FacebookLinkedInEmailCopyPrint After 18 years, 10 months, 17 days, and 4,821 posts it’s time to wrap things up. I was listening to the original Broadway cast recording of Hamilton and the track One Last Time came on. If you’re unfamiliar with the song, it’s a conversation between George Washington and Alexander Hamilton where Washington informs Hamilton about his intention to not seek re-election. The two go on sing about Washington’s desire for Hamilton to help write his farewell address and the importance of knowing how to exit the stage. That’s when the thought started poking the back of t ..read more

After 18 years, 10 months, 17 days, and 4,821 posts it’s time to wrap things up. I was listening to the original Broadway cast recording of Hamilton and the track One Last Time came on. If you’re unfamiliar with the song, it’s a conversation between George Washington and Alexander Hamilton where Washington informs Hamilton about his intention to not seek re-election. The two go on sing about Washington’s desire for Hamilton to help write his farewell address and the importance of knowing how to exit the stage. That’s when the thought started poking the back of the head, slowly at first, but w ..read more

I’m away for a short vacation and decided to take a few extras days off from blogging as well but I’ll be back on Wednesday, September 14, 2022. Once things are back up and running, we’ll be examining the decision by one professional orchestra to begin charging audition fees and hopefully have enough data to publish the compensation reports ..read more

Take a moment to treat yourself today and get to learn about ins and outs of orchestra management from a humorous perspective by binge-reading all 157 episodes of  Who’s Minding The Score?, a satirical cartoon that provides a behind the scenes look orchestra life. It’s the ideal way to spend some of your Labor Day, really, just take a look at some of these characters ..read more

Back in December 2021 Carnegie Hall launched Carnegie Hall+, an on-demand streaming service. While you would assume their content would focus primarily on events at the venue, you would be correct, but they are also presenting recorded performances of artists that simply performed at Carnegie. It’s understandable if that seems like an odd area to focus until you look at the way mainstream streaming services approach content. Simply put, having more than your competitors is leverage. While I don’t think anyone would be wrong for thinking that arts and culture streaming content won’t be du ..read more

Artist housing is a topic long time readers know we cover every few years and over all this time, the idea has yet to catch on. At the same time, the need for affordable musician housing at summer festivals and regional orchestras is stronger than ever. Having to rely on the largesse of patrons to provide housing is not a long-term solution and the latest jump in hotel and Airbnb rooms is starting to bring this issue to the forefront (again). The last time we examined this issue was 2016 and at the time, movement on this issue was happening outside the US but the 8/25/2022 edition of the SF C ..read more

The 8/16/22 edition of the Buckeye Flame published an article by Ken Schneck that reports on a lawsuit filed against the Cleveland Orchestra (CO) and Business Administrators & Consultants Inc (BAC), CO’s contracted healthcare administrator, for discrimination after they refused to cover a necessary surgery. According to the plaintiff, Rem Wransky who works as a full stack developer for the orchestra, the organization denied her surgery because she is a trans woman. The article provides a thorough account of events and from a governance perspective, the part that should stand out is m ..read more

Sure, building a new hall is an exciting and terrifying endeavor that can propel an orchestra to new artistic levels and provide a venue that serves as one of the city’s crown jewels. But they never tell you about the bird cost. Case in point, the 5/13/2022 edition of The Tennessean published an article by Kirsten Fiscus that reports on the Nashville Symphony’s efforts to prevent migratory birds from roosting in trees on the Schermerhorn Symphony Center’s grounds without also having an adverse impact on the birds. According to the article, the birds started roosting in the center’s trees and ..read more

At the end of last week, news broke about Plácido Domingo’s alleged ties to an Argentinian crime syndicate. Nutshell: law enforcement has wiretap recordings that include an individual they believe is Domingo making arrangements with a representative of the crime syndicate for a clandestine meeting with a sex worker. While Domingo is not being sought by Argentinian authorities, the individual on the phone call has been arrested and several other classical musicians connected to her have been arrested or are being pursued by authorities. What’s left to be seen is whether this will impact Doming ..read more

H/T Michael Granados for posting a link to a blog post by on-demand ticketing provider WW&L where they espouse the benefits of on-demand event ticketing. Nutshell: instead of paying for ticket printers, stock, and related labor costs, performing arts organizations can outsource the entire thing to a third-party provider. I’ve had a number of conversations with colleagues over the years about this idea and while there are a few groups like WW&L providing this service, it’s never seemed like more than a peripheral service. For groups that have already invested in hardware that is far fr ..read more