CBSO defines its future in words, not music
OrchestrasThe new chief executive of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Emma Stenning, kicked off today by putting words before action, issuing a five-point ‘vision statement’ for the orchestra’s future.
She says: This vision statement is a work in progress. We are developing it with our staff and players, but it cannot be completed until we have shared it with both our audiences and the public, in Birmingham and beyond. As we share it, it will evolve and change.
We are embarking on a journey and we want to hear from you, both in response to this document and the experience you have in our concerts over the coming 18 months.
Then, tested, enriched, and improved by your advice, and all of our experience, we will be able to present its final version as a road map for the next ten years of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.
Please join us on this journey of collaboration, discovery, and joy.
Our 5 Resolutions:
We will share exceptional musical experiences, fulfilling and building the regional, national, and international reputation of the CBSO.
We will welcome audiences, artists, and staff from every community in Birmingham and beyond to everything we do.
We will collaborate and share creative opportunities and resources across the many communities in our diverse city, with the aim of driving real social change and expanding the talent pipeline into the creative industries.
We will respect and celebrate the presence, personality and individuality of our players, choirs, youth ensembles, conductors, staff, participants, and audiences.
We will demonstrate our belief that a symphony orchestra is a uniquely powerful and eloquent vehicle with which to achieve these things.
Hmmmm…
Slipped Disc says:
It’s always a mistake in the performing arts to say what you are going to do before you do it. Nowhere is it a bigger mistake than in an orchestra, which is there to play, not to preach.
Some CEOs feel happiest when they are making to-do lists. In the orchestral world it is best to keep these things to yourself.
With Tony Hall as chairman of the board, expect more verbiage of this nature.
We’re getting worried about the future of the CBSO.
Generic drivel from a CEO with no orchestral experience. What more did we expect?
you expect thes statements from everykindergarten. every nanny will formulate such demanding thoughts…
You aren’t the only one whose worried norman. It’s been a never ending series of vision work shops ever since the woman arrived and she’s done absolutely nothing to deal with the utter financial catastrophe we are facing after birmingham city council has gone bankrupt with a huge chunk of our funding up in smoke. Emma doesn’t appear to understand music or anything about us and she’s only interested in getting Tom Morris to turn us into a theatre spectacular. Most players were willing to give her the benefit of the doubt to start out but confidence is draining fast.
I’m interested to watch this. Some years ago I came across Ms Steyning when she was at the Bristol Old Vic (with Tom Morris, whom you mention). She was, I thought at the time, a total space cadet – full of (vague) words, signifying nothing. Even leaving aside her complete lack of orchestral experience, I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the CBSO had appointed her.
It’s a genuinely surprising appointment and will come as a heck of a shock after the unassuming excellence of Stephen Maddock for so many years.
I hope it works out well, but I can’t for the life of me see how.
In the interests of balance, I get a bit irritated when people claim on Slippedisc to represent the views of CBSO players. And I would like to offer some personal reassurance of my own to CBSO supporters. As with any large group of people there’s a range of views. And in any organisation undergoing significant change, there may be people feeling a sense of unease. I, for one, feel we needed a new sense of direction and new ideas. Emma has barely got her feet under the table. She strikes me as a highly erudite, capable and imaginative person, who comes across very well when talking to individuals as well as when addressing large groups. She has been very inclusive in developing these ideas. Tom Morris is very knowledgeable and passionate about orchestral music. I feel confident he will respect the music and the musicians and I feel excited to see where his ideas take us.
I feel very confident that the CBSO will still be presenting a substantial number of concerts in which there will be nothing at all to put off or upset our long-standing valued and loyal supporters.
Anyone who wishes to read the full vision document can find it here:
https://cbso.co.uk/stories/a-new-vision-for-the-cbso
CBSO Player.
Are you a committee member? Remember, if you are, you represent your fellow colleagues and not a Suit. Sounds batsh*t what is going on.
Anon: if by “suit” you mean a member of the orchestra’s management staff, then they *are* the players’ “fellow colleagues”. It’s one organisation working to one end. The toxic idea that players and staff are different groups with different interests was outdated even in the last century (where exactly this blinkered, divisive mentality nearly destroyed the orchestra on more than one occasion).
We are drowning in words. They have no meaning. These people should pick up some honest work in NHS or something else valuable for society. They could all leave tomorrow and noone would notice.
