Clik here to view.
Some Friendly Advice To Peter Gelb
H/t Drew McManus, a great Peter Gelb quote: “Once the dust settles,” he added, the musicians “don’t have to love me to play well.” Hahaha. No, but NEWSFLASH! The public has to love you. Not just major...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Lockout Tips for Met Stakeholders
Edit: Literally just as I published this, the Met and various unions announced that they have extended negotiations for 72 hours and at least temporarily averted a lockout. Keep an eye on developments...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Eulogy
I’ve been quiet lately, but not by choice. A month ago my grandfather fell and broke his hip. Two weeks ago, on his sixty-fourth wedding anniversary, he died. Our family is small; the loss is large....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Stanley Romanstein’s Massive Bonuses
I haven’t spent much time digging into the Atlanta Symphony cluster**** yet because this weekend I was in the Twin Cities celebrating. Thanks to two solid years of hard work by many hundreds of people,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Review: Minnesota Orchestra and Renee Fleming, September 2014
Last year I and a couple hundred others showed up outside a glitzy event at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis: the famous Symphony-less Symphony Ball. The Musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra had been...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Atlanta Symphony Facebook Page Loses It
A gut-wrenching thing is happening to the Atlanta Symphony. And I’m not talking about the second musician lockout in two years, that looks set to deprive the Southeastern United States of great...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Stanley Romanstein’s Massive Bonuses: 2012 Lockout Edition!
Another week, another string of Atlanta Symphony Orchestra management fails. As some of you undoubtedly already know, the Atlanta Symphony management has a whole slick webpage devoted to presenting its...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Review: Minnesota Orchestra, Alisa Weilerstein in Barber, Mahler
As the house lights dimmed in Orchestra Hall on Sunday afternoon, I relaxed into the thought: when I write my next entry, I can focus on the music. I won’t need to write about barn-burning musician...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Naked Nymphs and the Atlanta Symphony
A provocatively titled blog post made the rounds the other day: “Maybe Atlanta Symphony Should Lock Out Its Marketing Department Instead.” It included a link to the Atlanta Symphony brochure for the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Top 10 Similarities Between The Atlanta and Minnesota Lockouts
In case you didn’t know it yet, the Minnesota Orchestra lockout and the Atlanta Symphony lockout are following eerily parallel courses. Some of the Minnesota folks likely aren’t following the ins and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Bad News, Good News
In case you missed the news, the Minnesota Orchestral Association has promoted Kevin Smith from Interim CEO to Actual CEO. He’s staying until the end of the 2017-2018 season (at least), and he will be...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Thanksgiving!
I don’t usually post anything on Thanksgiving (I’m more into Advent calendars, to be honest), but this year has been a special one, and I think it’s worthy of a word or two of gratitude. First off, I’m...
View ArticleClik here to view.
2014 Advent Calendar
Hey guys, it’s that time of year again: Advent Calendar Time! The blog has a long and proud tradition (and by “long and proud tradition,” I mean “a tradition that began on Tumblr in December 2012″) of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Cost Disease Confusion: Part 1
Ever since the Minnesota Orchestra lockout began, I’ve read a lot of articles on arts administration. (And from a unique perspective, too: not as a board member or an employee or a union shill, but as...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Farewell to 2014
Well that was quite the year. *** In the tradition of years past, here’s a New Year’s summary of what all happened at this address over the past twelve months. Here are the year’s most popular entries...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Winging Up and Up
On March 9th, my mother Dorothy (Dodie) Hogstad passed away at the age of 59. Less than six weeks had elapsed from her cancer diagnosis to her death. Her dad had died a little over seven months...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Lark Ascending
The last time I heard the Eroica symphony was in July 2012: the Minnesota Orchestra playing in Winona for the Minnesota Beethoven Festival. My mom wanted to bring me. Her daughter had no money. She had...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Critiquing Criticism of Season Announcements
I’m not sure how to introduce this one besides Greg Sandow recently wrote an article about the Minnesota Orchestra’s season announcement press release, and I was unconvinced by what he said. Here’s...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Microreview: Minnesota Orchestra in Griffes, Rachmaninoff, and Stravinsky
Not a single professional reviewer discussed the concert this week, so I’ll throw out my word count limit. *** This week the Minnesota Orchestra’s program featured three pieces I’ve never sat down to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Review: Minnesota Orchestra in Bernstein, Heitzeg, Copland, Greenstein
Giddy excitement, bittersweet reflection, screams from audience members… Nope, it wasn’t a lockout concert (although it felt like it). Rather, it was the first show in the Minnesota Orchestra’s 2015...
View Article
