Holly Mulcahy

Walking down Chicago’s Michigan Avenue the other day I came across advertisement after advertisement for immersive experiences, including The King Tut Immersive Experience, The Prince Experience, The Van Gogh Immersive, The Harry Potter Immersive Experience and so on. The one that caught my eye and made me think of my own classical world was The Immersive Nutcracker. While many symphony and ballet organizations rely on yearly Nutcrackers to bring in families to the theaters, this new immersive experience seemed to be a direct threat. I posted this thought on Facebook a while … Continue Reading

Feeling needed, valued, seen, and appreciated are all things we humans like. When people acknowledge what others do or bring to a company or organization, it can be extremely powerful. It can make the person work harder, stay with the company longer, and feel more connected to the organization. Although the orchestra world actively thanks and acknowledges patrons and sponsors regularly (for the most part), is there enough acknowledgement within the organization itself? Over the past couple decades as a professional musician, I’ve heard several voices expressing a lack of appreciation or … Continue Reading

When corporations are faced with crisis, challenges, or just want to regroup and refocus, many have found that offering improv (improvisation) workshops is a great way to unify the company, encourage creativity, and streamline communication company-wide. Nonprofit organizations, especially orchestras, are no different with needs of finding focus, creativity, and unity. And coming out of this pandemic these organizations really ought to be firing on all cylinders. Embracing the improv workshop mindset would be something orchestras should consider! Many of us in the orchestra business know there is a communication challenge, a … Continue Reading

Several years back I wrote an article about why it was important for orchestras to update their audition repertoire requirements. The repertoire lists that musicians were asked to prepare for auditions was not reflecting the updated missions of the ensembles, nor was it reflective of the music being programmed. Over the last four years, the social justice movement has had a positive influence on the way orchestras approach programming while some are producing DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) statements. As we head towards what we think is the light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel of this pandemic, … Continue Reading

“…AND THEN SHE TOTALLY DIVORCED HIS STUPID ASS!” yelled one patron to another. Prior to that comment, the orchestra had grown louder and louder and the energy was robust, full, and palpable! That should have been a glorious moment of serenity after the sudden drop in intense volume. Instead, it turned into the orchestra, and much of the audience, struggling to resist laughter. This happens more than we talk about. The talking, that is. People talk and talk and talk during concerts. I’ve preached often that there are no wrong answers for … Continue Reading