Issue: April 2022
By Paul Austin What’s in a number? This column addresses the sixties in three different ways: the 60th anniversary of ICSOM, the decade of our founding, and ICSOM’s dedicated musicians who both were born in the sixties and have reached that age (or will do so soon). 2022 marks the 60th anniversary of the founding of ICSOM. It is a pleasure and an honor to host our significant celebration … [Read more...]
Issue: April 2022
Roger Roe, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra My dad was a minister, and almost all of my friends outside of the orchestra are teachers, preachers, therapists, or others in the healing and helping professions. That makes it intuitive and natural for me to look for ways to build friendships and personal connections in every part of life. When serving on various committees with the ISO, I try to … [Read more...]
Issue: April 2022
By Timothy Myers, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra In our symphonic world, we often hear that a large percentage of orchestral musicians have suffered or will suffer from a playing-related injury that impacts or threatens their careers. Many colleagues in our industry have suffered tendonitis, nerve damage, frozen shoulder, TMJ syndrome, hearing loss, or focal dystonia (among other conditions). … [Read more...]
Issue: June 2021
How does an orchestra committee know when it’s time to say enough is enough? For the New York City Ballet Orchestra Committee, it took a series of actions, some of them more properly called inactions, by the Ballet management. The current orchestra committee has had the reputation of being the “let’s all get along'' committee. For many years, that worked. We had a reasonably good working … [Read more...]
Issue: June 2021
Members of the MET Orchestra recently returned from Dallas, where they participated in an unprecedented collaboration with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra under the baton of DSO Music Director, Fabio Luisi. In addition to two historic performances of Mahler’s “Titan” Symphony No. 1, MET and DSO musicians gave several free masterclasses and chamber music concerts throughout the Dallas … [Read more...]
Issue: Chairperson's Reports
After 14 months of stasis and isolation, our orchestras are on the move. The quick nationwide rollout of vaccines by the Biden administration is creating the possibility of a near-normal summer season and the probability of a genuine opening and full return for our upcoming 21/22 season. In the aftermath of our pandemic year there is much to take stock of, and even more to do, as we navigate the … [Read more...]
Issue: June 2021
Note: historical quotations in this article use outdated language that may be jarring for the modern reader. “There is not now, nor has there ever been, a representative number of blacks and other minorities within the ranks of North America's symphony, opera and ballet orchestras.” This statement was made at an ICSOM conference in 1989 in a presentation by Daniel Windham, the Music Assistance … [Read more...]
Issue: June 2021
As Bill Bryson noted in his book In a Sunburned Country, life cannot offer many places finer to stand than Circular Quay in Sydney. The glistening panorama of Sydney Harbour and the stunning Harbour Bridge is anchored by one of the most recognizable and iconic buildings ever imagined, the Sydney Opera House. The Opera House was designed by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, whose dream faced constant … [Read more...]
Issue: June 2021
I remember that when I first arrived in Milwaukee in January of 1988, I went to the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra offices. They were located in the office building above an old movie theater, in a part of downtown that could have used a little sprucing up. Thirty-three years later, the MSO offices are back in the same building above the theater, but everything else is different. The 1931 art deco … [Read more...]
Issue: Editor's Reports
When I became editor in 2014 and started this column, I thought the title was a nice play on the name of the newsletter, as well as a nod to my inherent embarrassment at speaking out. I thought it would appear in every issue, like the Chairperson’s Report. Instead, it has more often served my other editor’s purpose: making everything fit exactly into an even number of pages. Some DTM columns were … [Read more...]