We’ve been coming to concerts since 1968 when we were in our early 20s, we subscribe to 20+ performances per year and we donate as much as we can to the orchestra. We have read the whole of the new lady’s document and are terribly upset. We don’t want revolution, we don’t want reallocated orchestra time, we don’t want theatrical techniques and ‘concert shows’, we don’t want diverse voices and we certainly don’t want drinks in the auditorium and clapping at the wrong moments. We just want great music from our beloved orchestra, one of the greatest ensembles of its kind in the world but one which seems to be under great threat from a philistine new chief executive.
Oh, and we don’t need a new CBSO welcome: the old one has done us fine for decades, thank you very much, and we’ve grown older with the pleasure of knowing generations of orchestral musicians and in some cases their families.
You have every right to be concerned.
I accept that it is important to try and attract new audiences and to make concerts feel more informal.
However, the proposal to project abstract images and varied lighting to help the audience understand what heroism means to Beethoven and the orchestra during his Eroica Symphony is ridiculous. It is a masterpiece – the music speaks for itself and the audience DOESN’T WANT OR NEED DISTRACTIONS.
The CBSO is dumbing down and in danger of making a seriously damaging mistake
very well said; thank you. CBSO benefits Birmingham from my hotel stays for concerts, meals etc I hope the cbso will not be ruined by this woman; Yamada is great, so I have hope.
“We don’t want diverse voices and we certainly don’t want drinks in the auditorium and clapping at the wrong moments.” Do you hear yourself? This kind of attitude is why orchestras are struggling to bring in new audience members. This makes us sound elitist and stuck up. Great musical experiences and diverse voices/drinks/clapping between movements are not mutually exclusive.
We too agree with your comments after being supporters (and more recently patrons) we go to listen to music
I have never agreed with taking drinks into the hall and certainly do not want to attend a ‘pop’ concert.I think we may have to reconsider our support which is a shame as I really thought with Kazuki at the helm we were going forward in style with much more to look forward to. But there are other orchestras. I wonder what Stephen Maddock thinks about this!!!
I hear that Stephen is despairing in private – though unusually quiet for such a chatterbox in public
It is not the job of an orchestra to “drive social change.” It ought, like all society, to participate in social change by behaving decently to all who form part of their community. If people did that routinely, “diversity” would take care of itself. The important part of that DIE construct is “inclusion,” which means open opportunity for all. “Equity” is a nonsense, as various communities are not equal in size — nor in interest in various different pursuits.
Social change may occasionally need a helping hand — like laws against discrimination based on race or sex or age — but it tends to take care of itself. What is going on all too often in British (and other) institutions is social manipulation driven by an agenda-based group of — what? undereducated, intellectually idle, self-obsessed narcissists. Why they have latched on to the preposterous notion of rewriting a history none of them has read is still a bit of a mystery, but the common components appear to be ignorance of anything outside their own experience, and a total refusal to be open to an idea their pea-brains have not come up with.
I shudder every time I read this sort of bilge from yet another institution I had previously thought grown-up enough to take a principled stand based on intelligence.
These “pledges” are what should be done anyway! I’m afraid the smile in the photo says it all to me.
6th resolution – we will dress better on stage.
At the Mahler Festival in Leipzig they looked dowdy and uncoordinated – they sounded that way too despite the very decent jump-in conductor.
Sorry, you confused me for a moment with the adjective “decent.” Wasn’t the jump-in conductor Robert Trevino? Just wondering how an orchestra can sound uncoordinated, but the conductor be great.
Robert Trevino was a great replacement for the ill again Mirga, who never was, is or will be up to the standard of her 3 predecessors or the wonderful Kazuki.
The haters can scream all they like but I say it’s brilliant that our orchestral institutions are now beginning to be led by a generation which is willing to question the white, male, ableist, hetronormative practices of a bygone era. Change can’t come soon enough.
LOL. Spot-on parody!
To play Mahler you need an extremely high concentration of ablists. Otherwise it is not worth bothering.
I’m sure paraorchestra could give it a try
Anyone know how to remove a Chief Executive from office? Asking for a friend.
It makes me so angry that she’s spouting this drivel while I hear from the players that there’s a huge crisis caused by Birmingham City Council’s bankruptcy. I don’t know her but from what I see she’s way out of her depth.
