The full force of the reality of Orchestra bankruptcy arrived in a simple letter informing me that I was being let go as Principal Pops Conductor of the Syracuse Symphony. Then I realized nearly 100 people received this letter and the organization I had worked with for nearly a decade was about to cease to exist. The cost of a city losing an orchestra is immeasurable and losing the brilliant musicians who were excellent every day and are now out of work, is simply unacceptable. I have a simple request…..
THERE NEEDS TO BE A ORCHESTRA CRISIS TEAM!
This is not the first time I have asked for this but now more than ever, the communication and leadership disconnect between musicians, managements, boards and audiences is a chasm that grows ever wider and a new business plan or model is not the answer simply because without leadership and communication, any innovation will be a non-starter or worse, it may even accelerate the demise of an organization. The Knight Foundation Magic of Music final report concluded:
Its staff believed, quite rightly as it turned out, that “save the symphony” campaigns tend to produce temporary results at best and are counterproductive at worst, unless they are accompanied by fundamental institutional change. Further, during the course of Magic of Music, the foundation learned that orchestras on the brink of financial disaster are not good candidates for financial assistance. Funding aimed at fostering transformational change during times of crisiswill inevitably be diverted to short-term fixes. It also became clear that without strong unified leadership from all segments of an orchestra’s family – music director, musicians, board and executive leadership – change is unlikely. Such unified leadership becomes more difficult when organizations are under great stress.
I believe there needs to an arm or branch of the league, or maybe a new organization that focuses on Orchestra rescue efforts by engaging and sending a team of proven orchestra builders to Orchestras in crisis on short notice to deal with immediate problems along with formulating long term fixes based on the specific needs and not general ideas. We have passionate and very smart people in our field (and outside the field) who can offer anything from intervention, mediation, artistic planning, lobbying, grant writing, marketing, development and so on. In good years orchestras can be offered “levee” checks to prepare for when the next big storm appears on the doppler. Of course there would costs associated with this, but it could be like an insurance policy or a membership and if set up as a not-for-profit, funds raised could help offset some costs, especially for those in the most dire situations.
There have been three bankruptcies in the last month and there are fires everywhere, we need actual hands on the actual decks more than pens on paper in offices far away, I would be more than willing to be one of those hands!
What would the authority of such a group be? When the FDIC takes over a bank, they have the legal authority to do so.
I live in Michigan and followed the DSO disaster pretty closely. One thing that struck me was that any reasonable person could clearly see that both musicians and management were being completely UNreasonable on certain issues. I think that even if such a group existed 9 months ago and gave the DSO a list of recommendations, the list would have been completely ignored by the parties involved.
To clarify, I’m bringing this up at this point as a general idea and wasn’t focusing on anythin specifically in regards to a labor dispute, but to that point, the DSO musicians were proposing binding arbitration, so I believe that recommendations from an FDIC for orchestras (thanks to Drew at Adaptistrstion for that analogy!) would have carried a lot weight at least with the DSO musicians
I think you’ve addressed what would likely be the largest problem with something like this David and that’s the willingness of a group to abide by the assistance provided by an outside group. In the case of the FDIC, the bank has no real recourse if the agency needs to intervene. Granted, a cultural equivalent of the FDIC would be a fascinating conversation to have (and would likely require a much larger ratio of annual budgets subsidized by the Federal Government) but in the case of what Ron is proposing (stop me if I’m wrong here Ron) is something orchestras would join voluntarily.
Even then, the devil is in the details.
Drew
I do see it as voluntary, and it might have the effect of a “good housekeeping seal of approval”, which in itself might alay some of the fears donors and ticket buyers might have when they are asked to contribute funds and purchase tickets. Fostering transparency would be a good first step to winning their trust especially if an independent body is providing it in a report. However that is down the road for a healthy organization or one on the road to health, right now just the right boots on the ground are what is needed! We just have to be careful that it’s created as a bridge to safety and not as a layer of bureaucracy, and even though the problems that many groups are facing may be common, the solutions need to be specific for each group’s unique properties which is why buying into a “model” is such a blind leap of faith which could potentially make a bad situation worse! That is why I want to explore this idea, and you are right, the devil is most certainly in the details.