As we all remember, last season the Detroit Symphony won the race to the bottom in the labor relations/management incompetence sweepstakes. I’m amazed and very sorry to report that apparently the Minnesota Orchestra has decided Detroit didn’t quite go far enough, and has locked out the musicians for the first time in its 100-year history. With recent developments in Atlanta, Indianapolis and St. Paul, it doesn’t appear that the war on musicians will end anytime soon.
Frank Almond
New Paradigm?
Possibly. But last week’s news from my own orchestra was certainly a shock to anyone familiar with traditional arts management dogma. As my colleague Robert Levine has noted, this isn’t exactly new thinking, although it may be the first time a major orchestra has rather abruptly propelled one of its musicians into the CEO position. The amazing thing to me is that it happened at all, given the current industry climate.
Silly season?
The season’s off to a peculiar start as three major institutions negotiate down to the wire (or past it). Despite healthy news from places like Seattle and St. Louis, things are not looking great in Atlanta or Indianapolis.
Summer of discontent?
Well, not for me. But obviously things have been bumpy at certain orchestras lately, and the press coming from both Minnesota and Atlanta seems to get more and more intriguing. Like today’s piece regarding the Atlanta Symphony.
Link dump and self-promotion update.
Just a quick post to highlight a few interesting news items and a Kickstarter update. First off, who would imagine that an erotic novel and the Tallis Scholars would have anything in common?
The darkness of ignorance.
With apologies to Shakespeare; I thought it was an appropriate title given the subject at hand. In case you missed it, a few days ago a 20-year-old intern at NPR posted an article that (to put it mildly) engendered lots of discussion, and the comments keep coming.