Manhattan College ‘cannot afford’ orchestra coach
NewsThe private, Roman Catholic university founded in 1853, finds itself in such dire straits that music students cannot continue to run an orchestra for lack of competent teaching.
… ‘Things like orchestra are not just social, they’re also learning-based,” said Gwendolyn Toth, director of orchestra. ‘They help the brain, they help if you’ve had a tough day at classes. Orchestra is often the thing that kind of clears your head and revives you to go home and do some more homework.’
Miriam Duncan, senior, secretary of the ensemble board and performing arts scholar, explained to The Quadrangle how these new limitations have changed the ensemble’s day to day rehearsals.
‘It’s been awful, we don’t have the budget to do anything really,’ said Duncan. ‘We used to have instructors come in once a week at rehearsals to help us all improve a little bit. They’re professionals we hired and they can’t come anymore at all. They used to give private lessons, that was part of what you got for taking orchestra as a class. You got three private lessons, overall, your four years. They just cut that off completely because we can’t afford them anymore.’
Any volunteers from the Met orchestra or the NY Phil?
Read on here.
“Any volunteers from the Met orchestra or the NY Phil?” Please NO! These cuts have put very fine freelance players out of jobs, albeit part time ones. Installing volunteers who are financially able to do the work without remuneration would take away any incentive the College has to reconsider the budget slashing.
Why don’t those freelancers volunteer right now to stay in there and keep the program going?
Jim C: you obviously are not familiar with the lives of freelance musicians. Most of us make less than 70,000 per year, which makes survival in New York City challenging. There is no way that most freelancers I know could afford to teach for free (and the few exceptions are independently wealthy). Moreover, while the financial struggles are undoubtedly real, this was a very small budget line that has been eliminated. It is difficult to believe that it is genuinely a matter of the college’s financial well-being that is at stake here; it is more likely a matter of priorities, and no one should reward the college for this display of contempt for the arts by volunteering to teach for nothing.
Because they can’t afford to work for free and because it is dehumanizing and devalues the profession.
Because they are professionals who deserve a fair wage for their work.
Because the time and skill required to coach an orchestra effectively is something of value, and modern capitalist society recognises this through financial remuneration. Working for free may “keep the program[me] going” in the short term, but sets a precedent whereby the skilled labour of an orchestra coach is no longer recognised as something for which money should be allocated. In the long term, such a precedent would lead simply to the institution adopting a /modus operandi/ of engaging professional musicians who are desperate enough for the ‘exposure’ as to be prepared to work for no pay (they might even call it a “professional development”, “early career”, or “orchestra pedagogy” scheme). Any volunteer who then decided he/she no longer wanted to work for free would then find himself/herself out of the gig and promptly replaced. In other words, it is unlikely to be in the interests of the current cohort of coaches to consent to work without pay.
It would be particularly perverse to rely on free labour of this kind in the context of a Higher Education institution that, presumably, charges its students a substantial amount in tuition fees and pays substantial salaries to employees (by the way, would you advise an *employee* who is made redundant to continue in his/her former role as an unpaid volunteer to “keep the program[me] going”?), many of whom would benefit (directly or indirectly) from the orchestral coaching. A thriving musical life at an institution is locupletative not only to the direct participants, but also to the audiences (which include not only people affiliated with the institution, but also the wider local community), the institution’s senior management, and the institution’s reputation (and a good reputation enables the institution to charge higher fees and recruit more and/or better students). As a matter of principle, therefore, a professional orchestra coach must be paid for his/her important contribution to the musical life, and thus the wider prosperity (artistic, intellectual, social, reputational, and financial), of the institution.
Actually many professional orchestras have outreach programs where they in fact pay their players to go do things like this…
I am sure they would volunteer for $250 an hour.
If they are charging $250 an hour no wonder Manhattan College cannot afford them.
How do expect free lance musicians who dedicate their lives to music and students to earn a living wage if they don’t get paid to teach the students or run rehearsals ? Or do you just consider musicians to be professionals who impart their expertise for free ?
I don’t expect them to work for nothing.But $250 an hour? Is that the going rate? No wonder there is no music in schools any more, and private lessons in the home are in decline.
It’s disgusting and that’s one of the reasons why I’ve been playing concerts in my closet for decades now. Someone should ask the college’s administrative staff and professors to teach for free. It would be an outrage, but it’s not an outrage to ask musicians to teach for free because, you know, we do it because we love it.
And from what orifice did you pull that random number?
Such nonsense contributes to the low value we place on musicians. Most just make it by, nothing more.
Support them.
I’m just really curious where you came up with that figure. I’m deep in the freelance world of New York City and have played with the NY Phil. WHO makes $250 an hour as an orchestral player?
Like many colleges and institutions of higher learning, MC’s student activities budget allocations are continually shrinking and those in the performing arts are always playing “second fiddle” to those supporting jock/jockette activities (especially at a hyper-athletic place like MC!). The two different “playing fields” here are obviously “not level” but definitely need to be! In the meantime, I challenge my fellow MC alumnus author James Patterson and other “successful” MC alumni/alumnae to join in creating and supporting an ARTS INITIATIVE to alleviate this problem now and for the long term in the targeted endowment of the MC Performing Arts Department!
Music is life, not a luxury. We need more, not less. The greatest minds of history understand the importance of this. We have entered a sick time in society when all of the arts are not valued or appreciated. Any school that re-allocates funds to the Arts will find improvements in mental health, retention, and average GPA’s. We have data to support that!
Having worked as an accompanist for the Manhattan Singers from 1990-2019, I can say there are some serious financial issues at the college. After all those years they “re-structured” the pay scale and offered me a salary less than what I started with. Gwen Toth is doing a great job trying to train young musicians in the orchestra. I helped Andrew Bauer get his position as conductor of the Singers, but he in turn did nothing to help me keep my job after almost 30 years there. The unavailable funds are probably going to the sports department. Back in the 90’s the Singers traveled and performed in Europe at beautiful locations, including the Vatican in Rome. All that stopped after 2003. Funding for that dried up as well. Good luck to them in the future.
I’m sure Manhattan College charges the usual $70k/yr. If they can’t afford to pay for teachers then they’re doing something very wrong.
Before anyone volunteered they’d have to answer to themselves, “Why this one instead of one of a hundred others that also need a volunteer?”
At any other university, if you take private lessons you pay an extra fee for that. Often for being in an ensemble, too.
Idea… recruit a conducting student from one of the more major schools to take up your ensemble for a semester. He/she needs the in-the-trenches experience and you need the conductor.
Properly organized, this could count as work toward their degree.
Then get another one the next semester…