I have the blood of Africa running through my veins, and now I’ll be leaving some of that same blood on the old continent. More about that later.
If I may make a suggestion – if you ever get the chance to go on tour somewhere exotic on the coattails of Renée Fleming – TAKE IT! Renée and her family (daughters, brother & family, mom, personal assistant) got into Durban, South Africa on Tuesday morning. Tuesday at lunch we had our “presentation.” This is when the schedule was revealed.
The Savvy Musician, a book by Dr. David Cutler comes out in November. There is some publicity being generated about the book’s upcoming release and the potential impact it might have on those musicians seeking careers in non traditional venues. I haven’t read it (advanced copies are available) but an article about it raises some questions for me as to the motives of schools that think that entrepreneurship is the answer for musicians who are not finding work in “traditional” musical settings. The potential problem in music schools creating stand alone entrepreneurship programs, is that it treats it a little like alternative medicine…..i.e not taking it seriously
Newsflash – Endowments are down the toilet; Arts orgs. are laying off people at record pace; donations are down; the NYCity Opera got sold a bag of rotten turnips; ponzi scheems are playing havoc with donors; orchestras/dnace companies/opera companies/etc. are folding ……… Folks, is it time for the next Revolution?
We had Drew here this week for the purpose of beginning the process to re-structure our organization to be ready for the future. Being that we are in a strong position and not in crisis makes this the perfect time for that process. In other words, rather than waiting for the fires to start, we are attempting to make ourselves fire proof! There were two retreats and many meetings. I am going to let Drew extrapolate on his visit here and instead focus on his chat with myself and one of our musicians about a program that I hope will be repeated everywhere!…..
Vitriol, court actions and labor disputes abound in the orchestra world. Every situation is complicated, different and/or unique in many ways. There is one constant that links them all and that is a failure to communicate directly. Unscrambled eggs anyone…….
In August last year the Community Foundation of the Ozarks formed a committee of arts leaders (including yours truly) and gave us a challenge with funding attached:
Come up with a program that sustains the arts in Springfield. Part one went into effect on March 14….and it’s big!…
Having read the recent postings by Drew, and Joe regarding the booming music/arts school enrollments, I decided to do some digging. There is a body that is at least partially responsible for this, an association that accredits schools to be completely autonomous i.e accreditation for proving that you are doing whatever you want to do……the ultimate “unregulatory” body (apart from the SEC!)……
On our summer trip last year, I was amused when we drove across “Nameless Creek” Indiana because by calling it that, it actually gave it a name! Just as ironic was to read that the CEO and President of the Grand Rapids Symphony Peter Kjome had “no comment” when asked a pertinent question relating to their staff salary cuts and how it would impact the musician’s agreement, and then he promptly commented!……