Re: "How to Kill Orchestras" - NY Times


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Posted by Mark Heter on July 02, 2003 at 14:24:15:

In Reply to: "How to Kill Orchestras" - NY Times posted by dp on July 01, 2003 at 11:29:40:

The ignorant oversimplifications about the state of symphony orchestras at this time found in some of these posts are actually refreshing. Most of you are clueless.

No symphony orchestra makes money in this country, no matter what pieces they play. No symphony orchestra has a long term recording contract with a major label in this country, and they haven't for years.

Tickets cover, at best, 35% of the operating costs of an orchestra - even with 100% attendance. This is also true of museums, ballet companies, opera companies, etc.

I can speak with some authority on this - I was an elected AFM official for years, and worked at the AFM for 8+ years. I serve on a local symphony bargaining committee, and have served on the e-board of the Goldman Band for several years. (we managed to put on six concerts total this year - funding cuts, funding cuts)

Symphony orchestras are museums - they preserve culture of the past, present, and sometimes the future, but mostly the past. Why? because the people with the money who wish to spend it in this manner want it that way. If there aren't enough of these people, or the fortunes of those folks catch cold, the orchestra (the museum, the art gallery, the ballet company, the opera, etc.) catches pneumonia, and may die.

I saw an orchestra die in Orlando, because the local "powers that be" decided they didn't want it anymore. The patrons couldn't save it, and the musicians couldn't give back enough to save it, and politicians wouldn't do ANYTHING to save it. It's gone. IT DIDN'T DIE BECAUSE OF THE UNION CONTRACT. Disney guys, on average were making $10K per year more than FSO musicians - with full dependent medical & dental at that time. At the time the FSO went under, Domino's Pizza deliverymen were making around $8K MORE per year than the base pay of a symphony musician (38-week season). The musicians were not overpaid!

I agree orchestras should be in touch with what the public likes to hear, and I applaud people like Keith Lockhart (ex-circus musician - never forget that) has been doing in regard to recordings and performances with the Pops.

HOWEVER - look up the sales in Billboard magazine. The total sales of all classical recordings is less than 5% of the entire market. That's not much of a business proposition.

Those old Columbia Masterworks records we all love never made any money either. They were the company's "showcase" of audio engineering and musical prestige. Rosemary Clooney and Frankie Laine made money for Columbia back then, not symphonies. And this was BEFORE their profits (and the artists' royalties) could be stolen over the Internet through downloading.

Today, these record companies are owned by offshore conglomerates that don't care about prestige - they care about the color of the ink on the companies ledgers. That's why Sony didn't renew their contract with Philadelphia - not because of the quality of the orchestra. Because they didn't get their money back.

As a rule, the quality of musicianship required in a decent orchestra these days dictates hiring people, with college degrees, who could otherwise be working in the academic community - with medical plans, pensions, tenure, etc. Symphony employers need to provide salaries and benefits commensurate with the skills they are demanding. That's a lot of money, plus the library, the hall, the guest artists fees (gotta have 'em you know), the front office, etc., advertising (hideously expensive) and everything else.

In my humble, but correct, opinion the organizations curtailing their activities, but preserving their basic season are mostly the groups with an established record of fundraising, with endowments, etc. The groups in failure are mostly in cities where either the funding was unsure to begin with (no endowment, no rainy day money), expanded too fast without a proper funding base, or are folding due to years and years of bad management and the acculumated damage that occurs. Those sweeping generalities stated, the failures around the country are likely as unique as the orchestras themselves. These days we're getting down to the great-great grandhildren of the old money founders, and a lot of them just don't care, or do a less than cursory job at best on these boards.

In truth, the musicians are in not much of a position to do much of anything substantial about preserving an orchestra. What they can do is what they were hired to do in the first place - perform the music. With the exception of Isaac Stern, who sacrificed his playing to a degree to talk on the telephone raising money all the time, most musicians are not inclined to engage in this activity, or are not that good at it.

For those of you out there who think it's as simple as changing what the orchestra plays - YOU'RE DREAMING.

I know everybody likes to talk about horns & mouthpieces, etc. (hey - me too!), but sober up here - music is a crappy business with a very uncertain (if any) future.

BTW, you can't repaint the ass-end of a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier with double the entire amount of money allocated to the National Endowment for Arts. Those Mapplethorpe photos gave the Neanderthals in Congress the excuse to kill it forever.

This is not the official "union line" - the current AFM administration would crap their pants sooner than post something like this. I don't work there anymore, and have the luxury of telling the truth. The worldwide economy is LOUSY, and anybody pushing ANY cultural activities these days has long ago descended to the mudwrestling stage of things just to stay alive.

MH


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