Adaptistration

What’s All The Hubbub Surrounding North Korea About?

The debate over whether or not the New York Philharmonic should perform in Pyongyang, North Korea is puzzling. There have been so many thought provoking articles written on the issue that it is easy to understand and relate to just about every point. At the same time, this is a good indication that the minutia of the discussion has hijacked clarity. As a result, this is precisely the sort of thing that can benefit from applying Occam's razor…

An Interesting Challenge In Pittsburgh

The Saturday, October 27, 2007 edition of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette published an article by Andrew Druckenbrod that reported Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (PSO) artistic advisor Andrew Davis would not return to conduct the orchestra this season, the last of his contracted tenure with the ensemble. Andrew’s article does an excellent job at bringing you up to speed on the details surrounding Davis’ time with the ensemble but looking ahead, the core of this situation will inadvertently test the PSO’s standing within he greater professional orchestra community…

Substance Over Shadows

Last week’s article examining how orchestras should approach using new online technologies generated a great deal of interest. As it turns out, it was also well-timed as the Minnesota Orchestra (MN Orch) launched a website during the same week designed to feature nearly all of the online tools discussed in the article. The website came to my attention via an invitation at Facebook from Sam Bergman, MO violist, to attend a concert event from a series that is the new website’s namesake Inside The Classics. The website’s home page, (featured to your left, click to enlarge), is dominated by photos of Bergman and MO assistant conductor Sarah Hatsuko Hicks and demonstrates that this is not a typical orchestra website project…

Catching Up On Some Conductor News

Although Leonard Slatkin’s appointment received a good bit of attention here soon after its announcement, two other recent announcements are worth noting…

Who's Who, Unfiltered

They're back! Ever since they first appeared in 2003, the Essays On Orchestra Governance have been among the most popular items at Adaptistration. The essays are designed to provide a breakdown of who's who in orchestra governance and how they fit together. There's no spin here; instead, you'll get an inside look into the good, the bad, and the ugly behind those who influence how orchestras function...

Losing The Substance By Grasping At The Shadow

It seems as though every time you turn around people in the orchestra business are clamoring to start podcasts, begin blogging, and get on iTunes. Sure enough, more than a few orchestras have done exactly that; nevertheless, I have to wonder how many groups looking to move in this direction have really taken the time to think about what it entails to effectively implement those tools…

Four Years Of Ticket Prices

Regular Adaptistration readers know that the issue of ticket price (especially the escalation of) is an ongoing topic. However, throughout the blog’s history, there was no way to conveniently track all of the useful discussion on the topic, until now.

With the advent of multiple category assignment here at TypePad, I’ve taken the time to go through each article at Adaptistration and weed out all those related to ticket prices and tag them with an appropriate category. They’ve also been cleaned up to make sure internal links function (although no guarantees on the status or availability of outbound links).

You can find direct links to all of the articles via the “category cloud” in the right hand navigation column or by the list of categories found at the bottom of the article archives. In the meantime, you can just click here.

Will You Be My Friend?

If you haven’t had the opportunity to go in and see what Facebook is all about, I recommend you carve some time into your schedule and get up to speed. According to their website, “Facebook is a social utility that helps people communicate more efficiently with their friends, family and coworkers. The company develops technologies that facilitate the sharing of information through the social graph, the digital mapping of people's real-world social connections.”  After giving Facebook a spin for the past week, I have to say that it is a fairly remarkable piece of technology that has some real potential for use by the orchestra field…

Welcome To Adaptistration’s New Home

After more than 1,200 entries and nearly four years at ArtsJournal.com, Adaptistration has moved to a new home here at Adaptistration.com. Although this official announcement comes a few days after the fact, I certainly appreciate the flood of personal email messages and calls from colleagues and readers curious to know more behind the sudden change. A few folks even went so far as to toss out a public inquiry such as Butts In the Seats proprietor Joe Patti with his blog from 10/15/2007 entitled Scoobie Doobie Drew (McManus), Where Are You? (who said mangers aren't creative)…

2007 Canadian Orchestra Website Review: U.S. Orchestras, Take Note

Although it isn’t new for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra to offer a Chinese version of their website, it is worth pointing out (once again) that it is there. Although the Chinese version is not as complete as the English version, this demonstrates that the organization understands its potential audience and is doing what is needed to help bring them into the organization as opposed to the troubling position adopted by some individuals in the U.S…

2007 Canadian Orchestra Website Review: Grades and Comparisons

Unique to the Canadian portion of the annual website reviews, this installment examines the similarities and differences between how Canadian and U.S. orchestra websites compared in overall grades as well as the average scores category by category.

