Fast Company is one of my favorite magazines.  This month’s cover article is about their list of the 100 most creative people in business.  As you can imagine, the list is full of people from Apple, Facebook, Pixar, and other well-known tech companies. 
It got me thinking about who a list of the most creative people in classical music might include.  I really admire Debra Borda of the LA Philharmonic for hiring Gustavo Dudamel and blogged about it in February of 2008, and I’ve always been a fan of Daniel Bernard Roumain.  Recently, Michael Tilson Thomas’ work with the YouTube Symphony has gotten a lot of buzz. 

First, let me apologize for how long it has been since I last blogged.  In fact, all of my blogging calluses have gone away and I am sore just from writing these two sentences.  But enough about me.  Our friends at Gramophone have published yet another list.  This one lists the ten most inspiring orchestras in the world.  They are the New York Philharmonic, YouTube Symphony Orchestra, Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, China Philharmonic Orchestra, Buskaid (Soweto, Africa) Ensemble, East West Divan Orchestra, Orchestre National d’Ile de France, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, and London Symphony Orchestra.

Wanted ads for full time music directors do not often grace the music scene. So now that a music director is needed for the Chicago Sinfonietta - it will be interesting to see who comes on board. The strengths and interests of the director shapes the orchestra's direction dramatically. The director creates its identity.

So I wonder whether the complete identity of the Sinfonietta will change or stay the same.

Currently programing staight-forward classical chamber works and works married with folk and world music (Kiran Ahluwahlia on Concert IV for example) the Sinfonietta tries to include everyone and every genre in concerts. But will that shift? Will that grow to include contemporary modern works?

What does it take to get dialogue going? The latest scandal? Ugly stories? Pain old gossip?

Maybe – but I hope it doesn’t require the basest human interests to start talking about music. We just need topics that are debatable.

Every musician has had moments of greatness (and the ying to that yang is) every musician has had moments of despair. Extreme? I know, but I find it to be true. Music, like all refined skills is a craft that lies close the heart. So much spirit, sweat and hard work goes into improving what you do.