Author - Robert Levine

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Twilight in Syracuse
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Another deadline in Detroit
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More about community engagement
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Are orchestras really non-profits?
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Orchestras and the union movement
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Bringing the violin to a huge new demographic
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Picking the meat off the carcass
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Don't try this at home
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WTF was that all about?
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The Intertoobs can barely keep up with this story!

Twilight in Syracuse

The Syracuse Symphony is shutting down after musicians refused to accept $1.3 million in concessions: The decision will bring the 50th anniversary season of the orchestra to an unceremonious end. There were more than 20 Syracuse and regional concerts remaining in the 2010-11 season. The orchestra’s 18 full- and part-time staffers and 61 core and[…]

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Another deadline in Detroit

DSO management has apparently set yet another deadline: The musicians claimed management set an April 1 deadline for a deal or the summer season would be lost and the fall season would be jeopardized. They also said management was unwilling to meet at the bargaining table before the Friday deadline. The two sides have not[…]

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More about community engagement

The most important benefit to our field from the Detroit strike will be the ever-necessary reminder that strikes are a sub-optimal method of resolving labor-management disputes. The next most important benefit will be the jump-starting of the discussion about what’s come to be known as “community engagement.” Whether either of those will be worth the[…]

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Are orchestras really non-profits?

According to the IRS, we are. But according to this article in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, we don’t seem to fit any of the models for how non-profits are funded: What follows are descriptions of the 10 funding models, along with profiles of representative nonprofits for each model. The models are ordered by the[…]

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Orchestras and the union movement

Milwaukee is not quite equidistant from Madison and Detroit, but it does sit precisely on the line between them that a crow (or a Boeing) would fly. So it’s fitting that events in Detroit and Madison resonate so loudly with this member of the Milwaukee Symphony – an orchestra in the Rust Belt that’s had[…]

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Bringing the violin to a huge new demographic

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Picking the meat off the carcass

Very, very sad: Heritage Global Partners has been selected by Chapter 7 Trustee, Richard Yanagi, to conduct a live auction of assets of the Honolulu Symphony. The Trustee’s Motion to engage Heritage Global Partners is currently subject to final approval from the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Hawaii. Following approval, the bulk[…]

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Don't try this at home

We’re having an interesting couple of weeks here in Wisconsin, as has been reported not only by the usual suspects but by the BBC and Al-Jazeera as well. Here was my favorite sign from my visit to Madison on Saturday: Today appeared a life lesson in the form of some frank talk by our Governor[…]

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WTF was that all about?

That’s also the punch line to a very funny story David Sedaris tells about a slug going door-to-door selling magazine subscriptions, but I digress. Sunday’s story in the Detroit News gave the distinct impression that the DSO management was prepared to: …move forward with a newly assembled group of players that would include only those[…]

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The Intertoobs can barely keep up with this story!

According to Drew McManus at Adaptistration, DSO management is claiming that, contrary to the most recent Detroit News article, they have no plans to hire replacements or to invite striking musicians to cross the picket line and return to a “newly assembled group of players”: Today’s article in The Detroit News by Lawrence Johnson, “DSO:[…]

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