 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: weberfan
Date: 2009-03-12 05:06
A precarious state of play, from Thursday's (March 12) NYTimes.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/12/arts/music/12orch.html?_r=1&ref=arts
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Author: William
Date: 2009-03-12 15:09
Just goes to show that even the finist Mercedez can't find the end of the driveway without someone at the wheel.
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2009-03-12 15:42
Same url as a working link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/12/arts/music/12orch.html?_r=1&ref=arts
Wow. There's a certain amount of rumor and gossip in Daniel J. Wakins's article but I don't doubt that the orchestra's financial woes are real. Playing the clarinet for a living has always been a risky career choice (even riskier than playing stringed instruments or pianos, because clarinets are less in demand), but with so much similar news about orchestras and opera companies in financial distress around the globe right now, I hope everybody here has got more secure way to put food on the table. I also hope parents can go on pulling together enough money to keep their kids in music lessons and keep the instruments repaired. The joy of making music goes on even if the business of classical music keeps on contracting.
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.
Post Edited (2009-03-12 15:54)
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Author: D Dow
Date: 2009-03-12 17:31
They need a new artistic director...they also need Wolfgang Sawallisch but he is ill. I think they sounded best under Sawallisch. Hopefully things will get better...
didn't management in Philly propose at one point making the brass part time?
David Dow
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Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2009-03-12 18:02
No, but they did in the last contract negotiation try to remove certain positions that aren't regularly used - 2nd harp sticks in my mind as one, and I think maybe some of the 4th players in the wind and brass sections - so they could hire outside players as extras per service when they were needed.
Karl
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Author: Ed Palanker
Date: 2009-03-12 18:42
Many orchestra and other art institutions, museums and other types of non-profits are having problems in this economy. Hopefully things will begin to turn around sooner rather than later and things can begin back to normal. Many smaller organizations have already closed down or declared bankruptcy. It's a shame that in these hard times the government won't help these organization out like they are the hugh companies until they can get their footing. For some reason there are those out there that don't seem to realize that loosing a job working for an arts institution, be it a small symphony, opera, theatre as a musician or staff getting worker is the same as loosing their job working for a car company or bank. Unemployed is still unemployed period. Philly will survive this, maybe having to make some temporary sacrifices but many smaller organizations won't and they won't be around to serve their community once the economy turns around. ESP www.peabody.jhu.edu/457
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Author: Dileep Gangolli
Date: 2009-03-12 18:44
What we are witnessing is the following:
1) The standard of living in America, even among the wealthy, is declining rapidly. If you want a good job that will get better in the next 20 years, audition for the Shanghai Philharmonic or the Beijing Symphony.....not the Cleveland or Philadelphia Orchestras.
2) In terms of the overall economy, the Big Five orchestras are overpaid. If the administration is laying off people with salaries over $50K to make up for the deficit and the scale of the average musician in the group is $124K then something is wrong in the HR structure of the organization.
3) Successful business models in this industry do not always depend on a conductor....witness St Paul Chamber Orchestra or Orpheus.
4) Why is there a 2nde harp player on a full time contract.....seems much like the UAW asking why their Golden Goose at GM, Ford, and Chrysler is dying and in need of a bailout.
5) Philadelhia is a dead city demographically. What is the economy there? Do they really need a Big Five orchestra. I can now sit in my living room and stream stuff from Vienna, Berlin, London, LA ,etc for free. Tell me why if I was living in Philly would I need a top orchestra, esp if I can get to NYC in less than 2 hours???
Sorry folks for the gloom and doom but this is the New Reality!
If I was Riccardo (the Golden Child) I would take NYPO or CSO in a heartbeat and look at it as leaving the Titantic before it hit the iceberg. (No offense Leonardo DiCaprio).
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Author: William
Date: 2009-03-12 18:48
Leonardo D. plays the clarinet???????????
[oh--I get it........]
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Author: clarinetist04
Date: 2009-03-13 03:04
"What is the economy there?"
Philadelphia is (was?) a major financial, educational (with schools excelling in all areas of study - Curtis, UPenn, Temple, La Salle, Villanova, Drexel,...), and cultural center of the country. Not to mention the first capital of the country! It serves all of New Jersey and western PA don't forget and by itself and its close suburbs has almost a million and a half people.
