Here’s a personal observation and some thoughts. When my wife and I visited the Netherlands a couple of years ago we were fortunate, at Judy’s persistence, to get tickets to the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam. We started a couple of months early trying to book tickets online, but they were “sold out.” Knowing that[…]
Read MoreOK, so we all agree that it’s tough out there in the real world. Nobody argues with that, but we don’t let it get in our way. Successful people in music are drawn to the music itself. It may sound corny but music and performance can be very addictive. The music profession calls us, and[…]
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Someone sent me this several weeks ago, and I just stumbled upon it again while straightening up my very cluttered desktop. I used to do a variation of this with beginning clarinet students to demonstrate how good breath support made for good finger technique. They would blow into the clarinet and I would finger it.[…]
Read MoreWe read about orchestra financial pressures all the time. Musicians demand a decent wage and when communities and boards have difficulty supporting them, an impasse results. Of the 51 ICSOM orchestras , there are ten with minimum scales over $100,000. Not surprisingly these orchestras are in large metropolitan cities like New York, Boston, Chicago and[…]
Read MoreMany of you may follow the writings of Greg Sandow in his Arts Journal Blog. If you do you will know that for the past couple of years Greg has been writing a book, and presenting it piece by piece in his blog. This project went dormant for a period of time, but now he’s[…]
Read MoreAsk any musician ten years older than you how business is, and he will probably say, “It’s OK, but it was much better ten years ago.” If that same person asks the identical question to another musician ten years older than he is, he will probably get the same answer. “It’s OK, but it was[…]
Read MoreVery helpful and informative post. I need to understand the business aspect more, so I'm looking forward to reading more…
Over the next couple of weeks I’ll put on a businessman’s hat and look at a young musician’s career from that perspective. What are the challenges facing this person as he or she steps into the profession? One might say a musician’s challenge is to utilize and evolve the skills obtained in school in order[…]
Read MoreWhen we started the Polyphonic blog we said we’d have guest bloggers from time to time. Well, the time is now. For one week, beginning next Monday, October 19, Yvonne Caruthers will share some musical observations on our blog. Yvonne has been a cellist with the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington DC since 1978, and[…]
Read MoreInteresting post. As a student going to school for violin, it gave me a lot to think about. I also…
In the music world there will always be someone who is willing to do something more cheaply than you. Students are typically in this category. Look at the music scene around any music school. Students will be playing for their dinner, or coffee if it’s a coffee house or for the door. Musicians are eager[…]
Read MoreI couldn't agree with you more. As a classical musician, it is frustrating when great orchestras play "popular" music just…
Here is a little followup to my last post about starving artists. In talking to Maria further, she made another interesting observation. In her opinion, a mistake that many artists make in trying to figure out how to make money, is to underestimate their audience. She commented that some musicians seem to think that if[…]
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Economies of Scale and Orchestras | Mae Mai
[...] effects may also be affected by the changing racial demographics and an emerging racial demographic gap. As the median…