Podcasts about conducting business

An on-the-go Hondo Carpenter is back on the road as always with a private conversation that only true Silver and Black Insiders can get and only available on the Fans First Sports Network. On this episode, Hondo talks about Antonio Pierce conducting business like he's sticking around. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Perry Marshall is one of the most expensive business strategists in the world. He is endorsed in FORBES and INC Magazine. He's guided clients like FanDuel and InfusionSoft from startup to hundreds of millions of dollars. He founded the $10 million Evolution 2.0 Prize, with judges from Harvard, Oxford and MIT. Launched at the Royal Society in London, it's the world's largest science research award. NASA's Jet Propulsion Labs uses his 80/20 Curve as a productivity tool. His reinvention of the Pareto Principle is published in Harvard Business Review. His Google book laid the foundations for the $100 billion Pay Per Click industry, and Ultimate Guide to Google Ads is the world's best selling book on internet advertising. Marketing maverick Dan Kennedy says, “If you don't know who Perry Marshall is — unforgivable. Perry's an honest man in a field rife with charlatans.” He's consulted in over 300 industries. He has a degree in Electrical Engineering and lives in Chicago Check out Perry's - COVID-19 IMPACT FACTOR™ - CLICK HERE

When Adam Contos first entered RE/MAX World Headquarters in 2003, he did so as an independent contractor. He had served in the United States Marine Corps Reserves and with the Douglas County (Colorado) Sheriff's Office. But he believed in creating the success he wanted. So he did. Adam developed S.A.F.E.R, Safety Awareness for Every Realtor, and presented the training program across North America. It brought him to RE/MAX for nearly 20 years, where he served as CEO from 2018 to 2022. His goal always is to break down barriers, blow up conventional thinking, and help as many people as possible achieve success. It defines who Adam is as an entrepreneur. It was how he chose to lead RE/MAX, the top brand in real estate; Motto Franchising, the first national mortgage brokerage franchise in the U.S.; and booj, an award-winning real estate technology company. In this episode, Josh and Adam discuss finding out what your customer wants, operational excellence, and accountability. Contact Adam: Website: adamcontos.com Facebook: Adam Contos CEO Instagram: @adamcontosceo YouTube: @LeadershipFactory

Do you have kids at home and try and conduct your coaching business? In this episode of The Financial Coaches Podcast, Maria and Cody talk about what it looks like to have kids at home and run a business from home as well. It can come with its own challenges, but there are ways to help keep things in a healthy and balance placed for both your business and family to thrive. ✅ Looking for support, insight, inspiration, and collaboration with other aspiring and thriving Financial Coaches? Join our Facebook Community: www.facebook.com/groups/nmhcoaches ✅ Whether you're just thinking about becoming a Financial Coach or you have a thriving Coaching Practice, you need other Financial Coaches in your network. Join Financial Coaches+ and get your first month FREE: www.newmoneyhabits.com/coaches/memberships/trial ✅ The Financial Coaches Book Study: Beyond The Book reading list: www.newmoneyhabits.com/coaches/bookstudy/beyond-the-book/book-list

In this episode, I answer a user question regarding conducting business via text message. I definitely encourage you to listen to this episode if you currently conduct business this way or if you have the same question. All things aren't created equal and I explain exactly what I am referring to when I say you shouldn't conduct business via text message. We will address it from a process standpoint as well as overall risk standpoint. If you have a business process question, I encourage you to reach out and ask your question, yours may be the next one I answer. Visit the show notes page for more information or to access other content. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/organizedholistically/message

Lawgical with LYLAW and Tim Elliot

This week, Karen Lee—Founder and CEO of GLOU Beauty, a sustainable beauty marketplace on a mission to reimagine e-commerce for beauty lovers in an age of conscious consumerism—shares the inspiration behind her company and its focus on operational efficiency: “Our whole goal is to try and bring more joy in your life and reduce any kind of pain you might have”. As sustainability becomes more important within the business world, Karen's concept of “rehoming” makeup, skincare, and other beauty products has become increasingly important. Karen also discusses the importance of listening to consumers, implementing machine learning, and building a team with a shared vision. She attributes her success to “knowing what other people are good at, and putting that together”.

In episode 85, we're back with Michael Atwood, co-founder of Oshi app. - The Bitcoin Commons - Privacy at events - Austin Bitcoin Club - Bravery to solve censorship - Oshi app - Spending bitcoin leads to new discovery - Onboarding small business - Eventually the payment providers will show - Lightning works - Trading value for value - Thinking at the local level - Incentives to Orange pill -What's next And more! Want to make some passive sats? ✔️ Promote an episode and get 2% per every 3k followers you have (10% max) ✔️ Provide a topic for an episode- 2% ✔️ Cover artwork or music- 5% Reach out to us if you're interested. This podcast also supports Podcasting 2.0 value for value is the ONLY way to keep it ad-free. You can help keep that spirit alive by downloading your favorite lighting-powered podcast apps like Fountain and Breez and start streaming us some sats! Indulge. Share. Subscribe BitcoinTv: https://tinyurl.com/BitcoinTV-TIB Legacy: https://tinyurl.com/TIBPOD Youtube: https://tinyurl.com/TIBTV Value for Value: https://tinyurl.com/FountainTIB All content: http://talkinginbits.com/episodes Support the show via: Talkinginbits.com/donate Tips: cash.app/$DeFBeD or strike.me/defbed/ Please rate, share, and subscribe on Bitcoin TV and Podcast-Index-supported apps. Thanks for all the love!

As the apostles waited in the Jerusalem upper room, they had a little business to tend to.

For many people, privacy is just a vague concept. But it can literally be a matter of life and death. It deserves your attention, your consideration and (crucially) your support. Technology has vastly improved our daily lives, but some of it also threatens to undermine our basic human rights and even our democracy/society. We need to understand the implications of the laws we pass - and the laws we aren't passing. Today, I'll talk about several stories with a common theme: privacy matters. Of course, I'll also cover several security-related topics this week, as well: I'll tell you how to completely hack someone's Windows PC with a gaming mouse; Microsoft's Azure cloud service left thousands of customers' data completely exposed; new and disturbing details emerge about the role of NSA-pushed backdoors in the massive Juniper breach of 2015; Australia considers making state ID required for social media accounts; Google tries to cut off access to account data that endangers US helpers in Afghanistan; Apple partners with 8 US states to incorporate state IDs into Apple Wallet; Apple has thankfully delayed its rollout of on-device surveillance technology aimed at stemming child porn; the FTC comes down hard on a stalkerware company; and I take a moment to reflect on the 20th anniversary of 9/11. My Tip of the Week explains how to quickly disable biometric unlocking of your smartphone. Article Links Not just Razer: SteelSeries mice, keyboards hijack Windows 10 too — what you can do https://www.tomsguide.com/news/steelseries-windows-privilege-escalationMicrosoft Azure cloud vulnerability is the ‘worst you can imagine' https://www.theverge.com/2021/8/27/22644161/microsoft-azure-database-vulnerabilty-chaosdbJuniper Breach Mystery Starts to Clear With New Details on Hackers and U.S. Role https://finance.yahoo.com/news/juniper-breach-mystery-starts-clear-130016591.html Australia Considers Social Media ID Requirement https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/australia-considers-social-media Google locks Afghan government email accounts as concerns grow over the Taliban tracking down their enemies https://www.businessinsider.com/google-locks-afghan-government-email-accounts-to-block-taliban-report-2021-9Opinion: It's dangerously stupid to put your state ID in your Apple Wallet https://thenextweb.com/news/dangerously-stupid-state-id-in-your-apple-walletMillions of smartphones, laptops, trucks, planes affected by new Bluetooth flaws — what you need to know https://www.tomsguide.com/news/braktooth-bluetooth-flawsApple cares about privacy, unless you work at Apple https://www.theverge.com/22648265/apple-employee-privacy-icloud-idApple backs down on CSAM features, postpones launch https://appleinsider.com/articles/21/09/03/apple-backs-dowVictory! Federal Trade Commission Bans Stalkerware Company from Conducting Business https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/09/victory-federal-trade-commission-bans-stalkerware-company-conducting-business ‘Panic made us vulnerable': how 9/11 made the US surveillance state – and the Americans who fought backhttps://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/sep/04/surveillance-state-september-11-panic-made-us-vulnerable  Further Info Become a Patron! https://www.patreon.com/FirewallsDontStopDragons Would you like me to speak to your group about security and/privacy? http://bit.ly/Firewalls-SpeakerGenerate secure passphrases! https://d20key.com/#/ 

