As I was wrapping up my Masters degree from Northwestern University in 2000, reality started to set in. I needed to pay my bills as a musician! I had won a position in the Milwaukee Ballet and in the IRIS Chamber Orchestra (I ended up getting a position in the Elgin...
In this second installment of my series on professional freelance life as a musician, I would like to offer some commentary on trends that I see in the world of professional classical music performance. This installment of the series is geared toward orchestral...
Drew McManus wrote a recent post about a pair of articles he edited for Jonathan Boen, Principal Horn for the Lyric Opera of Chicago. The concerto was commissioned from Jan Bach, and the articles (available on Polyphonic.org) chronicle Jonathan’s experiences...
A blog post from Somewhat Frank alerted me to this cool new service by a Chicago-based startup. Currently available only in Chicago (yay) and Philadelphia, ParkWhiz is essentially Google for parking spots in Chicago. Type where you want to look for parking and it will...
A couple of years ago a very funny thing happened at the Lyric Opera of Chicago involving orchestra musicians, administrators, and wacky street musician hustlers. I did not witness any of this, but I have heard the same tale from several Lyric musicians, so I hope...
