Blog

Learning from the Past

As we all celebrate the end of the 15-month lockout of the Minnesota Orchestra and welcome their return to performances next month, I’d like to remind the orchestral community that another orchestra suffered a 14-month lockout back in the early 90s, and has learned a lot by that experience. My own Hartford Symphony was locked[…]

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The Northern Front: Stunde Null

In the aftermath of the most devastating conflict in human history, the epicenter of that conflict, Germany, experienced in 1945 what the Germans called “Stunde Null” – zero hour. It was an expression of the fact that communal life as they’d known it had ended but the society that would replace it was not yet[…]

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Are orchestras “hostile” to women conductors?

The attitude of professional orchestras to conductors of a certain gender is a perennial favorite of arts journalists, if not yet an actual Internet meme: Example of Internet Meme: not intended as a reflection of the author’s real feelings The latest example of such journalistic favoritism is an article on the BBC website a few[…]

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Baumol’s common cold

Musicians who have had the privilege and pleasure (dubious, in some cases) of discussing the future of professional orchestras with experts of various stripes are all too familiar with Baumol’s Cost Disease. The best description comes from the economist who came up with the concept, William Baumol: Any economic activity affected by it will tend[…]

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Armistice Day on the Northern Front

There’s been what intelligence analysts call “chatter” for a few weeks about a settlement in Minnesota being close. I heard some new chatter in the past couple of days, which led me to to set up a Google watch on the news. About twenty minutes ago, the official news came through, after some preliminary reports[…]

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The ‘Firebird’ Strad

What if someone told you that you could have Luciano Pavarotti’s voice for a week?  I don’t mean singing Some Enchanted Evening in the shower. I mean really sound like Pavarotti. I had the equivalent experience last week. Maybe even better, if that’s possible. I got to perform on the 1718 ‘Firebird’ Stradivarius, one of the greatest[…]

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Minnesota, toxic leadership, and Milgram

National Public Radio did a story yesterday that’s been picked up on Facebook by a number of Minnesota Orchestra musicians. I found it interesting in part because it also related directly to William Deresiewicz’s West Point address I quoted from yesterday. Today’s story was about “toxic leadership”: Top commanders in the U.S. Army have announced[…]

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Leadership, solitude and musicians

I’ve been trying to figure out if this article, written as a speech to West Point cadets by William Deresiewicz, a noted American writer and former academic, might have some insights for us. This is a very long quote from the article: What can solitude have to do with leadership? Solitude means being alone, and[…]

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2013 Recap: Top 10 Most Popular Posts!

All of us at Polyphonic.org want to thank you, our readers, for making 2013 a great year!  This past year you joined over 63,000 people who visited Polyphonic.org a total of more than 92,000 times! Below are the top 10 most popular posts of the year from Polyphonic.org based on number of views! #1: Bringing[…]

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A Polyphonic Holiday Playlist!

Happy Holidays from all of us at Polyphonic.org!  Below are a few holiday favorites from our editors: Dr. Ramon Ricker, Editor-in-Chief The Piano Guys perform a creative arrangement of Angels We Have Heard on High! Robert Levine, Senior Editor We all have a few guilty holiday pleasures. Mine is candy cane ice cream. I have[…]

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1
Learning from the Past
2
The Northern Front: Stunde Null
3
Are orchestras “hostile” to women conductors?
4
Baumol’s common cold
5
Armistice Day on the Northern Front
6
The ‘Firebird’ Strad
7
Minnesota, toxic leadership, and Milgram
8
Leadership, solitude and musicians
9
2013 Recap: Top 10 Most Popular Posts!
10
A Polyphonic Holiday Playlist!