community engagement programs is that of the National Arts Centre Orchestra (NAC Orchestra) in Ottawa. In 2006 Polyphonic published two articles about NAC Orchestra’s outreach to Canada’s aboriginal population. NAC tours nationally […]

Peter Pastreich held the position of Executive Director of the San Francisco Symphony for 21 years, retiring in 1999. By all accounts that I’ve seen or heard, he is one of the most respected orchestra managers—maybe it’s because he’s retired now. Anyway–the article that follows is an account of his 2009 presentation at the League […]

Back in the 1990s, Gary Race worked with the National Symphony’s Education Department to assist NSO musicians in devising quality educational and outreach programs for in-school and community performances.  In 2006, Polyphonic asked Gary to write a series of articles, explaining his approach to creating innovative, interesting and informative presentations. Gary’s set of articles, “Getting […]

Henry Fogel was one of the best orchestra CEOs of the past thirty years, and his understanding of the intricacies of orchestral governance is profound. I learned a great deal from this article, even though I didn’t agree with all of his conclusions, and I think his insights about how our institutions function still ring […]

If you checked out my previous Editors Choice blog, you will remember that the research of Richard Hackman revealed that orchestral musicians are not so happy in their jobs. Quoting Hackman, It’s a bit ironic. Players in symphony orchestras are near the top of their professions—they are among the handful of talented musicians who actually […]

In the 1996 Summer issue of The Musical Quarterly [80(2), pp. 194-219], J. Richard Hackman, a professor of psychology at Harvard University, and Jutta Allmendinger, a professor of sociology at the University of Munich published a large-scale study of 78 professional symphony orchestras from four nations. Over the years, within the orchestral world, their study […]

Dr. Alice Brandfonbrener is arguably the pre-eminent physician in the world of music medicine.  Several years ago, Polyphonic asked her to write an overview of her experience with common musician injuries, and give her advice to instrumentalists about finding the proper diagnosis and care. She responded with a somewhat whimsical article, quoting Little Buttercup from […]

I have long had a soft spot in my heart for Harmony, which was the house journal of the Symphony Orchestra Institute. In part this was because the founders of SOI had the same curiosity about how orchestras really functioned as I did, and gave free rein to their curiosity in soliciting articles for Harmony. […]