Penderecki in Memoriam Podcast is produced and hosted by Max Horowitz, Crossover Media. Created by Anna Perzanowska and Klaudia Ofwona Draber, and presented by Polish Cultural Institute New York. Penderecki in Memoriam Podcast unveils a multifaceted portrait of Krzysztof Penderecki, with commentary from musicians, colleagues, radio programmers, and writers who lend insight and memories of Poland's greatest modern composer. This podcast is part of Penderecki in Memoriam Worldwide project, honoring the life and legacy of the great composer. Thank you to project partners DUX, NAXOS, Ludwig van Beethoven Association, and Schott EAM for sharing Krzysztof Penderecki's music with the world. Internationally acclaimed conductor Leonard Slatkin is Music Director Laureate of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO), Directeur Musical Honoraire of the Orchestre National de Lyon (ONL), and Conductor Laureate of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. He maintains a rigorous schedule of guest conducting throughout the world and is active as a composer, author, and educator. Slatkin has received six Grammy awards and 35 nominations. A recipient of the prestigious National Medal of Arts, he also holds the rank of Chevalier in the French Legion of Honor. He has received the Prix Charbonnier from the Federation of Alliances Françaises, Austria's Decoration of Honor in Silver, the League of American Orchestras' Gold Baton Award, and the 2013 ASCAP Deems Taylor Special Recognition Award for his debut book, Conducting Business. His second book, Leading Tones: Reflections on Music, Musicians, and the Music Industry, was published by Amadeus Press in 2017. He is working on a third volume, Classical Crossroads: The Path Forward for Music in the 21st Century. The pieces included: Threnody, De Natura Sonoris No. 2, Diel Illa & Kanon For Orchestra.

This week, Mike Yarwood, Managing Director Loss Prevention, talks with Julien Horn, Senior Underwriter, about the risks of conducting business with unfamiliar jurisdictions. Opportunities in emerging markets can seem attractive, especially when the global economy is sluggish, however these opportunities are not without risk and thorough due diligence should be conducted before making any contractual commitments.

From desktop publishing to launching a technology firm to being a staunch advocate of diversity and inclusion, Christopher Cost emphasizes the importance of human compassion and heart. https://carpasean.com

Sanford shares three practical tips to conduct business ethically. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

On this podcast CLOUSER and Heidi Bird discuss adapting to the new environment in, which now must conduct their business. Host and Bird discuss changes they have experienced, and how the companies they work for have made the necessary changes for them to stay in business. CLOUSER and guest discuss how they have had to […] The post EP 96: Conducting Business-Redefined appeared first on Clouser On Business.

The Q& A portion of the May 14, 2020 Webinar: Conducting Business in Canada During and After COVID-19

The Audio version of a Webinar presented on May 14, 2020 providing information and tips to employers on conducting business during and after the COVID-19 Pandemic

CCPartners LLP is proud to provide an up-to-date expert overview of the issues and legislation impacting employers in the construction industry during this unprecedented pandemic, and the imminent return to regular business practices. Particular topics of interest will include: • Which construction industry workplaces have been deemed “essential” and/or have been authorized by the provincial government to resume business? • How will you recall your employees to work, and what will you do if they refuse? • How will resuming business affect your company’s Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy entitlement, and your employees' CERB entitlements? • What are your on-site Health & Safety obligations upon re-opening? • How are the Courts and Ontario Labour Relations Board operating during the pandemic? Hear from CCPartners LLP’s expert workplace law counsel Jay Rider, Mike MacLellan, and Cristina Tomaino as they discuss the key issues employers are facing during these uncertain times.

The lawyers from CCPartners LLP fielded questions and provided answers live after our FREE Webinar on the impacts of COVID-19 on the construction industry and what to expect next. Topics included: - Employee recalls and reinstatement - Health and Safety - Government Benefit Programs like CERB and CEWS - WSIB

Episode 5, Conducting Business During COVID-19, features a conversation with Kim Spencer, also known as the "Ethics Guy." He discusses moral, ethical, and practical questions related to REALTORS® working during the COVID-19 pandemic.NOTE: This episode was recorded on Tuesday, April 14, 2020 and therefore may contain information that has since been updated or is no longer relevant or applicable. Please visit the BCREA COVID-19 Resources for REALTORS® page for the latest relevant information.Show Notes and LinksBelow is where you'll find links to articles and websites referenced during the show. You can also use the times listed to navigate your way through the episode.What's New – 1:27Broadened CERB Criteria Makes More REALTORS® EligiblePandemic Halts Sales Activity in MarchCREA Introduces Feature to Highlight Live-Streamed Open Houses on REALTOR.caFeature Conversation – 3:40Kim Spencer, sometimes better known as the Ethics Guy, oversees the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver's Professional Standards and Business Practices. He is also a Professional Development Instructor, who teaches accredited PDP courses including Ethics: Unlocking the REALTOR Code, and Risk Management: Protecting Yourself, Your Client, and Your Business.On this episode, he talks about doing business during COVID-19, the transition to a virtual environment, and any ethical questions that arise during the COVID-19 pandemic.Subscribe & FollowDo you want to be notified on your smartphone when the latest episode of Open House by BCREA is published? Subscribe on your favourite podcast app, including Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, Stitcher, and TuneIn.You can even ask Alexa to “play the podcast Open House by BCREA.”While you're waiting for the next episode, follow BCREA on social media to stay updated:BCREA on FacebookBCREA on TwitterBCREA on LinkedInBCREA on YouTubeTo subscribe to receive BCREA publications, or to update your email address or current subscriptions, click here.

