Frank Almond

Violinist Frank Almond holds the Charles and Marie Caestecker Concertmaster Chair at the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. He returned to the MSO after holding positions as Concertmaster of the Rotterdam Philharmonic with Valery Gergiev, and Concertmaster of the London Philharmonic with Kurt Masur. He continues an active schedule of solo and chamber music performances in the US and abroad and has been a member of the chamber group An die Musik in New York City since 1997, and also directs the somewhat notorious Frankly Music Series based in Milwaukee. He is on the faculty at Roosevelt University in Chicago, and plays on a really great violin.

MD Hide and Seek Part 3 (finally)

March 17, 2008 by Frank Almond

I spent the 2002-03 season as Concertmaster of the Rotterdam Philharmonic, a fantastic orchestra often overshadowed by the Concergebouw Orchestra (unfairly, in my opinion). At the time, the Music Director was Valery Gergiev, but there was a steady stream of wonderful guest conductors including Edo de Waart, who was their Music Director from 1973-79.

Practicing instead of writing

February 22, 2008 by Frank Almond

Well, I meant to continue with part 3 last week, but over the last month life kept getting in the way and I had to play the violin instead of writing (or doing much of anything else). Anyway, here are a few totally unrelated items in case you missed them: * Gustavo Dudamel gets a piece on 60 Minutes, the one media outlet left in the world that had not yet featured him- click… * A guy falls on his Guadagnini (not a Strad) and then someone loans him a Strad anyway- … Continue Reading

MD Hide and Seek Part 2

January 28, 2008 by Frank Almond

In early 2007 the search committee was starting to get a clearer picture of just what we were looking for. One member of the committee was the CFO for Rockwell, and came up with a great idea from the business world- lock ourselves in a conference room for eight hours or so until we come up with the most detailed profile possible. In the process, we’d be forced to get to know each other a little better, and hopefully apply that to what was probably going to be a lengthy process.

MD Hide and Seek Part 1

January 14, 2008 by Frank Almond

Ten days ago Edo de Waart was named the next Music Director of the Milwaukee Symphony. The appointment attracted quite a bit of press, and seemed to take a lot of people by surprise (in a positive way). I was on the search committee (the first I’d participated in from start to finish), and since the announcement coincided with the start of non divisi, the whole MD search idea seemed like a good topic for discussion. Even though I can’t get into certain details of our specific search for obvious reasons, I think a general overview might be worthwhile.

Welcome to non divisi…………..

January 7, 2008 by Frank Almond

This site has been a long time coming in certain ways, and I’m really happy it’s finally up and running.

I’m more of a musician than a writer, but over the last few years I began to follow a few arts sites more closely, even posting something once in awhile. I began to notice that each site tends to have its own sort of perspective and style, with a comparable level of discourse. That is, one site will tend to be more musician or performer-oriented, another leaning towards a management or business perspective, and so on. Certainly that is to be expected, but it occurred to me (and some of my colleagues and friends) that I might have a different take on various issues by virtue of the various professional situations and opportunities I’ve experienced.