Swimming Upstream with Sandow….

Firstly Greg Sandow is one of the first bloggers I started to read regularly, and I still do.  I have met him, I admire him and respect him greatly.  I think his recent post though about relevance doesn’t take an important thing into account, which is that a determination of what is relevant is not really our call to make….that belongs to our audiences and our communities….

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Treating Patrons Like Kids….DON’T DO THAT!!!!! – Update: Response

Creativity is not only for the artists.  A patron interfaces with an arts institution long before they get there, and time and time again the visitors guidelines and etiquette policies read as though buying a ticket is a passport to not being able to do anything coupled with an assumption that you know nothing, and that we are all 5 years old!  We belittle patrons before they walk through the door, we simply have to get creative with this.  My Audience Connection class took this on last week……(Update: response from Indianapolis below)

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A Little Help Here!…Part 2

We’ve all heard of no pain…no gain! We all espouse and/or have been told that we need to exercise fiscal responsibility, but what about fiscal accountability? Why is it that in a good year orchestras tout their fiscal responsibility, when in fact sometimes it’s only a good year because some of next year’s advance ticket money is spent to make it a good year…isn’t that fiscally irresponsible, cheating or maybe even fraudulent?…..

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Converting the Converted part 1….

I am enjoying a back and forth with Geraldine regarding the role of the new Music Director from my November 11 New Conductor Smell post.  I did not enjoy reading however of what is breaking with the Syracuse Symphony with whom I am working this week.  I have many friends in the group, they are phenomenal and I so enjoy being here, it never feels like work.  I guess I’m an insider but rather than dwell on the specifics of the situation, I want to riff on where I think in general we could make some inroads….this Sunday we perform in a Cathedral….

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We are for Profit…aren’t we?…..

I am up here in Lake Placid  for 6 weeks of concerts in the glorious Adirondacks with the Lake Placid Sinfonietta.  Something is really bothering me, even though I am here in paradise.  The words not-for-profit have such a negative connotation.  I know it’s a widely used categorical description but it’s not accurate in the figurative sense and unfortunately on so many occasions when an orchestra’s financial situation is akin to a house on fire often the solution offered is to not to douse the flames, but to destroy the house!….

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It needs to be about CONTEXT not URTEXT!!!!

At Cliburn last year I kept hearing “it has to be about the music”.  I’m sorry MUSIC IS NOT ABOUT MUSIC, it’s about everything else!  We spend so much time focusing on trying to get people to fall in love with music and with what we do.  This will only happen when we do the opposite first i.e It’s time for us to be into them!  Trying to tap into their pulse still puts us on the outside looking in, the goal should be to become part of their bloodstream…..

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