Suffering orchestras (3): This is not the Sofia Philharmonic
OrchestrasMusicians of Bulgaria’s leading orchestra have contacted us to assert that the ensemble presently being toured in the US as the Sofia Philharmonic is nothing of the sort. They say: ‘That is absolutely not true. In the US now are less than a dozen of our colleagues out of 60 musicians. The Sofia Phil is at home doing our season as listed here.
The musicians further maintain that neither of the conductors touring with the orchrstra have any title with the Sofia Philharmonic.
The US tour of the ‘Sofia Philharmonic’ is being managed by CAMI Music.
Wow! This is serious. We are well used to rock group squabbles over who can use the name, but is this a first for a symphony orchestra?
I seem to recall that there was some question of legitimacy when the RPO’s name was used for Deep Purple’s Concerto for Group and Orchestra. If memory serves, the ensemble was largely freelancers, but the RPO welcomed the resulting income stream from use of the name.
It’s not new but common practice in China for many years especially during their new year events. Its new for me that this happens now in the US.
Shhhh, don’t tell! It’s supposed to be a secret that Andrew Grossman is behind the recent slew of “fake orchestras” being toured by CAMI Music: first Lviv, then Sofia, and now claiming they have a future tour of the Czech Phil. Some things never change.
The question the musicians of the Sofia Philharmonic need to get answered is whether the orchestra management signed a contract with Cami. Given that US tour concerts are listed on the orchestra’s website for January 2024, it seems likely that they did. Normally the exclusive use of a name would be included within such the contract so either Cami must have viable grounds for a lawsuit or (if Cami were aware of the duplication), both Cami and the orchestra management would need to explain how a single orchestra can play live simultaneously on two continents. What is most depressing is that we can be certain of two things: some are exploiting art and artists for financial gain whilst others in far greater numbers are being exploited. That is the true modern American way is it not? Vive le capitalisme!
My first response is that this is a deception.
But if you look at the website of the State Theater in New Brunswick you see that the only classical orchestral concerts they are presenting this season are this and something called the Kyiv Virtuosi Symphony Orchestra. And they are selling pretty well. If this is what it takes to get people to listen to Beethoven, with all respect to the real Sofia ensemble, maybe it is not such a terrible thing.
The producers of the alleged SP are advertising like crazy on META sites. The fact that in NYC they are performing at Lehman College in The Bronx clearly shows you that the big and small venues in Manhattan rejected the orchestra. That said, if they are producing good music and are Bulgarian…..
The name is not owned by the musicians and the administration can do what they like with it as long as it’s legal and I can’t see any reason why this isn’t. I can see why it puts musicians’ noses out of joint. Despite the surprise here, this practice has been around for decades.
Nothing new here – those with access to New York Times content can review detailed exposés from 2010 and 2011:
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/17/arts/music/some-foreign-orchestras-offer-misleading-credentials.html?searchResultPosition=4
https://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/04/arts/music/04symphony.html?searchResultPosition=14
There have been gig orchestras cobbled together in America for over a Century whenever a producer cobbles together enough money and gig musicians to play. The Columbia Masterworks orchestra used to be cobbled together when Stravinsky wanted to conduct his works live. There were different assemblages of musicians on both coasts for that “orchestra”….Bruno Walter often conducted that “orchestra” on the West Coast made up of LA Phil and film studio musicians happy for the work. Today, “The Orchestra of St. Lukes” in NYC is a for hire orchestra which has best available musicians at any one time. Russia used to send over specially assembled orchestras with fancy names for American produced concerts. This is non story. As I said in another post, if they make good music at a professional level and come from the stated country, so what.
I attended a concert by the “Sofia” orchestra in Sarasota FL and was a dreadful. Main selection was Beethoven’s 7th. Orchestra was more like a chamber ensamble. 3 horns, 2 bass fiddles, 2 celli. Absolutely no weight playing the great 7th. And- not only was the group too small for the program, there were too many off key notes – especially from the horns
The other piece offered was Beethoven’s 5th piano concerto. The pianist was 16 yrs old. I paid to hear a professional concert, not give a less than excellent kid a chance to perform. Skip this so called orchestra Dreadful experience
3 horns is correct. It’s scored for two, and the principle would have an assistant.
As you know dear Norman, there has been a long history of touring European orchestras from mostly slavic countries including the former Soviet Union where the touring orchestra had only 1/10th of players from the named institution. The blame for this fraud should be clearly placed on the Artist Management companies and the Tour Producers who know full well that they are doing so to enhance their profits at the expense of supporting the named orchestra in the tour. As VP on the board of a venerable American series now in its 127th season, we presented the ill fated tour of the St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra which became notoriously written about in the NY Times and other periodicals due to such false advertising.
Something similar happened in Canberra in June 2022. The program was “Sydney Symphony Orchestra on Tour”. Llewellyn Hall was packed to capacity (1400 seats). The majority of the players were very young. I though this can’t be the real deal – and I was right. I glance at the program revealed the text: “Players listed in grey, are Permanent Members of the SSO not appearing in this concert”. There were 47 of those. Those that did appear were a mixture of remaining permanent members, guest musicians, contract musicians and Sydney Symphony Fellows. The playing was okay, but not world class. I felt we got ripped off.
Ah, CAMI, “Dublin” down on their old tricks again?
Wow. But I’m also confused about CAMI, I thought they folded a few years ago. Hm. Anyone know?
When Ronald Wilford died, CAMI (rebranded Columbia Artists) and CAMI Music became two different companies — basically with the same board members, but different percentages of ownership. Columbia Artists fired Andrew Grossman and Jean Jacque of CAMI Music picked him right up.
Columbia Artists closed due to COVID, but CAMI Music didn’t.