CBSO seeks wellbeing consultant
OrchestrasThe transitioning City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra is advertising for a part-time wellbeing executive, attending one and a half working days a week.
It is not clear whose wellbeing is in need of attention. Presumably not the audience, sections of whom are in open revolt, and probably not the musicians who are sceptical about such bromides.
Must be for the embattled management.
CEO Emma Stenning is wasting a lot of money on things that don’t matter.
She has doubled the prices of the cheapest seats for regular concerts. Best seats are now well over £60 each, very expensive outside London. Especially with her spoiling concerts by encouraging phones and drinks in the hall.
Despite the increasing ticket prices, Stenning’s woke concerts in the next season are subsidised. Dvorak 9 costs over £62 but if you see the collaborative version with ‘Black Voices’ you only pay £20. Her black female composers concert is £12. The interactive concert with her theatre buddy Tom Morris (and probably expensive lighting systems again) is £10.
She doesn’t hide her contempt!
Enough, grow up. Time to move on. A small, unrepresentative group of people are always complaining. Everyone else in Birmingham, musicians, management and audiences, are excited for the upcoming Season of Joy.
Sounds just like Emma herself?
Yeah Schtanhaus is Emma’s Twitter name, so what? Isn’t she allowed to Fight Back against the Hate? Don’t give it if you can’t take it
I suspect you will realise, once you investigate exactly who is making the observations, that many of them are musicians, and audiences (or at least potential audience members) and far from being a small group, comprise a great many who are really upset at the way one individual, completely inexperienced in the music world, is attempting to undo over 100 years of effort in putting the CBSO where it is in the ranks of world beating performances.
https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/05161656/officers
Schtanhaus is a production company with Emma and Tom Morris as directors.
The wellbeing consultant is most likely there to help with safeguarding for community and educational projects.
So,if you disagree with me you must ” grow up ” as the rest of the P C brigade are very happy and content……But in the meantime please stop pointing your gun at me as I feel I am being coerced.
Season of Joy that contains a performance of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony?
I must remember to take photographs with flash just before the end.
Can I burst in to raucous applause before the conductor brings down the baton. I might have trouble taking a video while drinking my cup of coffee.
We want to remind you and others of our Respectful Behaviour Policy:
https://cbso.co.uk/terms-conditions/respect-policy
“Anyone who engages with the CBSO is committing to being part of a culture that values compassion, respect, and joy.”
We ask you kindly to reconsider your actions and consider the effect they have on others. You are not contributing compassion, respect and joy towards the CBSO.
Thank you in advance for your cooperation.
information@cbso.co.uk
Absolute groan. Command and Control 101.
I could think of something you can shove up
Are you crazy in thinking this policy helps? You should be dealing with your problems, not treating your audience like this!
So basically put up with the cr@p we’re offering or get lost. How typically ‘caring’ and ‘inclusive’.
Classic Emma. When the criticism started coming in, her first reaction was to commission this policy to protect herself. And to this day her team refer to it instead of taking on board feedback.
Why is there a black female composers concert? If there are good black female composers, insert their work into real concerts.
And if it is only 12 quid serious CBSO attenders probably smell something dodgy. What’s she saying: we are putting on a concert here that is not worth the full price we normally charge, because…
Mixed signals, to say nothing of patronisation, what?
“Serious CBSO attenders …”! It is a FAMILY CONCERT, suitable for children age 6+. All the Family Concerts are priced at £12, last about 1 hour, and are (I think) on Sunday afternoons.
But I suppose any stick to beat Emma Stenning will do.
Yes, it is a family concert based on one of Nate Holder’s books.
He is an author, speaker and musician who advocates for inclusive and diverse music education.
The CBSO press release says this is part of the partnership with Professor Nate Holder who will support the orchestra’s ambition of further developing an anti-racist approach to work.
Have a butchers at the number of tickets it has sold…. Plus the other “woke” concerts. Very telling. The people I feel for in all this are the players. God help them.
My respect for Emma went out the window when she was caught telling subscribers ahead of ticket sales starting she wasn’t encouraging phones, when her policy was (and to this day still is) saying ‘we are very happy for you to take photographs and short video clips at our concerts’. She lied and treated us as stupid because she was desperate for our money to keep coming in.
The lying is surreal. Does she think hee audience is stupid?
Spoiler: Yes.
Stop being selfish again Audrey. It’s not about you all the time. Why don’t you Consider the people who Want to use phones?
Stenning’s priorities are in completely the wrong place.
