Columbus Symphony Orchestra on the brink?
The Dispatch wrote
Symphony on the brink?
Musicians shocked by proposed job cuts
Friday, January 18, 2008
BY MICHAEL GROSSBERG
Leaders of the financially troubled Columbus Symphony are proposing dramatic cuts in the number of full-time musicians and the number of weeks the musicians perform. The restructuring plan is designed to get the symphony on firm financial footing and ensure its survival.
“This is to try to save the orchestra and enable us to grow it into something special,” said Robert “Buzz” Trafford, chairman of the symphony board.
Trafford presented the proposal yesterday to six musicians. The group walked out about 45 minutes into the meeting when they learned how many musicians would be let go under the plan.
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January 18th, 2008 at 8:49 am
Some of the other arts organizations have been able to weather the storm.
Opera Columbus, for one.
Hopefully the symphony will be able to do this.
If not, well, the corporation limit signs need to be changed to “Welcome to Cowtown”.
I imagine I will see some of my friends moving out of town with the cutbacks. The symphony is about the only steady musical work left in this town for live musicians concerning …any… genre whatsoever.
January 18th, 2008 at 9:02 am
This is really sad to me. As much as I am enthusiastic about downtown physical enhancements (the riverfront plan, the future of City Center), I think great cities get great by fostering and strongly supporting the arts. We have a plan to expand the Columbus Museum of Art, now how about a 2012 plan to support, promote and enhance the symphony in a world-class way?
Columbus Underground has 2373 registered users, almost precisely the number of seats at the Ohio Theater. An excellent exercise in crowdsourcing would be for the CU community to fill the Ohio Theater in support.
An example: Selling out the Friday, Feb 22 “Classical #8″ would generate somewhere in the neighborhood of $75,000 for CSO and send a strong message to the civic machine.
January 18th, 2008 at 9:34 am
I gotta say… the col. symphony proposing their budget is only the beginning. Just wait until the ballet and opera present their budgets. Out of all the arts organizations, the ballet is the only one that’s actually expanding (new performance space, etc.), so when their budget is proposed, that should be a pretty good indicator as to how performing arts in columbus is faring - as in are people going, are donations coming in, are companies supporting it, etc.
Getting everyone to fill seats for one show is only a tiny band-aid fix. I think where Columbus is struggling is getting the “me first” generation to stop thinking ‘what’s in it for me?’ and realize the bigger picture of how important these organizations are to the city, and, thusly, their lives.
YP’s do not donate their income because they don’t have much in the way of disposable income to donate (college alumni associations have known this for a hundred years - don’t hit up kids who just graduated, wait until they learn how important their college’s reputation is and they have the income to help).
Most of the arts organizations’ incomes arrives in the form of a donation, and those are dying off. Literally. The Opera’s been saved a couple of times from a senior citizen who died and left a great deal of money to them. Thankfully, they’ve been saved by getting rid of an overpaid executive and have an outstanding leader - who was (and still is, I think) - doing his job pro bono.
The same thing happened with the Columbus Gay Men’s Choir, who was literally about ten minutes away from shutting its doors for good when just enough money came in to keep them alive from a patron who had died.
So, in order to survive, it appears the organizations all have to cultivate YP’s and hope they have some disposable income and “get it”, or wish that some rich senior citizen left them in their will, or, the best option, focus on where the real donors are and the people who “get it” - the baby boomer generation.
That’s a HUGE number of people, most of whom are empty-nesters and understand the bigger picture of becoming a donor. So, really, why aren’t the arts organizations all thriving instead of faltering? It seems to me as if the baby boomer generation is pretty much being ignored - and taken for granted - in favor of trying to get 20-year-old butts in the seats.
While that’s extremely important - the education of the various art forms - they’re not going to bring their budget back by getting OSU students and YP’s to purchase reduced-priced tickets.
January 18th, 2008 at 9:56 am
Agreed. I think that was the point of the Art Card. Has anyone around here bought one yet? How’s it working out so far?
January 18th, 2008 at 10:02 am
I don’t even see the “Columbus Underground sells out The Ohio Theater” as a band-aid fix: more to the point, it would be a strong show of support coming directly from young creative professionals in the city, and I am guessing that the demographics of symphony attendance skews much older than the average CU member.
