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labor issues music the orchestra world

more columbus analysis

Robert Levine*, at his blog Abu Bratsche (best blog name I’ve seen in a long, long time!), points out that the problems that are coming to a head in Columbus are not financial in origin.

The management and board of the Columbus Symphony have released a document with the Orwellian title of The Path to Financial Stability and Future Growth. It’s virtually guaranteed not to produce the first, and, as it proposes to shrink the organization, the only “growth” likely to result is in press coverage of the resulting disaster.

While the document talks at length about how hard it is to run American orchestras today, the most telling passage is this:

As it was being confronted by these shifting financial fortunes, the CSO found itself embroiled in controversy over the departure of it’s long-time Music Director, a development that divided many of its supporters and generated significant negative publicity, further stressing the CSO’s ability to raise contributed revenue and attract concertgoers. Ultimately this led to the departure of the CSO’s Executive Director. From 2003 to June 2006, the CSO operated without either a full-time Executive Director or Music Director.

Translated into English (and with apostrophes used properly), this would read:

The management and board bungled the departure of its former Music Director, the executive director was fired as a result, and the board was criminally negligent by neglecting to fill either position for three years. As a result, the orchestra lost lots of money and even more credibility in the community. The solution to these problems is to screw the musicians.

This is not a financial crisis. This is a governance crisis. No plan that fails to address the real crisis will bring the orchestra to any kind of sustainable financial shape.

Read the entire post here.

Robert Levine is the Principal violist (a/k/a Lead Viola Operator) of the Milwaukee Symphony and former president of the International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians (ICSOM).