Symphony shuts down for summer, future in doubt
The Dispatch wrote
Symphony will shut down for summer with future in doubt
Thursday, May 8, 2008
BY JEFFREY SHEBAN
After 57 years of music making, including a triumphant concert in New York’s Carnegie Hall, the Columbus Symphony says it will shut down June 1.
Out of money and having failed to reach a new labor agreement with the musicians, the orchestra’s board of trustees said today that it is canceling the summer Picnic With the Pops and Popcorn Pops series and most likely its 2008-09 season, scheduled to begin in October.
Columbus would become one of the nation’s largest cities without a full-time professional orchestra.
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Related Tags: Art • columbus symphony orchestra • Music • orchestra • symphony
May 8th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
Yup. The longer this goes on, the more I favor blowing the whole thing up. There’s too much bad blood here. Hurts, but it’s probably the right thing.
May 8th, 2008 at 9:13 pm
maybe they should try the Stalinist era thinking of having no conductor, facing each other, and making all musical decisions by a consensus vote… or maybe they could tour ohio bars doing cover tunes
May 8th, 2008 at 9:14 pm
SymphonyStrong May Events 5/12/08
May. 7, 2008
Music Meets Cooking II Event
Columbus Symphony Orchestra League & Symphony Strong present
“Music Meets Cooking II” on May 12(Mon), 2008.
Maestro Junichi Hirokami vs. Sushi Chef Masa
Performed by:
Maestro Junichi Hirokami
Masa Sugiura, Sushi Chef
Columbus Symphony Musicians
RESERVATION IS REQUIRED BY FRIDAY, MAY 9, 2008
Admission to the event will be $75 per person for Sushi Dinner & Wines.
Location: 8405 Pulsar Place, Columbus OH 43240
Checks can be made out to the Columbus Symphony Orchestra League.
For reservations, call Lorie Copeland 614.891.0829,
or Email to CSOL@symphonystrong.com
*All proceeds will go to 501c3 Columbus Symphony Orchestra League. $60 per ticket is tax deductible.
Invitation PDF
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May 9th, 2008 at 12:42 am
Well, this particular young professional won’t be missing it.
May 9th, 2008 at 10:23 am
Something doesn’t seem right…..
Is it due to Money issues? Lack of interest, support, sponsorship, or is it mismanagement and entrenched leadership that is either out of date and/or out of touch? The only think I hear about is “The Symphony is out of Money” - WHY? One of the things that is noticeably absent is marketing and visibility. If they’re not making this a priority, its not surprising that news of the eventual demise of the symphony is falling upon deaf ears. Lack of context? Missing their audience? Venue? Whats the REAL deal?
I just can’t understand why a city as large as Columbus, with a seeming strong interest in the arts and music can’t support something as basic as a symphony. My heart goes out to the musicians who have taken cut after cut, and worked so hard to achieve their level of talent, without a positive end in sight.
Its time to start asking the HARD and uncomfortable questions, and to start naming names - Machiavellian I know, but, it doesn’t seem like there’s any option left.
I’m not one to b!tch w/o action so, I think I’ll do my part and make it a goal to hit the symphony once a month for the next year…. add culture to my life beyond my morning cup of Yogurt..
I’ll keep my eyes peeled for some good events that might be of interest to CU’s and maybe we can get some group sales goin’ on.
May 9th, 2008 at 10:36 am
Meh. Musicians are great professionals, but they shouldn’t demand to get paid more than the market will bear. It’s like a band going to a bar and asking for $10,000 to play one night because they are highly trained. The bar would decline to host them (and have a nice laugh.) Either lower your salaries, increase interest in your performances or forget it.
May 9th, 2008 at 11:05 am
We tried. I can’t speak to exactly what results Walker got, but other attempts to get some type of symphony event with a little zip were met with a rather bored referral to group sales. The CSO’s management had virtually no interest in a dialogue with potential patrons, attracting potential/lukewarm patrons or pretty much anything at all aside from whinging.
There is at least one other rather feisty thread around here about the symphony’s issues and my no-longer-alone opinion that it needs to die.
The musical universe available to people is so diverse and large now that it doesn’t make sense for every city to have a full-scale symphony. I was shocked and amazed to personally discover that places like Miami and Savannah that no longer had symphonies were NOT vast wastelands.
A.
May 9th, 2008 at 11:13 am
I think there’s a rallying cry, especially from members of the CU to “Support the Arts.” While I agree, the arts are very important, I’m never going to support the arts I don’t care about. I was bored out of my melon at the last Symphony performance I atteneded, and I’m not going to spend my money or time on them again in the near future. Having a symphony for the sake of having an additional bullet point for a powerpoint on how great Columbus is won’t cut it. We’re great without them, and I don’t think it sends a message of the city as hostile to the arts that the symphony can’t survive here.
