Text 17494, 148 rader
Skriven 2014-09-29 10:26:00 av NANCY BACKUS (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av MICHAEL LOO
Ärende: Re: institutions 998
============================
-=> Quoting Michael Loo to Nancy Backus on 09-25-14  10:46 <=-

 NB>> Pretension doesn't seem to be as big a thing
 NB>> here... just folks that genuinely made good... 
 ML> I'm not so sure, having done some reading. Turns out RPO
 ML> fired the music director who did the women composers thing, 

There were other "irreconcilable differences", not so much the
scheduling of women composers per se...   I think one of them had
something to do with how well (not) he was interfacing with the
community at large... to say nothing of the board...

 ML> and the 2014 season looks deader than anything
 ML> Boston put together since the late 19th century. I also
 ML> note that the conductors RPO has been hiring tend in the
 ML> swivel-hipped pretty boy direction. Trouble in paradise.

Christopher Seaman was a tough act to follow...  ;)  I suspect the
PowersThatBe are trying for reaching a different population segment,
possibly younger...

 ML>> What's the financial condition of RPO?
 NB>> I don't know to what extent recording revenues play into the RPO's
 NB>> finances... they do still make some recordings, I think maybe less
 NB>> than they have in the past, but I don't know if they've been depending
 NB>> on them for revenue so much as wanting to preserve certain touchpoints
 NB>> of their existence..  :) 
 ML> And reading indicates that the orchestra lost $746K last
 ML> year, a big gulp. As a result, the current season, well,
 ML> it's so homogenized that I couldn't see me going to
 ML> listen even if I were in town and the concerts were free.

My choice of concert to take Mommy to this year surprised her... it
wasn't the Beethoven concerto...  although, in hindsight, maybe I should
have, since the new Music Director is conducting it now...  As to the
loss... Part of that was due to the previous recently fired conductor
having programmed too many blockbusters (expense-wise) for the budget...

 ML>> Of course the BSO with its big RCA Victor and then Philips/DG
 ML>> contracts was a big loser in the decline of serious music and
 ML>> the (latest) technological revolution and has struggled to make
 ML>> up the loss, especially to its pension fund.
 NB>> There may also be more of a symbiosis with Eastman School of Music
 ML> There was, but I think the musicians' union being what
 ML> it is, that symbiosis can't be what it once was when
 ML> Howard Hanson was the driving force.

Hard to say...  Many of the RPO musicians also are faculty at ESM, and
I do know that they donate their efforts to the rebroadcast of the
concerts on WXXI...  There's at least a measurable amount symbiosis
built in... along with the historic aspects...
 
 NB>> I'm also not involved with any of the arts
 NB>> funding groups here, but from the little I see of the "supported by
 NB>> grants froms" notices, it would appear that there's fairly even
 NB>> funding being handed out to large and small alike...  Perhaps there's
 NB>> more sponsorship of smaller groups by larger organizations, such as
 NB>> museums hosting smaller chamber groups, etc...   :) 
 ML> It's hard to tell, as I don't have access to the numbers
 ML> of the big guys. I may have given you the wrong impression
 ML> - our current tendency is to fund smaller groups and let
 ML> the big guys fend for themselves. This may in the short
 ML> run liven the littl'uns but might hasten the demise of
 ML> the adults.

No, I did get that... And my reference was to funding announced for
various sized groups... from small to large...  but there are a number
of funding groups here, from the looks of it...  Trusts set up by
various philanthropic-minded individuals, couples, inheritors, etc...
 
 NB>> Sounds like there's a different dynamic at work in funding there vs
 NB>> here... even so, one can't always fund everything that could be
 NB>> worthy... or, from an individual's point of view, support all worthy
 NB>> organizations... one does have to pick and choose, and hope that
 NB>> someone else is picking up the slack on the others...  
 ML> Sadly, we're among the leaders now - we were the leader
 ML> in the 1840s to when the BSO was founded in I think 1881,
 ML> but then our role became ceremonial. Now there are fewer
 ML> organizations to take up the slack, and we're one of the
 ML> only actually healthy funding institutions in New England.

Sounds like venerability worked a charm...  :)

 ML>> figures. That might have been a considerable incentive for me
 ML>> to get my act together, but for the fact that I didn't want to
 ML>> practice, didn't want the musical version of a desk job, and
 ML>> thought I didn't need the money. As I've said before, my friends
 ML>> envied my freedom, and I envied their financial stability. It's
 ML>> still that way pretty much.
 NB>> Do you have m/any regrets at this point...?  
 ML> Not until I go bankrupt, and I hope that doesn't happen
 ML> until permanent unconsciousness comes.

With just a little care, one can generally stave off total penury...
as long as one doesn't incur too many bills, or waste on totally
unnecessary things...

 NB>> don't know if salaries have kept pace... I'd suspect though that,
 NB>> like the BSO, they didn't raise salaries much, in order to try to keep
 NB>> things afloat all these years, especially during the leaner years... 
 ML> From various sources:
 ML>       RPO   BSO
 ML> 2005 36100
 ML> 2007 37630 118040
 ML> 2009 42000
 ML> 2010       112840
 ML> 2011       132028
 ML> 2013 44070
 ML> 2014 40600 122720
 ML> You'll notice that there was some earthshaking in the
 ML> last couple years.

Particularly retrenching this year, for both...  As I guessed though,
the RPO pays quite a bit less than BSO...  
 
 ML> I never made anywhere close to the high fives, but I was
 ML> never all that focused on that kind of do-re-mi. I was
 ML> making in the tens and some of my friends were well into
 ML> the sixes, and they envied me more than I envied them.

Do I read that correctly as you were in the teens...?  And take from
that they envied you your freedom....?  :)   We were never focused on
the do-re-mi either... never lived close to the edge, either, so when
everything collapsed, were in much better position for weathering...

 NB>> Of course, that was some years ago now... but as well
 NB>> since then Kodak went through bankruptcy so probably feels
 NB>> justified in paying less to the few employees they've kept...
 ML> The rapine of establishments in favor of short-term
 ML> gain changed the financial structure of our country
 ML> and seriously for the worse in my opinion. Didn't that
 ML> wonderful Mr. Marx say something about capitalism
 ML> carrying within itself the seeds of its own destruction?
 ML> It appears to be true, perhaps truer than he thought,
 ML> but in a different way than he thought.

Perhaps true... quite likely not as he envisioned, either... 
Rapaciousness doesn't help anyone, in the long run... the businesses
used to thrive precisely because they eschewed that... and had an eye on
the long-term picture...  sad, the way things have worked out, though...

ttyl         neb

... Global warming related to the alarming increase in pizza ovens

___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.20
--- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v3.0pr5
 * Origin: Check Out Doc's QWK Mail  Via Web BBS > DocsPlace.org  (1:123/140)