There is an oft expressed sentiment in Hawaii that the state is about 10 years behind the current trends. The Honolulu Symphony administration, however, seems to be right in step with the current approach symphony management nationwide takes while in negotiations with their musicians. In an interview that aired last Friday on Hawaii Public Radio, … Read more
I was going to leave this topic to Drew McManus over at Adaptistration because his knowledge about management and musician relations in orchestras is far greater than mine. He also knows people in the Honolulu Symphony and has a better sense of what is going on. However, one of the people Drew knows made a … Read more
Colorado Public Radio has a weekly Q&A feature they run. A recent question about why some sports teams are named for Denver and others for Colorado even though they are all based out of metro Denver reflects the ways in which technology and connectedness change our perceptions. Reporter Ben Marcus noted that older teams like … Read more
While I have left Hawaii, I still keep an eye on how things are going there and what my friends are up to. I was interested and pleased to see that Jonathan Parrish had been hired as the new executive director of the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra (HSO). The HSO replaced another HSO, the Honolulu Symphony … Read more
Though they haven’t played since October 2009 and the symphony filed for Chapter 7 liquidation in December 2010, the Honolulu Symphony musicians saw a new opportunity to perform together emerge today as tickets went on sale for the first performances of the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra. The new organization has embraced an ambitious plan with their … Read more
Last week Americans for the Arts held a Private Sector salon on ARTSblog where they discussed where the interests of the arts and business intersected. Much of the discussion was very interesting, but one entry by Margy Waller stuck with me for a few days. Part of it was the timeliness of her subject. She … Read more
For a long time there has been a sort antagonistic undercurrent between the arts and sports, more on the part of the arts than sports. Personally, I think it can be traced back to high school where artistic and athletic pursuits both competed for after school program funding, but that is just my theory. (Borne … Read more
I was driving home a week ago when I heard an interview on the radio with a couple talking about founding the Orchestra of the Hawaiian Islands. (MP3 download) Now given that the Honolulu Symphony has just declared bankruptcy after years of financial struggles, this elicited a “say what?” moment for me. It turns out … Read more
Continuing on with the theme of young artists forging places for themselves, I was recently reading about a young conductor, Alondra de la Parra and couldn’t help being impressed. The interview I read was in the Arts Presenters’ magazine, Inside Arts. I don’t know what the general consensus of her abilities is in the orchestra … Read more
I went to see Bela Fleck, Zakir Hussain and Edgar Meyer perform with the Honolulu Symphony this weekend. I had heard an interview with Zakir Hussain about the project on PRI’s The World a week or so earlier and was intrigued by the description of the project. (There is another interview and video here. Scroll … Read more
Speaking of the intersection of crime and the arts, Pacific Business News reports that the already cash strapped Honolulu Symphony suffered a break in this weekend. Fortunately, there wasn’t a lot of damage and very little was stolen. Jackson said Honolulu Police Department officers described the break-in as a typical “cash grab.” “There was a … Read more
I was pleased when Ron Spigelman over at Sticks and Drones chose to start Take A Friend to the Orchestra Month by acknowledging the poise with which the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra musicians and administration were conducting business in tough economic times in contrast with the tensions other classical music organizations were facing. Granted with their … Read more
This Sunday, Honolulu Symphony principal conductor Andreas Delfs expressed some strong sentiments about the way his organization had been treated by the city. The symphony performs in the city owned Blaisdell Hall and was bumped out last year by the production of The Lion King which did not help their tenuous financial situation in the … Read more
When you see a person quoted in the newspaper talking about a controversial or important issue, it can be difficult to develop an empathetic connection with them because the written word has an inherent insulating element about it. I have been following the travails of the Honolulu Symphony for quite some time now. I have … Read more
There is a great illustration (in my mind as least) for why arts people need to value learning and be cognizant of what is happening elsewhere in a story out of Orlando. It seems the Orlando Opera Company and Orlando Ballet have decided to try to bump their subscribers out of the balcony and into … Read more