Bring back Steven Maddox!
I applaud Emma and the wider strategic leadership for providing valuable, bold and brave direction, acknowledging that ‘sticking to the ways things were’ is going to lead to nothing but the death of the classical music industry. We need a new approach if the CBSO going to appeal to the new generation and remain sustainable and relevant. A history of music is a history of how it drives social change, and I think this statement sets a great precedent of empowering music to be a force of society, rather than an object we simply listen to and take in.
The CBSO may be an orchestra, but it is also a business. All businesses require a clear vision to guide work. It seems bizarre to suggest that an orchestra is immune from the pressures all businesses face, and is subject to a different set of rules, purely as a result of its output.
I grew up surrounded by traditional approaches to classical music and loved it. However, I would rather see this change than see it die out entirely whilst we cover our eyes from the realities of dwindling audiences and unshakable perceptions of elitism and exclusivity.
Classical music is special to us as individuals, but it is not special in its own right. To think that the art form is going to endure forever because an (increasingly small) group of people think it is special, feels short-sighted. We know that classical music does not and cannot capture the imagination (and the wallets) of the wider public in the way it once did. You could argue that this might be the fault of wider issues in education or something else, but regardless of what is at fault, keeping things the same is not going to grow audiences or create the next generation of classical music lovers in time for any organisation to remain sustainable.
I think Emma’s statement demonstrates a huge amount of care for classical music. This vision will allow the art to continue to grow and reach new people in ways that work for Birmingham. To me, this seems much more caring, to accept and embrace change, rather than to shut off the industry from a future for the sake of our own comfort.
Yes. The LSO is an orchestra, but also a business as ably demonstrated by its Managing Director Dame Kathryn McDowell. Unfortunately, the business model means corporate and the LSO musicians are repeatedly ignored on many levels, not just musical. This is what is happening at the CBSO – essentially a tick box exercise in corporate speak whilst disregarding the orchestra. Again, run by a non musician!
I have just come home from singing in and fabulous CBSO concert involving the world class orchestra and three amateur choirs, childens, youth and chorus producing a memorable performance of the Faure Requiem. Emma CEO made a lovely speech thanking supporters, reminding the audience this was a memorial concert to remember those with close connections to CBSO who had recently died.
There as a huge sense of ownership and joint endeavour from performers (amateur and professional ) and audience.
What a privilege to be part of the CBSO family. The only aim is to spread the sense of joy at being involved in classical music more widely.
I mean…you say you grew up with classical music but haven’t you noticed that practically everything in this “vision statement” (barring the odd bit of window-dressing) is something that the CBSO is already doing or has already done, in some form or another, over the last three decades? And that chunks of the document are simply cut-and-pasted from pre-existing CBSO biogs, mission statements etc? It’s the right direction of travel, for sure, but it’s not remotely new or surprising.
What is ‘a traditional approach to classical music’ and what’s wrong with it?
Utter drivel.
I can only conclude that her “vision statement” is, Words, not Deeds!
They should read John Carey’s “What Good Are The Arts?”. This kind of wishful thinking would be almost impossible after doing so!
The first two resolutions seem to me to be what the CBSO has tried to do, with a fair degree of success, for a long time. The third and forth belong in a game of bullsh*t bingo.
It’s the last one which puzzles me. “We will demonstrate our belief that a symphony orchestra is a uniquely powerful and eloquent vehicle with which to achieve these things.” The CBSO seem to be doing the complete opposite by suggesting that their work needs other elements in order to appeal to and communicate with audiences. It’s an approach that demonstrates a colossal lack of faith in the product.
That a recently-appointed CEO, with no experience in the sector, might float such an idea, is just about understandable. That the board hasn’t stepped on the proposal at an early stage is much more worrying.
“But have you read my joyful 5 point vision statement?” cried the Dodo frantically circling the somewhat bemused citizens of once proud (but now bankrupt) Ozzieville…..”Guys look, I’ve even had it carved on an Edstone……c’mon an Edstone, you remember?”
Classical music seems to be doing rather well in E Asia without this pseudo-intellectual drivel and without questioning “the white, male, ableist, hetronormative practices of a bygone era”.
Anyone wondering why? Hazard a guess.
If audiences are dwindling, one reason may be that programmes are getting shorter. It is not worth my while to travel from Leamington for little over sixty minutes of music.
