Back to Blogging

As you may have noticed, my blogging has slowed to a crawl over these past few months. Well, it’s time to kick the dust off of the ‘ol keyboard for an update on my professional life.

Much has happened since the weeks of my last blog, here are the highlights in no particular order:

• I blog to you today from my alma mater, Taylor University in Upland, IN. Taking a couple of days away from the office, I made the trek to TU primarily to speak with a group of music students about arts management as a career. I hope to pass the arts management torch to these students as it was passed to me when I was in their shoes.



• The Pittsburgh Symphony has premiered the first-ever orchestra blog with external as well as internal bloggers! Check out http://pittsburghsymphony.blogs.com/ to read categorized blogs written by PSO family and patrons. Take a look and let us know what you think!



• We opened our season with a phenomenal Gala titled “A Knight to Remember” in honor of Sir Andrew Davis, our new artistic advisor. Davis led the orchestra in a series of works highlighted by a performance of Dvořák’s Cello Concerto featuring world-famous cellist Yo-Yo Ma.



• So far, we have performed the first three sets of our twenty-two weekend Mellon Grand Classics season. Speaking personally, highlights this season so far have included jaw-dropping performances of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, Orff’s Camina burana, and Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2



• Sadly, just before the second performance on our second concert set (Sep. 24: Orff's Carmina burana and Meldelssohn’s Suite from A Midsummernight’s Dream), we received word that Martin Smith, PSO co-principal horn for the past 25 years, passed away earlier that day. I am grateful for the little bit of time I was able to spend with Martin at the PSO. As a Fellow a few months ago, I interviewed Martin on his involvement with his local church for our annual Community Report. Based on this and other conversations, I am comforted to know that he was an incredible man of faith that now resides in a much better place. You can read more about Martin’s legacy as told by fellow horn player Bob Lauver here on the PSO blogs.



• After a long period of seemingly endless turnover, my department, Donor Relations, is beginning to make progress toward restaffing. I have a new Manager of Corporate Support and will soon have an Administrative Assistant to share with my colleages in foundation and government support. In short, work is getting better by the day as we finally have a chance to catch up with a strong staff.

Most of all, it is wonderful to once again hear the hall filled with music and see it filled with all different kinds of people. It's great to be back!