I do agree that most of the budget for CSO, OperaColumbus, BalletMet comes from large donations and endowments, but affirmation of their importance to our collective cultural landscape, coming from many, is also critical.
January 18th, 2008 at 10:17 am
The main things that Balletmet does right in order to succeed in this market:
1. Fewer performances of higher quality. Creates demand of a commodity. They have approximately six main performances in a year, plus some smaller one time annual performances.
2. Perform in venues that fit the projected audience for a show. They know Sleeping Beauty won’t draw two weeks straight of crowds, so they perform at the Riffe for a weekend. The Nutcracker goes the Ohio Theatre (2700 person capacity) for 21 days.
3. Innovation and an appealing young professionals membership.
The symphony does none of these well.
1. Eleventy billion performances over the year. People feel that they can “always catch the next show.” (market research from a few years ago indicated this) Except for December and April, you can find a performance almost every weekend.
2. I know that Concerts for Kids won’t be as popular as John Williams in concert. Why are they both held in the same venue? I can get (if I’m lucky) 800 butts in seats for the kids’ show. I can get 2,700 for John Williams, no problem.
3. Our young professionals group never took off due to lack of frequency. It was popular the first time around, though. Just no follow through. We try innovation, but it isn’t marketed correctly.
One legged man in an ass kicking contest.
January 18th, 2008 at 10:49 am
Oh, I totally agree. I’m just saying that it’s more of a short-term solution to a long-term problem. If everyone wants to go and sell out a show, that’s awesome :) But that would be needed for all of the arts organizations, not just the symphony.
January 18th, 2008 at 11:10 am
TBD nailed a lot of problems, but there are so much more.
First step is to kill the venue. Not only are facility costs way out of bounds, but the place itself just screams ‘dead white males!’ Cramped and uncomfortable seating that creaks when you move.
Hold concerts on multiple nights instead of a one-time shot. Integrate them with other cultural activities or events. Promote dinner and symphony with either an early start time or a late one.
Recognize that your audience is both sophisticated in term of the variety of things they are exposed to, but many of them are also totally naive about classical music.
Re-think the whole classical concert. This is an entertainment that hasn’t changed in hundreds of years. The whole passivity thing is just stifling and doubly so to audience members (Boomers too) who weaned on concerts. The whole atmosphere is a fossilized remnant of a dead past.
Break down the walls. Have the musicians interact with the audience during a break or after. Like above - stop make the music this passive, impersonal and lifeless experience where the music will carry. Face it - the talent pool of musicians capable of carrying the audience on the sheer power of the music is diminishly small and those with that talent go to big orchestras.
Along the same lines, CDs are killing the concert for lesser groups. Why should I pay top dollar to hear a non-top performance when I can buy the CD and hear the best? Part of this is a lack of education to understand how much variability there is in performance styles. (There is a brilliant film focusing on how Tilson-Thomas prepares for a piece which should be required watching.) But symphonies don’t seem to appreciate that their audience can be educated. Provide meta-information w/ the booklet, a web link or just a little chat from the conductor.
I don’t have answers and I lack the creativity and knowledge* to get them. I do know -as a lapsed concert-goer and potential ticket-buyer - what bothers me and what I have thought a lot about.
A.
* For example, I am well-aware the logistics of maintaing a whole orchestra of profressionals is far harder than a band or a quartet.
January 18th, 2008 at 11:13 am
I agree about the number of performances, but that’s what every symphony does all over the world. I don’t think that’s ever going to change, but it would be nice to have some focus so people say, “I need to go, otherwise I’ll have to wait another month or so before I would be able to see it again”.
Sadly, though, they haven’t been fiscally responsible for several years, and that’s the main thing they do incorrectly. And all I mean by that is that they’ve been operating on a budget way too high for way too long. Non-profits are supposed to, on average, have a reserve of about 2%. The symphony has been dipping into that reserve, which is not a good strategy and indicates their budget has been set too high. (As a comparison, the last time I saw it a couple of years ago, the ballet had a surplus in their reserves and hadn’t touched it).
Unfortunately, I personally think cutting down their budget is a step in the right direction to get them back to where they need to be. I don’t want to see any musicians cut, but I don’t think there’s a choice. The opera cut down their budget and so far its keeping them afloat - but that came at the cost of people’s salaries either getting eliminated, or slashed up to 75%.
