The Philadelphia Orchestra Announces 2013-2014 Season

by | Feb 25, 2013

The Philadelphia Orchestra is getting back on its feet after several rough years—including declaring and working out of bankruptcy, and finding a new conductor. After seeing the great work commenced in Rochester by recently-appointed Music Director Arild Remmereit, I...
A Few Words on the RPO

A Few Words on the RPO

by | Feb 5, 2013

The Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra has been making headline after headline as of late—and not for the same reasons that it did just a year or so ago. The orchestra that was only months ago presented with the first Amy Award for programming excellence has now fired...

The Long, LONG Arc of History

by | Aug 24, 2012

With the debut of Margaret Ruthven Lang’s Dramatic Overture in 1893, the world changed: never before had an orchestral work composed by a woman been performed on the American stage.  The intervening 119 years have brought monumental social change, much of it due...

The 1.7 Percent: Distilling the 2008-2009 Repertoire Reports

by | Aug 24, 2012

Stories about “the 1%” abound in the media, but today I would like to shine a light on a far less reported, though far more relevant for this site’s purposes, statistic: the 1.7%. Our own Sarah Baer crunched the numbers (provided by the League of American...

Repertoire Statistics Report—2009-2010

by | Jul 31, 2012

Every year the League of American Orchestras releases statistics on the repertoire that is performed by member ensembles. The information is collected and painstakingly compiled so that arts administrators, musicians, and academics can take notice of trends and...

More on the Presentation of the AMY Award

by | Jun 7, 2012

It took place a week ago—the presentation of the first ever AMY Award—and what a thrill it was.  I was so honored to give the award before the full orchestra (the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra), and the near-capacity audience (almost 2400, including the 500...