More Schermerhorn Recovery Photos

Alan Valentine is giving a presentation to the Nashville Downtown Partnership tomorrow, and I've been asked to put together a photo slideshow to be shown during his talk. I already had access to some of photographer Alan Poizner's dramatic shots from the video we created, but I hadn't been inside the Schermerhorn since the flood. Yesterday afternoon I took my camera, grabbed a hardhat and went down to the basement and subbasement of the building to capture the images below. While my photos certainly don't do it justice, I was awestruck and how complex these areas of the building are. At times I felt like I was on the set of Aliens with massive electrical cables and huge temporary air ducts protruding everywhere. Have a look for yourself:

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

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Our "One Man Arts Education Industry"

Mitchell Korn, our esteemed VP of Education and Community Engagement and a man whom the Wall Street Journal called a "one man arts education industry," will be leading an eight-week adult learning class at Vanderbilt this fall. The class, New Ears: Developing Your Musical Sensitivity, is described below:

"An engaging and participatory discussion of classical repertoire and the Nashville Symphony season. Discussions are timed to explore upcoming Nashville Symphony Orchestra programs. They focus upon listening skills, the composer’s personal and artistic thinking, social and cultural factors, and the pure enjoyment of music."

If you are a music lover looking to delve deeper into our 2010/11 Season, I highly suggest you register for Mitchell's class. You can do so by visiting the Vanderbilt website and downloading the Pre-College & Adult Course brochure.

-Jared

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Classical Music's New Golden Age

Check out this great article from Heather Mac Donald, the John M. Olin Fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, on living in Classical Music's "New Golden Age." Enjoy!

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U Txt?

We talk here a lot about how best to utilize social media and technology to communicate with current and (hopefully) future patrons and supporters of the Nashville Symphony. We've had our Facebook and Twitter presence for a few years and have used these media to engage our public with a good deal of success. This blog is yet another avenue in our non-traditional (for orchestras at least) communications effort. I wanted to share a few other ideas that have been floating around here, and would love to hear what you think.

A mobile-friendly version of our website - This is one project on my shortlist, and while it has some significant technical hurdles to jump, the benefits are obvious.

An iPhone, Blackberry or Android app - I love the idea of a specific app for the iPhone, which constitutes almost 30% (and growing) of all smart phone ownership. Android phones are also on the rise, and Blackberrys are here-to-stay; we could potentially develop specific apps for these platforms too. Besides informational and ticket purchasing functionality, these apps could one day allow us to present Nashville Symphony audio and video to our fans in an easy-to-consume fashion.

Text messaging - As an opt-in, respectfully used way of communicating emergency concert information (cancellations, major traffic issues, etc...) or even last-minute deals, I feel many patrons might prefer to get small bursts of info from us via text. What do you think?

Would you like/use any of these services if offered by the NSO? Are you reading this blog on your smart phone right now? Do you communicate with other businesses via text?

-Jared

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More For Our "Zoo"

Some terrific news today. Mr. Tommy L. Turner, an accomplished musician and lifelong member of the Jacksonville chapter of the American Federation of Musicians, presented the Nashville Symphony with four family heirlooms:

• A 1915 Gibson F-hole guitar;
• A 1960 Epiphone Classic guitar;
• A Martin ukulele; and
• A dulcimer handmade by Tommy’s father.

These instruments will be used as part of the NSO's Instrument Petting Zoo, which was lost in the flood. Tommy was inspired to make his gift after seeing coverage about a similar donation of a fine violin by Billy Ray Hearn.

Mr. Turner made his donation in person today and brought with him lots of documentation about each instrument. Here he is, at far right, with (from left to right) NSO President & CEO Alan Valentine, Billy Ray Hearn and NSO VP of Education and Community Engagement Mitchell Korn.

Our Temporary Home

"Where are you working from?" I've been asked this more times than I can count. Most of the staff is working in downtown Nashville on the sixth floor of the new SunTrust Plaza building. We certainly can't complain, what with plenty of space, floor-to-ceiling windows and our own Panera in the building! We're so thankful that SunTrust has helped us to find a home during this period of displacement.

