Discussion Panel: Page 23

I try not to ask myself how I got here too often; I’m too busy scrambling to learn the next program to get bogged down with the deep stuff. But I have to admit I kind of feel like it was an accident. I started on electric bass, trickled down to upright to play more […]

I suppose I have come full circle. Born in New Zealand, I did my university degrees here, underwent musical training and had a bit of orchestral experience. But, being conscious of our isolation, many young New Zealanders head abroad to get their OE (Overseas Experience) sometime in their twenties. I went first to the US […]

I came back to Britain in 1994 after a long absence – 22 years! I guess part of me came back searching for my British roots. I was born in Britain but emigrated to the US when I was 12 yrs old. My family became American citizens. In 1994 I was at a crucial point […]

As a young cellist, I always had the idea that a period of studying in Europe to learn the European “traditions” was part of a well-rounded musical education. When Lawrence Lesser came to teach at Eastman for 6 months, his advice was: “Go to Europe and learn about life. It doesn’t even matter if you […]

I graduated from Rice in the spring of ’01 and started taking auditions, moving along from semis to finals as spring turned to summer. I made a tape for the Sydney Symphony while I was at a music festival in Colorado over that summer, trying to keep the audition chops up until fall. They accepted […]

My personal history and the question arising as to how I landed here requires some backtracking since it was a circuitous journey and not at all planned far in advance. I always had a dim yearning to spend some time in Europe. Being a classical musician, I felt that a familiarity with European culture and […]

“Globalization” is a hot-button issue for the 21st century. But the music business in general, and the orchestra business in particular, has always been transnational. Mozart traveled all over Europe in horribly uncomfortable traditions, Mahler was music director of the New York Philharmonic, and major European performers toured the backwoods of frontier American in the […]

I couldn’t agree more with Aaron Flagg regarding: 1) processes in place currently being imperfect 2) current pool being only what it can be, as only a certain pool does actually audition 3) context of diversity initiatives that have existed and the unfortunate fate of CBMR’s effort to put together a database of minority musicians […]

Let me begin this final post by saying that I’ve really enjoyed the exchange of ideas we’ve had in this forum over the last few days. Up to this point I’ve written mostly about what I see as well-intentioned but, in my opinion, questionable remedies to the problem of non-diverse orchestras, namely affirmative action at […]

On this last day, I want to thank my colleagues who made time to participate in this panel and for Polyphonic’s interest in hosting it. This issue desires thoughtful consideration and many aspects have been explored during the panel. It was a pleasure and I appreciate it very much. If you love something, you want […]