I've taken my title from Tony Woodcock, the President of New England Conservatory, who used the phrase in his blog, and right at the start of something he wrote for a lively NEC student publication, The Penguin. (So named because the penguin -- because of classical music's white tie and tails -- is NEC's mascot.)And in The Penguin he says the phrase is now his mantra. Remarkable, I think, for the head of a classical music school. He trusts the future of classical music to his students. He knows they'll change the field. And he's helping … [Read more...]

As I noted before, the orchestra cost squeeze is truly a squeeze. Or, in other words, it's not a flat phenomenon, a simple matter of income declining, because ticket sales and donations are falling off. No, it's got another dimension: expenses are rising. And the falling income/rising expense squeeze gets worse over time. Previous posts: the overall situation, declining ticket sales, declining donations. Here's the rising expenses part of the story.Expenses rise, first of all, for all of us -- businesses, nonprofits, … [Read more...]

Some years ago, a major figure in the orchestra world told me a story. Foundations, he said, were losing interest in funding orchestras. So he and a colleague went to an annual foundation gathering, to try to stir up some interest. At this gathering, he said, anyone could invite foundations to a meeting, to discuss funding projects. Normally, he said, 20 to 30 foundations would show up whenever one of those meetings was called.So he and his colleagues invited foundations to talk about funding orchestras. Only five or so came -- a … [Read more...]