Famed US orchestra: It feels like we’re dying
OrchestrasMusicians of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra yesterday voted no confidence in managing director and Jon Limbacher.
The move follows the resignation of violinist Kyu-Young Kim as artistic director, over ‘recent organizational decisions and shifts in priorities.’ The board has meanwhile offered Limbacher ‘unequivocal support’.
Daria Adams, one of the SPCO violinists, said: ‘You can run and hide and try to cut your way to greatness. Or you can be bold and come up with some new ideas and some exciting projects.’ She added: ‘It just feels like we’re dying.’
This is nothing new. The St. Paul orchestra has a history of corrupt management combined with a Board of Directors that will stop at nothing until they get their way. I remember 10 or so years ago the drastic pay cuts, threatening and firing musicians, reduction of concerts, LOCKING OUT the players, the list goes on… Unfortunately some things never change.
I’m not well versed in the history of St Paul CO but it sounds like you might be confusing them with Minnesota Orchestra and their lock down in 2010? I apologize if I am wrong…
Both orchestras in the Twin Cities experienced work stoppages at the same time back then.
BOTH orchestras in the Twin Cities have had significant financial issues in the past.
Neither group has been worth anything for the past thirty years…..
The Minnesota Orchestra was worth quite a bit while Osmo was there.
(It’s too early yet to say about Thomas Søndergård.)
What did they expect? Typical case of get woke, go broke – that in the liberal St. Paul. Their programming in the last few years was the definition of woke, not greatness.
They tamed it in the last season, and even more in the season to come, but is too late. I stopped donating when they showed their true colors. Or maybe these were not their true colors, they were posturing. That’s even worse.
I stopped giving when they cut the orchestra and started bringing out of town “guest musicians” instead of using local players for the sub list. And will continue to until they get back to the full compliment of 35 (winds in pairs, one percussion, keyboard, and 6.5.4.4.2 for strings)
Amen to that! I lived there as a freelance musician for 8 years. Atlanta, St. Louis, and Baltimore welcomed me with open arms during that time (with the exception of COVID). I played by all Minnesota and SPCO’s rules I joined the union, payed for lessons with players in the section, only to find out they were still hiring colleagues that came from far away to even do jobs as easy as playing whole notes for a pops concert. I have moved now, and am the happiest I have been in a while.
There are many filthy rotten people in classical music that simply make it impossible to enter. Blocking you and others out makes their positions appear to be more valuable then they actually are.
You’re absolutely right. This trend of orchestra players having little or no connection to the city in which they happen to live is enormously disheartening.
If you can’t stomach diverse programming that more accurately represents the world we live in and the people who live in it, then your taste in art and worldview are incredibly small.
Spot on!!!!!
Your comment is perfect for your handle.
Eyeroll, indeed.
The number of composers who were truly great is incredibly small. And as of yet, they come from a very narrow demographic. If every country produced Mozarts, Hadyn and Schuberts, etc. like the tiny country of Austria has, no one would be happier than me but unfortunately that’s not the case. Maybe that will change in the future. I hope. But programming third rate stuff (Florence Price, etc.) and pretending it’s good is not a solution.
If you can get the diverse community represented in the programming to both by tkts and contribute extra charity dollars to keep the company in business, more power to you!
I’m mentally prepared for a long strike or lockout next season.
Is this due to the affair between the young Korean violinist and the leader of the orchestra? And the poor management of the issue?
I think you mean sexual assault, and this labor dispute is completely unrelated
Please stop trying to spread rumors.
The young Korean violinist reported the ex-concertmaster for sexual harassment to the Admin and he resigned. Then, there was an affair between her and the OTHER leader of the orchestra. She has been very busy.
One would almost say where there’s smoke, there’s #MeToo
I’m not sure if it would be called an affair with the current leader and the young lady who is Korean. I think they enjoyed a brief stint as lovers even though no one knows if it was just physical or emotional as well. In terms of the previous concertmaster, he was being inappropriate. Two different men, but same lady. And two different stories!
He’s asking a question; two questions, actually.
Rumors? Small world.
It wasn’t an affair, apparently it was a #MeToo matter
One of them is married, no?
A genuine question from the UK. Could the orchestra musicians not mount a takeover/coup and become self-governing, like the London Symphony Orchestra?
Then they would be responsible for selling tickets and raising money which would be an eye-opener for many of them.
They could but they’d need corporate backing and money to at least start it
I think they should emulate the LSO and be responsible for their own destiny. They have all the tools: expensive instruments, ability to sight-read music and understand conductor cues, lots of time sequestered in practice rooms to master their craft, deep knowledge of leadership shortcomings and what to avoid. They’re primed for success! And we need another circus to complement the presidential election extravaganza.
Andy: The LSO now has good private funding and well-attended concerts. In the past, they recorded a lot and recorded a lot of film and pop music.The St. Paul Orchestra hasn’t these assets, unfortunately.
Ruben Greenburg: I’m not the one who suggested a musician coup. My feebly whimsical response to “Back desk 2nd violinist” was sarcastic.
