LA Phil executive churn continues
OrchestrasThe promotion of oldtimers into chiefs with six-figure salary increases is continuing at the increasingly troubled and worryingly clueless Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Here’s an internal memo:
Dear Colleagues,
As is our custom, I’m again sharing the month’s update regarding staff changes. While we saw an uptick in interviews for our open full-time positions last month, the movement to new roles came from internal transitions.
TRANSITIONS
As you may have heard from your direct leaders, Renae Williams Niles has resigned from her role as our Chief Content and Engagement Officer. She will transition to a role as Advisor, Engagement starting August 8. Renae will continue her legacy of being a tremendous asset to the LA Phil’s position as a leader in our vast artistic offerings in our community and beyond.
With Renae’s transition, Meghan Umber will move into the Chief Content Officer role, and Nora Brady is now the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer. The Learning and Government & Community Engagement teams will now report to Summer Bjork, Chief of Staff. Please join us in congratulating our colleagues on their new roles.
DEPARTURES
We wish Tristan Rodman from Marketing & Communications and Brenda Diaz from Finance the very best as they move to the next phases in their career journeys.
Have an awesome week,
Emanuel
Emanuel Maxwell
Chief Talent and Equity Officer
Los Angeles Philharmonic Association
These orchestras are far too overstuffed with these bureaucrats, none of whom play, sing, or conduct a single note. They would run much more efficiently and economically without them.
How utterly uninformed! The orchestras require administrators to function seamlessly. Their expertise allows the musicians to focus on their art. Appreciate the delicate balance of their collaboration instead of ignorant criticism.
Both Nora and Meghan are trained musicians and are artistically savvy. There are other executives in LA Phil, however, that couldn’t tell Vivaldi from Verdi.
They already had six-figure salaries, silly!
Is it possible that these “old timers” might have some experience and institutional memory that would prove valuable to the company? Did the company actually announce that these promotions came with six figure salary increases?
Sounds like Corporate America. And that’s because it is.
These Bozos in the front offices love their titles and areas of “expertise” but they are usually pretty lame.
How about a title like:
PMO (Put Musicians Onstage)
So, they’ve got a “Chief Talent and Equity Officer”, a “Chief Content and Engagement Officer” and “Government & Community Engagement” teams. Is this the federal bureaucracy with overlapping responsibilities and layers? How much donor money is going to this?
Functionally three very different things. A Chief Talent Officer looks inward toward staff – it’s a head of HR position. A Chief Content officer is about going outward (developing content, performance, art for audiences and overseeing those related departments). And – as per Government – LA Phil is deeply tied to the LA County Supervisors and the Hollywood Bowl is a county-owned (and long-term leased) facility, so government relations are pretty key.
The shifts outlined in this letter make sense. It’s smart restaffing.
The LA Phil is a $150M+ org that makes most of its annual on earned revenue from the HB. Its business model is completely different from other orchestras and its position in its region is completely different from any other American orchestra.
Disney Hall is also owned by the County.
It’s likely smart restaffing, yes. However LA Phil is an oroborus with only keeping staff in power who have worked there a long time. There are no fresh ideas, no reward for a new-comer. The culture is devastating for new employees and GOOD LUCK to the yet-to-be-named CEO.
“ouroboros,” but it was a good try. — former spelling bee nerd
“Chief Talent and Equity Officer” seems to be head of HR, who is writing this email. The old “Chief Content and Engagement Officer” says on her LinkedIn page that her job was to “Oversee all vision implementation of programming and creative collaboration across all venues (Hollywood Bowl, The Ford, Walt Disney Concert Hall) as well as Marketing/Communications, Learning (including YOLA) and Government/Community Engagement departments.” She has been at the LA Phil for only 2 years. It seems her responsibility is now split and taken up by different people. I suspect there is now *less* overlapping responsibilities than before, but these titles are very silly indeed.
I remember when they called it Personnel!
Even before they called it “Human Resources”
And now all this blather….
You think this is bad? Take a look at Dallas Opera…
The LA Phil’s announcement elicits more questions than answers.
Renae only received the position because she was a friend of Chad Smith’s. While she has been involved in arts administration, she absolutely wasn’t qualified to oversee Programming, Learning, Marketing/Communication, and Gov’t/Community Engagement at an organization the size of the LA Phil.
And the fact that she’s now going to be an “advisor” is very suspect, as that title was basically an honorific used for Ms. Leni Boorstin while she on-boarded the person hired when she retired. Renae doesn’t have the depth or breadth of connections to the gov’t officials like the current Director of Gov’t/Community Engagement (who worked for both the Governor and the Mayor). I feel as though there is more to this than her “resignation”.
The Chief of Staff position has been a mystery to me since its inception, given that until now no one reported to the “Chief of Staff”. There was never a need for the COS, and there still isn’t. The COS duties should be handled by the COO, as it was for so many years. Learning has a Vice Presidents, so why should they report to a C-level? The agency of the VPs have been removed since they can’t make decisions without seeking approval from C-levels.
There is simply no justification for having such a top-heavy organization. It’s a tremendous waste of money, and only serves to disenfranchise middle-management (which the Vice-Presidents have now been relegated to), and completely silence the voices of the workers down the food chain.
Please don’t try this sort of analysis on The Metropolitan Opera. Just spare yourself.
Glory Hallelujia
Now American Symphonic Management can boldly claim to be the equal of Corporate America with the slathering of titles to anyone who agrees with the CEO at weekly staff meetings.
We have arrived. All is OK because for every musician there are four administrators to put them on stage.
Do not worry about WW III, Climate Change, guns, Trump 2024, economic inequality, homelessness, etc.
We’ve got this.
You can’t make up this “stuff.”