Archives for March 2010

Much has changed around us. We haven't changed much. Embedded in these last six entries are indictments of our ways of doing what we do, the practices we have come to call normal. They are killing us. Killing the field, and ultimately killing the art. Yes, it's true that things happened to us, but we also happened to things. In other words, we were comfortable with the way we were, we were terribly slow to adapt, and it has caught up to us. We still tend to think of management and artists as being adversaries. Our contracts have almost no … [Read more...]

Part 6 of 6 The monopoly of the past century was finished. All seemed lost. That year was a catastrophe. As the months progressed, income plummeted for the organizations while the expenses continued at the same level as before. Again this was because the organizations tried to honor the promises they had made months earlier when they had announced their concerts, repertoire, and guests. Finally, when the season ended they made drastic cuts. Everyone hoped people would return to the concerts, but many didn't. They also hoped their donors … [Read more...]

Part 5 of 6 Then the bottom fell out. Of course, the bottom didn't only drop out on the world of the concert-giving organizations; it was systemic. It crossed every boundary, every country, every business. It was incredible. Many people lost their jobs. Many businesses failed. It was a free-fall. And it kept falling. Everyone thought there would be a bottom, but each month the crisis deepened. Even the banks were in trouble, and certain large companies too. But they got massive government help so they survived. This support said much … [Read more...]

They were in great danger, but they could not see it.Of course, in the background were frequent economic expansions followed by recessions. The recessions were particularly tough on the organizations because their business model didn't allow them to react quickly enough. When the audiences and contributions would get smaller as a result of the temporary economic downturn, there would naturally be a deficit. It was as if there were two slopes, similar in shape but one always a bit behind the other. The forward slope represented revenues, while … [Read more...]