Orchestra Life
:: Professional Development
 |
The Critical Response to Profitable Concerts: The Boston Symphony Orchestra, 1930-1950 |
"As a former musician in the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and current Director of Education and Community Partnerships at The Philadelphia Orchestra, I'm keenly aware of..."
 |
Look, Kids, Now He's De-Composing |
I am as eager as the next person to speak in highly idealized terms about arts education and bringing the beauty of Mozart into the life of every child...
|
The View from the Pit |
When you work as a professional freelance musician, one of the many occupational hazards you must face is playing in orchestra pits.
Most concerts are played in the relatively open space of a stage, and the orchestra is up above the audience. But in a pit
 |
The Entrepreneurial You |
Musicians don't usually view themselves as entrepreneurs, even though they are the quintessential "multi-preneurs." But musicians regularly launch new ensembles, start their own teaching studios, create record labels, and publish their own works.
 |
Book review "The Music Teaching Artist's Bible, Becoming a Virtuoso Educator" |
This important new book by noted master teaching artist Eric Booth will become an essential reference, "a bible," to any musician who teaches as part of their career. Booth makes the first of a number of bold statements in the opening pages, claiming that The Music Teaching Artist's Bible, Becoming a Virtuoso Educator "...aspires to change the way you define what teaching and art can be to one another, to your life, to music, and to our culture." On a personal note...
 |
What Are You Wearing? Dress Codes Considered |
Dress codes have been part of the orchestral musician's life since Haydn's musicians wore the uniform of the Esterhazy family.
|
Classical Music for Dummies, by David Pogue, Scott Speck, and Glenn Dicterow |
The table of contents in Classical Music for Dummies includes The Entire History of Music in 80 Pages, A Field Guide to the Orchestra, and The Dreaded Music Theory Chapter.
|
The Voice, by Thomas Quasthoff |
"The Voice" of Thomas Quasthoff, a splendid bass baritone voice, has allowed him a very different life than was originally predicted for him. In his own words, "No one expects such a mighty voice to issue from my diminutive frame."
|
Rostropovich: The Musical Life of the Great Cellist, Teacher and Legend, by Elizabeth Wilson |
Saddened by the loss of Mstislav Rostropovich in April 2007, I looked forward to reading this book, written by one of Slava's former students in Moscow (who now resides in Italy). Ms. Wilson writes lovingly about Slava, as only a student can. She regales us with story after story about what it was like to experience the man's genius at close quarters.
|
Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain, by Oliver Sacks |
Years ago when I read a biography of Maurice Ravel, I learned that at the end of his life he was afflicted with a condition that allowed him to hear music but not be able to write any of his musical thoughts on paper. To say that he was frustrated by his condition would be a gross understatement. Today there is a name for his condition: "a form of frontotemporal dementia... [with] semantic aphasia."
|
The Pirate's Dilemma: How Youth Culture is Reinventing Capitalism, by Matt Mason |
This is the most provocative book I've read in a very long time. I bought it because the title intrigued me---piracy is a musician's worst nightmare, right? The author thinks not, and puts forth one compelling argument after another.
|
The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century, by Alex Ross |
Alex Ross is well-known as the music critic of The New Yorker magazine. This is his first book, and as captivating as it is, one hopes that many others will follow.
|
The Soloist, by Steve Lopez |
This book is a parallel to A Beautiful Mind, the book and movie that came out several years ago about mathematician John Nash and his struggles with mental illness. In The Soloist, the main character is not a well-known professional with a good job, but a homeless man, and it's not math but music which is the underlying talent.
|
Artists in Exile, by Joseph Horowitz |
This is a terrific book, well written, thoroughly researched, full of anecdotes. If you're interested in dance, you'll enjoy the chapter on Balanchine. If you love classical music you'll want to read about Stravinsky and Schoenberg.
|
Musicians from a Different Shore: Asians and Asian Americans in Classical Music, by Mari Yoshihara |
This slim volume is not going to be a bestseller at Barnes and Noble but if you're interested in how "Asians" find their way to the US to pursue a career in music, or the sorts of cultural stereotypes Asian-Americans encounter, you might find this book of interest.
 |
A Tale of Two Meetings |
I spent all last week 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.
