Personally, as a free lance musician working in orchestras, opera houses, West End shows and occasionally venturing into recording studios, it is also a delight to meet and work with members of the teleteam who have progressed into the world of orchestral management and beyond. Orchestras I work with a lot, like the BBC Symphony and Age of Enlightenment Orchestras, the City of London Sinfonia and others, have such people working for them. They know you and how your life works, how the business works too and this gives them a great knowledge of how to interact with and treat musicians and also cope with the vagaries and trials of life as a musician from their time at Morgensterns.
Patrick Jackman's web profile

And the other is the human element at Morgensterns. The managerial mind ready to take action from or to feed action to my email communications. Morgensterns is the ideal professional companion. The staff are all lightning fast, efficient, extremely well informed and connected, and seem to find nothing a problem. I can make use of the instant availability lists; I can get colleagues aware of a possible job, but not quite booked; I can get messages to fixers at the right time of UK day; I can find out where a gig is and where I need to be straight off a twenty hour flight; I can even find out who else is on my gig; I can get a message through to a colleague who may be almost impossible to reach; and I can receive all information addressed to me from anyone É and all this - and more - while I am, say, in Tropical North Queensland, or on tour in the Baltic States. Morgensterns is the ideal and highly professional enabler for all this to happen. It's all possible, it all happens, sometimes daily. The human element is there, carefully watching over my electronic global communications, carefully ensuring it all goes smoothly, is all backed up, and nothing gets overlooked. There has to be both.

This all was driven home to me the year before last when I lost one side of the equation, the PDA phone. No, not lost but it was stolen in Pretoria, South Africa. Apart from all the practical things that had to be attended to, I knew I could relax knowing that the central database and the staff at Morgensterns were still managing my affairs, and could continue perfectly well for a time while I got back on my feet. And sure enough, that was the case, and Morgensterns was even able to help me there too; by supplying much-needed numbers, making contacts for me so that I missed nothing, as I desperately tried to re-establish my own personal database.

So, what is Morgensterns to me? It's the vital remote human side to my professional communication and management. Vital in that I couldn't manage without it; remote in that by virtue of its database kept centrally for all us clients making it secure; and human in that the staff keep a watchful and cheery eye on all my goings on, and they know when and how to act, and make correct judgements where appropriate, but essentially always double check and refer all to me.

I am deeply impressed with how Julian has always kept his business two or more steps ahead of the game. The website with auto-updated client profiles and mp3 files, indeed computerised diaries, WAP services for messages and calendars É the list goes on and on and is as impressive as it is long. I'm thrilled with the huge range of unique services Morgensterns now offers me, as standard! And when these are combined with instant global communication of the PDA phone, then we are a force to be reckoned with! Here's to the next twenty five years.
Mark Paine's web profile

In those early days, before mobile phones and the use of computers, Morgensterns always managed to track me down when there was an offer of work. That philosophy of always referring work to players continues and is backed up by an incredibly fast computer system that ensures that fixers get a rapid reply to their request for a player.

As Orchestra Manager for English Touring Opera, I particularly use Morgensterns availability lists when there is an illness in the orchestra that I can't fill with my usual deputies. Time is of the essence as these emergencies usually happen on the day of a performance which could be anywhere in the country. Knowing who might be available means that I can compile a list and then, if I'm stuck in a traffic jam on the way to Buxton for example, ask Morgensterns to systematically contact them until the seat is filled.

The people manning the phones are always very efficient and thorough, making sure they have taken full details of any request from a fixer or giving all the information to a player. Many of the team that Julian has employed over the years are musicians themselves and so understand what is needed. Several have gone on to responsible jobs in the management side of the music profession.

After 25 years things are still moving forward. Julian is constantly looking for new features to broaden the scope of Morgensterns and make the web-site an interesting and varied place to visit, such as links to other pages and to client profiles.

Like many advances that have been made over the years, we could all so easily take for granted something like Morgensterns diary service. It's there as an integral part of the music profession and I for one, as an orchestra fixer, can't imagine working without the support and back-up that Morgensterns gives me on a regular basis.
Peter Thompson's web profile