There is one other thing that the ballet does right, and that’s get its academy involved. And that academy is really what drives the entire organization - imagine having a child who takes classes there and then auditions to be in the nutcracker. You’re going to go see the show. Perhaps more than once. And so are your friends and family. Perhaps more than once.
So, yes, they play to their venue - put Dracula in the capitol and it will sell out. Put it in the Ohio and it looks empty because it’s nearly 3x larger.
But, accoustically, you can’t put the symphony anywhere else but the Ohio. Maybe a smaller version of the symphony can fit in the Southern, though…
January 18th, 2008 at 11:13 am
Just wanted to mention this old post:
http://www.columbusunderground.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=5569
Might be worth a read.
January 18th, 2008 at 11:14 am
Well the ballet went to prerecorded music a number of years back.
……!!!!!!!
Opera karaoke would be SO SAD.
I don’t know much about the other organizations’ financial ills other than a little about the opera’s last year.
Thank God it was saved. It took one year of bad management to almost kill the entire organization.
Light opera was killed even though the houses were sold out.
Light opera folks generally do not make “big donations”.
The productions were moved out of downtown that particular year also to Mershon.
IMO, these were two of the worst decisions concerning that and was a big part of the mess.
But as I said, the organization was able to be saved.
So much for hiring in these directors who know nothing about the demographic of a town and do things from something learned in a college class. The same kind of thinking killed Coyle Music, when outsiders tried to undo all the things that were working well with Ziggy’s proven record.
Frankly, I think that is what killed the poor man…seeing his store go down in flames so quickly.
January 18th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
Exactly why they are restructuring. This symphony is built to play a lot and play to big crowds. You need a lot of money to run that ship, though. There are approximately 55 full-time musicians, plus a part-time roster, and an admin staff of around 25.
There is a vicious cycle here: the CSO thought it could offer more diverse programming and bring in the younger crowds. The new/different programming wasn’t executed well in a few areas, so it didn’t work. Now the long time patrons feel jilted and the new ones aren’t sure what’s going on. This symphony has lost its sense of identity by growing instead of improving.
Another great point is that classical musical has been presented the same way for centuries now. It’s time for a change. Picnic With the Pops provides a nice change up, but it’s not enough. There has been talk of getting out into the community more, but that’s difficult with union rules and venue rates. I think this would help a lot…
January 18th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
I think you just hit the nail on the head and the biggest problem that arts organizations face: bringing in new/younger patrons without alienating the old. Especially when the long-time patrons are the ones currently donating.
That’s another great point I don’t think a lot of people realize… “wouldn’t it be great if they could just play/perform at this park, or this location, etc.” That’s MUCH easier said than done. Union rules stipulate the kinds of areas where musicians can play and performers can perform. They have to have a certain time allocated for warming up, proper stage size and sometimes proper flooring, it has to be the right temperature, the list goes on and on. Not to mention the production worker’s union - the lighting designers, carpenters and other technicians responsible for setting up the proper environment.
But, I think everyone can agree that getting actors/musicians/singers/dancers out into the community a little bit more for some one-on-one exposure, whether they are performing or simply doing a Q&A, is vital. Let John Q. Public know that these performers are everyday people with extraordinary talents and they should be proud to have them living and performing in this city. They’re proud of their buckeyes and their bluejackets, they should be proud of these artists, too.
January 18th, 2008 at 7:43 pm
That puts classical music at a distinct competitive disadvantage and has to change. If the unions are playing such a major role in preventing the orchestra from growing, innovating and changing, then they shouldn’t complain when it all tanks. Well done.
A.
January 18th, 2008 at 7:47 pm
What if Shively did another series, this time not of ballet but of symphony, and they were auctioned for funds. I didnt’ read the whole thread, I admit, but how much are we talking about?
January 18th, 2008 at 10:20 pm
Seems the AFofM is rather worthless unless it relates to the orchestra.
That is an organization that should be “rethunk” for sure.
I have carried a card since I was 18…..but it’s not done much for me the last few years.
I did have to laugh about the stink concerning the Moody Blues when the Delaware Co. union merged with Local 103 and 103 musicians playing for the Moody Blues were in deep sh*t.
I remember the days…..not so far back…..when unions were so strong in smaller towns that they could get after these bars that wouldn’t pay musicians scale……a door gig was unheard of.
However, sometimes in these small towns you had to wait for someone to die to nab a VFW gig.
