{"id":255,"date":"2007-03-26T23:02:30","date_gmt":"2007-03-27T07:02:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/03\/26\/why-orchestras-have-an-image-problem\/"},"modified":"2007-04-05T16:56:32","modified_gmt":"2007-04-06T00:56:32","slug":"why-orchestras-have-an-image-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/03\/26\/why-orchestras-have-an-image-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"why orchestras have an image problem"},"content":{"rendered":"

I just happened upon this short article<\/a> about the departure of the executive director of the Tacoma Symphony (which was my first professional gig when I was in undergrad at the University of Puget Sound) – here, you read it in its entirety, and tell me what jumps out at you:<\/p>\n

Amy Wigstrom, executive director of the Tacoma Symphony Orchestra, has resigned the position she has held since 2003. Wigstrom leaves to become the executive director of the American Heart Association in Tacoma.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I am very proud of what has been accomplished at Tacoma Symphony during my time there, and I look forward to watching the symphony continue to flourish as I remain a part of this community,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Wigstrom, who lives in Tacoma with her family.<\/p>\n

During her tenure, the orchestra eliminated a deficit.<\/em><\/p>\n

The TSO is a professional 90-member orchestra with a seven-concert season and $1 million budget. The orchestra has initiated a national search for a new executive director.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ok, she was proud, but of what? Eliminating a deficit? Did she improve audience attendance, improve working conditions for the musicians? Did the orchestra present music in new and exciting ways, with a dynamic music director and well-qualified, hard-working musicians? I bet they did – but all that was seen fit to talk about in this exit interview article (probably cribbed directly from the press release) was the fact that this orchestra eliminated a deficit. So the public leaves this article thinking only about the bottom line. What about the product – the music? Or those who come to see and hear the performances, or those who make the performances happen? It’s one more small bit of a giant negative slant on the arts in America.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I just happened upon this short article about the departure of the executive director of the Tacoma Symphony (which was my first professional gig when I was in undergrad at the University of Puget Sound) – here, you read it in its entirety, and tell me what jumps out at you: Amy Wigstrom, executive director […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[55,62,3656],"class_list":["post-255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-orchestra-world","tag-orchestra","tag-symphony","tag-the-orchestra-world"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-47","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5576,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/11\/15\/clear-eyed-in-tacoma\/","url_meta":{"origin":255,"position":0},"title":"clear-eyed in tacoma","author":"Charles Noble","date":"November 15, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Sunday afternoon the Oregon Symphony played a run-out concert in the Pantages Theater in downtown Tacoma. \u00a0The concert was presented by the Tacoma Philharmonic. \u00a0It's been quite a while since I'd been to downtown Tacoma, and it brought back a lot of memories of being at the Pantages for Tacoma\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/5180407154_f9cd03e15b_b.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5571,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/11\/13\/oregon-symphony-in-tacoma\/","url_meta":{"origin":255,"position":1},"title":"oregon symphony in tacoma","author":"Charles Noble","date":"November 13, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"After a long absence, the Oregon Symphony will be returning to the Pantages Theater in downtown Tacoma for a matinee concert presented by the Tacoma Philharmonic. \u00a0The main work on the program will be Elgar's Falstaff, with actor David Ogden Stiers as Falstaff. Click here for tickets and further information.","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/OregonSymphonyHomepagepic-e1289700932387.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/OregonSymphonyHomepagepic-e1289700932387.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/OregonSymphonyHomepagepic-e1289700932387.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":512,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/11\/02\/federal-way-blues\/","url_meta":{"origin":255,"position":2},"title":"federal way blues","author":"Charles Noble","date":"November 2, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Just caught this new blog by the former principal clarinetist of the Federal Way Symphony, located midway between Seattle and Tacoma, Washington. For those of you who might wonder why union orchestras have contracts to cover working conditions and termination of employees among other matters - these blog entries pretty\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "music"","block_context":{"text":"music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17820,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2020\/03\/11\/coronavirus-hits-nw-arts-hard\/","url_meta":{"origin":255,"position":3},"title":"coronavirus hits NW arts hard","author":"Charles Noble","date":"March 11, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"I will update this page throughout the coming days as I learn of additional postponements or cancellations. Running list of Portland-area cancellations and postponements. UPDATE: 3\/14\/20 10:00AM Basically, everything is canceled, and if it isn't, it's being live streamed. UPDATE: 12:13AM Oregon Governor Kate Brown announces all schools will close\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":452,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/10\/02\/can-we-have-both\/","url_meta":{"origin":255,"position":4},"title":"can we have both?","author":"Charles Noble","date":"October 2, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, the first of our subscription concert weekends is done, and I'm left curiously unaffected. Maybe it's always been this way - it's just the range of emotions that I go through during the process of rehearsing and performing that has changed as the job has changed. When I first\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":374,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/06\/26\/adventurous-programming-and-why-you-should-care-about-it\/","url_meta":{"origin":255,"position":5},"title":"adventurous programming and why you should care about it","author":"Charles Noble","date":"June 26, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) has recently named those orchestras and organizations which were selected to be honored for \"Adventurous Programming\" during the 2006-2007 season. I also have a connection to a couple of those groups honored, which I'll talk about after the jump.Here are the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}