The Boston Symphony and the Hierarchy of Goods
What a Great Cultural Institution Exists to Serve
Orlando Alonso
I’m a pianist, conductor, writer, and entrepreneur. I juggle music scores, business plans, and the occasional existential crisis, but always with some Bach in the background.
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Latest posts
When Critics Forget Their Limits
Why New York Times Critic David Allen Gets the Boston Symphony Wrong
The Prisoner We Expected—and the Man Who Arrived
Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara has divided Miami’s Cuban exile community with nearly every interview he has given since arriving in the United States.
The Orchestra Belongs to the Music
Who truly governs an orchestra? More importantly, who should?
Who Is Defending the Music?
The Boston Symphony controversy and the growing crisis of faith at the heart of classical music.
I Have No Thoughts of My Own
Why free will may exist not in our thoughts or actions, but in how we calibrate them
The Artist and His Circumstance
Ronen Givony’s Us v. Them and the fragile ecology of culture
The Complete Musician Still Exists
Ronn Yedidia on beauty, virtuosity, and why modern music may have stopped moving forward
DEI, Wokeness, and the Future of Arts: My Conversation with Jan Swafford
Classical music is being hollowed out from within -- by the very institutions that claim to protect it.
Yury Revich and the Sound of Peace
“This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before.” - Leonard Bernstein