Articles

An Animateur’s Journey: A report from the field

Sep 17 2007
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Thomas Cabaniss
Thomas Cabaniss

Thomas Cabaniss is a composer who writes for opera, theater, dance, film, and the concert stage. His choral works include Behold the Star, available on New World Records and published by Boosey & Hawkes. Recent works include It’s All True for choreographer Hilary Easton (2007), Three Sabbaths, for the Columbia University Bach Society (2006), and Hilary Easton's The Short-Cut (2005). The Sandman, an opera based on a story by E.T.A. Hoffmann, was premiered at the Connelly Theater in New York in 2002 and was revived again in 2003.

His theater scores include: Buffalo Gal (Studio Arena Theater, Williamstown Theater Festival); Mamba's Daughters (Target Margin Theater, Spoleto Festival USA); Galileo (Yale Repertory Theater); The Guest Lecturer[/i] (George Street Playhouse); A Streetcar Named Desire, A Christmas Carol (Dallas Theater Center); Pericles, The Marriage of Bette & Boo, Twelfth Night (Center Stage, Baltimore); Hard Times, The Hostage, Twelfth Night (Portland Stage, Maine); The American Plan, Egypt, Mother Courage, Measure for Measure, The Venetian Twins, The Barber of Seville, and When Ladies Battlen (Off-Broadway).

His concert music has been performed by the Young People’s Chorus of New York City, the Juilliard Choral Union, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Charleston Symphony Orchestra, the Lark String Quartet, the Drumfire Percussion Ensemble, and many others.

He has served as Composer-in-Residence and conductor for the American Dance Festival's Young Choreographers & Composers Program, and his dance works have been performed at Danspace, the American Dance Festival, the Joyce Theater, Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors, and Central Park Summerstage.

In 1990 he created the score for The Lunch Date (winner of the Academy Award and Palme D'Or for Best Short Film). Other awards include a 1998 Obie Award and Drama Desk nomination for his score and musical direction for Mamba's Daughters.

He has been on the faculty of The Juilliard School since 1998 and is active in arts education, having served as Director of Education for the New York Chamber Symphony under Gerard Schwarz and the New York Philharmonic under Kurt Masur and Lorin Maazel. He is currently the Music Animateur of the Philadelphia Orchestra: Christoph Eschenbach, Music Director. 1998 ASCAP Foundation Award for Arts Education; articles on arts education in the Teaching Artist Journal; consultant for the Metropolitan Opera Guild. Member ASCAP, American Music Center and Target Margin Theater, David Herskovits, Artistic Director.

More information at www.thomascabaniss.com

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More and more orchestras, particularly in Europe, are availing themselves of the services of an animateur. What is an animateur? The English version of Wikipedia doesn’t even have an entry for it, and the French version states that an animateur is one who animates a group of people. Not a very helpful definition, is it?

So I’ll let Thomas Cabaniss, composer and animateur with the Philadelphia Orchestra, tell you exactly what it means and what he does in that capacity for the orchestra.

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Symphony Orchestra Economics: The Fundamental Challenge

Sep 14 2007
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William Baumol
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For eight years, 1995-2003, the Symphony Orchestra Institute (SOI) published Harmony. It was a journal of thoughtful insight and opinion about the complex dynamics of symphony orchestra organizations. The journal presented essays and reports authored by practitioners, scholars, and other close observers of orchestras. In 2004 when the founder of the SOI, Paul Judy, gifted the SOI to the Eastman School of Music, the Orchestra Musician Forum and its website Polyphonic was created. The Harmony archives were included.

Many of these articles are still considered leading literature in the field. In our continued efforts to inform the orchestral community, we will feature these articles, from time to time, for those of you who would like to reread them, or for others who may have never had the opportunity to do so before.

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A Tale of Two Meetings

Jun 27 2007
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Robert Levine
Robert Levine

Robert Levine has been the Principal Violist of the Milwaukee Symphony since September 1987. Before coming to Milwaukee Mr. Levine had been a member of the Orford String Quartet, Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Toronto, with whom he toured extensively throughout Canada, the United States, and South America. Prior to joining the Orford Quartet, Mr. Levine had served as Principal Violist of The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra for six years. He has also performed with the San Francisco Symphony, the London Symphony of Canada, and the Oklahoma City Symphony, as well as serving as guest principal with the orchestras of Indianapolis and Hong Kong.