Perry Marshall is one of the most expensive business strategists in the world. He is endorsed in FORBES and INC Magazine. He's guided clients like FanDuel and InfusionSoft from startup to hundreds of millions of dollars. He founded the $10 million Evolution 2.0 Prize, with judges from Harvard, Oxford and MIT. Launched at the Royal Society in London, it's the world's largest science research award. NASA's Jet Propulsion Labs uses his 80/20 Curve as a productivity tool. His reinvention of the Pareto Principle is published in Harvard Business Review. His Google book laid the foundations for the $100 billion Pay Per Click industry, and Ultimate Guide to Google Ads is the world's best selling book on internet advertising. Marketing maverick Dan Kennedy says, “If you don't know who Perry Marshall is — unforgivable. Perry's an honest man in a field rife with charlatans.” He's consulted in over 300 industries. He has a degree in Electrical Engineering and lives in Chicago Check out Perry's - COVID-19 IMPACT FACTOR™ - CLICK HERE

http://www.reinventyourselftogreatness.com/coronavirustipshttp://www.saharconsulting.com/coronavirustipsIn this episode I will provide guidelines on how to conduct business during this difficult time of uncertainty and anxiety as well as some leadership tips to move forward.I am also sharing FREE resources that you can help, I will keep updating the list as more info will become available.If you need any help, or have question feel free to contact mesahar@saharconsulting.cominfo@reinventyourselftogreatness.com

In this episode Brian shows how he keeps a touchless service business and one on one PDR Training operation safe for everyone.

McDonald's enters the Wake Up Bainbridge! Breakfast Sandwich Challenge. Thursday, Mark Power will be in the studio for a new song from the The Oceanside Project. Friday Sarah Blossom will be in the studio to talk about what comes next for her and the City Council. Also a new entry in the Wake Up Bainbridge Breakfast Sandwich Challenge from Marketplace At Pleasant Beach. Coquette Bake Shop & Creamery, a clean and welcoming place for your baguette, your tart, your coffee in that little bit of Paris at the front of the Winslow Mall.  Episode 239 is brought to you Outcome Athletics and by the best personal trainer on Bainbridge Island, Bethanee Randles.

Get ready to clap along with OB, Rauzi, and Tyler as 5 Things comes to you via a convoluted string of Skype, GarageBand, and whatever Rauzi's stupid computer has to offer. This week, we talk about the best inventions of the last fifty years, the benefits of purchasing Greenland, deep sea and outer-space research, and the latest (as of several weeks ago) feud between Marvel and Sony. And for seemingly the third time in as many weeks, we debut a new Fifth Thing! What could possibly go wrong?? If you lightly blew air out your noise at all during this podcast please share this episode, and leave a review on iTunes, share us on Facebook, or tweet about 5 things. We really appreciate it, that is how our podcast grows, so please help us plant the seed. (Trust us, we can’t. Most of us shoot blanks)  ****Nothing in this podcast is meant to offend, hurt, or harm any person or company. Take our words for what they are worth. They are not meant to be taken seriously by any means this is a comedy podcast.***** Find the podcast on iTunes, Podbean, Google Play, Stitcher.  We are: Ben Rauzi Tyler McCollough Ben Seigworth Jake Heiller Facebook: Good Trouble https://www.facebook.com/GoodTroubleOfficial/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbC1caUEKZ6HCavOCZ6tDjg?view_as=subscriber Instagram: @GoodTroubleOfficial https://www.instagram.com/goodtroubleofficial/ Twitter: RealGoodTrouble https://twitter.com/RealGoodTrouble?lang=en

Davin and I chat about the reality of conducting business on social platforms. To give you some context, we read a post on a social forum which sparked the topic. So you’ll hear us reference that post throughout the show. Studio Rhoad Links: Instagram: https://instagram.com/studiorhoad Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/studiorhoad Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/studiorhoad Website: http://www.studiorhoad.com

Richard Chapo is a business lawyer in San Diego who has been practicing for 25 years.Richard advises small and large online businesses on how best to comply with laws applicable to conducting business online such as the DMCA and FTC regulations. Richard is a massive hockey fan and avid traveler having lived in such exotic locations as Siberia.

In this episode we will discuss the difference between being busy and conduction business.

The Startup Junkie podcast comes to you from Conway, AR this week!  Dr. Jeff Standridge drops by to tell us about the new Health Sciences Entrepreneurship Bootcamp.  This amazing new camp teaches students the fundamentals of entrepreneurship and gives them the opportunity to formulate new health science ventures.  Dr. Jeff Standridge is the team leader of The Conductor, a public-private partnership with UCA and Startup Junkie Consulting driving innovation, entrepreneurship and economic development in Central Arkansas.  A great quote from this episode is: “Seemingly small actions consistently applied over time yield massive results” Check out the Conductor:  http://www.arconductor.org/  and follow them @AR_Conductor For more information about the Health Sciences Entrepreneurship Bootcamp, visit www.arconductor.org/conductor-calendar/bootcamp/ Hosts: Jeff@startupjunkieconsulting.com michael@startupjunkieconsulting.com

Lin Eleoff is an internet business lawyer and certified professional coach.   Lin is the kind of lawyer that wants to help you avoid having to hire a lawyer because you suddenly find yourself in legal hot water.   In this conversation, we discuss the mistakes entrepreneurs make in building digital businesses and how to avoid them.   Every Online Entrepreneur Needs; A Privacy policy on their website A Disclaimer Terms and conditions   Lin’s Challenge; Personal audit of your values.   http://www.goingdeepwithaaron.com/podcast   Connect with Lin Facebook Twitter Website   CoverYourAssetsOnline.com  (Never say "it'll never happen to me") DIYLegalToolkit.com   If you liked this interview, check out episode 162 with Kwame Christian, another lawyer, where we discuss the art of negotiation and finding mutually beneficial outcomes.

Today we chat with Dewayne Montgomery, better known as Coach Pain. Find out: What he was up to prior to OCR How he found his way to our world.   Why he has become the favorite hype man/motivator/start line MC of many an OCR athlete.  What he does when he's not "Conducting Business" at the start line Much more Today's show is sponsored by : UFM - Support your manhood with Underwear For Men! For $5 off, use promo code ORM.    

January 3rd Shiur by Rabbi Daniel Stein שליט”א Topic: Conducting Business With Non-Kosher Food

"The whole concept of streaming doesn't fit with the way people listen to classical music," says Kirk McElhearn, a technology writer and senior contributor to Macworld, in this week's episode of Conducting Business. The launch of the online streaming service Apple Music has raised hopes and reinforced some of the persistent complaints about Apple when it comes to delivering symphonies, concertos and operas to listeners' computers and mobile devices. In test runs, McElhearn found that Apple Music repeats a problem familiar to the tech company's iTunes store: it serves up individual movements from pieces rather than grouping them together in sequence. So a listener's encounter with Beethoven's Fifth Symphony might only involve the third movement, not the whole work in sequence. Apple is touting its streaming service, which launched on June 30 in 100 countries, for not only its depth – with more than 30 million songs – but its hand-picked recommendations. Some of its "curated" playlists are chosen by the company's editors – à la the old record store clerk. There is also a section called "for you," based on music you've previously purchased or rated. McElhearn complains that when he first opened this section he was given a playlist called "Classical Music for Elevators." Classical Music...for Elevators (Screenshot/mcelhearn.com) Craig Havighurst, a writer and broadcaster from Nashville who co-hosts the weekly show Music City Roots, also tested Apple Music and tells us that the service lacks sufficient contextual information about recordings, such as liner notes (a flaw he admits is partly attributable to record companies). Searching for artists also didn't go easily. "Fans of classical music want to be able to see who a soloist is or who a conductor is and the 'artist' catchall doesn't explain that," he said. Apple did not respond to requests for comment for this segment. But while streaming companies – including Spotify, Pandora and Google Play – inevitably make music of all kinds more accessible, Havighurst argues that "art" genres may always be neglected: "If classical and jazz listeners are 4 to 5 percent of the [total] market, they are the ones who get underserved." Listen to the full segment above and tell us below: Have you tried Apple Music? What did you like or didn't like about it?

