on the record

Orchestras and the League: Staying Connected Post-Presidentially

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 10:04:54 -0500

I've been asked a lot what I planned to do after retiring from the League of American Orchestras at the end of June. The first thing I have to clarify is that I am not "retiring." I am stepping down as president and CEO, because after 45 years of managing budgets I would like to stop (sort of like stopping hitting one's head against a wall). But I will retain a relationship with the League - spending half of my working time on their behalf, continuing to visit orchestras around America and reporting back to the League what I learn, while, I hope, offering some advice and counsel to those orchestras. In addition, I will remain involved in the League's conductor programs, and in some of their seminars and mentoring circles.

Newspapers and the disappearing music critic: Where's the leadership?

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 15:03:38 -0500

Well, here we go again. You will remember recent discussion here and elsewhere about the almost-elimination of the position of music critic at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. A combination of local and national pressure reversed that decision. But now we have the situation all over again, this time in Kansas City and Miami. Here's a digest that appeared June 20 in In the News, the League of American Orchestras' daily newsletter to the orchestra field:

The National Performing Arts Convention

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 14:49:24 -0500

June 11-14, 2008 saw the first true National Performing Arts Convention, a gathering of service organizations in Denver representing all of the performing arts. It is true that a similarly-billed convention took place in Pittsburgh, in 2004. But because that was a toe-in-the-water attempt, it was more a grouping of separate conferences with opening and closing sessions produced jointly, and one day (Saturday) of joint seminars and workshops that were not all that well attended, many having departed for home by Saturday morning.

League of American Orchestras 2008 Conference Address

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 14:44:15 -0500

As I completed my tenure as president and CEO of the League of American Orchestras, I felt it appropriate to share with the delegates to our annual conference in Denver thoughts that I had been gathering during that tenure. Although I will continue to represent the League by visiting orchestras around the country, as I have for more than five years now, and will deepen my involvement with some orchestras by doing more extensive consulting with them, I felt that the conclusion of that specific position--and in fact the conclusion of 45 consecutive years of full-time positions directly or indirectly connected with symphony orchestras--was an appropriate occasion for reflection and observation. So I hope you won't mind my taking advantage of the opportunity of sharing that speech with you. Here is the text of the speech.

Why I Don't Comment on Labor Difficulties

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 11:17:23 -0500

I have received a number of comments, particularly recently, asking why I don't explore the difficulties that some orchestras, such as the Columbus Symphony, are experiencing, and perhaps offer analysis and even recommendations for solutions.

Women on the Podium: It's About Time

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 09:57:32 -0500

I know I have written before about the topic of female conductors, and how this area has so completely changed during my professional life. But I have to raise it again because, well, it raised itself, in March and April.

Managing Well and Spotting Talent: Eugene Does It Right

Fri, 30 May 2008 12:42:52 -0500

I wonder if there's something in the water in Eugene, Oregon. For a relatively small community it seems to me to have a remarkably vital arts community. The Oregon Bach Festival, the Oregon Mozart Players, the Shedd Institute (which presents the Oregon Festival of American Music and many other events, and has an extensive music education program), the Eugene Symphony Orchestra, and a number of other organizations exist side by side and bring an enormous range and scope of activities to the city. Having just spent two days there, most of it with the Eugene Symphony Orchestra, I came away as I have before, thinking that this is a very special place.

NPAC: Performing Arts Unite in Denver

Fri, 23 May 2008 10:27:46 -0500

Less than a month from now a remarkable event will take place in Denver: the National Performing Arts Convention, scheduled for Tuesday, June 10 through Saturday, June 14. Although it's billed as the second such convention (the first was in Pittsburgh in 2004), it will actually be a first in most ways. In Pittsburgh, the various service organizations combined for an opening session on a Wednesday night, and produced some combined discussions and sessions on Saturday. But on Thursday and Friday, the individual organizations each operated their own independent conferences.

California's Modesto Symphony: Involving the Citzenry

Fri, 16 May 2008 10:30:18 -0500

I have written continuously about symphony orchestras and community engagement. I keep saying that the biggest change in the behavior of orchestras around the country in the past decade or so is that they are re-examining their relationships with their communities, expanding those relationships so that they are so much more than givers of concerts - although of course those concerts are and will always be at the center of what they are. But orchestras must be more than givers of subscription concerts - they must be meaningful to a wide range of people, many of whom may never actually attend those concerts. From a time when community programs started with the hope that they might increase attendance, they have become programs with a different goal - a goal of the symphony orchestra being a true community resource.