He has performed as soloist with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Oklahoma City Symphony, the London Symphony of Canada, the Midsummer Mozart Festival (San Francisco), and numerous community orchestras in Northern California and Minnesota. He has also been featured on American Public Radio's nationally broadcast show "St. Paul Sunday Morning" on several occasions.

Mr. Levine has been an active chamber musician, having performed at the Festival Rolandseck in Germany, the Grand Teton Music Festival, the Palm Beach Festival, the "Strings in the Mountains" Festival in Colorado, and numerous concerts in the Twin Cities and Milwaukee. He has also been active in the field of new music, having commissioned and premiered works for viola and orchestra from Minnesota composers Janika Vandervelde and Libby Larsen.

Mr. Levine was chairman of the International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians from 1996 to 2002 and currently serves as President of the Milwaukee Musicians Association, Local 8 of the American Federation of Musicians, and as a member of the Board of Directors of the League of American Orchestras. He has written extensively about issues concerning orchestra musicians for publications of ICSOM, the AFM, the Symphony Orchestra Institute, and the League of American Orchestras.

Mr. Levine attended Stanford University and the Institute for Advanced Musical Studies in Switzerland. His primary teachers were Aaron Sten and Pamela Goldsmith. He also studied with Paul Doctor, Walter Trampler, Bruno Giuranna, and David Abel.

He lives with his wife Emily and his son Sam in Glendale.

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I spent all last week (June 17 – 23, 2007) attending two meetings: the 97th Convention of the American Federation of Musicians in Las Vegas and the 62nd National Conference of the American Symphony Orchestra League in Nashville. They couldn’t have been more different.

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Copyright Issues

Jun 25 2007
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Marcia Farabee
Marcia Farabee

Marcia Farabee has served as the National Symphony Orchestra’s head librarian since 1986. She is a graduate of the Capital University Conservatory of Music in violin performance and music education. Prior to her library career, she taught strings for the Fairfax County (VA) public schools and played with the National Ballet, the Richmond Symphony, the NSO, and the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra. Her professional performance experience includes symphony, ballet, opera, and musical theater. She currently serves as President of MOLA (Major Orchestra Librarians’ Association) and chair of the MOLA-Publisher Relations Committee. Marcia is married to a stage technician and has two adult daughters, one fabulous granddaughter, and three cats! She enjoys baking, gardening, sewing, and working with the Senior High youth at her church.

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“One of the founding goals of Polyphonic is to explore how orchestras can adapt to a changing arts climate. One of the challenges of adapting concerts to new formats is how to do so without violating current copyright provisions.

Recently I spoke with Marcia Farabee, head librarian for the National Symphony Orchestra, a position that has given her valuable on-the-job-training about the practical side of copyright law. She also serves as president of MOLA, the Major Orchestra Librarians Association.

In September, Polyphonic will host a virtual discussion panel (VDP) with Marcia and other orchestra librarians; one of the subjects we\’ll discuss is how copyrights affect orchestras’ planning and programming.”

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How to Grow an Audience by Understanding How Audiences Behave

Jun 05 2007
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Christopher Stager
Christopher Stager

Christopher Stager has spent the past 16 years in audience development for the performing arts. He began his consulting firm, CRStager marketing & audience development, in 1999. Clients include the American Symphony Orchestra, Aspen Music Festival, the Boston Pops Esplanade, Hartford Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, Louisiana Philharmonic, and the Toledo Symphony. Christopher provides creative materials to The Cleveland Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Phoenix Symphony, Seattle Symphony, and numerous others.

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Marketing consultant Christopher Stager was recently invited to participate on a panel at the Int’l. Artist Managers’ Assoc. in London, and decided to present his perception of how American orchestras go about growing an audience to his European colleagues. What follows is Chris’ take on how audiences behave, and what orchestras need to do to capitalize on that behavior to sell tickets.

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The NACOcasts: Podcasting is changing the way orchestras communicate with audiences

May 20 2007
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Christopher Millard
Christopher Millard

In 2004, on the invitation of Pinchas Zukerman, Christopher Millard joined the National Arts Centre Orchestra as Principal Bassoon. He previously served 29 seasons as the principal bassoon for the Vancouver Symphony and the CBC Radio Orchestra.