Ethnic diversity remains a troublesome question for American orchestras. Just over four percent of their musicians are African-American and Latino, according to the League of American Orchestras, and when it comes to orchestra boards and CEOs, the numbers are even starker: only one percent. Ethnic diversity is also a rare sight among guest soloists and conductors. This issue was front and center during the third annual SphinxCon conference, hosted last weekend by the Detroit-based Sphinx Organization. Its founder and president, Aaron Dworkin, joins us for this week's Conducting Business, along with two active musicians: Weston Sprott, a trombonist in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra; and Melissa White, a violinist who performs in the Harlem Quartet. In this segment our guests discuss: The advantages and shortcomings of blind auditions, in which orchestra job candidates perform behind a screen. The challenges of developing a diverse audition pool in the first place. Where Dworkin believes orchestras fall short compared with other sectors. How orchestras and ensembles can broaden repertoire and formats beyond the traditional concert hall. Where subtle (and not-so-subtle) forms of racism emerge in the hiring process for orchestra players. Where signs of change are occurring (including in Nashville and New York). The graph below illustrates the percentages of black and Hispanic musicians enrolled in major music conservatories. Listen to the full segment at the top of this page and share your thoughts below.

A report published last week by the National Endowment for the Arts contained this telling statistic: 31 million American adults said they wanted to go to an arts event in the past year but chose not to. The study's purpose was to examine the motivations behind this data. Why do audiences participate in arts activities and what keeps them away? In this week's Conducting Business, Sunil Iyengar, the NEA’s director of Research and Analysis, walks us through a few of the key barriers including: Time: A significant proportion of the respondents to the survey were parents with young kids and who couldn't find family-friendly arts options (cited by 47% of respondents). Access: Another percentage of the survey participants said they couldn't get to venues or museums, whether because of disabilities, other health issues or simple inconvenience (cited by 36% of respondents). Lacking someone to go with: 73 percent of the people who went to an event said it was primarily socialize, which, said Iyengar, "was not something we were prepared to see." The NEA's General Social Study, as the report is called, also cited cost as a significant barrier (cited by one in three respondents). Some class distinctions appear to be tied up in these barriers. Americans who say they are in the "upper" or "middle" class were much more likely to have attended an artistic presentation in the past year, than those who say they’re "lower" or "working" class – regardless of actual income. Those who self-identify as lower or working class are more likely to attend events in order to "support the community" or "explore their cultural heritage;" upper classes often attend the arts "as a marker of their good taste, cultural capital and social identity." Iyengar tells us about trends in online access to the arts, and how the data can be useful for arts presenters and advocates. A Symphony Orchestra Rocks the Club In the second part of the episode, we hear about one orchestra's effort to reach a completely new audience. Earlier this month, the National Symphony Orchestra played a concert in a packed nightclub of around 2,000 patrons in Washington DC – and totally rocked the joint. At least that's according to our guest Greg Sandow, a music consultant, Juilliard faculty member and blogger at Artsjournal.com. Sandow said the NSO developed the project while "looking to do something new to engage a new audience." It included an electric cellist's riff on a Bach cello suite that became an exercise in audience participation: "When it came to a notable rising passage that's right out of Bach," said Sandow, "the crowd started shouting and their shouts rose with the music. So you could tell they were really, really into this." The event wasn't without its shortcomings but as Sandow notes, "maybe, and this is scary for people in our field, [traditional] Kennedy Center concerts become more like this." Listen to the full segment above and tell us in the comments below: What are the major barriers to attending arts events in your view?

It's the early days of January, and you know what that means when it comes it movies: great awards shows and horrible movies. Will this week's releases buck the trends? On the chopping block: "Taken 3" and "Inherent Vice." Rafer and Kristen also take a deep dive into "Mozart in the Jungle" in this week's Sweatpants pick. Helping them to deconstruct the series, and separate fact from fiction is Naomi Lewin, the weekday afternoon host on New York's classical music station WQXR, and the host of the weekly podcast Conducting Business.  There's also lots of listener mail and, as usual, trivia!

Members of the stagehands union were advised this week to prepare for a picket at the Metropolitan Opera in anticipation of a lockout. And according to one union source involved in the current talks between the Met and 12 of its unions, "there's virtually no chance of a deal" this week. The Met has pushed its contract deadline to Sunday night while a third-party financial analyst has been examining its books for over a week. But sources independently confirmed that the parties remain far apart on monetary and philosophical issues. If talks break down, a lockout could happen as early as Monday. So where will the Met labor dispute end up? And how are the different parties making their cases? In this podcast, three views: James Jorden, editor of the opera blog Parterre Box and a contributor to the New York Observer. Drew McManus, an arts consultant who writes the blog Adaptistration. Lois S. Gray, a Professor of Labor Management Relations Emeritus at Cornell University. Subscribe to Conducting Business on iTunes Segment Highlights: Why not continue to talk and prepare for the season without a contract? McManus: "All of this circles around using deadlines as bargaining leverage. There's no way that playing and talking can continue indefinitely." Gray: "One of the reasons why the Met is forcing an early deadline before the season starts is that during the season, the leverage would be on the part of the union, to call a strike while the production is on." Why haven't the company's stars been more vocal in the dispute? Jorden: "From what I hear, there's a real division in AGMA [the singers' union] between the principals and chorus, stage managers and other groups. AGMA is basically a chorus union. I don't think there would be that much enthusiasm on the part of the principals to say, 'oh yes, we really need to support AGMA.'" How is the union's P.R. strategy of attacking general manager Peter Gelb working for them? McManus: "It's worth pointing out that the animosity that's being directed toward Gelb has not been directed towards the organization's board of directors. They've been pretty much been off-limits. You have to have a way for either side to save face. In this case, by not attacking the board and focusing on Gelb instead, it doesn't target the board's reputation for governance. If they decide to meet the musicians on Gelb's management style, that's more oversight." Has the Met effectively made its case to the public, that it needs to save money through cuts to labor costs? Gray: "Does the Met have to cut costs or does it have to raise more money? This is an issue for symphony orchestras throughout the United States and it's true of the whole cultural sector." McManus: "The Met's strategy so far has been a zero-sum bargaining strategy: 'Here's the percentage of cuts and we're willing to talk about where the cuts have to happen.' If the Met continues to adopt that policy, the likelihood for a lockout is very high." Listen to the full segment above and tell us what you think of negotiations in the comments box below.

