Posted by David Mills on May 04, 2003 at 22:28:15:
For the last 2 years i have been part of an initiative sponsored by the Knight foundation as in Knight - Ridder newspaper chain. we in charlotte are grouped with St Louis, New World, Brooklyn Phil and Ft Wayne.There are several other consortia After MUCH deliberation at conferences in many cities the head of this project for Knight reached 2 main conclusions, both very strong : 1)If your music director does not live in your community , fire him immediately;2) solve the union problem.
The artistic leadership of many, many orchestras is like an absentee landlord. Decisions are made in a vacuum in a far-away city or even in a foreign land. The dude usually doesn't have his balls in the fire so to speak. His risk is spread over many variables so he almost always comes out a winner(see stock market).We have no one to blame but ourselves in hoping that his NAME / reputation will be a magic spell that will keep us going til the next year or next contract or entice the star seeking public.
The union problem as I see it is the old shell game of doin' your job of nailing the notes and letting management and board do the rest. In the real world this scenario died long ago and indeed the succeeding generation of solutions ain't in great shape either. You must become an artist educator. Check out the program at Juilliard with eric Booth. Further you must become an advocate, an ambassador, a sales rep for your gig and group. Maybe a few groups like NY Phil will survive in the old way but I think even their time will come. Confrontation ain't gonna do shit, not now. We're all accountable for the totality of the business.The orchestra business is somewhat like the brass quintet business only you got those who refuse or can't do the mirade other things to make the gig thrive.