Touchdown Pittsburgh (no not the Steelers)!
Today marks the end of my first week with the Pittsburgh Symphony and the beginning of my final assignment as a League Fellow. Honestly, I don’t know where the time goes. Almost exactly one year ago, I was a nervous wreck at my sister’s place in Jersey trying to calm down and get at least a couple of hours rest before commuting into New York City for the final-round selection of this year’s Fellows. Tonight, twenty new finalists await their very own two-day gauntlet of group and individual interviews, exercises, and discussions in their own unique housing arrangements.
A note to these folks: none of you will probably see this before the morning but I wish you all the best of luck. Be yourself, try to relax, and think of the love of music that brought you to NYC in the first place. Just remember, that love and the capacity to become a positively influential orchestra leader/manager still exists, Fellowship or not. I just hope you don’t have to commute from Princeton like I did!
Anyways, during a conversation over the course of this year, an executive director once likened working in a larger orchestra to having a bigger trampoline to jump on. Holding fast to that analogy, I just climbed aboard a trampoline approximately ten times larger than those of both the LA Chamber Orchestra and the Memphis Symphony!
Oh yes, the Pittsburgh Symphony, one of the premiere world-class orchestras in the world is my stomping ground for these last 14 weeks. It is, in a word, huge. Fortunately, working with the Chicago Symphony prior to this year prepped me quite a bit for the culture shock of such a comparatively large institution.
At the advice of my new mentor, CEO & Managing Director Larry Tamburri (he also happened to be one of nine selection committee members that selected me as a Fellow), I have taken a different approach to defining my work plan here at the PSO. As opposed to preparing potential projects before my arrival a la LA and Memphis, my project prep began this week (that of my arrival) and continues into the next. During these first two weeks, I will spend one day with each of the PSO senior managers shadowing them, getting familiar with the staff, and creating a laundry list of projects (WAY more than any individual can handle in 14 weeks). Then, after the first two weeks are through, Larry and I will sit down, prioritize, and cut/add projects to create my finalized work plan that will carry me through the remaining 12 weeks.
At first, I was a little hesitant about this approach, wanting to get started immediately but have since found that this is a great way to focus my thoughts and get a wide perspective on how projects relate to one another as well as the organization as a whole. Plus, taking the time to meet and greet the entire staff on a day-by-day basis really helps me form a solid foundation to work cooperatively with these wonderful folks once I really dive in.
So that’s it. This week, after an introductory day, I hung out with Audience Development & Sales, Finance, Education & Community Engagement, and…well for lack of a better term, Partnerships. Next week, it is Public Affairs, Hall Management (the PSO owns and operates its home, Heinz Hall), Donor Relations, Operations, and Artistic Administration.
Stay tuned for more in the weeks to come.
A note to these folks: none of you will probably see this before the morning but I wish you all the best of luck. Be yourself, try to relax, and think of the love of music that brought you to NYC in the first place. Just remember, that love and the capacity to become a positively influential orchestra leader/manager still exists, Fellowship or not. I just hope you don’t have to commute from Princeton like I did!
Anyways, during a conversation over the course of this year, an executive director once likened working in a larger orchestra to having a bigger trampoline to jump on. Holding fast to that analogy, I just climbed aboard a trampoline approximately ten times larger than those of both the LA Chamber Orchestra and the Memphis Symphony!
Oh yes, the Pittsburgh Symphony, one of the premiere world-class orchestras in the world is my stomping ground for these last 14 weeks. It is, in a word, huge. Fortunately, working with the Chicago Symphony prior to this year prepped me quite a bit for the culture shock of such a comparatively large institution.
At the advice of my new mentor, CEO & Managing Director Larry Tamburri (he also happened to be one of nine selection committee members that selected me as a Fellow), I have taken a different approach to defining my work plan here at the PSO. As opposed to preparing potential projects before my arrival a la LA and Memphis, my project prep began this week (that of my arrival) and continues into the next. During these first two weeks, I will spend one day with each of the PSO senior managers shadowing them, getting familiar with the staff, and creating a laundry list of projects (WAY more than any individual can handle in 14 weeks). Then, after the first two weeks are through, Larry and I will sit down, prioritize, and cut/add projects to create my finalized work plan that will carry me through the remaining 12 weeks.
At first, I was a little hesitant about this approach, wanting to get started immediately but have since found that this is a great way to focus my thoughts and get a wide perspective on how projects relate to one another as well as the organization as a whole. Plus, taking the time to meet and greet the entire staff on a day-by-day basis really helps me form a solid foundation to work cooperatively with these wonderful folks once I really dive in.
So that’s it. This week, after an introductory day, I hung out with Audience Development & Sales, Finance, Education & Community Engagement, and…well for lack of a better term, Partnerships. Next week, it is Public Affairs, Hall Management (the PSO owns and operates its home, Heinz Hall), Donor Relations, Operations, and Artistic Administration.
Stay tuned for more in the weeks to come.
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