Daliah Saper of Saper Law Offices gives Melinda Yeaman the lowdown on legal issues we should be aware of when doing business online. As an entrepreneur herself, she understands the questions and issues involved in starting a business. She discusses trademarks and gives valuable insight to new businesses about how to protect themselves from future legal problems. She teaches about what is legal when it comes to content sharing, running contests and sweepstakes and how to deal with negative reviews. Don’t miss Daliah’s key take away which will help you move forward confidently in your business.  

Last week, J&R unceremoniously closed its store in Lower Manhattan after 43 years in business. The iconic electronics and music retailer is vowing to reopen “totally reimagined and redeveloped.” But for now at least, it has gone the way of Tower Records, HMV, Virgin Megastore, Sam Goody and other brick-and-mortar shops that used to make New York City a music superstore haven. Steve Smith, a freelance music critic for the New York Times, believes that online shops have filled much of the void, but the communal aspect of record-buying has largely gone by the wayside. "What's really missing now is the social element of shopping for CDs,” he tells Naomi Lewin in this week's podcast. “That's a very real thing. If you went to a show any given night at Lincoln Center, you could tell whether it was a success or not by going over to the Lincoln Center Tower Records afterwards and see how many people were hovering around the bins in the classical section." Saturday is Record Store Day, an annual retail promotion started in 2008 to help struggling independent stores. The event’s organizers – a consortium of independent stores and trade groups – hope that it can trumpet the benefits of stores where opinionated clerks give advice and point you to special deals. As in past years, this Saturday’s event brings collectible rarities and limited-edition pressings to serve as draws for shoppers at some 1,200 stores around the country.   “Record stores don't sell food, they don't sell water, and things you need to live,” said Record Store Day co-founder Carrie Colliton. “But there's something that makes life a lot better when you love it. I think it's best to have a physical place for human interaction." Colliton isn’t discouraged by J&R's closing, or of Rizzoli's plans to leave its longtime 57th Street location (the bookstore carried a small selection of music). “Of course it's tough,” she said of the real estate environment. “And the larger you are in a more expensive city, the more difficult that can be, no matter what it is that you sell inside the store.” So where does Smith suggest shoppers go to find classical music? For used product, Academy Records satisfies the urge to “get carried away by the experience of flipping through CDs." There are small but select offerings at the Met Opera Shop and the Juilliard Bookstore. And if you’re not too picky, the Barnes and Noble locations on East 86th Street and in Union Square in Manhattan still have modest selections. For deeper tastes? "Arkivmusic.com caters to a clerk-like mentality,” said Smith (disclosure: Arkivmusic has a retail partnership with WQXR). But often, Facebook, Twitter and blogs are the best places to seek advice on recordings, something you can't find as much on iTunes. "I think you are looking at a scenario that's split in two, where you get your advice in one place and then you go shop in another place." Listen to the full podcast above and subscribe to Conducting Business on iTunes. And tell us below: where do you go most often to buy recordings?

When San Diego Opera recently announced its plans to fold after 49 years in business, a wide swath of the California arts community was stunned, including the musicians of the San Diego Symphony, which doubles as the opera company’s pit orchestra. “It surprised everyone,” said James Chut, the music and art critic for U-T San Diego, the region’s major daily newspaper. “People were reading it online and there wasn’t even an announcement.” On Monday, facing an outcry from employees, fans and politicians, the company’s board voted to delay the planned April 13 shutdown by two weeks while it considers its options. General artistic director and CEO Ian Campbell had previously said that it’s important to “go out with dignity, on a high note with heads held high,” rather than witness a prolonged downsizing and cutting back on quality. Ticket sales have declined 15 percent since 2010, ticket revenue has dropped about 8 percent, and big donors are harder to lure. On Tuesday,  the American Guild of Musical Artists, the singer’s union, filed the second of two unfair labor practice charges against the company. Chut tells Conducting Business that San Diego Opera has declined to consider alternative business models to stay afloat, relying instead on "a paradigm of grand opera that probably is from the ‘70s or ‘80s, in which regional companies represented a miniature version of the Metropolitan Opera, where you bring in big sets and big stars and have a big orchestra. If they’re going to do that business model or that artistic model, it’s probably not viable over the long run.” Chut believes that the future of regional opera lies in nimbler alternatives, whether it’s using black-box theaters or collaborating with theater companies. He cites the Opera Theater of St. Louis and Fort Worth Opera, two regional companies that reinvented themselves as spring festivals after decades as main-season enterprises. Chut also questions the need to stay in the San Diego Civic Theater, a plush 1965 venue with seating for nearly 3,000 patrons. “It seems like they’re tired,” Chut said of the board and administration. “The opera is in the black. They have cash reserves. They don’t have an accumulated deficit. But they are facing fundraising challenges of maybe having to raise $10 million next year." The company has given no indications yet of next steps. But whether they can attract investors after raising doubts about the Opera's viability remains a significant question. "San Diego is the eighth largest city in the United States," said Chut. "What does it say about us if we can’t have an opera company?” Listen to the full podcast above and please leave your comments below: What do you think is the right model for small opera companies in 2014?

When Sharleen Joynt, a coloratura soprano from Canada, was selected to be a contestant on ABC's reality dating show “The Bachelor," she knew it had the potential to be more bizarre than many opera plots. One of the show’s pivotal scenes, after all, has her stepping out of a limousine, dressed to the nines, to meet someone who ostensibly could propose to her within a few weeks. But, as she discusses on this edition of Conducting Business, there was a “fear of missing out” when the opportunity arose. "You know it's once-in-a-lifetime even if it's not highbrow once-in-a-lifetime." Joynt was among 27 women selected to move into a mansion and gear up to attract Juan Pablo Galavis, the titular bachelor of the show. She stayed through seven episodes before deciding he wasn't for her and – uncharacteristically for a contestant – left of her own accord. Besides being surreal – with cameras trailing her at every waking moment – the experience pointed to larger questions of how pop culture visibility can impact a career that's usually considered highbrow. And it illustrates the difficulties a young singer faces in balancing an all-consuming profession with extracurricular interests and a personal life. Anne Midgette, classical music critic of the Washington Post, is among many observers who suggested that Joynt didn't fit the typical profile of the show's characters. “She seems to have made a splash on ‘The Bachelor’ by being kind of genuine and maintaining her dignity,” said Midgette, who recently wrote about Joynt. “She certainly didn’t hurt her career with the way she behaved on the show. She appears to have been completely dignified throughout.” "Taking a larger view of it, there are worse things in the world than getting a little mainstream exposure for the opera world,” Midgette added. But Midgette also thinks the singer may be viewed suspiciously by some casting directors and agents. Despite the fact that Joynt is currently an understudy at the Metropolitan Opera, and studied at the Mannes College of Music, Midgette notes that she was turned down for an audition at one “B-level American house” on the grounds that she was too “junior league.” Says Joynt, "I think that the opera world is very wary of me at the moment. It's not easy. Everything I've done so far in my life has been for [my opera career].” Joynt describes how she has sought to keep her opera career separate from the show, which was largely necessary during the filming itself. "When you're in 'The Bachelor' mansion, you're drinking a lot and staying up late a lot," she said. A few times she practiced in a bathroom with the door locked and the blinds shut. "Basically, I tried to keep it private, but it's really hard." The producers, however, wanted her to spotlight her singing. “I was like, 'I don't want to sing in interviews.' I was like, 'I'm not singing when I get out of the limo,'" said Joynt. (She did eventually sing a few bars in one scene, as Juan Pablo "wasn't taking no for an answer.") Would she do it again? "I would be lying if I said I didn't have moments where I said, 'maybe this was a huge mistake.' But it was a fun experience. I'm a 29-year-old girl. And honestly, the people I met were the best part – the girls in the house, the producers – many of whom I consider friends now. I only have good things to say about it overall." Listen to the full segment above and please share your reactions in the comments box below. (Photo: ABC)

