Running an Orchestra

Last week Oasis, a new airline flying between the UK and Hong Kong went bust. This was just the latest in a series of airline collapses that has seen the closing of established airlines such as Aloha Air and of brand new ones such as Skybus. Alitalia (the national airline of Italy) is on its way out and US majors are in and out of bankruptcy court on a rolling schedule. Ask anyone in the street why airlines are going out of business and everyone will provide an informed opinion: fuel prices are high, security is an issue, environmental concerns are stopping people flying, the over-all economy is weak. The list goes on. The point is, is that just about everyone expects airlines to go out of business and just about everyone has an opinion why they think airlines are going out of business.

Not so with orchestras!

The last decade has seen the demise and downfall of several major symphony orchestras. The Florida Symphony Orchestra, the San Jose Symphony, the Tulsa Philharmonic, the Colorado Springs Symphony and the San Antonio Symphony have all been in trouble with some shutting down altogether. In Europe the picture is no better: the major symphony orchestras are all fighting for a smaller pool of funds with smaller orchestras, such as the London Mozart Players and the City of London Sinfonia having their government funding cut altogether. And now it is the turn of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra in Ohio.

As reported in the New York Times, the Columbus Symphony Orchestras is in extreme difficulty. "Like many other American arts organizations, it fell on particularly hard times in the wake of 9/11; unlike most other institutions, it has yet to bounce back. Not incidentally, it was also in administrative disarray from 2003 to mid-2006, when it functioned without either a full-time executive director or a music director."

And this raises two crucial questions: one, why are so many orchestras going out of business or are simply living on the poverty line, limping from season to season without any security? And, two, why is an orchestras such as the Columbus Symphony with an annual budget of $12 million not being run like any other business of a similar size? And maybe this is where airlines and orchestras share some common symptoms. The preferred, immediate solution to the Columbus Symphony's problems is, as always, staff cut backs. Reduce the number of full-time musicians. Reduce the number of working weeks. Reduce the amount everyone is paid. This is exactly what Northwest Airlines did before emerging from Chapter 11 bankruptcy. So did Continental Airlines. And Delta. The list goes on.

The one thing that really seems to be missing in true organizational leadership (in both the airline industry and orchestra sphere). With sponsors falling by the wayside because of the global economic situation (for example the removable by UBS of their sponsorship of the Verbier Festival Orchestra), it is time for all orchestras to become more business minded and those taking on the role of leading a orchestra into the future need to treat it not as an arts job but a multi-million dollar business enterprise.

For sure, the problems associated with running an orchestra are a lot greater than running any other type of manufacturing or service business. This is simply because, as Prof. Robert J. Flanagan of the Stanford Graduate School of Business stated in a survey a few years ago, "it took about 80 musicians 45 minutes to perform Brahms's First Symphony when he wrote it, and it still does, and always will. In the absence of the private sector's productivity gains (like making five times as many widgets in one-half the time), it is logical that operating costs may rise faster than earned revenues. Indeed, [this] 'performance income gap' has widened over the years, and is likely to continue to do so." But the outlook is not all bad. According to Flanagan's findings' " there was an 18% increase in ticket sale income to orchestra concerts between the 2004-05 season and 2005-06. And, equally encouraging, paid attendance at classical concerts for American orchestras in 2005-06 was 11% up from the previous year, again after a few years of flat or declining attendance. Attendance for all concerts given by orchestras - including family, education, pops, chamber, summer, and youth concerts - was also up 11%."

So why are orchestras still failing or struggling? The League of American Orchestras is trying to redress the balance by training the leaders of the future. But is there more that can be done? How can we once again make being a member of an orchestra a secure professional with a business model that can project more than just a couple of seasons into the future?