Last week Andrew Taylor put out a call for a part-time administrator for the Association of Arts Administration Educators. The comments which followed the entry debated if it were better to require someone to have significant experience in the arts or to hire a skilled administrator from another discipline with a more passing familiarity with … Read more
Drew McManus, the brains behind the Take A Friend To the Orchestra project, has compiled the contributions, (including yours truly’s) for the 2006 version into a book. To purchase it, click on the button below: I will be adding the button to the sidebar of my blog soon. On a related note, as long time … Read more
I was happy to see an interview last week with the new Honolulu Symphony executive director, Tom Gulick and hear an interview with new symphony board chair Curtis Lee last week where both men acknowledged that the situation with the sale of balcony seats has been ill-advised. (Discussed in earlier entry) They also acknowledged that … Read more
So I was sort of hedging my bets when I made the vague statement a couple days ago that the Honolulu Symphony was the largest professional performing arts organization in the state. Turns out my suspicions were correct and the symphony is, with a minor exception, the only professional performing arts organization in the state … Read more
As a denizen of Honolulu, I have been monitoring the leadership situation at the Honolulu Symphony off and on over the past few years. Up until the last week or so they have been without an executive director and a music director and suffered some tension on the board of directors. This past Saturday an … Read more
A little revisiting of former topics to check on how things are going. Back in May I covered the troubled times the Honolulu Symphony was having. I had actually started out exploring what appeared to be an attempt at a new organizational structure. However, that just ended up being a preamble to developing tensions. Recent … Read more
I am happy to see some promising signs from Honolulu Symphony. Last May I made an entry on reports of infighting and tension in the symphony board and administration. There may still be some simmering anger in the organization but it appears there are also some attempts to expand the reach and visibility of the … Read more
Well in my last entry, I guess I must have been too smug about feeling I had achieved a degree of mastery over my domain after a year. The next day I experienced some of the political garbage I mentioned came home to roost. I try to adhere to the rule that one shouldn’t blog … Read more
The cleaning of a virus on my computer while I was writing my entry yesterday apparently prevented me from posting it. In some sense it was fortuitous because I was posting a follow up to an earlier entry on the Honolulu Symphony’s new management structure. At the time, most of what I knew about the … Read more
In the course of deleting all the spammy comments the blog gets from day to day advertising poker, viagra and other sites I don’t wish to have promoted on my blog, I accidentally deleted a comment from a person associated with the Honolulu Symphony. All I saw was “As A Member of the Honolulu Symphony..” … Read more
As I thought, Drew McManus featured my account of my orchestra attendance on his blog today. I hadn’t expected him to essentially quote my entire letter to him. I am pleased that he did (and corrected some of my lapses where my mind sped along faster than my fingers). What really tickled me was that … Read more
Drew McManus over at Adaptistration anointed May as “Take a Friend to the Orchestra Month” He has devoted many of his blog entries this month to following people’s experiences. Since he listed a concert by the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra as one to see, I thought I would try to take it in. I was coming … Read more
There is something interesting/puzzling going on locally with the Honolulu Symphony organizational structure. I was going to let Drew McManus over at Adaptistration because he is the authority on the strange world of orchestras. But dang it, the whole thing is making me curious so I gotta say something. And if Drew doesn’t like it, … Read more
The NY Times covers the Metropolitan Opera’s high definition broadcast of Hansel and Gretel to movie theatres throughout the country. One of the questions they ask is whether the experience will translate into people going to see the opera live. By some coincidence, I received a brochure from the Philadelphia Orchestra today offering me the … Read more
January 2007 its coming was foretold and a great moan of despair did issue from the people while others cheered and hailed the arrival of the dread behemoth. Many tried to scurry from its path and have just now recognized their failure now as the shadow of the mighty beast falls upon them. Now cometh … Read more
I was wondering if you would enjoy that Ray.
Thank you for the post. Simon Rattle and the students made my day!
Santa Cruz Shakespeare has several tiers of benefits for donors/members. Some, like season-announcement parties, are open to several tiers. Some,…