In the current violinist-eat-violinist atmosphere for graduates of conservatories and university music schools, some institutions of higher musical learning are trying to bring academic training closer to the realities of the job market. "Curricula that might have been relevant in 1890 or 1990 might not be as relevant today,” Richard Kessler, dean of the Mannes College, The New School for Music, explains in this Conducting Business podcast. Mannes, one of New York’s three big conservatories, is in the process of revamping its entire curriculum, adding required courses in music entrepreneurship along with studies in technology, composition and improvisation. It is aligning itself more closely with its parent institution, the New School, while scaling back traditional music theory and history coursework. The idea: to broaden the range of skills music students have to compete in the real world. “If you’re really committed to learning, you can assess these programs, no matter how traditional, no matter how long-standing and in some cases no matter how revered,” Kessler added. New for-profit models are also being explored. The University of Miami’s Frost School of Music and Universal Music Classics, the world’s largest recording label, last month announced a partnership designed to “grow the next generation” of classical music artists and audiences. A new curriculum requires all of the school’s undergraduates, regardless of major, to take classes in music business, technology and entrepreneurship. Elizabeth Sobol, the president and CEO of Universal Classics, said that the venture "addresses a bigger problem we’re having right now: we’re not training the next generation of industry impresarios and industry business leaders." Conservatories, she said, are also not reflecting a growing desire for nontraditional concert experiences in spaces like bars, clubs and parks. Performance opportunities for classically-trained musicians have long been limited in a pop culture world. A 2010 study by Indiana University underscored that point, finding that 49 percent of recent music conservatory alumni are doing work “somewhat” or “closely” related to their training, while just 19 percent spend “a majority of their work time as musicians.” But curricular reform can be difficult for tradition-bound conservatories, where elite private teachers have considerable clout and a business course may seem like a distraction. What's more, young artists may not have an aptitude for formulating marketing plans or booking tour dates. David Cutler, author of The Savvy Musician, and director of music entrepreneurship at the University of South Carolina, argues that there are ways to fold entrepreneurial training into an existing school curriculum. “An example of this might be the traditional degree recital,” he explained. Most undergraduate performance majors are required to do a recital as a requirement for their degrees. "If it’s important for us to attract new audiences, maybe we can use this as a playground for doing actually that. So perhaps part of the recital requirement might be: you need to get 200 people there to get an A, or 150 people there to get a B." Students might also be graded on how they can rethink the presentation to include multimedia or other visual elements. Cutler added, “There’s some good news here in that more schools are changing their model to include more 21st century skills.” Listen to the full segment above and tell us what you think in the comments box below: How should conservatories better prepare students for the realities of the job market?

Leonard Bernstein, Paul McCartney and Osvaldo Golijov all wrote high-profile music that wasn't entirely theirs. They used orchestrators (Bernstein in West Side Story), musical collaborators (McCartney's concert works) and assistant melodists (Golijov’s Sidereus) to help get their thoughts on paper. But while many composers farm out tasks to students and assistants with full transparency, the scandal surrounding the Japanese composer Mamoru Samuragochi goes far deeper. The man known as “Japan’s Beethoven” — because he supposedly continued to compose despite a profound hearing loss — admitted last week that he’d been paying someone else to write his music for nearly two decades. What’s more, his ghost writer also came forward to reveal how little he had been paid, and to claim that Samuragochi’s deafness was all an act (Samuragochi on Wednesday offered an apology and an explanation that his hearing had partially returned). And it’s not only Japanese musicians who have expressed outrage over the revelations. On this episode of Conducting Business, Francisco J. Núñez, director of the Young People’s Chorus of New York City (YPC), tells host Naomi Lewin that his chorus is currently in a bind, trying to determine whether to go ahead with a long-scheduled performance of Samuragochi’s choral piece Requiem Hiroshima on March 26, alongside two visiting Japanese choruses. The YPC, whose core program serves 1,300 New York City children from ages 7 to 18, performed the requiem in Tokyo last summer and briefly met with Samuragochi. “I was very sad,” Núñez said when asked about the revelations. “I’ve been receiving texts and snap-chats from all of our singers actually. He had won our hearts with the story. It seems to me, music is always about the way you paint the picture around the actual music and a picture was painted around Samuraguchi.” The piece in question is a choral tribute to a 15-year-old boy who died from the effects of radiation from the U.S. bombing of Hiroshima in 1945. “If anyone else had given me this piece of music I would not say, ‘Wow, this is an incredible piece of music,’” Núñez admitted. “But it was because it came from someone who we thought couldn’t hear.” Anne Midgette, the classical music critic of the Washington Post, agrees that the outrage is not over his use of a ghostwriter, but the fictional persona he developed to create the ruse. “I feel the outrage is about the personal fraud – the deception, the pretending to be deaf, pretending to be a genius,” she said. “If he had been open about the collaboration, I think there would be no outrage at all because this kind of collaboration is a normal part of the artistic process these days.” The case comes as a culture of borrowing and collaboration has opened up new gray areas in music, says Richard Elliott, a cultural musicologist at the University of Sussex in England. “In popular music it’s become kind of accepted that what we’re hearing is a fabrication," he noted. "Authorship goes far beyond the composer and the lyricists and involves all kinds of technologists – engineers, mixers, producers." Núñez said his choir is still debating whether to perform the Requiem Hiroshima with a correct attribution – or pull it from the program altogether. “I have received many e-mails from Japan asking me to no longer perform this piece of music,” he noted. “Even I don’t understand what actually happened here – that someone is able to deceive so many people for so long.” Listen to the full segment above, subscribe to our podcast on iTunes and share your own thoughts on this case in the comments box below. Photo: Takashi Niigaki, ghost writer of deaf composer Mamoru Samuragochi dubbed 'Japan's Beethoven,' leaves a press conference in Tokyo on February 6, 2014.

