Adaptistration: In Reverse

Kim Witman of the Wolf Trap Opera Company has organized a cross-blog event for today’s announcement of the WTOC 2010 season by doing guest blog posts and interviews in a few places across the blogosphere. Kim contributed a wonderful opera oriented essay during the 2007 Take A Friend To the Orchestra Opera initiative and her guest post today is a wonderful evolution of that idea… (more…)

Orchestral Acoustics 102: Orchestra vs. Hall

In a recent blog post, Washington Post music critic, Ann Midgette, posed questions concerning:

1. what influence a hall’s acoustic response has on orchestral performance technique, and
2. what effect the 1997 renovation of the Kennedy Center Concert Hall had in improving acoustics onstage and in the audience.

In response to the first, I can report conclusively that orchestras have great flexibility in adapting their playing to different environments. I offer a few anecdotal observations here supporting this contention and also comment on the effect of recent acoustical adjustments at Kennedy Center Concert Hall… (more…)

Accountability, Performance Reviews, and Planning

Welcome Back!  Yesterday, we talked about trying to raise money after the concerts are done.  Today I want to focus in on accountability, performance reviews, and tactical planning.

One topic I hear a lot about in the orchestra world is accountability.  In a very obvious way, musicians are accountable every time the orchestra plays.  They are held to extremely high standards; when they make a mistake, it’s often out there for everyone to hear. (more…)

Raising Money When The Concerts Are Done

Hello all!  I’d like to start by thanking Drew for inviting me to participate.  I’ve known Drew online for many years, going back to a series of animated but friendly discussions about Executive Director compensation right here at Adaptistration.  I was happy to meet Drew in person for the first time recently at the League of American Orchestras’ conference in Chicago. (more…)

Orchestral Acoustics 101: Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics

Christopher Blair - full time acoustician, part-time conductor,  last time blogger. We come to Friday and the end of Drew’s absence from these pages. I have really enjoyed my time here (Thanks, Drew for providing this forum!) and look forward to possible future exchanges.

This being my last day, I thought I’d try something different by offering a series of short thoughts, one or more of which might spark some interaction from the readers.  These will range from discussing acoustical misconceptions to the difference between acoustic measurements and what we hear.  And, please, if you have a question about a topic that has not appeared here this week, go ahead and ask using the comments section.  So now, welcome to “Open Line Friday!” (more…)

Orchestral Acoustics 101: Beware the Seductive Model

Christopher Blair -  full time acoustician, part-time conductor,  4^th time blogger.

Before anyone gets excited, I am talking about acoustical models here (sigh), but even these can produce dangerous results. (more…)

Orchestral Acoustics 101: Avery Fisher Hall

What went wrong, and how to fix it

Christopher Blair -  full time acoustician, part-time conductor,  3^rd time blogger. “For me the evening can’t end soon enough. I head back to my hotel with a splitting headache triggered by the blare of the orchestra and that spot in the Mahler where a percussionist strikes a rail with a sledgehammer….There’s enough blame to go around, of course, but by now I’ve become a convenient scapegoat. My dream of a great hall and my reputation as an acoustician both appear to be going up in smoke.”  - Leo Beranek, in Riding the Waves, The MIT Press, 2008 (more…)

Orchestral Acoustics 101: Vineyard vs. Shoebox

Are visual intimacy and sonic-envelopment mutually exclusive?

Christopher Blair -  full time acoustician, part-time conductor, 2^nd time blogger. Following up on our previous discussion of acoustic conditions for orchestral players, comes a discussion of the two most popular ways of arraying the audience for concerts, along with the acoustical and visual advantages and disadvantages typically encountered in each.  The question for today’s exploration is how many of these positive and negative attributes are hard-wired into these configuration options, or might there be a ”middle-way” that can achieve the best of both worlds? (more…)

Orchestral Acoustics 101: Hearing Troubles?

Christopher Blair -  full time acoustician, part-time conductor, 1^st time blogger. First of all, I need to thank Drew for this temporary opportunity to use his blog while he’s away on vacation this week. If I had to come up with something to share every day as he does, I fear that I would not get much else done.

The additional good news, Dear Reader, is that I am not carrying this stand-in responsibility alone. For those that find discussions of how we hear music somewhat arcane: wait a day…and you will learn something completely different from someone completely different. So…for the acoustically curious…we begin… (more…)

Sometimes, The Best Parallel Is Perpendicular

A few months ago I had an intriguing email exchange with Erik Hanberg, former Managing Director of the Grand Cinema, a non-profit art-house movie theater in downtown Tacoma, WA. We were discussing the similarities and differences between the field of orchestra management and art-house movie theaters and he shared an instance from his time managing the theater when he tried to find as many parallels as he could from neighboring performing arts groups to help him run the theater. As a result of our exchange, Erik put together some intriguing observations in the form of a stand-alone blog post which I’m pleased to share as a guest post…

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To Clap Or Not To Clap – By Leonard Slatkin

I don’t feature guest writers at Adaptistration very much; in fact, I don’t think I’ve ever had one before now. Nevertheless, during some recent time in Nashville, I crossed paths with Leonard Slatkin, the Music Director for the National Symphony and recently appointed Music Advisor for the Nashville Symphony. Eventually, the conversation made its way to the issue of applause and following that discussion I invited him to write something for Adaptistration in order to share his views on the topic. I’m happy to report that he graciously accepted the offer…

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