Foreign Correspondence
Orchestral Summit in Melbourne
On 2-3 November 2011, Symphony Services International hosted its second annual Orchestral Summit in Melbourne. Featuring guest speakers Paul Hogle (Executive Vice President, Detroit Symphony Orchestra) and Frankie Airey (Director, Philanthropy Squared), the event was a great success. Read below for various reports on sections of the Summit, and to view the PowerPoint presentations by [...]
Noblesse oblige – arts philanthropy in US classical music
You have only to walk a few blocks in many places in the US to get a sense of the scale of philanthropy here. Just pick a city. In Charleston, for example, within a five-minute walk, you can pass the Karpeles Manuscript Museum, Charles P. Darby Children’s Research Center, and Stiles and Virginia Harper Student Services Center...In Savannah, you can stand inside the Richard and Judy Eckburg Atrium, the impressive entranceway to the Jepson Center, one of the Telfair Museums of Art. Philanthropy is pervasive. Sponsorship also is part of life. Is everything sponsored? The ‘please turn off your cellphone’ message before the curtain at San Diego Opera is sponsored by the Sycuan Casino, that is: a business run by a Native American tribe, the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation.
Notes from Singapore Live! Conference
From 1-3 June 2011, CEO Kate Lidbetter attended the Singapore Live! Global Performing Arts Exchange. Symphony Services International took a trade booth at this event to feature our Goodear Acoustic Shield and other products.
Notes From League Of American Orchestras Conference – 6-9 June 2011
From 6-9 June the annual League of American Orchestras conference was held in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Kate Lidbetter and Gordon Williams represented Symphony Services International at both the conference and in the trade hall.
Doors slamming shut? – where to, for American opera
‘Crisis’. That’s the word you most often hear when someone in the US describes the state of opera in America these days. ‘Our donors are going gray’; ‘We’re one donor from disaster!’ And then they recount the companies that have collapsed in the recent past - Orlando, Baltimore, Opera Pacific, Connecticut, Berkshire – and you start to share their feeling of rising panic. Could the same thing happen in our part of the world?
East Side Story
Gordon Kalton Williams writes from San Francisco You’d almost expect musical innovation in the East Bay area of San Francisco. Harry Partch, who conceived music with 43 tones to the octave, was born in Oakland in 1901 and, though a hobo for much of his life, regarded the Oakland/East Bay area as his preferred stomping [...]
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AAPRO rundown: Notes from the Association of Asian and Pacific Region Orchestras conference
Notes from the Association of Asian and Pacific Region Orchestras conference, Hong Kong, October 2010 – Kate Lidbetter Chief Executive Officer Kate Lidbetter attended the Association of Asian and Pacific Region Orchestras (AAPRO) conference in Hong Kong from 14-17 October 2010. She delivered a speech on Audience Development which can be read here, and provides [...]
Institute of Musical Research, University of London – David Garrett
From 1-3 July 2010, our colleague David Garrett attended a conference hosted by the Institute of Musical Research, University of London, titled The Symphony Orchestra as Cultural Phenomenon. David kindly agreed to provide us with a report on the sessions he attended. The full program of the conference can be accessed at: http://music.sas.ac.uk/imr-events/imr-conferences-colloquia-performance-events/the-symphony-orchestra-as-cultural-phenomenon.html#c1420 David presented [...]
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Walking with stars