The year 2013 saw plenty of headline-making moments in classical music. Protesters came to the opening night of the Met, while a stagehands strike cancelled the opening night at Carnegie Hall. There were heated debates over women conductors and some complicated celebrations for Richard Wagner. It was another tough year for some orchestras but a good one for Benjamin Britten fans. In this edition of Conducting Business, three experts talk about the past year: Anne Midgette, classical music critic of the Washington Post; Justin Davidson, classical music and architecture critic for New York magazine; and Heidi Waleson, a classical music critic for the Wall Street Journal. High Points: Anne: In the year that Van Cliburn died, Anne was particularly excited to hear the 22-year-old Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov: “Trifonov is a pianist whom I find totally exciting. I hear a lot of great concerts in the course of a year but I find that Trifonov has something really special and is a really interesting artist and somebody I look forward to hearing again and again.” Justin on Ivan Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra's staging of Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro at the Mostly Mozart Festival: “One of things I really liked about it was it was one of these really portable productions. It was done in a concert hall with the orchestra on stage, no sets, minimal props, costumes that were taken off a clothes rack that was sitting on the stage…With minimal resources they produced one of the most effervescent and inventive productions I’ve seen of that opera. What it said to me is how much you can do with how little.” [Read more of Justin's picks at NYMag.com] Heidi: George Benjamin’s Written on Skin, given its U.S. premiere at Tanglewood in August: “So often you see these new operas and you think, ‘Why did they bother? Why did you turn this movie or this book into an opera?' This was a completely new piece of writing and it had a tension to it from beginning to end. It has a fantastically colorful and intricate orchestration, which includes a solo moment for the viola da gamba." Listen to Written on Skin on Q2 Music   Low Point: The closing of New York City Opera in October after a last-ditch campaign to raise funds for its 2014 season fell through. Anne: “It is not a sign that New York can’t support two opera companies. It is a sign that, due to poor decisions on behalf of the board and a whole sequence of events, this particular thing happened that really didn’t need to happen.” Justin: "One thing that you can take away from that is it is really the product of a classical music and operatic infrastructure that, over the years, got overextended. While we have learned how to expand, trying to do planned shrinkage and figure out how to contract” is tougher for the classical music business. "If you have union contracts and have a season that establishes a kind of baseline, it’s very, very difficult to say ‘we need this to be smaller.’” Heidi: “It was unable to come up with a convincing audience strategy, opera house strategy or even artistic strategy. They did try a few things that I thought were quite interesting – doing for example A Quiet Place, a Leonard Bernstein opera that had never been done in New York… They were in fact trying to reestablish themselves as something that was alternative to the Met, that was a little more forward-looking, and I think it’s really a shame that they couldn’t.” Trends: Anne: The spotlight in 2013 turned to women – women conductors, women composers. “Classical music has proven to have a particularly thick glass ceiling. People are looking at the situation and saying, ‘It’s been years people, why do we still not have very many female conductors on the podium? And when we do, why is it such a big deal?’ There’s still that funny ambivalence about how far we should look at this as a phenomenon and how far we should pretend we’ve all been equal all along.” Justin: The lack of women on major podiums is “a sign of the difficulty that the whole establishment has in adapting at all. What happens is these institutions are very rigid and brittle and when they come up against an obstacle they know that they’re going to splinter and so they avoid the obstacles. It’s a very inflexible set of relationships… Heidi: “The New York Philharmonic seems to be about 50 percent women these days – so why not on the podium?” Justin on the arrival of alternative opera and non-traditional performance venues, as seen in events like the Prototype Festival: “With the cost of real estate in New York, companies are finding cheaper venues and the technology has matured enough so all that you really need is a pretty small room and a fairly minimal investment in machinery to be able to put on a pretty sophisticated multimedia event." Heidi: “There are other organizations doing similar kinds of things: The Gotham Chamber Opera put on a Cavalli opera [Eliogabalo] in a burlesque club... It attracts a different kind of audience. You can break through some of the formality of going to the opera house and sitting in the velvet seat and watching the gold curtain go up."   Surprises: Justin: Caroline Shaw, a 30-year-old New York composer, violinist and singer (right), became the youngest ever winner of the Pulitzer Prize in music for her Partita for 8 Voices (heard at the start of this segment). “It has a quality that almost no contemporary music has, which is joy. It’s something that we’ve forgotten is part of the classical music tradition and an important one.”  Anne: “It’s interesting in that [Shaw] doesn’t even self-identify as a composer but as a violinist. The Pulitzer has been very eager to expand its reach and get outside of the norm of what had been deemed Pulitzer-worthy over the years and I think this is a sign that this is happening.” Heidi on Jeanine Tesori and Lisa Kron’s musical of “Fun Home” at the Public Theater: "I see a lot of new operas, and so many of them are overblown, trying so hard that they feel stillborn. 'Fun Home,' based on Alison Bechdel’s graphic memoir, tells the story of a critical juncture in Alison’s life: she came out as a lesbian in college, and several months later, her father, whom she had just found out was a closeted gay man, killed himself by walking in front of a truck. The piece uses music in the way that you wish these new operas would – to deeply explore feelings in a raw, immediate way." (Note: this "bonus pick" did not make it into the podcast.)   Listen to the full discussion above and tell us: what were your high and low points in classical music in 2013? Photo credits: Shutterstock; Caroline Shaw by Piotr Redliński, 2013

It’s that time of year again, when orchestras across the land are dusting off their holiday pops programs and choruses are warming up for Messiahs and sing-a-along carol extravaganzas. But for the recording industry, Christmas music has changed. The big orchestral albums of the sort that conductors like Arthur Fiedler or Eugene Ormandy used to make have fallen by the wayside. So have the grand star vehicles, with a sequined opera diva belting out Christmas songs backed up by a choir and orchestra. But as we hear in this edition of Conducting Business, what remains are plenty of smaller-scale recordings that either attempt to make a cozier or refined spiritual statement (as with many early-music groups), or round up a bunch of stars from different genres to perform the standards. The changes are partly driven by economics, said Anastasia Tscioulcas, who covers classical music for NPR Music. “Where did the recordings go? They’re very expensive to make,” she told host Naomi Lewin. “The big star-studded album with the full symphony orchestra behind them and maybe chorus thrown in for good measure is extremely expensive to produce.” The new realities are a reflection of changes in the classical music business. “The number of stars that have that sort of appeal has descended dramatically,” noted Anne Midgette, classical music critic of the Washington Post. “Renee Fleming and Anna Netrebko are the only opera singers who have that sort of mass appeal.” Of course, Christmas is not a time for snobbery or strict adherence to high-minded artistic ideals, say the panelists. Nostalgia is a big part of what drives the business. Listeners are often attracted to a holiday album by their favorite star, which sticks with them later in life. Steven Epstein, a multi-Grammy Award-winning record producer, says a simpler aesthetic has come to dominate. “The most successful Christmas albums are those where the arrangements are not complex and that the melodies don’t get lost,” he said. Epstein’s imprint can be found on several albums that follow an increasingly popular template: gather together stars from different genres and try and capture some of their respective fan bases. The most recent recording of this sort is “Musical Gifts from Joshua Bell and Friends,” which was released last month, but Epstein cites a similar effort from back in 1989: "Crescent City Christmas," for which Wynton Marsalis was joined by singers like Jon Hendricks and Kathleen Battle. “That is what really brings in the consumer are the additional guest artists,” Epstein noted. Midgette sees no loss in the decline of the diva Christmas record. “Artistically these things are negligible – and I say that as somebody who has my favorite Christmas albums, which have been basically the same since I was about seven." Listen to the full podcast above and tell us below: What are your most and least favorite holiday albums? Sidebar: A Few of our favorite Christmas Recordings Anne Midgette:Christmas from a Golden Age (Naxos) (singers including Victoria de los Angeles, John McCormack, Rosa Ponselle and others)The Messiah Remix (Cantaloupe) (featuring remixed versions by Paul Lansky, Eve Beglarian, Phil Kline and others) Anastasia Tsioulcas:Vince Guaraldi: "A Charlie Brown Christmas"Robert Shaw Chorale: "The Many Moods of Christmas" Steven Epstein:Christmas with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Naomi Lewin:Britten's Ceremony of Carols (Philadelphia Singers, Benita Valente, Maureen Forrester, David Gordon)...And an honorable mention for worst Christmas collaboration: Michael Bolton and Placido Domingo sing "Ave Maria" from "Merry Christmas from Vienna" .chart_div { width: 600px; height: 300px; } loadSurvey( "which-piece-classical-holiday-music-most-overexpos", "survey_which-piece-classical-holiday-music-most-overexpos");

