A rush for the exits at the CBSO
OrchestrasThe exciting new regime at the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra has prompted quite a few formerly loyal staff members to contemplate a refreshing career change.
Among recent departures are the Orchestra Manager, Head of Learning & Engagement and chief Fundraiser.
Just in, or out, is the Head of Artistic Planning Anna Melville who was recruited from the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. Melville writes:
I will be leaving the CBSO on Thursday 25 July. After three and a half rewarding years leading the orchestra’s artistic planning, I am proud of all we have achieved together during my tenure and will now be looking for my next artistic endeavour.
Get out while you can.
Good riddance to Anna!
You support Emma’s Plan or you’re out. Bye!
Nice irony but I am afraid people don’t get it. They have seen too much from the Emmas of this world.
Forgive me if this charming comment was intended ironically, but organisations led by professionals generally try to avoid provoking the exit of members of staff who are universally respected in their field, such as Ms Melville.
CBSO needs a Refresh, Emma said it herself in the business plan to the Conmunity Board
“Partnership with Black Lives in Music and other initiatives to further develop the cultural diversity of CBSO players, staff and board”
Getting rid of Anna helps this! Win win for everyone
How very silly of you..
Whether you intended it or not, your comment comes off as sarcastic.
When you will everyone realise I support Emma is a wind up?!
Is there such an outfit as ‘Black Lives in Music’? – or is this an anti-woke wind up?
…but Stenning will remain in her bunker until the bitter end. Until then, a whole world-class orchestra will have their reputation trashed by one arrogant, deluded numbskull assuming control and then recruiting all her acolytes to consolidate her hold on all the essential resources.
Yesterday, coincidentally, before this item was posted, I watched the film ‘The Death of Adolf Hitler’, starring the great Frank Finlay, who gave a gripping performance of the raving Fuehrer during the last few days of his reign. Of course, one cannot for one moment equate Stenning with the late dictator – after all, he had charisma – but the mechanism was the same, with all his servile minions, on realising that all was lost, bolting the bunker to escape the inevitable armageddon.
Sounds like all the good apples are being cast out of the barrel so that the rotten one can remain. Why doesn’t she take her cue from Joe Biden, who, realising his weakening position, stepped down rather than have his party face total ruin. Of course, this is not meant to be partisan – rather a matter of loyal self-sacrifice in face of the inevitable. Stenning, please take note – or, if you remain the last one standing, then please turn out the lights when you leave.
Oh, and if you feel Inclined to Reply, ‘I support emma’, Please at least Learn the Rules of capitalisation…
You’re being ridiculous, comparing an orchestra manager to a mass murderer. Get a grip.
Fair enough, but can we at least compare Trump to Hitler? After all, his own Vice Presidential nominee described him that way.
No you can’t. You will look ridiculous to all who escaped the Trump Derangement Syndrome. To say the least.
Hitler should never be used as measure of anything. It is tantamount reducing his atrocities to a meme. Doing so is a dishonor to those who suffered and died.
Yes, there can be silly likenings of some contemporary baddie to Hitler, but that doesn’t mean Hitler should NEVER be invoked as a warning, and to do that is not to dishonour those who suffered and died .
I stand by never.
Why? What is wrong with citing others’ suffering by way of a warning that things of a comparable sort may be implicit in what is going on now? Might not those others, if we could ask them, be glad that their suffering may help to prevent something similar again? Of course, this does not legitimise vulgar comnparisons like calling your boss a Fascist or Nazi because she scrutinises your expenses claims carefully.
Thanks Norman for your support of Emma! She’s making the orchestra more Relevant and Representative of Birmingham finally.
Oh no she isn’t.
Categorizing the post as “ridiculous” is far too gentle.
Utterly ridiculous not to say offensive . You’re doing exactly that by implication – comparing with t’other.
You’re clearly someone who disregards the evils of history in search of a rather cruel and pathetic comparison. I suggest you get a better education, maybe learning more about literary, critical style first, so that your comments here don’t make you look so stupid. Good luck.
What a stupid and bizarre message-clearly distorted beyond all reality. A waste of time. I don’t know about “getting a grip”. Sombody needs to get a grip of YOU.
They can see the writing on the wall, even if others can’t (or won’t).
Well, that pretty much covers it: who’s running the show?
Is the Board paying ANY attention?
I’m in the U.S., so have no personal stake in what’s happening at the CBSO, other than a general wish that orchestras everywhere should remain healthy, both financially and in matters affecting the morale of musicians and concertgoers alike.
But ever since the CBSO situation first became featured on this website, I’ve assumed that some orchestra board hired her with the knowledge of what she intended to do, and wants her to do it. . . . Although, based on all the reports of trouble and revolt, it seems a case of “What on earth were they thinking?” And, “After all they’ve seen, do they still think it now?”
Emma’s running the show!
You all wanted to force Mukhtar off the Community Board and you failed because Emma doesn’t Care about your opinion!
We run the show not you
Who is “we”? And who is “you”? Are you officially affiliated with the orchestra or a concerned citizen?