A regular guest artist and teacher at the Scotia, Orford, Vancouver, and Ottawa Festivals, Domaine Forget, the Banff Centre, Sante Fe Chamber Music, and Chamber Music Northwest, Mr. Millard has also appeared in concert and recordings with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Marlboro Festival, The World Orchestra for Peace, and as principal bassoon for the Grand Teton Festival Orchestra.

A student of the legendary Sol Schoenbach at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, he also studied with the great French flutist Marcel Moyse. Mr. Millard, a long time faculty member of the University of British Columbia Music Department, now serves on the faculty of the University of Ottawa. He was bassoon professor for the National Youth Orchestra of Canada where for 20 years he helped to nurture many of the best of the new generation of Canadian wind players. In September 2007, Mr. Millard will join the faculty of Northwestern University in Chicago.

Christopher Millard has received wide praise for his solo recordings, which include several discs for Summit Records, a CBC records disc of Italian concerti with Mario Bernardi and the CBC Radio Orchestra. His most recent recordings include a new Schubert Octet with the Canadian Chamber Players, and the Hetu Bassoon Concerto, which was awarded a 2004 Juno. The peer journal, The Double Reed, in a recent review of his CD Duos, called Mr. Millard “one of the great bassoonists of the 20th century.”

Christopher Millard is the host of the National Arts Centre’s [i]NACOcast[/i], a podcast for classical music fans. He is also an expert woodwind technician and operates a repair shop for bassoonists and clarinetists in Ottawa.

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Orchestras are constantly exploring new technologies that can enhance the audience’s appreciation of their concerts, from multi-media concert experiences and digital program notes to new web experiences. Since February 2006, the National Arts Centre Orchestra of Ottawa Canada has been producing bi-monthly 30-minute podcasts featuring their upcoming programs. Polyphonic has been featuring the NACOcast of Gustavo Dudamel on our home page for the past month.

I recently had a fascinating conversation with Chris Millard, host of the NACOcasts and principal bassoon of the NAC Orchestra, and Maurizio Ortolani, NAC’s New Media Producer. They discussed the origins of the podcasts, how they put them together, and the technology they use. Thus far they’ve produced about 30 podcasts on a wide range of topics; click here to explore their offerings and listen, and read on to experience a behind-the-scenes view of the NAC studio.

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Homage to Rostropovich

May 14 2007
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Steven Honigberg
Steven Honigberg

Heralded as a "sterling cellist" by the Washington Post, Steven Honigberg has emerged as one of the outstanding cellists of his generation. Mr. Honigberg gave his New York debut recital in Weill Hall and has since performed to critical acclaim throughout the United States in recital, in chamber music, and as a soloist with orchestra. A member of the National Symphony Orchestra, he has been featured numerous times as soloist with that ensemble. He won rave reviews for the 1988 world premiere of David Ott's [i]Concerto for Two Cellos[/i] performed with the National Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Mstislav Rostropovich, with repeat performances on the NSO's 1989 and 1994 United States tours.

Mr. Honigberg is noted for his explorations of important new works, such as Lukas Foss' Anne Frank (1999), Benjamin Lees' Night Spectres (1999), Robert Stern's Hazkarah (1998), Robert Starer's Song of Solitude (1995) and David Diamond's Concert Piece (1993), written for and premiered by Mr. Honigberg.

Mr. Honigberg graduated from the Juilliard School of Music with a Master's degree in Music, where he studied with Leonard Rose and Channing Robbins. Other important cello teachers included Pierre Fournier and Karl Fruh.

Voted "Best New Chamber Music Series" by the Washington Post, Steven Honigberg was the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's chamber music series director from its inception in 1994 until 2002. Mr. Honigberg is a member of the Washington DC-based Potomac String Quartet, which has released landmark projects -- the complete string quartets (eleven - 4 CDs) of David Diamond and Quincy Porter (nine - 2 CDs). Mr. Honigberg also has recorded [i]Homage to Rostropovich[/i], a CD of solo cello works written for the great late cellist; Frederic Chopin's complete works for cello and piano; Ernst Toch's cello compositions; Ludwig van Beethoven's complete works for cello and piano; an album of 20th century American cello works; the chamber music of Erich Wolfgang Korngold; and recordings of music performed at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum -- four volumes of Darkness & Light.

Recent performances include a May 2006 recital at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC and a performance of Bela Bartok's Concerto in August 2006 with the Sun Valley Summer Symphony, where he has performed as principal cellist and as soloist since 1990. Steven Honigberg performs on the [i]Stuart[/i] Stradivarius cello made in 1732.

