Klarinet Archive - Posting 000236.txt from 2003/09

From: Tom.Henson@-----.com
Subj: RE: [kl] Documentary on London Philharmonia Orchestra on Ovation
Date: Wed, 10 Sep 2003 14:49:49 -0400

I wanted to add that while this is an excellent documentary of life as a
professional musician, it may not be the norm. It does tend to paint a bleak
picture and I would hesitate to show this to a young musician without some
explanation and discussion.

One of the points that was made in this program was that the Philharmonia is
perhaps the busiest orchestra in the world. The reason given was that due to
a lack of adequate funding, they had to play more gigs to make additional
revenue to support themselves. One comment was made that they had about 500
calls in a single year which I would imagine is quite a lot. This much work
would burn anyone out after a while.

Also, the orchestra does not have a large support staff behind it running
things behind the scenes. Their business office is located above a dress
shop. They are self governing and performing members are elected by the
orchestra to various positions. When someone has a complaint or needs
something they take it directly to the managing director (the principal
flutist in this case). It is then put before a board of peers for review and
action.

The principal clarinetist (Mike White) was being worked particularly hard
and submitted a request to have a co-principal clarinetist to share the
burden. His request was reviewed in the documentary and then a meeting was
held where it was denied. He subsequently quite at the end of the season due
to this.

His comment to the camera was that the orchestra had lost a lot of fine
musicians due to the way it was run and the decisions that had been made by
the governing counsel.

I am hoping that some of our list members who have worked, or are working in
this type of environment would comment as well.

Tony Pay especially would be valuable since he is from London and probably
knows most of the people that were featured in this documentary.

-----Original Message-----
From: James Hobby [mailto:jhobby@-----.net]
Subject: Re: [kl] Documentary on London Philharmonia Orchestra on Ovation
Channel

According to their schedule, Ovation's next repeat of The Phil is Saturday,
9/28, starting at 9:00 AM Eastern time. (US) They're showing all three
parts; three hours in a row.

Jim Hobby

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