Mark Likes Music

Back in September 2012, the board of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra plucked Mark Niehaus from the ranks of its trumpet section and appointed him president and CEO . On Wednesday, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra replaced disgraced executive director Richard Dare with acting principal oboist James Roe . Hopefully, hiring from within will help both of these orchestras avoid the distrust between musicians, management, and board has exacerbated so many of the recent crises in American orchestras. It's heartening, I hope it works, and it will be exciting to see if it becomes a trend.

Thanks to Eric Snowdon and the NSC, Orwell's back!  Morten Hoi Jensen reminded us on Salon.com that it isn't Orwell's depiction in 1984 of a totalitarian state that makes him relevant to today, but his commentary on the abuse of language by people in power, about how they can use words to hide intentions even as they create an air of legitimacy:  This isn’t meant to suggest that Orwell is not relevant to the current debate about the politics of electronic surveillance. ... (but) When NSA director James Clapper said he’d responded “in the least untruthful way” to Congress in March by telling them that the NSA does not intentionally collect any data of American citizens, Orwell’s famous definition of political language—that it is “designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind”— seemed particularly apt. Jason Slotkin points out the irony of Orwellian  becoming a hackneyed adjective thrown around in po...

Writing copy that tells people what they  can't do is hard, and the effort that organizations put into finding the right way to say unpleasant things says a lot.  When Wegmans was building its new store on East Avenue in Rochester, the word on the street was that there would be an underground parking garage for customers. There is indeed a parking lot under the new store, but it's for employees. Here's how everyone found out:  The main parking lot is cramped beyond belief; the blunt boilerplate language that drivers encounter when they try to enter the underground lot only exacerbates the sense of frustration.  Here's a more successful example.  Yesterday in Flower City, Rochester's annual jazz festival opened. Here are the signs that organizers put up to alleviate cutting in at pre-concert ticket lines:  This sign, while a little wordy, does much to send a posit...

In a recent post, I lifted some data from the Detroit Free Press that showed just how little the Motor City should care whether the city's emergency manager sells a few pieces of art to cover its bills. That data was part of the Census Bureau's annual American Community Survey , and today The Atlantic highlighted a group of maps that use the survey's data to paint a revealing picture of America's income inequality. You can view the maps here .

Through Andrew Sullivan's The Dish , I came across a blog post by 22-year-old Mary Sydnor , who bemoans the dearth of fellow classical-music travelers her age: Sadly, at age 22, it is not an exaggeration for me to admit that I have no one my own age willing to discuss my greatest passion with me: classical music. I’m sure there must be other millennials out there who scrimp and save for yearly orchestra subscriptions or who’d prefer to party with Poulenc instead of P. Diddy (is that who the kids are listening to these days?), but I have yet to meet them. Granted, the classical-music audience is predominantly 50 and over , but it's hard to believe that in a city like Philadelphia there aren't other 20-somethings out there going to concerts. The Philadelphia Orchestra is certainly trying to draw them out: it has a $25 subscription package for university students and a young professionals membership program .

I am so glad I didn't have to learn this lesson the way that John Tortorella did: no one likes a bully. Last week, the New York Rangers unexpectedly fired Tortorella as their coach. He is infamous for showing utter contempt to the media , but reports have surfaced that his abuse of players led to his ouster . Certainly, speaking hard truths to players is part of a coach's job, but criticizing them in public ? Not so much. If you act like a mean jerk , eventually people will assume you're a mean jerk and tune you out. It's the fast track to alienation--from your job, but also from family and friends. Reading about Tortorella reminded me of how important it is to keep my own abrasiveness in check, both at home and at work (because I love my family, like my job, and want to keep both). Tortorella's now-former boss said after the firing, "Every coach has a shelf life." Because of his behavior, Tortorella greatly shortened his. The next time you want to...

Back in October 2011, the National Institute for Responsible Philanthropy found  that 55 percent of foundation money goes to the top two percent of organizations by budget size. To some degree, this makes sense, as large arts institutions have the staff time to spend on writing grant proposals, and smaller organizations may not require the same amount of cash to achieve more focused missions. But in the same study, the National Institute for Responsible Philanthropy also revealed that only 10 percent of arts funding supports underserved communities, and concluded that in the arts, as the report's author Holly Sidford put it, "philanthropy is using its tax-exempt status primarily to benefit wealthier, more privileged institutions and populations." Here's a link to the full report. These findings underscore Matthew Yglesias's point about class and tax-exempt givi ng, and shows just how small the worlds of arts managers like  Thomas P. Campbell  really are.