Oh well……the good and bad of the good ole boy network.
January 19th, 2008 at 12:54 am
They’ve been in the red the past few years. $2.2m last year, $1.5m this year. Anne Melvin just donated $1.75m (insane, because she’s done so much already), but that only goes so far. I believe that the $1.5m for this year comes after the Melvin donation is counted.
The cut in musicians (53 full-time to 31) would cover most of the gap, but that feels more like a band-aid.
There are a few other problems on the staffing side that need to be addressed, as well.
January 19th, 2008 at 1:20 am
I know I keep posting, but my mind is really moving…
Not every symphony follows this model, surprisingly. A lot of American symphony orchestras in similar markets and talent tiers have taken on smaller schedules. The famous orchestras are the ones that (rightfully) perform all the time. They have the demand, market, and philanthropic base.
46 weeks of performances is a lot for this group. There’s barely a season because they hardly ever stop playing.
Did you know that BalletMet does temporary layoffs? After Nutcracker, the dancers are “laid off” for a few weeks. I believe this also happens in the summer. BalletMet is showing the kind of flexibility an arts organization should have. It’s a company that it is set up to be lean and sustainable…as any good BUSINESS would be.
Here may be the biggest problem of all: nonprofit arts orgs often ignore the rules of business.
January 19th, 2008 at 9:57 am
January 19th, 2008 at 10:56 am
Here’s a novel idea :
Let’s face it, the notion of each city having an orchestra is a relic of a time when orchestral music was pretty much all there was. The market is too diverse now and getting even more so with all the international styles of music which tour. The diverse market also pulls the talent away from orchestral music.
Why not start creating regional orchestras? An Ohio Orchestra which is based in Columbus-Cincinnati and performs all over. (We’ll leave Cleveland out for the time being since they have a world-reknown orchestra.) Instead of a single performance of something like Beethoveen’s Ninth on one night in Columbus, have it travel. Be creative and run concurrent seasons in several citys or spin off a couple of chamber pieces or Pops.
This expands the market, selects the upper level of musicians (sorry, but less employment is better than none which is about to occur) and provides access to even smaller cities which have nothing. It also means less sub-division of the state arts pie and could probably leverage itself into more money.
It could even become truly regional with the addition of Louisville, Lexington, Indianapolis, etc.
Right now, the classical music world has really screwed its own pooch. They’ve go to do some different or die.
A.
January 19th, 2008 at 11:01 am
I think everyone is missing the most obvious point about going to the symphony: THE MUSIC.
Not one person in this entire thread mentioned a thing about specific programming. What exactly does catering to younger audiences entail? An extended season of Picnic with the Pops? I hope not. The pops is all fine and dandy and brings in needed cash, but it has limited appeal to the unfortunate few of us that appreciate music with more depth and substance.
Also, I’m not too sure I care for the idea of shortening the season either. All that does is limit the number of works to be performed each year, so what do we wind up with? The same works that bring people in the doors like the Tchaik Sym 5, or the Beethoven Eroica (which are fine), but if I want to hear anything out of the ordinary, (like Bartok, Mahler, Bruckner, Debussy, R. Strauss) I have to go to Cleveland.
As far as recordings being the reason to not attend a concert, that’s like saying watching football on TV is better than actually going to the game. You obviously don’t go to many concerts. Plus, a recording is one dimensional in my opinion, it never changes. Live performances? No comparison my friend. (Gulp, I used a sports analogy - yikes)
January 19th, 2008 at 11:26 am
You miss the point. Education in classical music is severely lacking and what there is tends to be be very much in the line of canonical. In other words, there is a right way to play something and, therefore, there is a best performance which does it. If that is the case, then it is not reasonable to expect somone to want to hear a sub-par performance when they can hear a recorded perfect one.
Classical music itself for this. The industry promotes great recordings by great conductors with superstar performers. It has long established and lauded a hierarchy. When near-perfect recording technology (and non-degrading playbacks) was achieved, the audience naturally selected the top of the hierarchy which they now had access to and ditched the rest. That is what they had been taught to do.
Appreciating a classical concert takes education and experience. Appreciating a flawed, but interesting performance takes more. Appreciating what appears to be a flaw as it doesn’t match a canonical recording, but is really a matter of choice by the conductor takes even more.
