The ABO team spent June preparing for the Concert and Orchestra Managers’ Meeting and subsequent German Tax Workshop, in addition to attending the Chamber Orchestra Strategy group, Public Affairs Network and ERA 21 meetings. We have also met on your behalf with: Hannah Elder, ROH; Will Hutchinson and Martin Green, LOCOG; Vanessa Reed, PRS Foundation; MU; Katherine Carleton, Orchestras Canada; Kate Lidbetter, Symphony Australia; Atul Kanagat, League of American Orchestras; Robert Flanagan, Stanford University; Festival Republic; and the new Culture Secretary, Ben Bradshaw MP.

In addition, ABO staff have attended the RPS Lecture; the League of American Orchestras Conference in Chicago (see report below); the John Lyons Charity Conference - Primary Music Matters; MBF AGM; the Philharmonia Orchestra's MusicScape Project; NCA Conference; YPIA; LSO OnTrack and performances by Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, New London Orchestra, Oxford Philomusica and Glyndebourne.
 

We are currently arranging dates for our autumn season of Specialist Managers' Meetings. As dates and locations become fixed they will be listed on the Events section of the ABO website.

If you have any items you would like to suggest as Agenda topics please email orla@abo.org.uk.

Don't forget that reports from all previous meetings are available to download from the members area of the ABO website.
 

Tuesday 21 July - Finance for non-Finance Managers, Course leader Maureen McCulloch, a chartered accountant with extensive experience in charities and the arts who has been freelance trainer for twenty-one years. LSO St. Luke's, London.

Tuesday 15 September - Introduction to Press & PR, Course leader Kate Whyman, a freelance PR consultant specializing in music and the arts. Her client list includes BBC Radio 3, Cadogan Hall, London Mozart Players, Mayor of London, British Arts Festival Association, Festival and Events International, The Old Market and Brighton Festival of World Sacred Music. She was PR consultant for the ABO from 2004 - 2009. LSO St. Luke’s, London.

Limited spaces are available to attend these excellent courses, however, there are discounts available for multiple bookings so if you and / or your colleagues would like to find out more information or to book a place please click here to visit the Brass Tacks page of the ABO website.

The deadline for all applications for this round of Healthy Orchestra Charter Awards is fast approaching. Please can you let Keith have all applications by 5pm on Friday 24th July. Keith is always willing to discuss applications before they are finally submitted so do feel free to give him a call before sending it in. It would be great to have a good spread of applications this time round.

All those orchestras who were awarded Bronze awards in the first round of applications in 2007 should note that they are due for renewal next year as the awards only last for three years. Hopefully we will also see some more applications for the Silver Awards too. Our thanks, as ever, to the MBF for partnering with us on these important awards.

Jillian Barker, Head of Barbican Education, has left the Barbican Centre and will take up a new position as Director of Education, Information and Access at the National Gallery from September 09.

Samir Savant has recently been appointed as Director of Development at The Royal College of Music. Previous to this position Samir worked as Corporate Giving Manager at English National Opera and in fundraising and marketing roles at the Royal Academy of Arts, Handel House and Shakespeare's Globe.

We would like to draw your attention to the members area of our website where you will find the ABO Members Forums! These are a chance to network with colleagues outside of our Specialist Manager Meetings. It is also a place to discuss current or not so current topics and to generally interact with ABO staff and other ABO members. DHA will also be posting some questions and asking for views on the communications campaign and it would be great to see some activity here. Please log on to the members area and then follow the links to the forum. You do need to sign up additionally to the Forums themselves but that only takes a moment and from then on you can post and pontificate to your hearts content! Do drop by and post a hello.

Mark Pemberton attended the League conference from 9-12 June in Chicago. The general mood of the conference was pretty grim, with orchestras suffering from the economic downturn and reporting substantial reductions in both the capital value and income from endowments. This has led to re-negotiation of musicians’ and managers’ contracts, with cuts of as much as 10% in salaries. But there were longer-term fears also being expressed, in relation to sustaining audiences and the need for new business models.

The four-day event featured performances by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, which hosted the conference; the Chicago Symphony Youth Orchestra; the Grant Park Music Festival; the Civic Orchestra of Chicago in the CSO’s multi-media programme, Beyond the Score®; and performances of works by the CSO’s Mead Composers-in-Residence Osvaldo Golijov and Mark-Anthony Turnage in a special presentation of the Orchestra’s MusicNOW series.

Mark Pemberton was a speaker at a session on Protecting Musicians’ Hearing, where he outlined the research and training provided by the ABO for its members, and the guidance it has produced on practical steps to reduce noise exposure. The issue seems to be becoming more visible in American orchestras, with musicians raising it as a concern.

For further information, click here.

From 21-25 July, Birmingham Conservatoire hosts the International Double Reed Society Conference (IDRS 2009) – and you’re invited. The festival features City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of the Swan, Queen’s Park Sinfonia, La Serenissima and over 40 world premiere performances. IDRS 2009 is packed with recitals by world-class artists, up-and-coming talent and cutting edge research – find out more at www.idrs2009.org

The Schiedmayer family is a rare phenomenon in the history of musical instrument making, an unbroken dedication to a continuously evolving craft spanning a period of over 270 years, by members of the same family.

Balthasar Schiedmayer, the founder of the company, built his first clavichord in 1735 in Erlangen. 1809 one of his grand-sons, Johann Lorenz, established the company in Stuttgart. The tradition of making keyboard instruments (clavichord, upright- and grand-pianos, harmoniums, pianolas, celestas) was passed from generation. Schiedmayers have been the first using the English action in the pianos in Germany as well as the first manufacturing Harmoniums in this country.

Today, Schiedmayer Celesta GmbH, the only remaining instrument maker of this distinguish family, plays a unique role worldwide. It is currently the sole company manufacturing the musical instrument Celeste invented in Paris by Victor Mustel. The celesta-action has been patented in 1886: felt-hammers set in motion by the keys, strike from above tuned steel bars placed on v-shaped felts resting on wooden resonators. Besides the Celestes, the company manufactures keyboard-glockenspiels and a glockenspiel for pipe organs.

In connection with the two hundred years’ anniversary of Schiedmayer in Stuttgart, Schiedmayer Celesta GmbH organized the 3rd international composition contest for celesta-solo and celesta with ensemble and orchestra. It has been a big success, 145 compositions from 36 countries took part to the contest. The winning scores were performed on June 28th 2009 during the birthday’s celebration at the Hochschule für Musik in Stuttgart.

www.celesta-schiedmayer.de

Third sector organisations with an annual turnover of between £150,000 and £750,000 are invited to apply for a £1,000 bursary from the government’s Modernisation Fund Grants Programme.

The bursaries will allow organisations to buy at least two days of advice and support to explore how they can become more resilient and work more closely with others, including through collaboration or merger. To find out more, visit www.modernisationfund.org.uk before 17 July.