Polyphonic Blog
OnCampus Blog
OnCampus TV
Vlog
Webinars
Articles
Resources
All Articles
Foundation Reports
Harmony Archives
Organizational Change
Portland (Maine) Symphony Orchestra
Memphis Symphony Orchestra
National Symphony’s Residency in Kentucky
Mario Abney – XRIJF 2012
David Belasco – XRIJF 2012
Shane Endsley – XRIJF 2012Category: Sustainability
Modern Times
Half of the fun of watching Mad Men is observing how dramatically American society has changed since the 1960’s. The characters’ constant drinking and homophobia make us blush, and we notice how far attitudes have shifted towards everything from smoking to sexism. Our lives in America have changed so thoroughly since then that looking back
Read More →Breaking Up with Beethoven
Go out to hear an orchestra concert tonight and chances are the orchestra will be playing Beethoven. The most recent Orchestra Repertoire Report, from ’09 – ’10, details that 137 orchestras in America performed Beethoven’s music 457 times that season. His ninth, seventh, and fifth symphonies were ranked first, second and third respectively among the
Read More →An Indexed Financial Model for Symphony Orchestras
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
Read More →Big Tent Thinking
History is filled with people who have tried to define art. They have all been wrong, and there is no reason to suspect we are any better at it than they were. Changes to what experts call “Art” happen all the time. There was a time when people questioned whether photography constituted fine art. Some
Read More →Cooking the books
This is a pretty amazing story: For four years, the Minnesota Orchestra board has walked a tightrope between managing public perceptions about its financial health and making its case to cut musicians’ salaries. As early as 2009, board officers were discussing how much money to draw from investments, and the advantage of reporting balanced budgets
Read More →Beyond Prestige
In the American system, the arts are funded mostly through indirect subsidies. Our government’s tax policies toward charitable giving elicit billions of dollars in contributions annually. The beauty of this system is that it not only allows the citizens to determine which not-for-profits benefit a civil society, but also it does not require the government
Read More →Osmo joins the party
It’s been a bad week for the management of the Minnesota Orchestra, and this very public letter from their Music Director was was likely the cherry on the cake: Dear Members of the Minnesota Orchestra Board and the Musicians of the Orchestra: In the last few years, the Minnesota Orchestra has truly established itself as
Read More →Managements not part of the reality-based community
The musicians of the locked-out Minnesota Orchestra and the locked-out Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra got some helpful press today from Minnesota Public Radio: Locked-out musicians at the Minnesota and St. Paul Chamber Orchestras have been warning of a dangerous decline in artistic quality if they accept new contracts sought by management. They say the severe
Read More →Who’s Afraid of Popular Culture?
A recent missed opportunity for orchestras in New York City came in late October in the form of Comic Con. The New York Comic Con is an annual New York City fan convention dedicated to comics, graphic novels, anime, manga, video games, toys, movies, and television. Comic Con is an event that brings more than 100,000 people
Read More →When bad boards happen to good orchestras
There’s a very interesting story going around the Twin Cities, but this one’s about baseball. Apparently the management of the Minnesota Twins has decided that they need a retractable roof after all, for about a $100 million price tag. The chances of public funding are essentially zero, so the management is planning to reduce player
Read More →Minnesota nasty
Minnesotans are known for being averse to conflict, generous to arts and educational groups of all kinds, and generally plain-spoken (unless, of course, such speaking would lead to conflict). So, on top of the ongoing Minnesota Orchestra lock-out, this comes as a shock, even if not a surprise: The Twin Cities’ distinctive status in the
Read More →The rest of the ugly
Although the guts of the Minnesota proposal (and the damage done by it) lie in the economics, there is plenty of other stuff not to like as well. In particular, there are loads of changes proposed to work rules; far more than one would expect in a normal negotiation, much less one in which the
Read More →Minnesota by the numbers
In an act of remarkable generosity, Drew McManus not only obtained the actual proposal made to the Minnesota Orchestra by management but posted it on his Adaptistration website. I know he’s planning on some analysis, but it was too tempting a document for me to resist reading and writing about any longer. So here are
Read More →My kingdom for a decent news article
ICSOM Chair Bruce Ridge has joined the ranks of those writing about the underlying causes of the current situation in our industry, although of course he is hardly new to the party, having written extensively about the problems in the orchestra business for Senza Sordino over the years. It’s an interesting piece in many respects;
Read More →The reason why
It seems inherent in human nature to look for someone to blame when bad things happen. Bad things have been happening in our field of late (or at least to a higher-than-usual number of orchestras), so those on the receiving end – who are mostly, although not exclusively, musicians – look for an enemy who
Read More →Gold in them thar toobs?