Our Patron Services specialists and box office staff, who were working in Murfreesboro for the last two months, have just moved in. We're all very excited to have them here. So are they...

-Jared

Imagine

Herbie Hancock tickets go on sale today. We're presenting this concert at the Ryman on August 22 at 7 p.m. Herbie will be performing music from The Imagine Project, the new CD and DVD in which the 70 year old globetrotter collaborates with everyone from Pink to The Chieftains. This concert will sell out fast, so take my advice and get your tickets now. In the meantime, enjoy the Imagine Project teaser video below.

-Jared

A few rep changes

With all of the moving around this season, Giancarlo and his colleagues made a few changes to the repertoire for certain concerts. The most obvious was the postponement of Mahler's Eighth Symphony. Mahler 8 requires a massive orchestra, a large adult and children's choir and 8 vocal soloists. Holding this event someplace else would have been fraught with logistical problems. But the real reason we're holding off on it is that there's going to be no better place to perform or experience it than Schermerhorn Symphony Center. Beethoven 9, which replaces Mahler 8 for the opener, will be a joyous and appropriately bombastic way to launch the season from War Memorial Auditorium.

We've also postponed the Duruflé Requiem, which with its magical blending of voice, organ and orchestra, is tailor-made for the Schermerhorn. I'm sure you'll enjoy hearing the orchestra's performance of Beethoven's beloved "Pastoral" Symphony in its stead.

-Jared

Flood of Support!

What a guy! Marc van Bree, culture blogger, communications/social media consultant and all around great human being, has just started a campaign to raise money for the Nashville Symphony! Marc is celebrating his 1,000th Twitter follower by giving back to us in what he calls "Flood of Support," whose motto is "from slacktivism to activism." His goal is $1,000 or one dollar for each of his followers. He is relying totally on the power of social networking to spread the word, so those of you in the Twittersphere please help us by using the hashtag #floodofsupport . You can find donation information on "Flood of Support" here. Thanks, Marc!

PS - If you don't read regularly Marc's insightful postings on culture and communications, I highly suggest you visit his excellent blog Dutch Perspective.

-Jared

Tour of Nashville

Today's a busy day around the Nashville Symphony offices. After months of hard work and negotiations, we've finally confirmed most of the new venues for this year's remaining concerts and are busy calling subscribers to let them know the details. As I mentioned earlier, we are moving back into the Schermerhorn at the beginning of January, but the September - December shows had to be relocated. At the beginning we worried we might have to hold each concert in a different place and thought about branding it the "Tour of Nashville." Thankfully our staff was able to secure just four venues to present the lion's share of the shows.

Here's a brief rundown on some of our September - December concerts.

• Opening Night (featuring Beethoven's Ninth Symphony) will take place at TPAC's War Memorial Auditorium; and Handel's Messiah will be there too
  
• The four SunTrust Classical Series concerts will take place at three different places: TPAC's Andrew Jackson Hall, War Memorial and Lipscomb's Collins Alumni Auditorium
• Our Bank of America Pops shows (Michael McDonald, Jewel and Gershwin) are moved to Lipscomb's Allen Arena

Our website calendar has the most up-to-date information. There's also a press release for you media-types. We hope you'll join us on "tour" this fall!

-Jared

Welcome to our new blog.

Hi, everyone, and welcome to our new blog! We've been meaning to start a blog for a while now and decided that now was the right time to launch one. You see, our musical home, Schermerhorn Symphony Center, was severely damaged in May's flooding and is undergoing repairs. We thought that this blog would serve as a great way to keep you apprised of the latest rebuilding efforts, as well as up-to-the-minute concert details and everything-else-Nashville Symphony. Please visit often and drop us a note via the comments section.

Many of you have asked how you can help during this time of need. Our answer is simple: Join us for a concert! That's right, the best way for you to support your GRAMMY-winning orchestra is by simply continuing to purchase tickets. Our amazing 2010/11 Season, which begins September 10 with Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, is chockablock with interesting and enjoyable music. We're back in the Schermerhorn at the beginning of 2011, but we've managed to move the rest of our season's concerts to Nashville's other great concert venues. The most current information can always be found on our website. Look for more details on 2010/11 on this blog soon.

-Jared