Issue: December 2011
When I joined the Kansas City Symphony (KCS) in 1995, my father, an accomplished amateur musician in his own right, often inquired whether “ev’rything’s up to date in Kansas City,” a reference to the musical, Oklahoma! Little did any of us know in 1995 what would lie ahead for the fourteen-year-old orchestra and our community. The KCS was borne out of the ashes of the former Kansas City … [Read more...]
Issue: Chairperson's Reports
One late night during this summer’s ICSOM Conference in Detroit, delegates gathered informally in the chairman’s suite to watch the documentary Music Makes a City. This beautiful film describes how the Louisville Orchestra was founded 74 years ago by the visionary mayor Charles Farnsley, who realized that the orchestra could lift the city out of the long Great Depression punctuated by devastating … [Read more...]
Issue: December 2011
When it was realized years ago that a $2.5 million to $3 million deficit for the St. Louis Symphony wasn’t going away by itself, a decision was made to embrace it in a most creative and energizing way. A donor was found who would make up the difference for the next few years, but, on the books and in PR, the deficit still showed. The rational, gradual timeline for eliminating this deficit, by … [Read more...]
Issue: December 2011
This has been a time of significant change for the Utah Symphony. After a three-year international search, Thierry Fischer was engaged as our music director. The Swiss-born conductor has inspired the orchestra and reignited enthusiasm for the Utah Symphony throughout the community. He is an energetic and dynamic leader with vision. It has also been a transitional time for us, as there has been … [Read more...]
Issue: December 2011
San Francisco Symphony’s negotiating committee recently probed the financial arithmetic behind defined contribution pensions. According to Dave Gaudry, negotiating committee chair, management wanted future pension improvements to come from a 403(b) plan while the musicians wished to increase the SFS defined benefit plan. The negotiating committee challenged the assumption that defined contribution … [Read more...]
Issue: December 2011
Lew Waldeck was a tuba player with the New York City Opera Orchestra who had a pivotal role in the formation of the AFM Symphony Department (now the Symphonic Services Division) and served as its first director. After Lew died in 2004, Live Music Awareness, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with ties to the Musicians’ Association of Hawaii, Local 677, established the Lew Waldeck Fund to promote … [Read more...]