May 9th, 2008 at 11:24 am
Ha! That’s awesome…
There definitely were a lot of things that weren’t right. By the time I left last August, I had serious questions about the viability of portions of the strategy. I wonder if there will be a rebirth in the fall or in the next few years?
May 9th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
Good point, sometimes things have to get a lot worse before they’ll get better. Sounds like its a matter of apathy on both sides of the fence, and it may just be time to walk away - hopefully releasing more $$ for those arts that are “hungry” and eager to engage/grow - like the local Indie Music scene…
Thats one of the things I’d love to see at Junctionview, is a more universally accessible rehearsal space - where you “subscribe” to studio time. The increased utilization and lowered cost would put rehearsal space within reach of a lot more bands - unless there’s an existing venue for that kinda thing already. It’d just be a matter of getting the acoustics under control as not to impact other artists. Sorry for the OT….
May 12th, 2008 at 1:13 am
The symphony musicians should go guerilla style and play on the streets during gallery hop for money.
May 12th, 2008 at 11:31 am
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May 12th, 2008 at 11:34 am
Well done.
Even if you took the Miami example from me …
A.
May 12th, 2008 at 11:55 am
Most of the info I read about Miami came from this article:
http://dispatch.com/live/content/life/stories/2008/03/24/0_UPS_AND_DOWNS_–_symphony.ART_ART_03-24-08_A1_BA9NHK0.html?sid=101
As well as some things I read from several wikipedia entries.
But your personal experience reported back from Miami helped fuel the fire for research as well. ;)
May 12th, 2008 at 11:58 am
Haven’t read this whole thread, but have to ask seriously…
Why doesn’t the CSO hire a guy to go after the big dollar benefactors and sell the hell out of it? It’s really not that freaking hard to generate big dollars fast in this way.
May 12th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
I think that well has run dry.
I suspect that the whales look at the history and recognize that w/o significant changes to CSO management, planning and internal culture, hookers and blow would be a more impactful to waste some spare millions.
A.
May 12th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
LOL..well, not to denigrate the beauty that is hookers and blow…but I’ve raised money over the years for incredibly stupid enterprises with little difficulty. It just seems like what the Symphony really needs is to spend about a hundred grand on a strong P.R. person to sell them.
May 12th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
I worked in an “institutional advancement” department for a while, and though I didn’t seek donations, I have some generalizations to make about donors. I do think Columbus has a handicap in the area of these big donors. There’s less old money here, and old money is brought up to see philanthropy to many causes as rote. There’s a lot more new money here than, say, Cleveland or Cincinnati, but in aggregate, they often don’t see philanthropy as much as an obligation to society but rather a way to give back where and when they choose, and often want a say in how their money is spent.
May 12th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
I absolutely agree, the “big names” are probably spent or not spending, but a great PR/salesman can tap the “new names” for crazy amounts of money if they’re good at their job. There’s a WHOLE ton of “medium names” like Wes Bates or Jack Ruscilli or Mark Corna though who just don’t get asked enough.
May 12th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
I am worried that we are loosing a valuable asset to our community. I understand that there is no corporate sponsorship. I’m just sadden that this cultural jewel is being lost. :(
May 12th, 2008 at 2:11 pm
It is relatively easy to raise money for a new stupid enterprise.
One that has been revealed as stupid is harder. I was involved in trying to rescue a group that had pissed in the pot and it was ice-skating uphill. The word was out even to people who hadn’t given to this group before.
They will have better luck scorching it down and starting over.
Do you go or are you another sideline hand-wringer?
This city has so many bright shiny objects in its cultural crown and so many new grains of sand, we won’t really miss an old rock that was long ago hocked and replaced with a paste replica.
A.
May 12th, 2008 at 3:46 pm
I know, right? I mean, we got 50 billion dollars to build something we don’t even have yet.
sorry, I couldn’t resist and don’t mean to go there.
I totally agree with you, though, Core. It seems like the “bigwigs” in this town have forgotten about a little thing called PR and marketing. I enjoy teh symphony and go when I can. I think thing thing nobody’s touched on is the fact that CSO supports the ballet and opera. Seems like, as much as we want to be a world-class city, we would support our cultural opportunities better.
May 12th, 2008 at 10:07 pm
personally, i’m really sad to see this happen. i have been a fairly regular attendee to CSO events including the classic series and picnic with the pops. i have always had a good time, and i will go enjoy the Yo Yo Ma concert this week.
at the start of all this, i was skeptical of the work of the board and managers of the organization, but the more this goes on, and the more i hear, i have become jaded to the “plight” of the musicians. they seem to be out of touch with the reality of the columbus classical music scene. the money isn’t there to continue with a $12+ million budget. i hope that something happens to bring this all around, but i think we may see this whole thing crumble before it is rebuilt. so sad.
May 14th, 2008 at 10:31 am
Article from the NY Times…
[url]http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/10/arts/music/10colu.html?scp=1&sq=hirokami&st=nyt[/url]
this is so sad.
May 16th, 2008 at 9:09 am
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