The Business of Orchestras

Michael Kaiser’s Arts in Crisis Symposium

Jun 11 2010

Michael Kaiser, CEO of the Kennedy Center, has been touring the country, visiting all 50 states (69 cities all-together – New Haven CT was number 58), offering his advice about how arts organizations can weather the current economic downturn. Thursday, June 10, 2010 was his day to be in Connecticut – he gave two presentations: one at the Yale Art Gallery in New Haven and one at St. Joseph’s College in West Hartford. The session was moderated by Diane Smith, a well-known CT television and radio personality who has recently done a lot of award-winning work with CT public television.

Michael Kaiser has been called “the turnaround king” because of his success with several arts organizations, including the Kansas City Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, American Ballet Theater, and London’s Royal Opera House. Indeed, his 2008 book is titled The Art of the Turnaround: Creating and Maintaining Healthy Arts Organizations.

In 2001, Michael created the Kennedy Center Arts Management Institute to provide advanced training for young arts administrators, and has developed a series of programs to help train others in the field. He created a Capacity Building Program for Culturally Specific Arts Organizations, which offers mentoring services to the leaders of African-American, Latino, Asian-American and Native-American arts groups across the United States. In February 2009, he created Arts in Crisis: A Kennedy Center Initiative, a program that has provided free arts management consulting to 650 arts organizations around the US.

While he has some very serious advice to offer, he is also very entertaining and inspiring. Many of the points he made in his talk this morning are discussed in much greater detail in his book, but this article provides a summary of some of his main points. (Comments in quotes are in first person and are close to what Michael or Diane actually said, but may not be verbatim.)

Diane started the session off with a big laugh as she complimented him on his wonderful photo on the cover of his book. (It’s actually a very striking photo of a dancer from the Alvin Ailey troupe!)

Apr 02 2010

The April issue of Allegro, New York City local 802’s monthly newspaper, focuses on the state of the AFM pension. Mikael Elsila, editor of Allegro, describes how the current economic situation impacts pension benefits for individual AFM members. He also explains how the fund works in terms of vesting, multipliers, employer responsibilities and how to get a pension forecast from the fund.

See the companion article by Harvey Mars, 802 member counsel, where he describes in detail but plain language the legal ramifications of the AFM-EP fund being in the red zone.

Mar 26 2010

The April issue of Allegro, local 802’s monthly newspaper, focuses on the state of the AFM pension. Attorney Harvey Mars, a local 802 member and counsel to the local, writes a regular “Legal Corner” column for Allegro. In this issue, he describes in detail but plain language the legal ramifications of the AFM-EP fund being in the red zone.

See the companion article by Mikael Elsila, editor of Allegro, where he describes how the current economic situation impacts pension benefits for individual AFM members.

Feb 11 2010

Christopher Stager, of CRStager marketing & audience development, was amazed to learn that the Milwaukee Symphony’s two October performances of Bartok’s opera Bluebeard’s Castle, were sold out events. He had thought that they would sell moderately, at best. However, stunning set designs by renowned glass artist Dale Chihuly and a special grant from the Wisconsin Department of Tourism helped them turn the concerts into an event.

So in November, Chris met with Susan Loris, VP Marketing & Communications, and Sarah Hogan, Associate Director of Marketing, to learn more about their marketing plan and how they engineered such a successful outcome. The following are edited excerpts from their conversation.

Dec 14 2009

Once again Robert Levine shares his considerable knowledge and experience with Polyphonic readers, this time with a quick tutorial on the responsibilities of musicians who may find themselves the treasurer of his orchestra or union local. Easy to read and understand, Robert’s words of wisdom will keep you out of hot water and possibly jail.

Sep 28 2009

American orchestral musicians are familiar with ICSOM and ROPA. ICSOM, the International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians represents the fifty, or so, largest American orchestras, and ROPA, the Regional Orchestra Players Association, as its name suggests represents U.S. regional orchestras. The Canadian counterpart to these two organizations is OCSM, the Conference of the Organization of Canadian Symphony Musicians – l’Organization des Musiciens d’Orchestres Symphoniques du Canada. Laura Brownell’s article gives the reader insight into the workings of this organization.

