The Creation of the Taneycomo Festival Orchestra

This book is a concise guide to music festival creation for performers. It discusses the path that I took to create the Taneycomo Festival Orchestra and reveals the successes and failures of the process. I started the Taneycomo Festival Orchestra to make classical music more accessible, enjoyable, and relevant to a modern, rural community. The events created under these circumstances are often high-quality musical experiences that are fun for audiences. I also aspired to separate music festival creation from traditional institutional structure. If a performer takes a similar path and wishes to create such an organization, he or she will have little to no familiarity with the traditional or nontraditional institutional structures. My unique perspective offers a multidisciplinary approach to music festival foundation. Most of this book is structured around a narrative about my experiences in running TFO, but also refers to many valuable resources to aid the beginning arts administrator in the creation and management of a music festival.