A story about sour notes in Australia's Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra—

The TSO lacks entrepreneurial vision, has a mediocre marketing strategy, dull programming, a greying audience and a chief conductor who fails to excite the broader community. Furthermore, Ms Giddings and Mr Heyward just don't seem to get one simple fact: around the world, orchestras are being reduced and are having to reinvent themselves and use innovative strategies to attract new audiences.

—quotes Alex Ross with hopeful news and a nifty marketing idea:

Alex Ross, the music critic for The New Yorker, described the future of classical music and orchestras superbly in a speech in January this year. “I wish that for every story in the media about troubled orchestras there was a matching story about a new composer-led ensemble, a new chamber series, a new program of professional musicians working in schools and so on,” he said. “There are more professional musicians than ever before. More people are going to live concerts of classical music than ever before. There are far more composers writing music—10, maybe 20 times as many as 100 years ago.

“But musical life lacks a centre. It exists off the radar screen of the major media. It's actually kind of exciting when you think about it. If I were in the business of marketing classical music to younger audiences, I'd make a virtue of this. Classical music is the new underground.”

Change of tune needed for the TSO and all state orchestras [On Line Opinion]
Listen to This [Ross, The New Yorker, via his blog: "When people hear 'classical,' they think 'dead.']
Kafka Sings [Ross, The New Yorker]
March 6, 1989, cover (strings) [John O'Brien, Cartoon Bank]
Life Without Mozart [Mick Stevens, Cartoon Bank]
Andante Sostenuto [William Steig, Cartoon Bank]
Culchah Cornah: My least favorite kind of music review [Blue Mass. Group]