Community Engagement: The Route to Civic Stature

Fri, 09 May 2008 09:45:51 -0500

A major element of the League of American Orchestras' strategic plan concerns an oft-misunderstood concept that we call "achieving civic stature." Simply put, it refers to an orchestra reaching a point in its community where the entire community views it as a resource of value, something central to the life of that community. Even more simply put, it refers to orchestras finding ways to be of relevance to people who may never come to a subscription concert. I believe that over the past ten to fifteen years, this area represents one of the most significant changes in the behavior of orchestras in America. But because it is not marked by a single, dramatic event, it has been largely unnoticed by the press, even by those who observe orchestras regularly and keenly.

Artistic Policy: A Collaborative Product

Fri, 02 May 2008 12:47:34 -0500

One of the really interesting issues that I keep coming across as I visit a wide range of symphony orchestras in America is the question of what is sometimes called "artistic policy." And the central issue around it is "who is in charge?" One's immediate instinct is to say, of course, the music director. The old cliché is that the music director is in charge of the artistic product, the executive director is in charge of the business, and the board governs both. The problem is that that model doesn't work. It probably never really did, but in our more complex times it certainly doesn't. The reality is that there is hardly any artistic decision that can be made that does not have a financial implication, and there is hardly a financial decision that doesn't have an artistic implication. As a general rule (there are always exceptions, of course) the orchestras that I encounter that are most successful by any objective standards are orchestras where there is a true collaborative spirit between the executive and artistic directors (and, sometimes, the board leadership as well - depending on knowledge and experience). The old-fashioned music director who stands on a pedestal as well as a podium, and single-handedly makes programming decisions without discussion and genuine input from others is vanishing, and in my view none too soon.

The Music Director's Place

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 10:25:37 -0500

There has been a growing trend over the past ten or fifteen years, more prevalent in small or mid-sized orchestras than in the largest ones, but true in some of those as well. This trend has been to change the "reporting structure" of symphony orchestras. The traditional structure, still in place in the majority of orchestras, is that the music director and the executive director (that latter title may in some places be "president," "managing director," or something else) both report to the board, usually through the board chair (sometimes called "president" - am I confusing you yet?). The new trend is to have the music director report to the executive director. I presume this has come about because boards and their chairs feel they don't have the professional competence, experience, and/or knowledge to "supervise" the conductor. Another reason, perhaps, is that the conductor is often out of town guest conducting, but we still don't have a tradition of guest managing, so the executive director tends to be "home" year-round.

The Total Customer Experience

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 10:53:24 -0500

In my visits to orchestras around the country, and my conversations with administrations and boards, I am sometimes struck by how orchestral organizations undervalue the importance of the total customer experience. There is no question that high-quality playing, committed performances, and vibrant programming are the most essential ingredients in an orchestra's success. But these things alone won't do it. An orchestral institution must examine every single aspect of the customer experience and raise it to the highest possible level.

The Place of Arts in our Society

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 15:06:54 -0500

As we begin to get to the serious part of another presidential campaign, along with all of the other domestic and international issues that confront us, my mind turns to the place of the arts in our society. Some of the candidates have actually begun to articulate positions on the arts and arts education (I'll avoid appearing to advocate here - you can certainly do the research) and that is gratifying. I believe strongly that how any society views the arts says much about the quality of that society. Last year I was asked to give a commencement speech at Bowling Green University, and I decided to make that my subject. Because of my strong feelings about this subject, and because I believe that public policy regarding the arts deserves a visible place in a political campaign, I am going to re-print that speech here, even though it is significantly longer than a normal blog entry. I hope you don't mind, but these are thoughts I wanted to share with you.

Wide Support Found for Imagination-Based Education

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 13:21:57 -0500

Many of us know that music education in America's public schools is not what it once was. Some of us are old enough to remember when virtually every public school had an orchestra as well as a band, and taught music in a variety of ways. The decline of music education, indeed all arts education, in our school systems has been widely commented on.