All Entries in the "Aud.Connect" Category
Quick Takes: The Gold Medal for the greatest Orchestra goes to…..
Another attempt to pit Orchestras against each other in an unofficial “Olympics” at Carnegie is a real head scratcher. What is the prize, who actually cares and what is the point? Thankfully Alex Ross provides some sanity but what is interesting is how Orchestras making the Carnegie pilgrimage seem to think it is a magic [...]
Passing the Buck(eye)….
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 [...]
More ASS in clASSical – Unexplain This!
So I’m late in getting to the widely panned Philly marketing campaign Unexpect Yourself. Now to their credit it has created a lot of buzz in the blogosphere but whether it translates into sales and repeat business….well time will tell. What marketing in general seems to lack is creating a connection to relevancy with this [...]
Very STATisfying! – part 1
It’s about Artistic excellence, We want to be the best orchestra this side of the…(insert iconic river or Great Lake here!), We’ve practiced, practiced, practiced…now we want to go to Carnegie Hall. How many times do you hear how great an Executive and/or Music Director wants their orchestra to be, but what does great actually [...]
Lest We….Lebrecht!
I have always been a fan of Norman Lebrecht. His book Mahler Remembered is an anthology of recollections from friends, colleagues, observers, critics and the like. The personal nature of the book drew me in giving me some sense of Mahler the man along with the times he lived in, going beyond his musical prowess. [...]
Quick Takes: Putting your mouth where the money is!
We have all heard it word of mouth is the best form of advertising, and who would doubt it? Problem is it is both hard to quantify and to come up with data to prove its effectiveness, or so I thought……
Quick Takes: And for the Record(ing) we need to go more “GaGa!”
While the rest of the universe is scratching their heads and debating how Taylor Swift won the Grammy for album of the year, the Internet broadcast of the Classical awards from earlier in the day on Sunday left me perplexed…and the sad thing is, it’s maybe just me who is. It seems not only are [...]
Adjusting the Seasonings in Salt Lake! – Time to Make a Play!
The Utah Symphony and Opera have been rescued by a very large gift which is great news. A couple of articles about their situation got me thinking more about community outreach and how the tangible resonance of a hall needs to be matched with the resonance felt within and even beyond our communities. More importantly [...]
Hope for the Next Decade: A Call to Arts!
Community Outreach was the catchall category of the last decade in the Orchestra world, and has become so non defined that we take for granted that it’s happening at every orchestra. It most certainly isn’t just because the words are used. It is time to define it for real, give it real teeth and [...]
Quick Takes: Gesturing….
My teacher Jorge Mester the first time I met him asked me this simple question “What is conducting?” I was stumped and after several feeble attempts to describe what conducting is (which is what I wanted to do with my life!) he helped me work it out. That lesson was the most profound he ever [...]
Quick Takes: What is Success?
The word success is defined for many in the performing arts as the accomplishing of a personal goal, to be continuously engaged, to reach higher positions, to be critically acclaimed and all of the above. Is it really success when it is only about ourselves? Is success not something that also given from [...]
Reflections – Life beyond Music
I’m starting a post today that is somewhat personal yet I think reflects an issue faced by many of my colleagues who make their living in orchestras. We all know that classical music faces some fundamental problems in the world today, and we are all very good at pointing the finger at various aspects of [...]
JW Turner wrote:
Bill Eddins wrote:
patty wrote:
Drew McManus wrote:
Ron Spigelman wrote: