Issue: June 2013
After a challenging year without an orchestral season in Hawaiʻi, plans for a 12-week Hawaiʻi Symphony Orchestra season starting this October are being finalized, and a staff is being reassembled. It was a hopeful time for the musicians of the new Hawaiʻi Symphony Orchestra in March 2012, when the organization played its first season after the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra was silenced in October … [Read more...]
Issue: June 2013
It has been a real pleasure for me to advocate for symphonic musicians as chair of the ASAP board. I have the added pleasure of being in a position to lobby and educate Congress and the executive branch of the United States federal government on the virtues and advantages of support for symphonic musicians. Since we last had an opportunity to speak, I have met with over 50 members of Congress and … [Read more...]
Issue: March 2013
The musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra have now been locked out by the Minnesota Orchestral Association (MOA) for more than six months, and there appears to be no end in sight. Concerts have been canceled through April 27, and despite the recent resumption of some limited talks surrounding our request for an independent financial analysis of the MOA’s past practices and future plans, there is no … [Read more...]
Issue: Chairperson's Reports
On New Year’s morning, I rolled over as my clock radio turned on to NPR’s Morning Edition, as it does every morning far earlier than I ever expect. This day I was surprised to hear my own voice during a feature on the state of orchestras in America from a phone interview I had done some weeks earlier. The reporter introduced me as a bassist “with the South Carolina Symphony,” a fact I found even … [Read more...]
Issue: March 2013
Most of the time I sit down to write and the ideas just flow. This time the spirit is willing but the inspiration hasn’t been forthcoming. Call it writer’s block, the weather, or a really busy schedule. Or maybe it’s like approaching John Adams’ Harmonielehre for the first time. As a string player you face page after page of never ending notes and patterns, but the notes are periodically … [Read more...]
Issue: March 2013
F or several years now I’ve been bugging Bruce Ridge to make a swing through Salt Lake and pay the Utah Symphony musicians a visit. We’re all well aware here that most of Bruce’s fieldwork has taken him to orchestras in various states of major distress. And, although the Utah Symphony has endured some very trying and difficult times over the past decade, we have not been taken to (or over) the … [Read more...]
Issue: March 2013
Gino Vivaldo Raffaelli 1925–2013 Gino Raffaelli, a founding member of ICSOM, passed away on January 10. He was a violinist with the Cleveland Orchestra from 1957 to 2001 and served as ICSOM’s first treasurer. He is survived by his daughter, Giovanna M. Shore, and two grandchildren. Gino was widely admired by his friends and colleagues as both a musician and an activist. In 1984, with … [Read more...]
Issue: March 2013
At the recent 55th Annual Grammy Awards there were a number of ICSOM orchestra recordings that won or were nominated for awards. Congratulations to these ICSOM orchestras, listed here along with the award categories in which they were recognized. Producer of the Year, Classical Blanton Alspaugh (winner), credits include: Davis: Río De Sangre (Joseph Rescigno, Vale Rideout, Ava Pine, … [Read more...]
Issue: March 2013
Delegate Rachel Goldstein reports that the Chicago Symphony started a 19-day tour of Asia in late January. It included the cso’s first appearances in Taipei, Tianjin, and Seoul, as well as performances in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Beijing. CSO members also participated in educational activities such as children’s concerts and master classes. Music Director Riccardo Muti was forced by illness to … [Read more...]
Issue: March 2013
When symphony managements and boards cut the artistic guts out of their institutions by slashing performances and downsizing the musicians, the nonprofit mission of the orchestra has all but been relinquished. One has to ask, then, why are the public standards and expectations directed at other U.S. nonprofits and charities not being applied equally to nonprofit symphony orchestras? For whatever … [Read more...]