You'll also get to see how the Canadian orchestras would fare compared to the Top 10 orchestra websites from the U.S. reviews and gain some insight into which components could stand the greatest cumulative improvement...

2007 Canadian Orchestra Website Review: Rankings & Scores

Between 9/25/07 and 9/27/07, 14 professional Canadian orchestra websites were examined and ranked by how well they presented their concert schedule, sold tickets, provided organizational information, facilitated making donations, and on overall content and functionality. Overall, the average Canadian orchestra website score increased from 56.01 in 2005 to 64.03 in 2007, which means they improved by 14.31 percent since their last evaluation in 2005…

The 2007 Canadian Orchestra Website Review

After an unavoidable lapse in 2006, the Canadian installment of the Orchestra Website Review is back. Although there are fewer Canadian orchestra websites compared to their U.S. counterparts (a 1:6 ratio) they are evaluated using the exact same criteria used in the U.S. reviews, with one notable exception…

When Pops Music Goes Wrong

I ran across what has to be one of the funniest classical music videos I've ever seen in some time. Apparently, it's been circulating online for a few months but I just ran across it on a webpage belonging to a friend of mine who is a professional orchestra trumpet player in Florida...

Some "Adults Only" Virtual Learning

You have to love the internet. It is always insightful to see what and how the current generations of college students are thinking. To that end, the ever-resourceful Ron Spigelman encouraged his current class of students enrolled in Drury University's MUSC 284: Audience Connection to respond to an article written by Holly Mulcahy on the topic of adult education entitled Adults Only. In addition to teaching this class Ron is also the Music Director for the Springfield (MO) Symphony...

Yep, Video Games Are Still Big For Classical Music

Just in case anyone was thinking that the value of promoting classical music in video games was a passing fancy, the video game business recently sent a big reminder in the promotional material for what will likely be one of the largest grossing video games of this decade, Halo 3...

Embracing The Supply And Demand Argument

Any manager who has been in this business for more than a few months has likely encountered the frustrating public argument of classical music and supply vs. demand. The argument is so stale most managers could recite both sides of the discussion at the drop of a hat. It usually goes something like this...

Good News In Detroit

In what will undoubtedly help smooth over remaining wrinkles from their recent contentious labor negotiations, the Detroit Symphony announced that Leonard Slatkin has been appointment as their new Music Director. In a move which demonstrates just how anxious the conductor and ensemble are to work together, Slatkin becomes Music Director designate immediately and takes over the reigns full-time beginning next season...

Here's Hoping The Momentum Continues

So far, so good. At least that's the way most folks would categorize this season's round of labor agreements between professional orchestra musicians and their management. In fact, several organizations which seemed to be heading toward work stoppages successfully found enough middle ground to reach new agreements. Even better, some groups which endured contentious negotiations in their previous bargaining cycle finished up with nary a public peep and both sides smiling in the aftermath. Conversely, there are a few orchestras that have yet to wrap up negotiations on contracts that have recently expired.

The Omaha Symphony and Florida Orchestra are both engaged in play-and-talk sessions with their musicians. In Omaha all is quiet on the public front but in Florida, an article in the 10/4/2007 edition of the St. Petersburg Times by Arts Critic John Fleming provides a very good review of where things currently stand. Ideally, the situations in Omaha and Florida will benefit from the momentum established by other ensembles and they will settle their respective negotiations on a positive note sooner than later. In the meantime, stay tuned.

You Can't Fire Me, I Quit!

The 10/25/2007 edition of CNNMoney.com featured an article by FORTUNE senior writer, Anne Fisher, which examined eight ways to tell if your job is in jeopardy. Although the article is obviously directed to the for profit workplace, it is fascinating to see where the suggestions overlap with an orchestra workplace and where they go astray...

The Updated Website Report Is Now Available

Hot on the heels of the 4th Annual Website Review, the print version of the review is now available. The 124 page report serves as an invaluable resource guide for any orchestral organization looking to redesign, update, or validate recent changes to their website and although it contains an additional year's worth of material, the price remains exactly the same as least year's edition...

One Tour, Two Viewpoints

While the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) makes its way through Europe from September 23 - October 7 on their seven city tour, patrons back home are offered the unusual luxury of having two sources for a behind the scenes peek at what it takes to move a top-tier orchestra through a major European tour...

Adults Only

Adult education programs is a well worn topic here at Adaptistration and regular readers already know that I favor a sizeable increase in the quantity and quality of educational activities targeted directly toward adults. Meaning, it is high time to move beyond the static lecture style activities which focus on having someone talk at a group of people...