Dreaming Our Future
SCANNING THE DIAL: “You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.” I’ve been called one. It hasn’t always been a compliment: head in the clouds, unrealistic, hopelessly romantic, impractical, out of touch. You know the type. If you’re Irish, you can blame it partially on your genes.
Info You Can Use: Employee or Independent Contractor
BUTTS IN THE SEATS: As usual, the folks at the Non-Profit Law Blog provide some useful links. I will quickly point out a short piece about the Senate has recently passing a jobs bill that will provide incentives to hire and keep employees.
PBDB: The Toughest Question, Part 1
DOUBLE BASS BLOG: I’ve addressed a variety of topics here on PBDB, and almost all of them are based on conversations with bass students that I have had over the years. People ask me for advice on music school choices, technique questions, instrument purchases, teacher options, and almost any other question that could possibly seem relevant to a young bassist who is looking for ways to grow and improve as a musician. I certainly don’t always have the best or even a useful answer to their questions, but I try my best to be as helpful as I can based on my own experiences and knowledge.
Passing the Buck(eye)….
STICKS AND DRONES: Why is it always surrender? Why can’t it be retreat to re-engage, re- strategize to re-connect with a community, or rebuilding instead of tearing down? The Columbus Symphony is going a very strange route and is in danger of being on a one-way street with no turning back allowed by essentially giving over day to day operations (and possibly more) to another group. The problem is indicative as the orchestra world grapples with economic realities, but again I say let’s stop being victims and start taking action. We need to stop waiting for the tide to turn and start making some waves!…..
The French Are Not As Forgiving
ADAPTISTRATION: Dan Wakin’s article in the 3/3/2010 edition of the New York Times does an excellent job at reporting on the Moscow State Radio Symphony Orchestra’s working conditions. According to his report, the musicians earn $40 per concert with no per diems and a number of the musicians go on record talking about unsatisfactory working and travel conditions. If this doesn’t sound familiar, it should. At the end of 2005, conductor Volker Hartung and his Cologne New Philharmonic made international news after French authorities arrested and jailed him…
Our team is stellar!
BRIAN DICKIE: We have such a terrific group of capable professional people working for COT. They have been working their hearts out for the last three months – and so much of the time has been spent on the great party that we are having tomorrow evening. If you have not booked by now you have probably missed the boat. More fool you – it is going to be a humdinger!
Orchestra Smaland; What a Swedish mega-retailer can teach classical music about building a customer base.
NEO CLASSICAL: That old saying, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, applies to classical music audiences now more than ever. Everyone remotely involved in the orchestra business is already aware that audiences are looking older and it is becoming harder to get younger listeners into the hall. And not only is there difficulty of pulling in patrons under 40, there is the ongoing challenge of keeping children educated about classical music so we can have some idea that there will be an audience for future generations.
Audio From My WFMT Appearance
THERE’S ALWAYS ROOM FOR CELLO: On January 8th, I posted a quick note letting everyone know about my guest host appearance at Chicago’s WFMT. I’m very happy to report that they have been kind enough to let me post the entire audio from the three hour segment here at my blog! I had an absolutely wonderful time with host Kerry Frumkin. The entire program has been divided into three sections and you can listen to each one with the audio players below.
