What follows came today as a comment on my post about pieces a whole community can play, from my friend John Steinmetz. It's well worth sharing with everyone. And it's another solutions post. I especially like John's descriptions of the pieces he's written, where professionals collaborate with the rest of the world. I'd love to hear them -- and watch them on YouTube. John ends, by the way, by saying he'd like to see more examples of these collaborations. So would I! Send them in, via email or blog comments, and I'll post them here. Since James … [Read more...]

On the League of American Orchestras' Orchestra R/Evolution blog, I posted something that won't exactly take my regular readers by surprise. I suggested that the most important thing orchestras can do is to see themselves as those who don't go to orchestra concerts see them. Or, more broadly, to start functioning in the larger culture that classical music fled from over the past two generations. I got a wonderful response in a comment from Rick Robinson, a bass player with the Detroit Symphony. I'm posting it here with his permission. Eloquent, … [Read more...]

This came in a comment to one of my solutions post, from Katy Clark, the Executive Director of the Orchestra of St. Luke's, in New York. Thanks, Katy! I feel free to post it here, because as a blog comment, it's already public:I'd love to have more reports, from more people.Here's what Katy wrote. It's another solutions post:Orchestra of St. Luke's just did a project that might be of interest here. As an Orchestra that has always been itinerant, this year we decided to do a musical "Subway Series". Five free concerts over five days in the five … [Read more...]

Worked, that is, to reach an orchestra's community. Or simply to make an orchestra more attractive to people who might go to its concerts. A solutions post. And also a crosspost from the League of American Orchestras Orchestra R/Evolution blog.Play music by Pulitzer Prize-winning composers. Delta David Gier did this in his first season as music director of the South Dakota Symphony. He wanted to play new music, a lot of it, but understood that his audience might not be as excited about that as he was. So he got the idea of featuring, on … [Read more...]

Another post I made to the Orchestra R/Evolution blog, again suggesting a way for orchestras to get more involved with their communities. Here it's another "solutions" post. Does anyone know Britten's marvelous opera, Noye's Fludde? It's the story of Noah and the ark, with a text from a medieval mystery play. And it's written for the musicians of an entire town to perform. Noah and Mrs. Noah need to be trained singers, Noah ideally an accomplished professional. The voice of God is a speaking part, and thus can be done by a community personality … [Read more...]

As I mentioned earlier, I've been taking part in the glitzily named Orchestral R/Evolution blog, run by the League of American Orchestras as a lead-in to their annual conference. I got tired of all the generalities being posted there, and decided to confine myself largely to specific suggestions. And I thought I'd share some of them here. Fits right in with my "solutions" series. Here's one of my posts, reacting to some thoughts from others about how orchestras should become more involved with their communities. How could they do that? … [Read more...]