Creative Destruction

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...]

New technologies emerged. At first this development seemed positive. There were new programs on the radio and television. More people heard music through the new technologies than ever before. Certain musicians proved to be very good teachers within the new mediums. Many people were inspired. Radio and television offered new ways to experience extraordinary events and entertainment. They were fun and they felt freer than the traditional entertainment formats. As those technologies matured, each venue of delivery, called stations or channels, … [Read more...]

Part 2 of 6 Time passed. The cost of the concerts grew. This was, in part, due to the professionalization of management. There were larger staffs with specialists in fundraising, marketing and administration. The musicians cost more too. They were increasingly of a new, educated class. Many had two and even three degrees. The season grew to encompass a much larger part of the year. The artistic level of the musicians rose dramatically. The musicians, quite rightly, expected a living wage for the commitment of time and the expectation of … [Read more...]

Part 1 of 6 Once upon a time in America, there were concerts. People went to them and then went home. In between those two activities they listened to great music. That was the whole point. It was a total experience inside the concert hall, complete in and of itself. These concerts needed organizational structures to become stable. They needed administrators, volunteers, conductors, guest artists and a predictable roster of musicians. The people who produced the concerts explored different ways of organizing themselves. There were many … [Read more...]

I heard a wonderful concert by The Cleveland Orchestra a few weeks ago. Soloist Richard Goode performed Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto on a program that included Carl Maria von Weber's Overture to Der Freischütz and Rachmaninoff's Second Symphony. Goode was eloquent in the Beethoven, and the orchestra played nuance upon nuance to help create an unforgettable accompaniment. Ivan Fischer conducted, although that hardly seems an adequate term. It might be better to say he prodded, seduced, led and inspired the orchestra - first to remind all … [Read more...]

When Doug McLennan asked me to write this blog, he told me that the most successful ones connect the writing to the experiences the blogger has in daily life. I write about building arts communities, and for several weeks I've been thinking that the following story should be told. It certainly grows out of real life, and the lives involved are close to me and involve a musician whose artistry is legendary. Last April my brother, Jim, copied an e mail he had sent to the great pianist, Andre Watts. Since it says everything better than I possibly … [Read more...]

In the Epilogue to Alex Ross's marvelous book, The Rest is Noise, he writes "Extremes become their opposites in time." Although he is making a completely different point than I want to focus on, I agree with him entirely.Opera began in the privacy of the upper crust of society: Baroque Italy's artistic patrons and political leaders provided the settings for the Florentine Camerata and the Italian madrigal to merge into a new genre. Cavalieri led to Peri and Caccini. Monteverdi and Cavalli followed, and in time opera's high production costs … [Read more...]