on the record: July 2007 Archives

Those who have been around orchestras for any number of years are familiar with the financial troubles that have beset the Buffalo Philharmonic for the past fifteen or twenty years. Due to a decline in the corporate community of Buffalo itself, and other economic factors, the Buffalo Philharmonic has struggled mightily over a long period of time. Because in our field bad news seems to travel with more speed and greater impact than good news, many may not be aware that the Buffalo Philharmonic has really turned itself around...

Boy, things like this can certainly make you feel your age, and then some! When I came to work at the New York Philharmonic as orchestra manager, in 1978, there was an eleven-year-old boy who rather befriended my nine-year-old son Karl. This other boy was the son of two members of the violin section of the Philharmonic. The two of them palled around a bit on tours, occasionally helped me hand out hotel room keys and boarding passes and the like. And I, along with the rest of the Philharmonic, watched him grow up. Now, for Heaven's sake, he is the newly appointed music director of the Philharmonic. When we learned the news, and I said to my wife "he's 40," we both groaned together, recognizing how time passes...

The American Symphony Orchestra League's 62nd Conference, held this past June 19-23 in Nashville, will go down with a number of distinctions...

I have been following the writing of Alex Ross in The New Yorker, and on his blog, and find him one of the few writers who seems to have a sense of American orchestral life beyond the largest cities. His most recent writings are insightful and very much worth reading, which you can find by clicking here.