Are You Suffering From Trombone Envy?

Holly Mulcahy posted what I thought was a fascinating article last week at The Partial Observer which examines how even professional orchestra musicians are sometimes unaware of the occupational pitfalls of their musician colleagues. The gist of the article is that a little knowledge goes a long way toward improved understanding and job satisfaction and that made me think about two specific issues…

First, imagine how much good could result from applying the basic concepts from Holly's piece into audience outreach programs. It just reinforces the positive potential from increased patron/musician interaction, which is an issue that has been examined here at Adaptistration on numerous occasions.

Second, it makes me think about how much the standard orchestra office worker knows about the musicians and vice versa. This isn't a new idea and I know of several groups that go to some effort to help increase the interaction between musicians and administrators but most of those efforts happen after some sort of contentious labor situation (lockouts/strikes, numerous grievances, etc.). In these cases it seems as though much of the potential good that can come from these efforts is marginalized due to existing hard feelings.

Consequently, I'm curious to learn more about any efforts orchestras use to increase interaction and appreciation between musicians and administrators. For many organizations there are a number of inherent barriers to natural interaction such as having the offices located in a different building from where rehearsals/performances are held. But even in situations where everyone is housed in the same building, the offices and musician spaces are usually separated, not out of any sinister design mind you but more out of design/space necessities.

I know Disney Hall has come up with some interesting design elements to help increase musician/administrator interaction but that's an exception and not the rule. As such, does your organization do anything to help improve interaction between stakeholders? If so, does it take place on a regular basis, did it develop organically, is it the result of negative interaction, etc.? Have the outcomes improved understanding and job satisfaction? Go check out Holly's article if you haven't read it already and send in a comment or email highlighting some of your observations and experiences.