Think “orchestral institutions” as “artists” in this article and some interesting questions emerge: Are we finally entering the age of the digital cultural entrepreneur (DCE)? That is, has it now become possible for a gifted artist or writer to control the reins of his or her career from a laptop, scheduling gigs, selling books or
Read More →Didn’t work
The Los Angeles Philharmonic has pulled the plug on its attempt to emulate the Metropolitan Opera’s successful series of live broadcasts to movie theaters: When the Los Angeles Philharmonic launched its series of live broadcasts to cinemas in 2011, the organization touted it as an innovative program intended to broaden the popular reach of the
Read More →One Wow and One Uh-Oh
This letter appeared in Saturday’s Minneapolis StarTribune: As former music directors of the Minnesota Orchestra, we came to the state because we believe that it wants and deserves to have a world-class orchestra. We are proud of the cultural gem we have built, with the musicians, for more than half a century. It required long
Read More →Peter Dobrin says it all
This article by Peter Dobrin of the Philadelphia Inquirer is the best reporting on the current crisis yet to appear. Go read the whole thing: …What someone is willing to pay for orchestral musicians in this country has changed radically in recent weeks. Yes, a brief strike last month by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra resulted
Read More →A bad settlement in Atlanta
The musicians of the Atlanta Symphony voted to ratify a tentative settlement that was pretty much what ASO management (or perhaps the Woodruff Center) wanted all along: Symphony Orchestra accepted a new collective bargaining agreement Wednesday, barely averting a postponement of the fall season. The deal will cost players $5.2 million in compensation over two
Read More →Guest Bloggers: Quartetutopia by Nicholas Kitchen
[Nick Kitchen is the founding first violinist of the Borromeo Quartet, ensemble in residence at NEC. In addition to receiving the Artist Diploma from NEC, the quartet has gone on to win the 2007 Avery Fisher Career Grant, Lincoln Center's … Continue reading →
Blog Categories
- Arts Advocacy (3)
- artsjournal (1)
- Community Engagement (5)
- History (4)
- Local (2)
- Musicians Today (2)
- Pundits (4)
- What They Think About Us (25)
- Careers (15)
- Commercial (1)
- Getting Ahead (7)
- Gigs (9)
- Hiring and Firing (8)
- Live Music (4)
- Music Medicine (3)
- Negotiation (25)
- Orchestra Life (6)
- Portfolio (1)
- Recording Industry (2)
- Classical Music (9)
- Composition (4)
- Compositional Process (0)
- Conducting (6)
- Performances (4)
- Composer's Corner (0)
- Editor's Choice (18)
- Education (12)
- Back to School (1)
- Books (2)
- Higher Education (3)
- OnCampus (7)
- Staying informed (4)
- Students (7)
- Electronic media (8)
- Entrepreneurship (12)
- Health & Wellness (1)
- Legal (1)
- Miscellaneous (4)
- bloopers (1)
- Uncategorized (390)
- Money (5)
- Income Streams (8)
- Sustainability (21)
- Taxes (12)
- Orchestra Management (8)
- Orchestra Economics (55)
- Orchestral Etiquette (2)
- Orchestral Models (16)
- Resctructuring (13)
- solvency (9)
- Professionalism (21)
- Compromised Integrity (2)
- Labor relations (51)
- Learning From Mistakes (4)
- Mindset (8)
- Performance Anxiety (0)
- The Future (32)
- Discoveries (4)
- Ten Years Later (1)
- The Apocalypse (26)
- Arts Advocacy (3)
Recent Comments
- Polyphonic.org – The Orchestra Musician Forum – Symphony Magazine, Spring 2013 Issue said: "[...] writes about the 100th anniversary of Stravinsky’s Rite of S.." on Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring at 100
- Polyphonic.org – The Orchestra Musician Forum – Improving the Orchestra’s Revenue Position: Practical Tactics and General Strategies said: "[...] assets of the Symphony Orchestra Institute to the Eastman School. .." on Harmony Archive
- Polyphonic.org – The Orchestra Musician Forum – Where no orchestra has gone before said: "[...] were locked out for several weeks in the fall of 2012. And I misse.." on The AFM is still wrong about the League
- Polyphonic.org – The Orchestra Musician Forum – Where no orchestra has gone before said: "[...] adherence to the Music Directors’ Code of Omertá is the norm.." on Dumb s**t conductors say
- Polyphonic.org – The Orchestra Musician Forum – Where no orchestra has gone before said: "[...] 2009, of course, was a year in which the orchestra reported a bala.." on Cooking the books
Rochelle Skolnick said: "Robert, I think you are correct that the "root" question is why so many .." on The AFM is still wrong about the League
Steven Reading said: "One thing I forgot to mention, although it seems to me to pretty self ev.."
on
Improving Parts (and Scores) for Orchestral Musicians
- Steven Reading said: "Thanks for your post. You are right, when we started we did concentrate .."
on
Improving Parts (and Scores) for Orchestral Musicians
Bassclef said: "Hi! I checked your catalogue and it strikes me you're offering your own .." on Improving Parts (and Scores) for Orchestral Musicians
jani said: "This seems to be a great idea. Though, is your material only improved Ka.." on Improving Parts (and Scores) for Orchestral Musicians
Pamela Brown said: "RL said, "On the Minnesota Orchestra front, Graydon Royce of the Minneap.." on News from the North
said: "Ms. Wolkowicz illustrates a great way for orchestras to engage future au.." on Connecting to Kids and Concepts: The Unleashing Power of Music Education Programs
- Polyphonic.org – The Orchestra Musician Forum – Depreciation of Musical Instruments said: "[...] I’ll guarantee you your friendly H&R Block tax preparer doesn.." on Depreciation of Musical Instruments
javelinda said: "I'm playing the ET Music with the New Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra 4/4/1.." on Can an Alien Save the American Orchestra? –Thoughts on “The New Model”