Sep 25 2009

I hadn’t been to a Regional Orchestra Players Association (ROPA) conference in a long time. OK, since 2002 when I wasn’t re-elected President. So when Polyphonic suggested that we three Senior Editors cover our respective Players Conferences, I was a bit hesitant about going. OK, a lot hesitant. But I did finally decide to go and am very glad indeed that I did. I saw lots of old friends, made some new ones, and very much enjoyed both the conference presentations and the activities in Dayton. I also spent some time over at the Dayton Philharmonic office doing interviews for a Polyphonic spotlight on the DPO. (Check our Orchestra Spotlight section soon for more info about the DPO.)

Players conferences represent their member musicians to the national union (AFM) to facilitate communication and urge the union to provide necessary services to its members. They also hold a yearly conference for member musicians/organizations.

The International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians (ICSOM) was founded in 1962; see Laura Ross’ excellent article What Is ICSOM? for an overview and a brief history. ROPA was founded in 1984 to provide similar representation to smaller orchestras. There were 13 founding members at the 1984 conference in Columbus OH. Two other groups of musicians have also followed ICSOM’s lead and formed their own players conferences: the Recording Musicians Association (RMA) and the Theater Musicians Association (TMA). ICSOM’s Canadian members left ICSOM when the Organization of Canadian Symphony Musicians (OCSM/OMOSC) was formed in 1975.

This article is rather long, but it was a jam-packed three days. I’ve presented the information in chronological order so you can follow the agenda of the three days.

Tuesday morning began with welcoming speeches followed by a keynote address by Randy Cohen of America for the Arts.

Tuesday afternoon included ROPA officer reports and remarks by Tom Lee. Then the delegates attended breakout sessions.

Wednesday morning featured reports from SSD staff, remarks from representatives of the other three players conferences (ICSOM, OCSM and RMA), a presentation on analyzing orchestra finances by William Thompson from the Univ. of Louisville, and reports from troubled orchestras.

Wednesday afternoon and evening the delegates had a private tour of the beautiful Schuster Performing Arts Center, and then were treated to the ROPA 25th Anniversary dinner and celebration.

Thursday presented ROPA Counsel Patricia Polach talking about contract re-openers, Vinni LoPresti and Will Luebking from the AFM-EP Pension Fund, and David Nesmeth leading an Alexander Technique exercise.

Here’s my “Reporter’s Notebook” from the conference.

Jul 26 2009

Peter Pastreich, seasoned orchestra manager and consultant, gave a presentation for musicians on the structure of orchestra administration at the League of America Orchestras’ conference in Chicago in June, 2009. I was able to capture most of his presentation, and Peter has edited my notes to create a fascinating look at the way orchestras work, full of Peter’s inimitable turns of phrases and wry sense of humor.

Mar 30 2009

Recent controversy (March 2009) involving the Phoenix Symphony, its Music Director, Michael Christie and several of its musicians have gained attention in the orchestral music world. Mr. Christie’s attempt to fire or demote several players has been met with legal challenges and lawsuits alleging age discrimination. Polyphonic Senior Editor Robert Levine uses the Phoenix mess to reflect on age, gender and race discrimination in orchestras.

Jan 29 2009

If you have read the “about us” area of this website, you know that our roots are with an organization that was founded by Paul R. Judy in 1994—the Symphony Orchestra Institute. As a successful businessman with a keen interest in music and symphony orchestras, Mr. Judy created the SOI with the particularly interest and dedication to improve the effectiveness of symphony orchestra organizations. His interest in organizational change led him to commission Laura Roelofs to write a series of eight articles for the web version of the SOI journal Harmony. The articles describe various approaches to understanding and implementing organization change.

Today Polyphonic begins presenting this series again, and will publish one article every two weeks. But to start us off, and since seven years have elapsed since Laura published the first article on the subject, we asked her to bring us up to date with recent trends in the field.

Michael Kaiser’s Arts in Crisis Symposium

Our Pension Pain: AFM Pension Fund announces a recovery plan. But what does it mean for musicians?

Pension Fund Heading Into the ‘Red Zone’ – but don’t panic: Here’s what the law means and how it protects you

“Bluebeard’s Castle” at the Milwaukee Symphony: A Case Study of an Unlikely Success

Treasuring for Dummies

Schutzman Elected to Fourth Term at 2009 OCSM Conference

Reporter’s Notebook: ROPA Conference 2009

Orchestra Administration

Age, gender and orchestras

Organizational Culture: Metaphor