‘No US orchestra died during Covid’
NewsIn a conversation with Musical America, Simon Woods who heads the League of American Orchestras said: ‘We don’t know of any orchestra that has gone out of business during this period.’
Woods puts this survival triumph down to state assistance and self-reinvention, but he does acknowledge that some orchestras are sill kicking the can down the road, rather than addressing long-standing issues.
I think it is premature to say no US orchestra has died due to Covid, although “died” is N.L.’s headline, while the actual statement by Woods is none that have “gone out of business” during this period — a phrase which to me is more a matter of the formalities than the practical realities. When it’s not business as usual who knows whether this or that orchestra has died or not just because the organization is still flogging tickets to future plans? Cut flowers don’t look dead but they are.
I am reminded of a statement in a book about pet turtles that my sister and I had as kids. It said in essence that when turtles are described as very hardy pets, what that really means is that they take a heck of a long time to die.
We have read on this website about orchestras in the US which have radically downsized from full symphonies to “symphonettes” and the jury is still out whether the former audience will return once things almost resemble normal, which they still do not. Perhaps orchestras are merely hardy — the pet turtles of the classical music business.
There are also festivals which have yet to play a note, as an orchestra, in two years going on three. Many of those festival orchestras play(ed) as many different programs in two or three weeks as some local orchestras put on in a year, so I’d count them as an orchestra. Just because there is an organization in an office somewhere that promises future concerts and programs doesn’t mean the orchestra is actually alive.
It’s been a tough time, a horrible time for music in spite of the upbeat statements by a few folks. If in fact no orchestras have died or gone out of business it is largely due to donors still cutting checks and orchestra musicians — and let’s always remember to refer to them as artists — being willing to make do and be patient and loyal.
Not sure any low brass player wants to be called an artist.
To the point: i’m astonished at how resilient American orchestras have been. Seems like a great deal of credit must go to the free market belief that true value always stays relevant.
Great post!
1) Orchestras survive mainly as they are useful tax havens for arts and culture lovers. And I say that in mostly good faith. There are wealthy people that fund the majority of business through giving and they do so because they love music and the other beneficial arms organization (usually education a huge part of this).
2) As an orchestra member playing all of these concerts, the audiences have been somewhat smaller, but not dramatically by any means. And this is with mask, test, and vaccine mandates.
Some people seem to lust for orchestras to fail because they feel those orchestras have failed them. If the pandemic helped prove anything, it’s that orchestras can adapt.
Quite a few of them died artistically.
The Met cut it’s orchestra roster down by 7 or so positions. Other orchestras have recently followed similar plans the stave off salary cuts. The orchestral world is a zero job growth industry and now it’s less than that. We need more positions for players and fewer for administrators.
Then who will raise the money to pay for “more positions for players?”
The music director? The musicians themselves? The LA Phil currently lists 27 people in it’s philanthropy department and 30 in marketing. Seems like a lot, and that’s just two departments.
Orchestras have always pretended that classical music means orchestral music, to justify their own outdated existence. Most interesting classical music does not require a modern orchestra.
Springfield Symphony Orchestra in Massachusetts, the largest regional orchestra in New England, is not exactly surviving this period. Heartbreaking.
The Springfield MA Symphony is still locked out. Not dead technically, but near dead. They are one of the best NE orchestras.