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Steven Honigberg was also hired by Mstislav Rostropovich to play in the National Symphony’s cello section. Steve has written a beautiful tribute to Slava, full of loving memories of him both onstage and off. Reading Steve’s tribute will give you a flavor of how Slava was larger-than-life yet so very loving of his friends.

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Tribute to Mstislav Rostropovich, 1927-2007

Apr 29 2007
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Yvonne Caruthers All posts from Yvonne Caruthers
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Since his death last week, thousands of words have been written about our beloved Slava Rostropovich. Since I worked closely with him for 16 years, I wanted to write a more personal view of him for Polyphonic. What follows is just that: strictly personal. It is by no means comprehensive, as I could reminisce about him for hours. I apologize if some of what I remember is not what someone else remembers, and I invite others to please write to Polyphonic and add your memories to this tribute.

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Agenda for the 2007 MOLA Conference

Apr 11 2007
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Karen Schnackenberg
Karen Schnackenberg

Karen Schnackenberg has been Chief Librarian of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra since 1990. Prior to that she was orchestra librarian and violinist with the New Orleans Symphony, Santa Fe Opera, Oklahoma Symphony, and Chamber Orchestra of Oklahoma City. She holds degrees in Music Education/Violin (Bachelors) and Violin Performance (Masters, emphasis in Baroque Performance Practice and Music Theory), with honors, from the University of Oklahoma. She also studied at the Aspen Music Festival and the Meadowmount School of Music. From 1987-1999 she was the classical music columnist for the International Musician, the industry’s trade paper for professional musicians. Karen is Vice President of the Major Orchestra Librarians’ Association (MOLA), a professional association of over 225 orchestras, bands, opera and ballet companies worldwide, and will begin her term as President at that organization’s first European conference in Zürich in April, 2006. Karen also currently serves on the Executive Board of the Dallas/Fort Worth local of the American Federation of Musicians and, in her spare time, is a free-lance violinist, an avid reader, an amateur photographer, and a hiker.

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The 2007 Major Orchestra Librarians’ Association (MOLA) conference runs from Friday, April 13th to Monday, April 16th in Chicago. 2007 marks the 25th anniversary of the founding of MOLA. Outgoing MOLA President Karen Schnackenberg sent us the agenda for the conference – we thought symphony instrumentalists would find it interesting to see the topics that will be discussed at this year’s MOLA conference.

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Hear No Evil

Mar 28 2007
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Janet Horvath
Janet Horvath

Janet Horvath, associate principal cello of the Minnesota Orchestra for more than two decades, is a soloist, chamber musician, writer and advocate for injury prevention. A trail-blazer in speaking and writing openly about the physical stresses experienced by musicians, she has contributed importantly to the awareness of musicians’ work-related ailments and their prevention. She is in demand all over the nation for her seminars, “Playing (less) Hurt.” Through her efforts, which have included precedent-setting presentations before professional symphony orchestras, Ms. Horvath has contributed significantly to improvements in working conditions for all orchestra musicians. The Injury Prevention Guide for Musicians, which benefits from her decades of lecturing, teaching, and research in the field of performing arts medicine, applies not only to symphony orchestra instrumentalists, but also to professional, amateur, and student musicians in all disciplines.

In 1992 Ms. Horvath received the American String Teachers Association Service Award in recognition of her outstanding efforts on behalf of musicians’ health; in 2001 she was selected to deliver the Richard J. Lederman keynote lecture at the Performing Arts Medicine Association’s nineteenth Annual Symposium on Medical Problems of Musicians and Dancers in Aspen.

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One of our most precious assets, as musicians, is our hearing, yet we are constantly endangering our hearing merely by going to work. Janet Horvath, Minnesota Orchestra cellist, describes some of the most common hearing injuries and offers some excellent advice as to what you can do to protect your hearing.

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1
An Animateur’s Journey: A report from the field
2
Symphony Orchestra Economics: The Fundamental Challenge
3
A Tale of Two Meetings
4
Copyright Issues
5
How to Grow an Audience by Understanding How Audiences Behave
6
The NACOcasts: Podcasting is changing the way orchestras communicate with audiences
7
Homage to Rostropovich
8
Tribute to Mstislav Rostropovich, 1927-2007
9
Agenda for the 2007 MOLA Conference
10
Hear No Evil