Upcoming

In my last posting on the American orchestra crisis, I promised to create a virtual symposium on the complex issues.  I proposed inviting musicians, orchestra managers, union representatives, consultants, funders, students to weigh in with their thoughts. I have issued the invitations and a gratifying number of writers are working on or have completed entries. Others have agreed to be interviewed in a Q and A format. I will post these here as they come in over the summer.    Because the problems facing orchestras are, in part, issues of legitimacy and because orchestras’ survival depends so much on the ensembles’ connection to their communities, I have also asked some of our Abreu Fellows to write about making music essential to civic life.  Similarly, because the “orchestras” of the future may look very different from their current manifestations and may be re-created by a new kind of musician, I have asked some of our Entrepreneurial Musicianship grant winners to discuss the new paradigms they are exploring. Enjoy!

–Tony Woodcock