This series is going to be a long term project that I hope starts a discourse.
I have written in the past that the Orchestra business needs an intervention but college music education needs a revolution. Shadowing the angst felt by Orchestras to maintain both relevance and control of their destiny is the fact that the next generation of musicians and administrators are essentially being trained for a world that no longer exists……
Here we go again, another ridiculous attempt to deceive “the young” into buying tickets with gimmicks and tricks to make sure that they will never come back after attending only once!….
With what is unfolding in Columbus and Shreveport, recently in Jacksonville and the disconnect that exists between so many orchestras and their communities, I wonder if there is someone or some group that would have the respect, the clout and the cojones to come in and shake things up so that we can focus on becoming relevant to our communities or at the very least to our audiences!….
Columbus is getting a lot of attention in the blogosphere and as the situation unfolds many more of us will weigh in I’m sure. The current dispute in Shreveport is getting very little attention and there is something quite disconcerting going on there that I’m afraid might cause an audience disconnection…..(There is an update 3/28/03 at the bottom)
Someone gave me a great idea yesterday. I have been thinking for some time that we need to do something to honor those volunteers who are the first point of contact with our patrons….
I mentioned in my $50,000 Cupcakes post that I would suggest a way to spend “no strings attached”money that might actually benefit an orchestra. I believe that the money should somehow benefit the audience profoundly and directly, but more importantly the children of those in the audience, with programs that have a chance of sustainability. By spending money this way, in the end it benefits all involved. Let’s go shopping…..in Texas!
There’s a vitriolic war of words going on across the pond in Great Britain over this statement made by the Arts Minister Margaret Hodge:
“The audiences for many of our greatest cultural events – I’m thinking of the Proms but it is true of many others – is still a long way from demonstrating that people from different backgrounds feel at ease in being part of this.”
She is being torn apart for this, but there is a balanced and profound viewpoint that I came across……
Tomorrow I have the honor to conduct for the second time in my career Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. I can’t help but think that if the New York Phil had performed this with a choir from North Korea then the world would have been on that stage, not just an orchestra from America. It brings to mind Bernstein’s famous 1989 performance celebrating the fall of the Berlin Wall and him changing the word Joy to the word Freedom…..