 |
Auditions: The Challenges for Candidates and Committees |
What is it that audition candidates want? The response is usually the same; a fair chance to compete for a symphonic position, and to be treated as a professional in the process.
 |
Musicians and Home Office Tax Deductions |
For musicians, the two questions most commonly asked are: "I teach private lessons in my home; can I take a deduction for this room?" and "I am a professional musician and must practice to maintain my skills; can I take a deduction for the room in my house that I use for practicing?"
 |
First Impressions of the South Dakota Symphony |
I've been asked, as an American Symphony Orchestra League Management Fellow newly-arrived to South Dakota, to share a few of my initial impressions about the South Dakota Symphony. In pondering this, my thoughts keep coming back to scale. I don't mean a musical scale, but scale as a measure of size, or maybe more crucially, scale as a measure of impact.
 |
Jedi Orchestral Skills |
The world of professional sports is remarkable for its degree of analysis. Like systems of natural selection fueled by competition and survival, those who win are able to do so by taking advantage of the most minute edges in speed, technique, and efficiency. In baseball, measuring to the tenth of a second the length of time for particular pitcher to deliver ball to particular catcher, catcher to second, and second baseman to apply tag, allows base runners the knowledge of when to steal. The slight statistical advantages, added up over the season, can mean the difference between champagne or whine.
Our art, although highly competitive (and analyzed) in the audition arena, is actually fairly unexplored in its day-to-day techniques. How many have ever been taught how to turn a page most efficiently while sitting on the inside of a stand; or how to sit with a stand partner so that both are comfortable, with good sight lines; or how to bow a part while paying proper attention and in proper proportion to politics, opportunity, ergonomics, and musicality; or most importantly, what is the nature of musical radar?
 |
Improvisation and the Symphony Orchestra: Providing Inspiration and Meaning |
I close by recommending free improvisation in general and in every respectable form to all those for whom [music] is not merely a matter of entertainment and practical ability, but rather principally one of inspiration and meaning in their art.
|
Is Concert Clothing Tax Deductible? |
The question of when you can deduct your concert clothes may seem rather obvious to most musicians. It is not uncommon to hear musicians declaring that their concert "uniforms" are completely deductible. However, will the IRS agree with this statement? The answer may not be nearly as clear as many musicians think.
 |
They Love Us...They Love Us Not |
After much consideration, another plausible explanation of the predicament of the orchestra business eventually occurred to me. My conceptualization of our industry's problem started to evolve when I came up with this analogy for our situation: imagine we are in the restaurant business rather than the culture business.
|
They Love Us...They Love Us Not |
I heard a good conductor who, when asked how to make an orchestra grow, responded, "You get every musician to play his best at every service."
|
They Love Us...They Love Us Not |
I once thought that I would have safely retired from my career before the orchestra business, as we know it, went belly up. Now, I'm not so sure.
 |
Professional Sacrifices Define the Lives of Orchestra Musicians |
Among the highly educated and skilled professions, orchestra musicians make some of the greatest professional sacrifices in order to earn a full-time living.
|
Beneficial Tax Treatment for Qualified Performing Artists |
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has provided that performing artists, if they meet certain requirements, may deduct work-related expenses in a more beneficial manner than other employees.
 |
Defining Self and Mind |
"You know, you're a first class jerk. A real idiot." A phrase heard by just about every musician who has sat in a principal chair, served on a committee, or performed the duties of a local union officer. Often, those comments are laced with colorful metaphors designed to drive home the impact of the message.
|
Depreciation of Musical Instruments |
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) allows a deduction for property used in a business or income-producing activity. For property with a useful life of less than one year, the deduction is generally taken in the year the property is placed in service. The deduction for property that has a useful life of more than one year must be pro-rated over the life of the property. This method of deducting the cost of property is called depreciation and is the method used for most musical instruments. The rules for depreciating the costs of various types of property are rather complex; this discussion will focus only on the depreciation of musical instruments.
 |
Moving Beyond The Music: Why An Orchestra Musician's Job Is Not Over After The Last Note |
Not long ago, as a student at the Eastman School of Music, I thought I had a good idea of what it would be like to play in a professional orchestra.