The first week of the festival is over and it has been busy. Two children’s concerts, a pops gala, two Festival Orchestra concerts, and a Percussion Ensemble concert for kids. It’s been great to just dive in here. The Percussion Section is really great, and so is the rest of the orchestra. And it’s great to see friends from around the country that I don’t get to see very often. Most of them tell stories of their home orchestras gaining some stability if not strength this year. This wasn’t the case last year. In addition to all of the playing, I’ve been busy planning and writing for my high school marching band clients, planning for upcoming NMR projects, and jurying a composition contest. Oh, and drinking really great coffee and beer!
Back in Raleigh, there are some exciting plans being developed for SparkCon, a local exhibition of creative talent in the area. A composer friend is in the process of planning a local composer’s concert, and a new music panel discussion. I’m going to participate in both of these events, and I’m so glad these types of events are gaining support in Raleigh.
To catch up on one past topic, it seems that the Orchestra R/Evolution session and website that was organized by the League of American Orchestras for their annual conference has yielded next to nothing. I can’t say that I am surprised by this. There seemed to be more effort spent on advertising the conference and website than on cultivating good ideas. Let’s be honest, in order for this to have worked, the League would have needed to admit that they have made mistakes. How about a plan? How about a list of forward looking standards for engaging audiences? Do these things exist? If they do, why aren’t they part of the R/Evolution website? What did we learn from all of the bloggers, commenters, and conference attendees? So far, nothing.