Author - Robert Levine

1
Wassup in Detroit?
2
New sheriff in town
3
Time to go short?
4
Fred Zenone
5
Are auditions fair?
6
Why conductors live longer
7
MacArthur gets one right
8
Actions have consequences
9
A bad excuse to get out of a tough dilemma
10
Sarah's terrible, horrible, no good, very bad dilemma

Wassup in Detroit?

The Detroit Symphony went on strike a little over four weeks ago, although negotiations broke down several weeks before that. That puts the strike clock at around 11:45PM, by normal standards – negotiations seem to begin to get serious, during an orchestra strike, after about six weeks. Why is that? Why not sooner? I think[…]

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New sheriff in town

One of the scariest rituals of orchestra life is the arrival of a new Chief Executive Officer. A new Music Director can be very unsettling for the members of the orchesra, of course – it’s the Music Director who has the power of economic life and death over individual musicians, and obviously no other person[…]

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Time to go short?

When I first came into the business, the conventional wisdom (as expressed by Len Leibowitz at many ICSOM conferences) was that it was in musicians’ interests to propose one-year agreements and let management pay for the privilege of several years of labor peace and not having to deal with negotiating committees.

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Fred Zenone

Sir Isaac Newton, generally regarded as the most influential scientist in human history, once said “if I have seen further, it is only by standing on the shoulders of giants.” Those of us who make a living playing in orchestras stand on the shoulders of giants as well. One of them, Fred Zenone, died on[…]

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Are auditions fair?

Peter Dobrin, in an article for the Philadelphia Inquirer on the possible departure of Philly clarinetist Ricardo Morales for the New York Phil, is skeptical: Lurking in the background is the hypocrisy that has long run through orchestral personnel decisions. Both players and management have held that talent is the sole criterion for determining who[…]

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Why conductors live longer

It’s not because they make more money, or have all that power, or gets lots of aerobic exercise from moving their arms so much. Apparently it’s because they get to stand up while working: In academic papers with titles such as, “Your Chair: Comfortable but Deadly,” physicians point to surprising new research showing higher rates[…]

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MacArthur gets one right

Some of the choices that the MacArthur Foundation has made in the past when awarding their “genius grants” to people in our field have struck me a little… odd. A few years ago, a MacArthur award went to Marin Alsop, and I remember feeling at the time that it might have had more to with[…]

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Actions have consequences

… as Sarah Chang has just been sharply reminded. My personal definition of “grown-up” is someone who not only understands that actions have consequences but doesn’t complain about the fact. Very, very few people pass that test consistently. But one of the times it is most often forgotten in our industry is during labor disputes.[…]

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A bad excuse to get out of a tough dilemma

Sarah Chang has canceled her Detroit recital scheduled for Monday, according to the Detroit Free Press: Some of the e-mails Chang told DSO management she received through her Web site, www.sarahchang.com, crossed the line from expressing displeasure to physical threats and career intimidation. Chang’s Los Angeles-based manager Jenny Vogel declined comment. DSO president Anne Parsons[…]

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Sarah's terrible, horrible, no good, very bad dilemma

Orchestra strikes always cause collateral damage, from lost work for stage hands to lost income for restaurants. The strike in Detroit looks to hurt someone aside from the usual suspects, though. The DSO was supposed to have its opening concerts of the season this weekend with soloist Sarah Chang. Of course the concerts are off[…]

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