She ignores all feedback from subscribers, but pays this group of people with zero musical experience for advice.
She accuses the orchestra of being racist, but in the same breath she believes concerts must be dumbed down so that black people can enjoy them.
She talks about rising costs, but blows cash on unpopular lighting and films.
She talks about respect, but spends concerts drinking her way through them and disturbing those around herself.
She talks about joy, but threatens to ban devoted subscribers from concerts who have raised concerns.
She encourages people to take pictures and videos during concerts (still in the official policy), but tells subscribers she has never encouraged this in the hope they keep buying tickets.
When the criticism started, she deleted her social media accounts and stopped replying to letters from patrons, then a few weeks later gave a presentation on how to make the CBSO more relevant (her word).
She can’t go quickly enough. I feel sorry for the poor musicians.
Oh, another diversity hire!!!!!! Working a treat at Boeing.
I think it’s time the Trustees stepped in. This ongoing controversy is gradually wrecking the orchestra which has already lost a significant proportion of its local audience and is in danger of damaging its reputation internationally.
This drama with Emma Stenning has gone so far it is difficult to know what is real and what is a parody. We all see the “I Support Emma” posts, at this stage who can tell whether or not they are genuine?
Observer: I’d strongly imagine that Ms. Stenning reads, or hears reports of, all the Slipped Disc posts about her, and the comments thereon. She could easily have cleared up some aspects of this drama if she had sent a statement disavowing some of the wild statements made by her declared supporters–something like, “Although I appreciate fervent support and/or rollicking satire, I must disavow ‘throw them in the trash’ rhetoric like “pale, male, and stale”; and the idea that financial contributors could never turn against management because they are agéd sadsacks who need to feel important. I realize that journalists can not make “not upsetting Emma” their highest priority. I have the highest respect for percussionists and all other instrumentalists, even if their contributions to musical compositions do not take place at every moment: ‘they also serve who only stand and wait’ “.
Emma, of course, could still send us such a message.
At this point, any disavowal would be too little, too late.
There is no parody! Emma has made Crystal Clear what the orchestra Needs. It’s ongoing Work and I’m sure Emma will Achieve it no matter how much you all complain.
How does she know what the orchestra needs? What in-depth – and objective, independent – research has been done with players, audiences and the wider community to assess this? In order to counter mounting criticism of her approach I would have thought it sensible to lay out the evidence on which the CEO’s strategy is based. There is no reference to this in her comments so far.
Stenning asked her Executive Assistant (paid by the CBSO) to make multiple changes to her personal Wikipedia page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/Jgrahamcbso98
Evidence on Wikipedia shows she previously asked the same of assistants in her jobs in Toronto and Bristol.
Obviously a woman who wants to prioritise her image…
This is Joe Graham, her ‘Executive Assistant’. He is paid by the orchestra and surely should not be working on something personal for Emma like this. The account has made multiple edits to the Emma Stenning page but zero to the CBSO page. Priorities, priorities…
Emma has her marketing team on £50k a year. What do they do? This week they organised a concert with fried chicken in case it got more black people to go…
https://cbso.co.uk/events/symphonic-sessions-summer-of-sport
Ooooh that’s like when Trump has a McDonalds feast at the white for Clemson’s basketball team!
These concerts have been running since long before she arrived. And this is the UK, not the USA. Street food is street food here; it does not have any of these bizarre American racial connotations.
We received multiple complaints about this and all were ignored. If Emma and Beki think they are right then they will fight it. ‘There are always a variety of opinions’
Did Emma Stenning and her team completely ignore this from you Norman?
https://slippedisc.com/2024/07/exclusive-cbsos-anti-semitic-adviser/
If she doesn’t give a sh*t about this then of course she doesn’t give a sh*t about the regular audience. One-woman wrecking ball with her phones and drinks obsessed with the idea that music needs distractions to be more ‘relevant’.
As Emma always says: ‘people will always have different opinions’. She believes she’s right and is showing no signs of compromise, Emma is always right!
Given Emma knows nothing about music, it’s notable how she surrounds herself with like-minded people and ignores feedback from the orchestra and from patrons. Sad situation.
Strange she has no musical experience, when the CBSO press release announcing her appointment gave space to her writing how much music had been part of her childhood. Did no one in HR check this out before publication?
Correct. Did you see the interview where she bragged about it? She still calls concerts ‘shows’!
https://www.whatsonlive.co.uk/staffordshire/news/orchestral-manouvres/58034
‘I didn’t grow up with classical music or have a background in this artform – I went to my first classical concert in my 30s. I still sit at shows and think ‘Wait till someone else claps; don’t be the idiot who claps first’ – so I know what that feels like… and I run an orchestra!