All the people clamoring to get into Broadway shows like "Wicked" and "The Book of Mormon" – or museum shows like the Rain Room at MoMa – are apparently the exception, rather than the rule. That's the conclusion of a new survey of public participation released last week by the National Endowment for the Arts. It shows an overall decline in arts consumption by Americans, with a particular drop-off in museum and theater attendance. There were smaller dips in classical music and ballet audiences too. But it wasn't all gloom and doom: Audiences are growing more racially and ethnically diverse.  And there are hints that technology is playing a larger role in how we consume culture. On Oct. 3, Conducting Business brought a group of prominent arts leaders to The Greene Space to explore these recent findings and their implications. Joining us were Oskar Eustis, artistic director of New York’s Public Theater; Robert Battle, artistic director of the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater; Jesse Rosen, president and CEO of the League of American Orchestras; Anne Midgette, classical music critic of the Washington Post, and Graham Parker, general manager of WQXR. Naomi Lewin hosted the event, of which the archived video is below.   What do you think is behind the decline in audiences? What can arts organizations do to attract new patrons? Please leave your comments in the box at the bottom of this page, or Tweet us at @WQXR. Below are three salient findings from the NEA's Survey of Public Participation in the Arts: Please leave your questions in the comments box below, or Tweet us at @WQXR #NEASPPA.

A symphony orchestra gets a gleaming new concert hall. It’s a symbol of cultural ambition, civic pride and even a centerpiece of urban renewal. Or, is it an albatross and a money pit whose costs ultimately come back to bite the organization? As we hear in this edition of Conducting Business, the recent history of orchestras in Philadelphia, Detroit and now, Nashville, has led to questions about the "build it and they will come" philosophy. Some argue that, in the push to build or renovate halls, orchestra administrators and their patrons succumbed to an irrational exuberance that proved particularly disastrous when combined with the 2008 financial crisis. This week, the Nashville Symphony narrowly averted a foreclosure on its concert hall, the $123.5 million Schermerhorn Symphony Center. Only with the help of a major donor was it able to reach a last-minute deal to pay off its lenders and keep the hall out of the banks' hands. Nashville's situation is particularly unique in that it experienced a natural disaster on top of man-made ones: in 2010, a severe flood caused some $40 million in damages. But at times, orchestras sometimes build or significantly renovate halls when they aren't sure what else to do, said Adrian Ellis, principal of the firm AEA Consulting. "You often find museum extensions and new facilities are not so much the result of deep imagination but the result of actually thinking 'well, here's something we can all get around.'" Arts organizations can also suffer from delusions of grandeur. Some orchestras have looked to the example of Walt Disney Hall in Los Angeles, which used award-winning architecture (by Frank Gehry) as a way to lure tourists and economic development while generating excitement around the orchestra. "But what you can do in an L.A. or a New York or a global city you can't necessarily do in a Nashville or a Minneapolis," said Ellis. The Minnesota Orchestra is currently undertaking a $50 million renovation of Orchestra Hall, the ensemble's home in Minneapolis, in an effort to improve onstage acoustics as well as public amenities like an expanded lobby. But the orchestra just lost an entire season to a lockout of the musicians, who are balking at steep pay cuts demanded by management. Photo: Design for the renovated Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis (KPMB Architects) "[Management's] argument is this is important to their strategic plan because they need a better facility to generate more money, to monetize more off-nights, to bring in more community events and concerts from outside," said Graydon Royce, the classical music critic of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. "The hall is supposed to open in August. But what are they going to open with?" The orchestra also runs a real risk "of completely alienating their audience and you're going to have this new hall and I'm not sure what the value of that will be," added Royce. Ellis sees a pattern in the U.S., "around a lot of civic ambition and very expensive concert halls combined with either static or declining audiences, and critically, patterns in philanthropy." In Nashville, the immediate crisis is past but the orchestra has told subscribers that it needs to take aggressive actions to improve its finances. "What we have seen in the last few days is a reprieve, not a solution," said Nina Cardona, a host and reporter at Nashville Public Radio, who covers arts and culture. "Yes, they keep their hall now and that is great for them. But they've still got to operate the hall. They've still got to pay for the staff that it takes to keep a place of your own running. That's the real expense. The debt payments are not what have driven them into the ground. It's operating the building." Weigh in: have orchestras over-invested in concert halls? Or do halls bring in audiences who might not otherwise attend a concert? Share your thoughts below.

With influenza reaching epidemic proportions in the United States — and the common cold not far behind — opera singers are dropping out of productions at an alarming rate. Of course, cancellations happen for all kinds of reasons. The voice can be a delicate instrument and various personal and professional issues arise. There are also cancellations of a cloudier, more debatable variety. Regardless, with the relative ease of modern air travel comes a more mobile generation of artists, exposed to germ-filled plane cabins and, in the case of foreign-born artists, visa difficulties. On this edition of Conducting Business, host Naomi Lewin talks with three opera professionals about how presenters and opera companies manage cancellations — and the kinds of actions and deals that happen behind the scenes to secure replacement musicians. Perryn Leech, the managing director of the Houston Grand Opera Bill Palant, a vice president and artist manager at IMG Artists who oversees the careers of many singers. Stephen Gaertner, a baritone who has worked as an understudy at the Metropolitan Opera. He recently stepped in during the middle of a performance to replace an ailing Dwayne Croft in Les Troyens at the Met. Weigh in: have you ever discovered a new singer because of a last-minute substitution? Leave your comments below. A few highlights from the segment: Bill Palant: "I do think that with the ease of transport, not only is it easier to pop people in but it also serves the opposite in that singers are spending more time on airplanes and picking up bugs. Flying at 30,000 feat, you’re getting dried up and showing up a day or two before a performance, and you are risking being sick. I think the ease of travel plays both for and against opera companies and not only singers who are engaged to perform but singers who are engaged to cover." Perryn Leech: "If you or I aren’t feeling 100 percent, we can go into the office and do a 70 percent day and probably no one really notices. If a performer goes on and does a 70 percent day, they have an army of critics out there and an army of audience who say ‘oh I saw her, isn’t she getting worse, isn’t he getting worse?" Stephen Gaertner: "Last season I had four assignments [as an understudy] and all were very interesting and challenging roles. And in neither case was I called to replace my colleague. It was frustrating... But a lot of times when you do go on you might be surprised who you end up on stage with. For instance, I went on stage in Les Troyens, and there I was singing a big duet with Deborah Voigt."

"The Challenges and Opportunities Facing Business and Society Today," part of the Yale School of Management Leaders Forum (Mar. 23, 2006)