Thursday, June 12th Synopsis

Well, here it is 9:30 Friday night (Denver time) and I’ve only caught you up to yesterday morning. The conference has been amazingly full, with some extremely interesting sessions. I can’t begin to do justice to them right now, especially since I have to be downstairs at 7:30 AM to arrange for a camera to film the morning session about Artistry as Civic Engagement, which we will stream on Polyphonic. So I need to pack tonight. And I want to watch the NBC special about Tim Russert – how sad. I just heard about his death an hour ago.

I’ll give you a quick overview of the sessions I attended, and tell you which ones I’ll go into more detail about later and which ones I’ll turn into a full article. I’ll finish up summarizing sessions on this blog next week, and then turn to getting the full articles ready the after that.

Henry Fogel on The Orchestra Organization; June 12th

Thursday started out bright and early with a musicians’ meeting with Henry Fogel, President and CEO of the League and former President of the Chicago Symphony. There were only about 10 of us present (including Laura Brownell, Tina Ward, Bob Wagner, and Gloria dePasquale), so we all sat around one table.

Henry has been teaching a course on The Orchestral Organization at Roosevelt University in Chicago (after he complained to the conservatory dean that instrumental performance majors needed to know something about how orchestral organizations function; the dean replied, “So you teach it!” – no good deed goes unpunished!). He passed out an outline of the orchestra that he uses for the course, divided into Board, Management, Artistic Side, Volunteers, and Audience.

I took extensive notes and plan to turn his presentation (with Henry’s blessings) into an article for Polyphonic that should be of interest to new members of professional orchestras. So let me here just share a few of Henry’s insights and anecdotes:

Opening Session, Wednesday, June 11th

The opening session of the conference was at 2:00 today, but perhaps I should mention the topics of the Orchestra Leadership Academy Seminars offered in the morning, from 8 to 12:30 AM.

• Destination… Annual Fund: A Journey to Significant Contributed Income
• The Essential Music Director – Executive Director Relationship
• Branding: Beyond the Hype
• Putting Your Best Message Forward
• Seminar for Women Conductors: Leadership Redesigned

I was planning to attend a musicians’ wellness seminar given by Janet Horvath of the Minnesota Orchestra but, unfortunately, it was canceled.

The plenary Opening Session, The Power of Community Building, was hosted by Anna Deavere Smith, the playwright, professor, and McArthur Fellow, and was held in a huge auditorium at the Convention Center. There are 3600 registered delegates at the conference, about 1500 of whom are with the League.

Wednesday, June 11

I arrived in Denver yesterday afternoon, along with thousands of other delegates to the National Performing Arts Conference (NPAC). I flew from Boston, where I’d been visiting family, and wondered how many of the people on the completely full flight were coming for the conference. Unlike most years, where the League holds its conference alone, this year the League conference is being held along with the NPAC conference as well as the annual Chorus America, Dance/USA, Opera America, and Theatre Communications Group conferences. Each group has its own conference hotel where morning and evening sessions are held. Everyone then attends the plenary NPAC sessions mid-day.

Polyphonic at the League’s 2008 Conference

Ann Drinan, Polyphonic.org Senior Editor, will be attending the League of American Orchestra’s 2008 conference in Denver next week, June 10 to June 14. I will be posting commentary about the conference throughout the week. Check back on Wednesday for my first installment!

Click in the Pages area in the right-hand column to read the posts for each conference day.