{"id":3703,"date":"2009-12-31T17:25:17","date_gmt":"2010-01-01T01:25:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/?p=3703"},"modified":"2009-12-31T17:25:30","modified_gmt":"2010-01-01T01:25:30","slug":"anti-hopes-for-the-coming-decade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/12\/31\/anti-hopes-for-the-coming-decade\/","title":{"rendered":"anti-hopes for the coming decade"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here are things that I hope don&#8217;t occur or take place or become more prevalent in the coming decade.\u00a0 The naughts have basically sucked for everyone (unless you&#8217;re in one of the surviving financial giants, that is), and the teens have got to be better.<!--more--><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>That programming continues to get more and more conservative in orchestras.\u00a0 I am not against doing warhorse pieces &#8211; they&#8217;re great pieces even if they&#8217;re over-programmed &#8211; but I hope that orchestras can start doing more innovative programming across the board.\u00a0 It shouldn&#8217;t only be a handful of the largest orchestras that are able to afford to think differently.<\/li>\n<li>That the same four or five mega-performers will be the only guarantee of selling out a single concert or series of concerts.\u00a0 It&#8217;s the same as the first item, but with people instead of pieces.\u00a0 I love Perlman, Ma, Lang, Fleming, and Bell, but please &#8211; aren&#8217;t classical music audiences supposed to be somewhat sophisticated?\u00a0 The fact that our concerts with Yefim Bronfman didn&#8217;t sell out is a travesty, truly. There are so many amazing and lesser-known artists out there that deserve to be heard, but orchestras are afraid to stray outside the A-list for fear of losing money on concerts.\u00a0 Luckily, we&#8217;re doing a good job of avoiding this pitfall in Oregon.<\/li>\n<li>That managements and boards of orchestras will continue to look to the payroll as a means of of solving their balance sheet issues.\u00a0 Sure, we musicians are willing to do our share (our last contract concessions being a prime example), but when multiple orchestras are being forced to cut substantial weeks of their seasons (Detroit, Atlanta) and also cut their musicians&#8217; salaries in the double-digit percentages, it does irreparable damage to the artistic integrity of those ensembles.\u00a0 The best players are most likely the most portable, and they will vote with their feet when the big cuts come.<\/li>\n<li>That classical music pundits will continue to declare the classical recording industry DOA.\u00a0 Maybe the traditional outfits are going toes up, but the self-produced arena is going like gangbusters, and the truly innovative companies are actually thriving (see Naxos and ECM New Line).<\/li>\n<li>That critics will continue to mention the physical appearance of a female performer before talking about her performance quality in their reviews.\u00a0 It&#8217;s the 21st century.\u00a0 Puh-lease!<\/li>\n<li>That Portland arts philanthropists will continue to hold on to most of their money.\u00a0 A woman in Cincinnati recently gave the CSO $85 million.\u00a0 Surely a few folks in the metro Portland area could each pony up at least 20 percent of that amount &#8211; it would mean the difference between survival and flourishing to a group like the Oregon Symphony.\u00a0 I&#8217;m tired of hearing how much money there is around here, but not seeing the heavy hitters stepping up to the plate.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>That&#8217;s about it for me &#8211; do you have any anti-wishes for the coming decade?\u00a0 Lay &#8217;em on me!<\/p>\n<p>Happy New Year!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here are things that I hope don&#8217;t occur or take place or become more prevalent in the coming decade.\u00a0 The naughts have basically sucked for everyone (unless you&#8217;re in one of the surviving financial giants, that is), and the teens have got to be better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_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},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-orchestra-world"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-XJ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3100,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/09\/11\/programming-in-crisis\/","url_meta":{"origin":3703,"position":0},"title":"programming in crisis","author":"Charles Noble","date":"September 11, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Holly Mulcahy has a wonderful article up at The Partial Observer about the rash of program\/artist substitutions prompted by the funding crisis at US orchestras.\u00a0 Here at the Oregon Symphony, there haven't been any mid-course corrections, as such, but guest artists have had their contracts renegotiated at lower rates, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;administration&quot;","block_context":{"text":"administration","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/administration-the-orchestra-world-music\/"},"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":3703,"position":1},"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 &quot;the orchestra world&quot;","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":5802,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2011\/02\/14\/why-orchestras-struggle-kaisers-view\/","url_meta":{"origin":3703,"position":2},"title":"why orchestras struggle &#8211; kaiser&#8217;s view","author":"Charles Noble","date":"February 14, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Orchestral administrator-to-the-stars Michael Kaiser has a new mini-essay up on the Huffington Post, in which he outlines the reasons he believes that orchestras are having a tougher time than ever making ends meet. \u00a0It would be great to have a New Yorker style 30,000 word article on the topic, but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;administration&quot;","block_context":{"text":"administration","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/administration-the-orchestra-world-music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1488,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/12\/05\/the-sky-isnt-falling-the-sky-isnt-falling\/","url_meta":{"origin":3703,"position":3},"title":"the sky isn&#8217;t falling, the sky isn&#8217;t falling","author":"Charles Noble","date":"December 5, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Robert Levine has an excellent post today that goes along very well with my post of a couple days ago.\u00c2\u00a0 It's a response to a recent posting by Greg Sandow, which you can find here. Here's the first two paragraphs of Robert's excellent response: Greg Sandow recently wrote a typically\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;bloggers&quot;","block_context":{"text":"bloggers","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/bloggers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":889,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/03\/28\/classical-conflict\/","url_meta":{"origin":3703,"position":4},"title":"classical conflict","author":"Charles Noble","date":"March 28, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I just perused a recent article about the Florida Orchestra and some highly-publicized comments from subscribers about the contemporary programming that is being done by music director Stefan Sanderling. I understand that some patrons don't care for hearing anything written after 1870 or so. Fine. But why do they complain\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;appreciation&quot;","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2311,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/04\/09\/a-few-more-carnegie-details\/","url_meta":{"origin":3703,"position":5},"title":"a few more carnegie details","author":"Charles Noble","date":"April 9, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The OSO's press release: Apr. 9, 2009 BOUND FOR THE BIG APPLE: OREGON SYMPHONY WILL PLAY CARNEGIE HALL IN 2011 (PORTLAND, Ore.) - For the first time in its history, the Oregon Symphony will travel cross country in spring 2011 to perform a concert at music's most prestigious venue, Carnegie\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"carnegie hall stage entrance","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/06\/img_8304.thumbnail.JPG?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3703","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=3703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3703\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}