Doublereed Archive - Posting 000065.txt from 2003/06

From: Barbara Trautwein <mzeztee@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: [DR-L] The REAL Culprits!
Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2003 12:32:13 -0400

On Wed, 14 May 2003, gbur wrote:
You all might enjoy reading Sheldon Morgenstern's "No Vivaldi in the
Garage", another take on the same subject. . .

B
> Phil and Fellow Double Reeders!
>
> Phil's original posting has generated a new thread concerning public school
> music and govt. supported arts in the schools and the concert halls. If anyone
> would like a blistering take on the heinous situation facing orchestras here
> and abroad, look to "Who Killed Classical Music?: maestros, managers, and
> corporate politics" by Norman Lebrecht, published by the Carol Publishing
> Group in 1997. Orchestras cannot standup up to the double threat of obscenely
> inflated conductors' salaries and guest artists' fees coupled with the antics
> of the Cretins of Wallstreet! Many of the groups that have folded or are in
> trouble have their endowment funds unwisely invested in the stock market and
> have been suffering horrible losses.
>
> On the matter of salaries and fees . . . when a music director demands, and
> gets, a salary more than five times the base salary for the orchestra,
> something is *very* wrong! Eventual theses "artistes" are going to price
> themselves out of work but are unfortunately driving too many organizations
> into bankruptcy in the meantime. Guest artist fees, yeah, same story. A famous
> soprano (Georgia native) gave a recital to inagurate the new performing arts
> center at one of the universities in Georgia. Her fee . . . $75,000 for the
> one performance, AND the expense of staying at a luxury hotel in downtown
> Atlanta, AND a limousine to cart her around, AND some structural work to the
> performing facility itself in order to comply with demands in her contract!
> Admittedly, I'm only a multi-tasked academic, but I doubt if I'll ever make
> $75,000 a YEAR before I retire. :-)
>
> There are many regional orchestras with "no name" conductors (sorry guys!) who
> are great musicians and do a great job. These groups are usually able to keep
> the wolves from the door and satisfy their audiences. Some of the Boards of
> Directors of some of the Big Groups need to take a long hard look at Music
> Director salaries and their annual guest artist budget and face reality!
>
> Stepping off my Soapbox for now . . . .
>
> Bruce Gbur
>
> Bruce Gbur, D.M.A.
> Assistant Professor
> Double Reeds and Music History
> Director of the Collegium Musicum
> Music Department
> Kansas State University
> 223 McCain Auditorium
> Manhattan, KS 66506
> 785/532-3821
> http://www-personal.ksu.edu/~gbur/
>
>
> "The older I get, the less gladly I suffer fools." Bruce Gbur
>
> "First God invented idiots; that was for practice. Then He invented School Boards." Mark Twain
>
> "This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than before." Leonard Bernstein
>
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