April saw the return of a normal busy ABO schedule and with it the first of the season's Specialist Manager Meetings with the Digital Managers, Archivists and the Welsh Members all having successful meetings. Mark and Keith also made the first of what will be a number of visits to Derby in advance of the conference in 2011 and met with our hosts Sinfonia ViVA and also the venue team at Derby Live. In addition the ABO team have met the following people on your behalf:

Musicians Union; Healthy Orchestra Charter Adjudicators; ACE London; Paul Hamlyn Foundation; NAYO; ISM; Ruth Hansford, BBC; Rhinegold Publishing; Susannah Simons, BBC; Musicians Benevolent Fund; the Sustainable Touring Research group; British Council; the Cultural Olympiad orchestral project steering group; Jonathan Gruber, Ulysses Arts; 2012 Music Steering Group; Dr Tiffany Jenkins, Institute of Ideas; British Association of Concert Halls; RPS.

In addition members of the ABO staff attended a London Music Masters recital, concerts by the LPO and CLS, Birmingham Royal Ballet, the Orchestra of the Swan Space Odyssey project and Mark attended the Proms launch, the IAMA conference in Paris and a guided tour of the Olympic Park in Stratford.
 

Our Specialist Manager Meetings are in full swing with the following due to take place soon:

5 May: Finance Managers Meeting, CCLA, 80 Cheapside, London
7 May: Marketing Networking Meeting, Royal Over-Seas League, London
13 May: Education Managers Meeting, Barbican Centre, London (see below)
18 May: Development & Sponsorship Managers Meeting, Wigmore Hall, London
26 May: Chamber Orchestra Managers Meeting, Cadogan Hall, London
9 June: Concert & Orchestra Managers Meeting, Wigmore Hall, London

If you would like to attend one of these meetings please log on to the Members Area of the ABO website and then click on Events and book the relevant Specialist Manager Meeting.

Please note the afternoon of the Education Managers' Meeting on 13 May will be devoted to a seminar on Child Protection, in association with ISM, which aims to cover the three topics: "Vetting and Barring - where are we now?", "Child Protection Policies and Procedures" and "Reporting to the Charity Commission". The speakers for this session will be Yvonne Spencer, Partner, Veale Wasbrough Vizards and Con Alexander, Partner, Education & Charities Department, Veale Wasbrough Vizards . For further details log on to the Members Area of the ABO website and visit the page about this event.

Dates for our summer series of one day introductory / refresher courses, called Brass Tacks courses, have been set and will be as follows:

Thursday 17 June - All that you ever wanted to know about Fundraising but were afraid to ask!, Course leader Sarah Gee, Senior Consultant with Dixon Raines. Course venue: Royal Over-Seas League, London.

Tuesday 22 June - 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-two years. Course venue: Royal Over-Seas League, London.

Thursday 15 July - 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. Course venue: LSO St Luke's, London.

For detailed information on the content of these valuable training opportunities please visit the Brass Tacks section of the ABO website.
 

Don't forget that one of the benefits of membership of the ABO is the opportunity to post orchestral management and administration jobs free of charge on Jobs Section of the ABO website. To avail of this offer just log on to the Members Area of the website and then click on Submit a Job (in purple) and enter the position you want to advertise. Jobs posted here can be viewed by interested members of the public and industry as it is open access and this is the most visited part of our website!

The Musicians Benevolent Fund recently appointed Annabel Jackson Associates to evaluate the first three years of the ABO / MBF Healthy Orchestra Charter. Annabel gave a brief summary of her findings at the 2010 Conference in Glasgow and we are delighted now to publish the full report. We are, as ever, extremely grateful to the Musicians Benevolent Fund for their support of the Charter and to the adjudicators for all their hard work and dedication. 

The evaluation can be downloaded from the Publications Page of the ABO website, here

Booking is now open for 'The Symphony Orchestra as Cultural Phenomenon', a conference that will take place this summer 1-3 July, at the Institute of Musical Research, Russell Square, London.

SOCP brings together a range of papers that investigate the different roles played by symphony orchestras in a variety of historical, geographical and cultural contexts, from early- nineteenth century Italy to present-day Venezuela, from Shanghai to Hollywood. The conference gives delegates an opportunity to discover new research and ideas and to enter into frank discussion about the role of the symphony orchestra in the twenty-first century. A conference programme is now available on the IMR website with full details. A booking form is also available for download there. Day-rates and three-day rates are available as well as concessions where applicable. Places are limited. Follow the links on the IMR website http://music.sas.ac.uk/

The search for the UK's most groundbreaking piece of new music steps up a gear today (Monday 26 April) as the PRS for Music Foundation announces the shortlist for its New Music Award 2010. The five highly innovative and challenging shortlisted ideas include a "satellite symphony" delivered through an iPhone app and a work based on the rotation of the stars around the Celestial North Pole. The shortlist covers the widest possible range of musical ideas from electronic and site specific to acoustic and African inspired beats. The hopeful entrants include everyone from composers, sound artists and instrument makers to architects, poets and digital coders. Find out more.

Sunday 6 March 2011, Birmingham Conservatoire

Birmingham Conservatoire Association in partnership with Birmingham City University Alumni Association will be holding a reunion in March 2011 for former students and staff of the Birmingham School of Music (now Birmingham Conservatoire) who studied or taught at the School during the 1980s decade.

Former students or staff interested in attending the reunion can reserve a place by emailing alumni@bcu.ac.uk or calling 0121 331 5506. Further information is also available at www.bcu.ac.uk/alumni 

18 June 2010. Tickets £65.

As part of Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra’s first residency as an International Associate of the Barbican, the Creative Learning Division at the Barbican is pleased to host a unique Creative Music Leadership Day. Open to bandleaders, teachers, students and other music leaders with a particular interest in teaching jazz, the day includes sessions from Jazz at Lincoln Center practitioners as well as from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama’s award winning CONNECT programme.

Music practitioners are given the opportunity to experience the jazz education approaches pioneered by these two renowned organisations through large and small group work, including techniques for improvisation, vocalization and internalizing rhythm, featuring practical sessions at which participants will require their instruments. In the afternoon, participants are invited to attend a keynote speech by Jazz at Lincoln Center's Artistic Director Wynton Marsalis, plus an evening performance featuring him and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.

For information go to www.barbican.org.uk/education/event-detail.asp?ID=10598 or to reserve a place e-mail leadershipday@barbican.org.uk including full contact details and a brief outline of your jazz leadership interests, experience and instruments played.

Tickets £65 - includes lunch, refreshments and a ticket for the evening concert.
 

Music industry veteran and established educator Steve Melhuish is launching a new concept for music business education in the UK. His Music Business School will offer intensive fast track courses covering all practical aspects of the business to professionals seeking to build their knowledge. Teaching starts on Wednesday 26th May.

The unique course, Music Business Fast Track, distils into 12 day-long classes the knowledge a conventional Commercial Music BA course teaches about music business and management. Melhuish’s course will give graduates in other fields, young entrepreneurs starting out in the industry and those changing careers a fuller understanding of copyright, management deals, labels, contracts, touring, publishing and all related areas, delivered in informal face-to-face classes, with a written exam upon completion.

More information on the course and the teachers is available at http://www.musicbusinessschool.co.uk

The cost for this course is:
 

• £1295 for 12 weekly sessions
• £150 per session purchased individually

However, there is the possibility of a discounted rate with significant interest from ABO members. Please register your interest at info@abo.org.uk  
 

Elizabeth Menzies has recently left Southbank Centre after twenty four years and Ben Larpent, formally Manager, Tours & Projects at Intermusica has been appointed as Interim Classical Music Programme Manager in her place.