But I see your point. What makes Philly any more prestigious than Dallas...yeah, I gotcha. Toning the sarcasm down a bit on my part, you're point is made.
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Author: Dileep Gangolli
Date: 2009-03-13 13:51
I know my intial tone was quite pessimistic. But trust me. What we are now seeing is the tip of the iceberg.
Smaller companies/orchrestras/arts organizations will be folding left and right just as private businesses.
Big organizations will have to regroup once they figure out what their endowments are worth and who their big donors are going to be and what they will give.
The Met announced serious cut backs a week ago. The Cleveland Orchestra now spends 7-10 weeks on the road (about 15% of a 52 week season) chasing donation dollars and earned revenue.
The world is changing rapidly and the American arts community will feel the pain just like all private middle class citizens in the USA.
The next ten years are going to be rough and cities with poor demographics and mired in the Old Economy (manufacturing, cars, finance, steel) will have a hard time as will every one else but to a lesser extent.
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Author: Ed Palanker
Date: 2009-03-13 21:59
Dileep said, "I can now sit in my living room and stream stuff from Vienna, Berlin, London, LA ,etc for free. Tell me why if I was living in Philly would I need a top orchestra, esp if I can get to NYC in less than 2 hours???"
Gee, maybe we don't need any orchestras, or operas, or any arts organizations in the USA. Americians can just watch it all on TV and our computers. ESP
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Author: JJAlbrecht
Date: 2009-03-13 23:43
Even bertter, Ed.... We can just listen to computer-generated garbage. NOT!!!!
The reason I attend (and pay to attend) live performances is that hearing a concert in person is infinitely more pleasurable that having it "phoned in" to my computer. Especially when you can hear a great orchestra in a really excellent concert hall.
Additionally, I believe in suppoorting local artistic organizations. Call me old fashioned, but...
One other thing to address someone else's comment above,... Philly serves EASTERN Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh is the metropolis of the western half of the state.
Jeff
“Everyone discovers their own way of destroying themselves, and some people choose the clarinet.” Kalman Opperman, 1919-2010
"A drummer is a musician's best friend."
Post Edited (2009-03-13 23:48)
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2009-03-14 13:10
I don't share the most pessimistic views of the current state of classical music, although clearly, in the short term, arts organizations will be among the first victims of any economic downturn, because the arts aren't neccessary in the same way that food and shelter are necessary. A further, unnecessary blow comes from that unspeakable crook, Madoff, and his ilk, who stole from sponsors of so many philanthropic organizations. Normally, I hate to see a 70-year-old man confined to an 8x10' cell, instead of sentenced to home confinement where he could receive medical and other care more appropriate for his age, but in his case -- the hell with him. Throw away the key.
Yet art and music are part of the human psyche and they're not going away, even as some of the glitzier venues fail. As long as parents can scrape together the money for instruments and lessons -- and even if they can't -- people will make music in private while the economy struggles along. Though eventually the economy will bounce back enough to fully fund the more lavish enterprises, music may even become healthier in some ways during the downturn, as people rely on ourselves more instead of using music as a spectator sport and leaving it all to the pros. Not that I need to preach that message here! -- where nearly all of us already know how intensely rewarding it is to do it ourselves.
My husband, never a pro musician, plays his violin with three or four different chamber music groups every week. The groups rotate in and out of each other's homes and there's no expense involved except for upkeep on the instruments and the occasional purchase of sheet music (very occasional, since all of these people are old enough to have accumulated huge libraries). As Shadow Cat could grumpily attest, I'm equally active in my own way, up here in my attic with a piano and a ridiculous collection of old wind instruments I've either restored myself or taken to the excellent repair shop of Peter Ferrante over the years. As long as I can pay for the reeds, I can have more music than I've got time to play. Kevin and I both came from families that never had loads of spare money lying around, but our parents gladly provided for music lessons and put up with the horrible beginner noises. Dad and my in-laws know, and Mom (R.I.P.) knew, how much that support has meant to our lives ever since and how grateful we are.
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.
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