We travel from the Isle of Wight but will rethink the future after this announcement
Of course an article actively expressing negativity to something new and exciting is going to receive mostly negative feedback. I implore people to think outside of their own worlds for a second and think how this could positively impact so many people who want to experience classical music but have never had the opportunity or felt it was their place to before.
If these newcomers are getting their info from Slipped Disc, it’s probably a bit late for that.
Stop stop stop! Emma is consulting and listening to find a clearer purpose for an amazing orchestra, which like all orchestras is in a rapidly changing society, in which the evidence tells us extremely clearly – orchestras have become less important. So if you jump to judge Emma, you must judge yourself and ask if you have been part of getting to the place we are all now in.
Look at the cuts all around us, if you can’t see it in other ways.
We need long term thinking here from brave and visionary leaders. Fast, ill informed answers and judgement, placed on the person who is asking the right questions won’t get anybody anywhere.
Bob
The full text of the broader “vision” is found at https://cbso.co.uk/stories/a-new-vision-for-the-cbso.
With patience, the prolix verbiage can be distilled into what it is: A statement of abandonment of faith in the actual purpose of the orchestra – i.e. performing the music written for it.
If what’s proposed attracts the ever-elusive mass new audience and corresponding bucket loads of desperately needed cash, then it could be their salvation. Good luck with that though.
What it is sure to do is alienate a good chunk of the remaining loyal audience that they have right now.
For a start, some of the specifics contain massive internal contradictions:
”
i) Clearly inviting audiences to:
Bring drinks into the auditorium.
ii) Clap whenever they like.
iii) Wear whatever makes them feel comfortable.
iv) Take photos or short snippets of film (and to share them with us).
v)Be mindful of everyone’s experience.
”
ii) Ok, prefer not personally but whatever, not a hill to die on – as long as they don’t mean during the actual music.
iii) Whatever, as long as it’s not distracting and doesn’t make any sound. We can all join in with the orchestra who now look like a group of slightly downcast bouncers on an awayday following abandonment of traditional garb.
i) and iv) are like a rapidly spreading disease infecting and destroying live performance experiences* in the UK and are both completely inimical to v).
*For us weirdo throwbacks who actually want to, you know, listen to and concentrate on the music.
Nothing, not even theatricalisation/multimedia/finger puppetry that try to project someone else’s reaction to the music so as to obliterate your own imagination will put this audience member off faster than i) and iv) above.
While acknowledging that they need to do something because of the deepening chasm in the balance sheet, it’s unclear how losing possibly all income from the likes of me (regular punter, donor – particularly so during Covid) is going to help.
Most of the auditoria I know are not suitable for people carrying open drinks to pass others already seated. Are they planning to serve beverages in the sort of covered paper cups coffee comes in? Doesn’t exactly enhance the flavour of the plonk.
And many, if not most, halls are carpeted. Quite the job sweeping up the empty cups. A bend and pick up job — try getting the labour for that. Brits won’t do it with fruits on farms, which pays better and lets the picker have some free strawberries…and the Europeans are gone.
As for iv: are people incapable of dealing with anything straight on any more?
Well done, CBSO. You are aiming straight at the LCD. But you will miss. The people who want to listen to music are not the people who do not believe they have had any experience, including take a bus or have a meal, unless it is recorded on their damned phones.
Symphony Hall is not carpeted. Carpets mess up the acoustics.
Oh grow up and think of something more important than this. If lids on cups is what you care about then we have no hope.
Yes you have neatly highlighted the contradictions.
Finally, a well thought out answer and distillation down to the most important, relevant points. Well done.
Anyone else intrigued by the claim (in the document) that the CBSO is the “only professional symphony orchestra” within 100 miles of Birmingham. I wonder what the English Symphony Orchestra thinks of that. And, indeed, the RLPO, Halle, BBC Philharmonic, BBC NOW, etc.
I don’t think they checked this document very thoroughly before issuing it.
The resolutions are so bland as to be meaningless – what orchestra wouldn’t do those things?
Vegetable rights and peace, (one for the teenagers there)
But now she has a minimum 18 months of job security while she goes through this process . . . I mean, on what grounds could she be faulted when her “vision” (what ever it is) is still being implemented? Then another 18 months to see if it bears any results . . . .
“We are on a journey”, but where is the destination the CBSO has entered into Google Maps?