I’ve got to be empathetic with the people who are fearful. I really like walking out onto the stage at the start and saying: “Hi everyone, I’m so happy that you’re here, and we’ve got this amazing concert that we’re going to listen to together.” Then I’ll tell them a little bit about what the show is about.’
What “the show” is “about”? Who DOES she think is coming to the concert hall?
It’s a vain, and insecure, attitude. Many people who come newly to a position do their best to line up support from those who have been there longer and know how things work. A new appointment may well have been hired specifically to change things, but he/she cannot do that until he/she knows the lay of the land.
This one seems keen on bringing in outsiders who are as ignorant as she, while not consulting music leaders in anything.
We’ll being? Executive? One and a half working days a week?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WN-aCYVVtyo
(By the way, please do not confuse my comments with those from a new contributor who seems to have usurped my moniker)
Sorry, typo. “Been There, Done That”
Sounds like they need it! I’m free if they require my services
Reading between the lines, it’s probably a vacancy for a shrink to sort out the CEO.
Does Slippedisc.com report on any other UK full time professional orchestras?
Probably only if and when they have some trumped up policy such as that espoused by the eminently unsuitable CEO Emma Stenning.
Successful applicant will provide and ensure effective strategies for impactful, meaningful, and fully inclusive joyousness across the full spectrum of experiences.
Like at Boeing Corporation.
Language like that makes me want to hurl.
Our godawful ceo really really needs to go
Good God. How is it possible that ONE PERSON can bring down a once-admired organization? Not that we don’t have plenty of examples of late in the US.
In all this, the musicians become insignificant pawns, as opposed to those we ought to be celebrating and protecting.
Yet I’m betting most of those musicians support progressive ideologies. Irony. Much.
You must not be nor know many professional musicians. They work long and hard to achieve and maintain their jobs.
Most do not bring their personal ideology to the workplace. They have more respect for their professions than many administrators.
You object to progress? Do you have a preferred past? June Cleaverland? (That’s the usual). Downton Abbey? Bridgerton? (Unlikely — all those uppity minorities).
It’s none of your nosy-parker business what ideologies orchestra musicians prefer, any more than it is mine. Our only business with them is the music they play.
Easy for one person to bring down a once-admired organization when the Board members sit on their collective hands and probably have not the faintest idea what is going on or why! They appointed her! They have it in their power to fire her.
I can lay my hands on hundreds of healing crystals, if that would help?
Willing to accept reasonable offers.
A lot of jobsworths there. What do all these people DO? Our taxes at work….
Too much money!!!
Mix the cocktails that enable Miss Emma to make it through a concert?
We recently received a complaint that a patron was drinking through the concert. Of course this is allowed under the rules Emma supports. But we did check anyway the seat given by the complainant…it was Emma’s.
Those who comment on Ms Stenning’s emphasis on joy may not have noticed that there is a current fad for selling all sorts of things on the basis of joy. I saw an advert in a bus shelter for prosecco that told us, as I recall, to pour the joy. We hear of trans joy in relation to declaring oneself to belong to the other sex/gender. A letter in The Guardian the other day declared joy to be found in paying taxes for things like the National Health Service. And so on. Joy is the new summum bonum. Life is working when a shaft of joy transfixes us.
I knew it was too good to last.
They should seek a bigger audience first in order to pay their bills.
OMG, I love your screen name.
The Well-Being post is explained on their website https://cbso.co.uk/jobs/wellbeing-lead
It’s hard to imagine a more unified and enthusiastic audience that that at the CBSO concert performance of Madame Butterfly three week ago. The phone problem has been dealt with. The new programme shows a superb variety of concert, includng Mahler’s 9th. There are separate events aimed at potential new audiences, which the orchestra has to encourage, especially with huge budget cuts form the beleagured city council. The musical standard has never been higher. Please stop these unhelpful comments!
The phone problem has not been dealt with. The policy has not changed whatsoever since the attention began. To quote:
We are very happy for you to take photographs and short video clips at our concerts.
Andrew, the owner of this site has said himself that he regards this whole saga as a “soap opera” – ie, a work of fiction, and of course you and I know (because we actually attend concerts in Birmingham) that 99% of what is discussed here bears almost no relation to reality. We didn’t hear on here about the series of sold-out concerts in May and June, about Yamada’s booking by the Berlin Philharmonic, or about the orchestra’s triumphant recent collaboration with Birmingham Opera Company – and we won’t because that doesn’t drive traffic to the site. Unfortunately that’s how this works.
