An article by Wyatt Buchanan in the 11/13/2008 edition of the San Francisco Chronicle reported on legislation from San Francisco Supervisor, Jake McGoldrick, on “limiting nonprofit executive salaries and benefits for executives to six times the total compensation of their lowest-paid full-time employee.” The Chronicle’s article and the current economy make this a very topical subject…
SMS SOS
Over the past few months I’ve received a number of reader requests asking for some sort of SMS and/or IM alert service notifying them of new posts. After searching around I have yet to find a suitable service; consequently, I’m going to turn to the one resource that is better than Google: asking readers. Here’s a list of required features needed for a suitable solution…
Help Wanted: Conductor Yes Man
Recently, conductor Bill Eddins commented on the decision by the Columbus Symphony Orchestra (CSO) to dismiss music director, Junichi Hirokami for what he described as ‘[looking] around, saw a bad situation, and spoke out on behalf of the organization and, most importantly, the welfare of his musicians. The response: ‘Sayonara, Junichi!'” Bill couldn’t be more correct in his analysis and I wanted to examine this situation from another perspective…
The (New) Realities of Orchestral Life
Recently, Cincinnati based pianist and blogger, Joshua Nemith, posted an excellent pair of articles that provide detailed advice on how musicians who are not employed in a salaried position can survive and thrive in what he defines as “the new economy.” Along with very practical recommendations, Joshua touches on a subject not discussed here in some time: the lack of adequate preparation at the college level for those entering the orchestra business…
When Politics And Arts Management Collide
WE all know there’s nothing wrong with arts managers having strong political opinions and those opinions are of no business to the organization where they work. At the same time, how a manager expresses those opinions does impact the organization and a good manager needs to be aware of this when exercising his/her right to political expression. Case in point, the California Musical Theatre (CMT) fiasco which unfolded earlier this week…