There is a lot that makes sense and a chunk that is contradictory.
The welcome is a great idea-it gets the floating voter and first timer to come back It adds to a better atmosphere.
Taking photos during the performance is at odds with the other objective of respecting the rest of the audience,along with drinks.
That bit is ill thought through as it fails to recognise-and respect -the integrity of the concert experience.
In summary the silliness of a concert munch along with pouting for instagram could scupper the rest of the very good ideas.
It is possible to square that circle by limiting photography to before and after and drinks all depend on who is drinking and how.
Clap whenever you want is just another rule. Leave it to the audience .
Some good stuff here and some lazy stuff.
The welcome has been a thing since pre-covid.
Aiming to be an orchestra that ‘shares musical experiences’, ‘welcomes audiences’ and ‘respects … the presence [of musicians]’. Well, who’d have thought it?! Vacuity indeed!
I find it very revealing that Stenning repeatedly says ‘music must be joyful’.
Surely it can be everything, reducing it to one emotion seems very naive and condescending.
Everything has to be a “journey” with these people.
I went to the CBSO for the first time this year to see Robert Trevino conducting Mahler 10 – it was utterly superlative and one of the very best orchestral performances I have ever seen, so the temptation is to think what needs to change? The only thing that comes to my mind is that I felt like one of the younger people there and I’m in my mid 50’s. It’s certainly important to think about how to reach new audiences, and yes, diversity can play a part in that – it’s nothing to be scared of when handled sensibly, focusing on attracting new audiences without alienating existing ones!
What a load of rubbish.
I went to my first CBSO concert in 1963 – before this lady was even born!
I have now been to over 1700 CBSO concerts, 2600 classical concerts at Symphony Hall alone and over 7000 classical events in total.
This lady has no background in Classical music at all and her comments so far are a complete joke.
I went to a chamber concert at the CBSO Centre 3 weeks ago.
She came in late, causing the doors to bang and left half way through the last piece, causing the doors to bang again.
Proving she has no respect for the players or for those trying to concentrate on the music.
If she stops in charge then heaven help the CBSO.
I, like many others are disgusted by her silly ideas.
The ironic thing is that the CBSO is in terrific form at the moment, playing as well as I can remember. The notion that they and the music they play somehow need extra, non-musical help to communicate with audiences is both wrong and sad. It must also be dispiriting to the players.
Her “vision statement” looks and sounds something tantalisingly like English, but like no dialect I ever encountered.
What does any of it even mean? Even Google Translate couldn’t make head nor tail of it.
It is certainly part of basic human nature to resist change, but reading this misinformation (abstract images, where has this been written? It’s certainly not the case) and other negative comments is quite amusing. Give this new initiative a chance before you judge; the classical world has to move forward or it will die.
I for one will be there cheering Kazuki and the orchestra on and I look forward to seeing you all there, if you can get a ticket.
Maybe then we can have a grown up conversation rather than griping and slighting something that hasn’t even happened yet.
Guy,
There are concerns but I agree we have to wait and see.
For information, I include a part extract from the press release –
On Wednesday 13 December the orchestra will reveal a new concert presentation of Beethoven’s Eroica and Strauss’ Don Quixote which explores the different concepts of ‘the hero’ within the programme. Conceived by Tom and Kazuki, in collaboration with the orchestra, projection artist, and lighting designer, the performance aims to allow the audience to see the structure of the music as it unfolds.
In the first half, narrative is key, and by revealing the story within Strauss’ tale of a mad knight, a mixture of found, filmed and live footage will guide the audience through the adventures of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza.
For Beethoven’s explosive Third Symphony, the presentation is more abstract, using lighting and projection to explore the idea of heroism, what it means for the orchestra, what it meant to Beethoven, and what it might mean for the audience.
Thank you Derek, I see what you mean! From what I understand, any images will be meaningful. Perhaps “abstract” is meant as a more general overview of the symphony rather than story telling? I suppose we will see, I very much hope to see you there.
Thank you for your sensible and open minded reply, I shall buy you an over priced glass of wine if I bump in to you (and if you dare take it into the auditorium)
And thank you Guy, for you friendly response as well as the droll, topical aside.
There will not be a City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in 30 years or so : the demographics are obviously leading towards the demise of European art music.
If everyone keeps complaining like this it’ll take 5 years, not 30!