It began with a strike in Detroit, followed by a collapse at Syracuse.
Now Philadelphia is within 24 hours of debating, if not declaring, bankruptcy.
For the first time, a Big Five orchestra could go out of business.
Whatever happens tomorrow at the creditors meeting, I sense that we are in the throes of a long-delayed awakening in the US orchestra sector.
As in the Arab Spring, orchestral governance and finances have been frozen in time. There have been few new ideas – on the East Coast, at least – and sticky plaster has been applied where strategic thought was required.
Worn-out executives replaced retiring executives. The boards grew board. Musicians, like Arab politicians, became avaricious when fearful for their future.
And it’s not over yet. Not by half. Boston needs a new chief conductor, New York a new manager. Both are going down the tired old search routes. If these big bands don’t dare to break the mould, they risk being broken on the wheel of history.
This is a seminal moment for American orchestras. It could be their rite of spring.
And in Brazil, the
revolution rages on. Where will it all end?
I had one of my periodic lunches yesterday with Sir Neville Marriner, of which not a word may pass my lips.
Today, April 15, is Neville’s birthday. He’s 87.
Being Neville, he was just off a plane from somewhere and onto a train, always on the go, back from conducting the Academy of St Martins across Germany, the New World Symphony in Miami, some other orchestra in Poland.
No conductor apart from Herbert von Karajan has made more recordings than Neville and none was ever so hyperactive in his late eighties, driven by the lifelong urge to provide good work for good musicians and by sheer pleasure in what he does.
There was a bulging briefcase beside his chair. ‘What’s in there?’ we wondered.
Two scores he had never conducted before. He was learning them, at 87, for a tour next year. As a favour to a friend.
Happy birthday, Neville!
Here’s one I wrote earlier, seven years ago.
There are two UK contestants in the coming Cliburns for amateurs
One is named as Andrea de Tomas, a lawyer from London. Quick search shows up at City banking and finance firm Bonelli Erede Pappalardo, with one public recital at St John’s Smith Square.
The other contender, seriously exciting, is Dominic Piers Smith, team leader in aerodynamics for Mercedes Formula One Team. Just shows all that revving noise doesn’t wreck your ears.
I was quietly minding my own media empire at the IAMA conference, which ends today, when a youngish man with curly brown hair came and sat next to me, waiting politely until I had finished a live paragraph on my notebook.
I recognised his name-tag from recent email exchanges, but that was it. He said ‘I wonder if you remember an invitation to a rather offbeat festival in Upper Austria some years back?’
How could I forget? I had been approached to speak at a music weekend in a monastery, with a broadcast on national radio, ORF. Irresistible. I accepted Brother D’s invitation like a shot and was packing my bags when a bug struck and I was bedridden for the weekend.
God’s will, I mailed him apologetically. We’ll cope, he replied.
‘I am Brother D,’ said the polite young man at IAMA. ‘Or was.’
‘What happened?’ I demanded.
‘Long story…. but I’m an artists’ agent now.’
So you see, there are holy men in the music biz. You just have to dig deep to find them.