Ms Stenning undoubtedly made an unnecessary error when she picked a public fight with Slipped Disc but the online vendetta, at this point, is starting to verge on the deranged. Out in the real world, I’ve noticed that it’s now gone so far that people are actually starting to sympathise with her – the widespread perception (and I’m hearing this in London as well as Brum) is that a male CEO would not be attracting this level of opprobrium. And it’s certainly true that the previous incumbent, who was very far from perfect in a number of respects, went largely unchallenged. Certainly nothing like this. It’s hardly surprising that a newcomer to the sector should make a few early errors of presentation; it would be far more interesting to ask why no-one in the classical music business wanted the job.
Slippedisc has no personal feelings for or against Ms Stenning, any more than the distinguished writer of this comment has against members of the CBSO audience. We report the case perhaps less as a soap opera than as a fly-on-wall documentary. The origin of this story is not so much Ms Stenning’s presentation errors as her provocation of sections of a once-loyal audience and her refusal to consider the possibility of error on her part. Should these attitudes change, we will be the first to report that fact. Meanwhile, we do our job and she does hers.
Thanks IC225! If you criticise Emma you’re a misogynist. If a man made these changes you would love him. But because Emma is a Woman you hate her!
“the widespread perception (and I’m hearing this in London as well as Brum) is that a male CEO would not be attracting this level of opprobrium.”
Is there any record of a male CEO doing similar things?
Quite a few of the policies and programmes that are being attacked on these posts were actually introduced by the previous (male) CEO, exciting no comment at the time.
Which ones?
iC225
Out here in the real world, at concert on Saturday one female was decanting her drink into a plastic water bottle to take into the concert hall, a male was told to turn off his phone by an usherette, all Behaviours encouraged by Emma Stenning in Birmingham.
She is not fit to do her job. There is no place for phones or slurping at classical music concerts.
I’m confused about which version of reality we’re dealing with here, because the CBSO was not playing at Symphony Hall on Saturday.
People drink water from plastic cups or bottle all the time at classical concerts in Australia. An essential component of life here really. In all my years of concert going I’ve never heard anyone slurping. Since I don’t go to other music genres I can’t say slurping does not occur there. In fact sipping water is an oft used tactic to prevent unwanted coughing. Maybe coughing is simply forbidden at UK concerts.
Please get off the female/male equality soapbox. That argument rarely cuts it these days.
Ability and results are all that matters.
Richard, you should be nicer about the person who commissioned your magnum opus
I think “I Support Emma” is actually quite interesting. Obviously s/he is a parody.
But suppose just for the sake of argument ISE were “real”. The way s/he writes* and what s/he says is so ludicrous that the characterisation as parody would still stand, effectively unaltered.
ISE is Schrödinger’s Parody.
*“Crystal Clear” in her latest bulletin is particularly nice: I can just hear it, with those caps, in the mouth of a lying politician, can’t you?
What are you saying? I know why Emma ignores your feedback if it’s written this Badly!
Anyway I thought you were writing a book on our Changes to Improve the CBSO?
“We ask you kindly to reconsider your actions…“. I have done so and I respectfully believe that everything I have contributed to this subject is exactly what I feel. I guess the same goes for all the other contributors, whatever their views. This is a free forum. Will you show respect to those who detract from your views, or only to your tiny band of supporters?
“Anyone who engages with the CBSO is committing to being part of a culture that values compassion, respect, and joy.” Really? What do you mean by “engages with“? Do you mean sponsors? What about those who ‘engage with’ SD? Or is it only those punters who enjoy beers, bangers and mash or vindaloos delicately complemented by Mahler’s 9th?
How will you test for, or enforce, this commitment to ”Joy” etc, you silly billy (with all due respect and boundless joy)? You sound like one of those hacks who supported Zhdanov in his persecuting composers who did not provide ‘Soviet realism’.
My mate a professional Boxer who lost his pro’ licence for consistantly kicking his Oponnent’s head when they were Groggy is a brillient Accordionist an Avowed Pacifist & conscientious Objector and like Moi, is awaiting a Brain Replacement. *
He phoned my…whilst I was out on licence sans mon Staight Jacket and minders,enquiring A: after my well-being and ….
B: about the Brumshire Orchestra
Wellbeing Job…I suggested his C.V makes him Eminently Suitable and have written to Clement Atlee asking that he be Considered !
Nurse … quick an Aspirin !
* had the Hip !