But as some American orchestras struggle in the post-downturn economy, they are taking a page from the corporate world and thinking smaller: They are downsizing, shedding some full-time positions while making up the difference with less costly part-time musicians.<\/p>\n
The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra ended a contentious labor dispute and a two-month lockout this month by agreeing to a new contract<\/a> that will effectively keep it smaller for the next few years \u2014 placing it in the company of major ensembles in Philadelphia<\/a>, Detroit<\/a>, Indianapolis, Minnesota and elsewhere that have temporarily or permanently trimmed their number of full-time musicians in recent seasons to save money. Some are now slowly rebuilding.<\/p>\n …\u00a0musicians warn that an overreliance on freelancers endangers the things that make orchestras great: the cohesion that comes from playing together over many years, the performing traditions that are developed Is this move inevitable? Is there a point — a number of players or proportion of shrinkage — where serious and irrepperable damage to an orchestra’s mission takes place? How low can you go?<\/p>\n We’re surely better off with these groups surviving in smaller form than shutting down completely, but isn’t there a better way?<\/p>\n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [contextly_auto_sidebar id=”QRGZQv2nVOSC4XC8B8Ht1HMnBnYyaFZJ”] IF you’ve been following the creative economy lately, it’s hardly a surprise, but this makes for dispiriting reading: A New York Times story chronicles how American groups are responding to tough times. Through the 19th century, orchestras got bigger. But as some American orchestras struggle in the post-downturn economy, they are taking a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[54,39,31],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2480","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-classical-music","7":"category-creative-class","8":"category-downturn","9":"entry","10":"has-post-thumbnail"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2480"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2480\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2484,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2480\/revisions\/2484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Philadelphia_Orchestra_at_American_premiere_of_Mahler's_8th_Symphony_(1916)\"](\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Philadelphia_Orchestra_at_American_premiere_of_Mahlers_8th_Symphony_1916-300x160.jpg\")
and passed down, even the ability to divine in a flash what a familiar conductor is seeking with a cocked eyebrow or a flick of the wrist.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n