I’m glad the London Symphony Orchestra has achieved success. I enjoy their recordings, of which I own dozens. I’ve not Googled to learn about how the LSO operates, but two clicks into its website I encounter a elaborately staffed organization with independent subsidiary organizations, a substantial army of administration, and a massive advisory council. It may be self-governing, but its operations seem reliant on the same sort of business people, philanthropists, donors, sponsors, and general mechanisms as most other orchestras. The “self-governing musicians” aspect of the LSO seems to lean mightily towards artistic decisions like musical leaders and personnel.
Saint Paul, Minnesota is a far cry from London, England. Suggesting the SPCO emulate the LSO is naive. What raises my eyebrows whenever it’s suggested is the notion that musicians somehow possess knowledge that is capable of solving the myriad challenges of operating an orchestra. They don’t. Or that they would succeed in surmounting challenges that bedevil administration and boards. They won’t. Their area of experise is music. This is the bubble in which they work while their patrons and organizations struggle to navigate the chaos and aftermath of things like recessions and pandemics.
Fundamentally, unionized orchestra musicians in America strike me as believing they are accountable only to themselves. The only time they appear prepared to smilingly acknowledge patrons is when they’re on the picket line appealing for support. Willingly or not, they seem to believe they’re more accountable to their union than their community.
So yes, I poke fun when people believe the musicians omnipotent and in possession of the secret spell that administrative and board muggles lack and that will allow them exclusively to achieve success in the harsh US orchestra industry .
Please don’t create false rumors. This is a lie and is damaging to somebody’s life and career.
This was a great and ground-breaking orchestra. Dennis Russell Davies had no trouble drawing audiences, even when he conducted awful contemporary music. One season, he focused on Cage and Haydn. But they also coasted on repertoire, repeating certain works over and over, like Der Buerger Als Edelmann by Strauss; and never committed to a full-time harpist, which would have enriched their concerts. They did a lot of chamber concerts with George Crumb and Joseph Schwantner. Then Zuckerman came in and made it a traditional chamber orchestra focused on classical and baroque repertoire. No problem there. But then they had the stupid idea of giving up having a musical director, and bringing in free-lance players from New York, despite having adequate local talent. Poor decision making. But that abounds in all orchestras.
So much for the idyllic Lake Wobegone, where all the brass are strong, all the violinists are good-looking, and all the orchestras are above average.
THAT Minnesota is loonnnnnnng gone.
so sad.
Within the biz SPCO hirings have long been known to be essentially run by a small cartel of musicians within the orchestra. You’re in or out at their discretion, no matter what. Whatever one thinks of their management (or lack thereof) the musicians do very much bear some responsibility for the current situation, as well as the biz-killing DEI woke programming.
That was clear to me when they hired a principal horn player. Great sound and everything didn’t miss, and actually sounded like a horn. He didn’t get tenured. His replacement cacked his way through Mozart horn concerto number one and sounded like a baritone player a couple weeks ago.
The former principal horn now teaches at Urbana Champaign and is Horn in the Canadian Brass
Wasn’t this guy previously a fundraiser? Might be time to make more asks.
The dilemma – you cannot cut your way to growth. but you cannot afford to pay for growth, and are thus unable to take such risks.
I don’t know how we solve this. I really hope development/admin people have a better handle on this than I do.
“feels like”, you say? No, the prominence and status of Anglo-European arts in the west is rapidly fading. You all threw your lot in with progressive technocrats decades ago out of a false sense of intellectual and moral superiority only to find out that those same bureaucrats maintain no real sense of identity, loyalty, culture, intellectualism, morality, or aesthetics. There is only pandering. Technocrats’ only ambitions are power and control (though they couch their ambitions in a veil of utopian ideals), and since there’s no more power or control to be reaped from western art or artists, you all have been abandoned for the next “flavor of the week” population from which power and control can be wrested. You all did this to yourselves because you consistently fail to recognize that actions have consequences and repeatedly expect someone else to deliver recompense for your poor decision-making. Welcome to the dustbin of history.
I chuckle every time this ulta-progressive organization looks around and wonders why its not working out for them.
Maybe playing even MORE BIPOC music and voting even MORE progressively so that the downtown becomes a demilitarized zone will fix it?
I’m gonna be the one who says it.
The SPCO screwed a lot of musicians out of their real passion; creation and collaboration. I have -zero pity for “you feel like it is dying”. The smart players got going when the going was good.
The MO has DEEP POCKETS. They had $$ to add to their up their stable of double basses only a couple years ago.
Since neither orchestra has a home, that they own, we are looking at the wrong folks involved.
Many of us in the biz saw what this orchestra did to a certain violinist/leader and will never forgive or forget.
Maybe Karma is paying a visit.
Wait until the twin-cities are “no humans are illegal”-ed into total muslim control. That will surely fix the SPCO’s problems.
why not program music that will bring back your audiences? that’s why you’re all dying.