Issue: March 2016
A Century of Sound Baltimore Symphony oboist Michael Lisicky, also nationally known as a department store historian, author, and lecturer, has written a book about the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s first one hundred years, entitled Baltimore Symphony Orchestra: A Century of Sound. Lisicky has done extensive research through BSO archives, as well as information gathered from other sources, … [Read more...]
Issue: October 2015
Each season, ICSOM maintains a list of positive news articles and studies that demonstrate the resiliency of our orchestras, and the sustainability of artistic organizations. This information can be used to demonstrate that success is occurring for many orchestras, and that success is achievable for organizations that are portrayed as being in a troubled position. The latest Giving USA study, … [Read more...]
Issue: July 2015
Only a few weeks after President Obama announced that relations between Cuba and the USA would be normalized, the Minnesota Orchestra began working on the prospect of a tour. With the help of many parties—and in particular the Orchestra’s artistic staff, along with the experience of the Orchestra’s touring company, Classical Movements, in traveling to Cuba—the tour became a reality just five … [Read more...]
Issue: July 2015
In May 2015, the musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra reached a new 3 ½-year contract agreement 21 months in advance of our current agreement’s expiration. Clearly, this negotiation was unlike any in our orchestra’s memory. Our process couldn’t have been more different from that of the 2012-14 lockout. At his suggestion, Kevin Smith, the orchestra’s new President and CEO, and General Manager Beth … [Read more...]
Issue: March 2015
ICSOM at the Grammys On February 8, the St. Louis Symphony’s recording of John Adams’ City Noir won the Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance. The recording, with David Robertson conducting, is on the Nonesuch label, and includes two recent Adams compositions: City Noir, and the Saxophone Concerto, featuring soloist Timothy McAllister. Both were recorded live at Powell Symphony Hall … [Read more...]
Issue: August 2014
As of late, ICSOM Chairperson Bruce Ridge has been on the road quite a bit representing ICSOM and visiting numerous ICSOM orchestras. Of course, that’s not unusual for Ridge. When one realizes that his own orchestra, the North Carolina Symphony, has one of the busiest travel schedules in the country, one further appreciates the (literal) distance he goes for ICSOM. Just some of his travel … [Read more...]
Issue: May 2014
By now you are aware that the musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra, still shell-shocked and wary, but strengthened in countless ways by our unity and resolve, returned to the stage of Orchestra Hall in early February. At the musicians’ request, Maestro Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, conductor emeritus and music director from 1960 to 1979, was invited to conduct the first pair of “homecoming” concerts. … [Read more...]
Issue: May 2014
As has been true over the past two years, the Minnesota Orchestral Association (MOA) played its most recent decision close to the vest. That may be because the outcome remained unpredictable. Ever since productive negotiations began in earnest last December, we were told that the steps needed to mend a broken organization would have to follow a sequence. And indeed, the three foundational bricks … [Read more...]
Issue: December 2013
To our colleagues and friends across North America, all the musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra want to express our deepest gratitude and thanks. You have helped us with financial support and offers of employment, both of which have enabled us to withstand unparalleled intransigence on the part of the Minnesota Orchestral Association (MOA). We appreciate the huge support that came from the AFM … [Read more...]
Issue: December 2013
On December 10, in a letter to the board of the Minnesota Orchestra Association, ten Minnesota State legislators called for the resignations of Minnesota Orchestra CEO Michael Henson, board chair Jon Campbell, and past board chair Richard Davis, accusing them of financial mismanagement. They also called for an immediate end to the lockout of the musicians. The letter is excerpted … [Read more...]