Do the program notes ever have a piece by the conductor as to why he chose the piece, the tempo, the emphasis? Or something by the concertmaster about what it means for her to rally the orchestra around the piece or a particularly problematic section? No. There is no attempt to reach the audience and educate the audience. Arrogance of an elitist arts establishment.
As I said, the industry itself has really screwed its own pooch by a whole series of choices, philosophies, trends and arrogance.
A.
January 19th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
Define “perfect” recorded performace, please. They exist? I haven’t found one. We’re not talking about the Beatles here.
We’re talking about something that has hundreds of years of history and tradition. Why should it have to change? I don’t want the concertmaster or conductor talking incessantly before the concert; that’s not why I paid money to attend. I want to hear the music. That’s what the prelecture talks and the progam notes are for. And if that’s not enough, read some books! I really don’t think people really care to invest that much time into learning something new which could fulfill them, which is the biggest crime of all.
The only way they’ve screwed themselves is catering to arrogant people that don’t appreciate the arts and think of their attendance and support as increased status because they feel they’re more sophisticated as a result.
January 19th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
Go read the classical CD reviews. The recording industry and the classical music profession has long marketed an idea of perfectability. Classical music as a pinnacle and a pinnacle has a single point, right. Since you seem to gloss over what I write - I am not saying I agree with this position. It is just a commonly held one and a reason that classical music performance has a dwindling audience in most markets.
Do you even read? I specifically said that such information should be in the program notes. It is not.
Your position is one of the reasons classical music is being out-competed in the marketplace. There is an arrogance that the music itself is so remarkable and so significant that it is the fault of the audience for not appreciating it. And such contempt in your last paragraph for anyone who doesn’t view it the same way. That same contempt is communicated pretty loud and clear to the audience who isn’t buying tickets.
Why change? Only something dead doesn’t change for hundreds of years. Classical music is well on its way. In case you haven’t noticed, the genesis of this thread is about how the Columbus Symphony is withering away. Your position is just not sustainable in the marketplace. The business can hold itself above and expect its audience to do likewise - and you are presenting that case - but it is a path to irrelevancy and then trivia.
On last comment on the marketplace - the competition is not wholly popular music and ‘easy’ music which the classical community likes to keep its superiority complex by telling itself. There is simply more music across the board. There is only a finite amount of time even when dollars are not a constraint. Spanning the seasons, I can name so many more ’serious’ music events I have opted for instead of the CSO. Phillip Glass. Tallis Scholars. Early Music. Ethnic music at the Wex/Mershon. Meredith Monk. Anonymous 4.
I don’t mean to pick on you, but your attitude and the-audience-must-change philosophy is exactly (IMO, if it must be said) has made a big contribution to pushing the CSO and classical music in general into irrelevance. Are you seriously maintaining that all is well or that it is reasonable to expect the audience to change? If so, how do you propose to change them?
A.
January 19th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
Organizations need to adapt, or they will not thrive. Or, in this case, they will not exist. It happens in business and the products we consume each day. Sometimes, change can be good. The OSU Marching Band swore it would never play “newfangled rock” in the 1960’s. 40 years later, “Hang On Sloopy,” is the second most known tradition the band has, and that is a military band built on 125 years of tradition.
I think the new format needs to be simple and that classical shouldn’t change from what they do now.
12 classical (try fewer guest artists, they honestly don’t draw many extra patrons unless it’s a piano night)
5 indoor pops (holiday pops, 4 other nights with pops themes)
4 educational (1 primary, 1 middle, 2 high school)
2 special events (john williams, midori, greatest rivalry in sports)
1 gala (keep this simple, too)
6 picnic with the pops (patriotic, two notable artists, OSUMB (x2), smaller artist)
3 popcorn pops (down 1 show)
Basically, trim the fat and stick to the basics: classical, pops, education. I would take out concerts for kids (those lose money like crazy), a young professionals initiative (until you have the people/funds to support it), and any of the little series that were launched this year (cabaret, top 40, enlighten). Chase tried to sponsor a new initiative that involved special event programming that needed media: Video Games Live, Barbie (which bombed), and Phantom. Sponsor the education series (which needs the help) and look good because you are supporting music education.
Once all of that is established, play to the venue. The symphony doesn’t always need to use the Ohio. Smaller shows with a smaller orchestra can be played in smaller venues. Just saying.