I credit Steve Dietz, the founder and director of the Twin Cities’ treasured organization Northern Lights, with casually saying to me one day, “Build platforms not organizations.”  It stuck and I’ve been thinking about it ever since. Dietz, a self-described “serial platform creator,” is the director of Northern Spark, a once-a-year, all night festival that last Saturday drew 20,000 people to St. Paul’s arty and urban Lowertown neighborhood to participate in dozens of performances, installations, and participatory experiences (sing, dance, … [Read more...]

Thanks to the efforts of Grantmakers in the Arts, the landmark 1988 study of the Oakland Symphony bankruptcy is newly available in digital format. Titled, Autopsy of an Orchestra: An Analysis of the Factors Contributing to the Bankruptcy of the Oakland Symphony Orchestra Association, the research was conducted and the report written by Melanie Beene, Patricia Mitchell, and Fenton Johnson. They interviewed dozens of artists, staff, board, funders, and community observers and had access to all of the orchestra's files and correspondence. The … [Read more...]

Earlier this month the Walker Art Center hosted a symposium on agonism in collaboration with Northern Lights. I only attended a small portion of the week-end's offerings but even a small dose has been enough to keep my mind active for the past two weeks. And what's stuck with me is the idea that there is good work to be done in being a worthy opponent, "a thoroughly dedicated adversary." More on that in just a bit. The first question is, what is agonism? Maybe you all already know all about it but I had to read and think about it before the … [Read more...]

The San Francisco Symphony is celebrating its Centennial this season with gusto -- they've invited six major American orchestras to perform in their home at Davies Symphony Hall, created three national symposia on the state of American orchestras, issued new recordings and produced new television, web, and radio broadcasts, and produced the second American Mavericks festival, the brainchild of the Symphony’s energetic music director, Michael Tilson Thomas (MTT). The festival ended Sunday in San Francisco and now is traveling to Chicago, Ann … [Read more...]

I wasn't sure whether or not problemization was a word until I looked it up and found that it is one. Problemization is to consider or treat as a problem (Merriam Webster). I've been thinking about this a lot. The reason is that increasingly when you look at a foundation’s grant guidelines you are asked: “What problem are you trying to solve?" I put the following into Google: “Foundation funding what problem are you trying to solve.” The search result: 182 million hits that included dozens of foundations’ guidelines and many articles about … [Read more...]

Stanford Emeritus Professor Robert J. Flanagan's book, The Perilous Life of Symphony Orchestras, Artistic Triumphs and Economic Challenges, was just released from Yale University Press and will be of interest to anyone working in, volunteering for, or listening to orchestras. The slim volume is jammed with interesting data, and its extensive bibliography will be helpful to readers who want to delve even deeper into the subject of the economics of symphony orchestras and their prospects for financial health and artistic vitality. Flanagan's … [Read more...]

On the agenda at a recent Board of Overseers' meeting at the Curtis Institute of Music were past graduates, some with non-traditional careers both in music and not, speaking about the preparation their Curtis education provided them. The backdrop to the conversation was a speech the previous afternoon by Derek Bok, who advocated for the importance of liberal education beyond music as an essential component of an artist's preparation.  The context for the entire discussion was the current state of the classical music field and the idea that … [Read more...]