Why Bother…

It’s the 12th of August. There has been no news out of the Minnesota Orchestra debacle for a couple of weeks, and I’m sure that both sides are hard at work under the watchful eye of George Mitchell with a last ditch effort to patch things back together. But at this point why bother?

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Mirror, Mirror…

“What if instead…” scenarios are always wishful thinking, at least until someone actually builds a fully functional TARDIS so that we can go back in time and change some small detail that leads to an alternate reality. But here’s mine.

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Something Old, New, Borrowed, and Blue State

It has been a long time coming but I now believe that there is an end to the beginning in sight. Something Old – a Recap The implosion of the Minnesota Orchestra, so brilliantly dubbed the “Minnegeddon,” has shattered the illusion that the governance model of the 1950s is adequate to the task of running a major orchestra in this new millenium. That an artistic institution of this size and quality could be so cavalierly flushed down the drain by a Board led along the garden path by a few blowhards and … Continue Reading

From Sam With Love

Last night the locked out musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra played another concert under the direction of Mad Stan Skrowaczewski.  Here in its entirety is the pre-concert speech given by M.O. violist Sam Bergman.

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Through the Looking Glass

The Year of Living Dangerously in the classical orchestral world continues.  This time we get an interesting twist on the standard with the West Coast edition.  After a while it’s hard not to get desensitized to all the bad news out there.  Then I ran into a civilian.

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The Fiscal CLEF!

I was fully prepared to leave the Minnesota Orchestra posts to my partner in Blog Bill, and Drew at Adaptistration, but something I read really ticked me off!…..this is about attitude….

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Minnesota – A Calamity in One Tragic Act

For weeks I have meant to sit down and write this particular blog.  I have had the red line proposals from the Minnesota Orchestra administration for two months, and I have promised my blog mate Drew that I would be a part of a detailed analysis on the impact of these proposals and the implications for the future health of the M.O.  But I have to admit the truth – I give up.

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