Eastman Receives Institute’s Assets and Establishes the Orchestra Musician Forum

As announced recently, the financial, physical, and intellectual assets of the Symphony Orchestra Institute have been conveyed to the University of Rochester where they will fund the establishment of the Orchestra Musician Forum within the Eastman School of Music.

The mission of the Forum is to enhance the personal development and broaden the perspectives of musicians who are participants in North American symphony orchestras and other musical arts organizations, with the view that the artistic growth, personal fulfillment, career advancement, and job satisfaction of musicians employed in musical arts organizations, and the artistry, robustness, adaptability and sustainability of these organizations, are interdependent.

In pursuing its mission, the Orchestra Musician Forum will draw upon research-based teaching strategies, best practice distance learning methodologies, organizational theory and experience, and state-of-the-art technologies, and will seek input and support from all affected constituencies.

The first major activity of the Forum will be to develop a comprehensive Internet website to provide a range of educational and informational services designed to enhance the professional growth, personal fulfillment, and organizational participation of some 10,000 career musicians in North American symphony orchestra organizations. Over time, other activities directed to the Forum’s mission may be pursued.

The content of this website -- particularly the archived content of the sixteen issues of Harmony (along with the index thereto), and the bibliography of literature relating to symphony orchestra organizations -- will be absorbed into the new Forum website when it is ready for use. It is also contemplated that, on the new site, an index of the principal content relating to various central topics and issues within symphony organizations, as addressed in Harmony, and will be prepared and made available for use by readers and researchers.

For an interim period, this website will continue to operate as now conformed, and be available to all who are interested in symphony orchestra organizations.

Last Issue: The Primary Content of Harmony #16

As announced earlier, Harmony #16 was last issue of the journal to be published by the Institute.

Click here to review the contents of this last issue. It provides exceptionally good reading!

In the article "A Bold Experiment," by Bruce Coppock, two extensive documents are mentioned which relate to the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra's strategic planning work and contract renewal process. They can be reviewed in PDF format by clicking:

Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra Strategic Plan

Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra 2010 Vision Statement

The Symphony Orchestra Institute's Research Bibliography Is Searchable

A review of literature relating to orchestras and their organizations is an ongoing project of the Symphony Orchestra Institute and the findings are regularly entered into the Institute's on-line Research Bibliography. A search capability has been added to the page. The new search feature allows searching by author, title, phrase, keyword, or subject matter. Or, if you prefer, you still can scroll through all the listings by clicking on the "Browse" button.

We recently have reviewed and updated many of the web addresses with live links to the general source of the information selected. If no link is shown, public libraries may be the only source to examine the content. For articles that appeared in Harmony, there is a link to that issue's table of contents. We invite you to explore this resource and give us suggestions as to other material that might be included.

To make the bibliography easy to locate, we added a direct link button to the navigation bar that appears on the left side of most Institute web pages. Or, you can try it out by clicking here!

Organization Change Series
This series of essays offers a concise look at the history of organization change and at fundamental concepts that are especially applicable to symphony organizations. By Laura Roelofs