When Is The Philadelphia Orchestra Not The Philadelphia Orchestra?

Most folks have likely noticed the news about the Philadelphia Orchestra musicians accepting pay and hiring freezes for most positions along with some hefty pension concessions. The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Peter Dobrin reports on those concessions in an article from 2/27/2010. In and of itself, there’s nothing remarkable here; the Philadelphia players are mirroring what their colleagues elsewhere are doing by accepting concessions that help reduce immediate financial pressure. What is of interest is this nugget buried at the bottom of the article… (more…)

Happy Anniversary Butts In The Seats!

Although I’m up to my eyeballs in work and fun in NYC this week, I want to take a moment to acknowledge that today marks the sixth anniversary for Joe Patti’s blog Butts In The Seats; Musings on Practical Solutions For Arts Management. I was enormously pleased when he decided to include his blog among the ranks at Inside The Arts and I firmly believe his RSS feed should be in every arts manager’s Top 10. One of his latest posts on cell phone donations is an excellent example behind why he is such an important voice within the online cultural community… (more…)

Unexpected Bear Traps In Philadelphia

In what is shaping up to be a classic example of good intentions run amuck, the embattled Philadelphia Orchestra became the target of Philadelphia Inquirer Columnist, Karen Heller. In her 2/7/2010 article, she takes the organization to task over their new slogan and branded marketing campaign “Unexpect yourself.” Although unabashedly frank in her analysis, Heller’s observations are spot-on and exactly the sort of scrutiny this business needs at this point in time… (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…)

Apparently, Philadelphia Is Out Of Alignment

Since next week features the 2009 Orchestra Website Reviews, it makes sense to fit in some time to examine the news out of Philadelphia about that orchestra’s new chief administrator. According to statements made by Philadelphia Orchestra board chair, Richard B. Worley, Allison Vulgamore will be taking over as the executive administrator on or about February 1, 2010… (more…)

When It Rains, It Pours

Reports of heavy rain and floods aren’t the only news coming out of Atlanta. The 9/22/2009 edition of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution published an article by Pierre Ruhe that reports Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO) president and CEO, Allison Vulgamore, announced she will not renew her contract after it expires in June, 2010… (more…)

The Dynamic Consequences Of Leadership Vacuum

It isn’t unusual for a music director search to last more than a year but eyebrows ascend when it takes that long to find a new CEO. No, there’s no double standard going on here and the reality is that it is much easier for a professional orchestra to appoint interim artistic leadership that can maintain or even improve an ensemble’s artistic standard (think Chicago and Haitink) as compared to installing interim executive leadership capable of the same feats for the administrative side of the coin. Recently, Peter Dobrin examined this very issue at his Arts Watch blog… (more…)

There Goes Joe

The Philadelphia Inquirer published an article by Peter Dobrin yesterday which reports that Philadelphia Orchestra president, Joe Kluger, will be resigning his position as of August 31st, 2005.

Peter’s article goes on to report that Joe will be assuming a consulting role with AEA Consulting, an arts consulting firm headed up by managing principal, Adrian Ellis.  I published a few articles  about some of Adrian’s views about the industry being overbuilt back in October, 2004. (more…)