Every year foreign orchestras with exotic or impressive-sounding names crisscross the country. They follow grueling routes and play in arts centers, small theaters and school auditoriums in places like Pembroke, N.C., and Modesto, Calif.

The orchestra of Kislovodsk, from one of its publicity photographs.
But they are not always what they seem.

The Dublin Philharmonic that played two years ago in nearly 50 towns? Mostly Bulgarians. The Moscow State Radio Symphony Orchestra that toured the United States last year? Largely freelancers. The “Tschaikowski” St. Petersburg State Orchestra, which is scheduled for a major American tour next year? Even the man advertised as its principal guest conductor said he had never heard of it.

Read the complete article – NYT

I am completing my twenty-sixth, and final season as Music Director of Seattle Symphony and that has given me a chance to reflect on some events that occurred during my tenure. I would love to share with you one of my favorite stories of one individual who has become a devotee of symphonic music and classical music in general.

Most of you know the name Benaroya since our great concert hall in Seattle is called Benaroya Hall. This is a family of remarkable and wonderful people. Jack and Becky Benaroya, the father and mother of Alan, Donna and Larry, were the ones who spearheaded the building of our hall in downtown Seattle. I became friendly with Jack and Becky close to the beginning of my time here in 1983. They are absolutely phenomenal people who are great human beings, caring, thoughtful, elegant, brilliant and very dear friends of mine and my wife Jody. I’ve gotten to know their children as well and one of them, Alan Benaroya, is the subject of my story for Take a Friend to the Orchestra.

Read the complete post here on Drew McManus’ blog Adaptistration.

The Fabulous Philadelphians, the “solid gold Cadillac of orchestras,” the internationally revered ensemble built by Stokowski and Ormandy, says it is headed for bankruptcy.

The board of the 111-year-old Philadelphia Orchestra voted Saturday in favor of a Chapter 11 reorganization. The claim was expected to be filed this weekend in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and the orchestra was expected to list assets at several times liabilities – an equation unusual for businesses seeking bankruptcy protection, according to several experts.

The move makes Philadelphia’s the first major U.S. orchestra to file for bankruptcy, say industry groups and veteran observers.

Read the complete article here.

DSO: Change tune or be replaced | detnews.com | The Detroit News

A very different Detroit Symphony Orchestra could emerge in the coming months unless the DSO musicians reverse themselves and agree to terms even more stringent than the offer they rejected over the weekend.
The DSO administration is prepared to move forward with a newly assembled group of players that would include only those members of the current orchestra who agree to unilaterally presented terms, DSO Vice President Paul Hogle said Sunday.

read more…

Anyone inclined to lament the state of classical music today should read Hector Berlioz’s Memoires. As the maverick French composer tours mid-nineteenth-century Europe conducting his revolutionary works, he encounters orchestras unable to play in tune and conductors who can’t read scores. A Paris premiere of a Berlioz cantata fizzles when a missed cue sets off a chain reaction of paralyzed silence throughout the entire sorry band. Most infuriating to this champion of artistic integrity, publishers and conductors routinely bastardize the scores of Mozart, Beethoven, and other titans, conforming them to their own allegedly superior musical understanding or to the narrow taste of the public.

Read the complete article:

Classical Music’s New Golden Age by Heather Mac Donald, City Journal Summer 2010

AFM Poll Results by Drew McManus

The Honolulu Symphony is being dismantled, and I don’t think the public is aware of the magnitude of this loss. Musicians are leaving. I’m one of them.

I’ll leave it to others to point out how much the symphony management’s actions have harmed fundraising and trust in our organization, but they now are justifying an extreme and impractical reduction by belittling my profession.

read more:

Why I’m leaving the symphony | honoluluadvertiser.com | The Honolulu Advertiser

L.A. Opera, other music companies play to youth – latimes.com http://bit.ly/7T00lQ

As has been stated man times since the first season, Mad Men conjures up the sights, sounds, and situations (including those both charming and not-so-charming) of a bygone era, giving viewers a window into the testosterone-soaked world of post-World War II New York advertising culture. Great pains are taken in terms of stye of dress, collegial relationships, and the interactions of the sexes inside and out of the workplace.

This historical era also corresponds with the height of classical music on the cultural barometer and the early phase of the corporate-sponsored “orchestra as profession” era of which (in my humble opinion) we are witnessing the slow but inexorable demise (read my take on this phenomenon here…. or over here or over by there and back here and even here).

What happened to classical music? What could Don Draper do about it? And, more importantly, what would Don Draper do about it?

Here are some thoughts:

• Image is everything – In many respects, symphony orchestras would fit in well with the clients of Sterling Cooper, if not in terms of budget then certainly in terms of portraying their product (music, hotels, cigarettes.. it’s all the same in a certain light) as the natural extension of a desired lifestyle. If smoking a Lucky or staying at the Hilton could, with the right advertising, be billed as stylish and smart, then think about how something as inherently “classy” as a concert could have been effectively marketed.
• You can sell anything – Could the New York Philharmonic have been marketed as effectively as Hilton? Sure! Could the concert as an essential lifestyle accoutrement have been imprinted in people’s minds through the advertising trade? Certainly! Could the same happen today? I’d wager a great deal on it. Then why didn’t it happen, why isn’t it happening right now, and why will it never happen?
• It’s all about the money – Don works for a company with massive annual profits that specializes in selling images of Coke, Hilton, fashion, or whatever to the masses. His company is fantastically successful at doing this and is compensated accordingly. They employ the best in the business and fight for the best clients in the business, and like a top law firm or any other business-world entity, they demand compensation commensurate with their skills. But classical music does not play with the “big boys” in this arena. The budget of a classical music organization is nothing but a rounding error on the books of a company like those that Don Draper services. Coke, Hilton, and Don’s other clients walk the financial streets like kings, with classical music groups like a band of hobos fighting over scraps of lint tossed from the pockets of these fat cats.

The answers to my earlier questions are now quite clear:

What could Don Draper do about classical music perceptions, attendance, and sales?

He could take the music in any direction he wanted–if Don could make carbonated sugar syrup beverages appear essential to the day of every American, he could certainly make classical music seem like a critical part of the human existence.

What would Don Draper do about classical music perceptions, attendance, and sales?

Nothing–he’s not taking charity cases.