Only of Emma, and ‘I support Emma’
And where is the petition calling for the CEO to resign?
She is going NOWHERE!
Too many complaints from white people on here
Emma says anyway the CBSO needs to be less white, step in the Right Direction!
“Emma, have you met Margaret Cookhorn?”
So what? She plays the bassoon!
Our Plan for the CBSO isn’t to have Black People play white people’s instruments.
What?? Such a stupid remark. But typical of the idiotic thinking currently espoused by these two………
You are being very silly now.
All I can say is “wow”…
Like so many, you are unable to see how racist that comment is.
It’s CBSO policy lol
“Partnership with Black Lives in Music and other initiatives to further develop the cultural diversity of CBSO players, staff and board”
If you’ve got a problem send in a letter and we’ll add it to the old white man complaint folder, we’ve got loads
Boring
A person would have to be deaf, dumb, and blind to not understand the racism in that comment.
It’s almost like the orchestra administration has a bunker mentality.
What Colour is Emma?
A fairly quick turn around in orchestra management is completely normal. Always has been and always will be.
They have lost management, fundraiser, outreach officer ad artistic planner. Well qualified replacements doubtless exist but do they want to walk into that particular quagmire?
One hesitates to guess where she will get replacements.
Not in well-run orchestras, actually. Good organisations retain good people. Unusually high turnover is an indication that there are problems. Staff members leaving without a job to go to (as I understand from Ms Melville’s statement) is an indication that there are big problems. Highly respected staff members doing so is an incontrovertible indication that there are massive problems.
This comment, though perfectly reasonable as a statement of theory, betrays a certain unawareness of the realities in UK regional orchestras, where staff turnover has traditionally been high due to lack of advancement opportunities and extremely low salaries. And where being ‘highly respected’ by colleagues has rarely been any guarantee of being respected by one’s seniors.
At the CBSO, staff turnover over since 2000 has typically been around 80-90% per decade. Under the previous CEO the average tenure of a Director of Marketing was 3.5 years. No-one regarded this as controversial: in fact this site was often (rightly) effusive in its praise of the organisation during that period. In terms of historic staff retention patterns in the industry in general – and the internal culture of this orchestra in particular – there is absolutely nothing noteworthy, novel or unusual about Ms Melville’s departure, regrettable though it is.
But when you have a hammer, everything gradually starts to look like a nail.
Rats leaving the sinking ship springs to mind..
Go whilst you can with the mad captain at the helm…
Are you calling white people rats? You’re the racist one!
If you’re on the ground you’d know CBSO is actually thriving with many Diverse Voices!
There is no shame in seeking professional help.
Honestly, I can’t imagine how hard it would be to create engaging programs under the “leadership” of that buffoon Emma.
Anna is a leader in the field and will be snapped up in a moment. Meanwhile, the CBSO will languish in the doldrums until the board get over their pride and realized they appointed a dud.
It’s so sad to watch a titan of classical music be destroyed from the inside.
Not seen a comments section on any site which sums up better why people are leaving the industry. Plus, nothing unique about this sort of exodus – take one look at Opera North.
I Support Emma really has far too much time on their hands.
I have a contract to Advise and Direct the CBSO, I am Working! The Board get paid more than me and do less
Orchestra boards must operate differently across the pond from the U.S. Here, board members are expected to be significant donors to the orchestra; they don’t get paid at all. Perhaps there are exceptions, but they would be outliers.
The board of trustees receives compensation? I highly doubt it.
Also, if you have a contract with the CBSO, you ought not to bite the hand that feeds you.
That should be I Support Emma!!!
Oops – keyboard skills usurp brain (such as it is!)
And TOO little grey matter between the ears I would suggest
I only know Anna as an exceptional professional. Smart, charming, deeply knowledgeable and talented. If she doesn’t have a top job lined up already for sure she’ll bag one before too long. No idea of the circumstances of her leaving CBSO but people leave jobs. For all sorts of reasons. I find how the CEO, who I don’t know at all, is being villified by the comments on this site a bit disturbing. She may be hapless, or it seems so, but I suspect is well-meaning, and I expect the cBSO will survive her tenure and will thrive into the future.
She’s going to the LSO.
Peggy: “I Support Emma really has far too much time on their hands.”
——
I don’t live anywhere near Birmingham, but even I’m irritated as hell as what one person can do in wrecking an entity. That’s whether it’s a non-profit, school, business, cultural organization, etc. So the sarcasm of “I Support Emma” is shared by me.
Seems a little odd to be leaving a job she enjoyed so much without a post already lined up.
The idea that frequent staff turnover at this orchestra (or indeed most UK regional orchestras) is in any way unusual or new is utterly bizarre, and the vendetta against this particular CEO is deeply odd. Readers who rely on this site as a news source should be aware that the picture being painted of this organisation is distorted to the point of being largely fictional. People who are levelling personal abuse at the current CEO – but who never criticised similar (or in some cases identical) policies and problems before she took charge – should examine their motives. Because they’re starting to smell quite foul.