American Orchestras - Past/Present/Future

AMERICAN ORCHESTRAS:

PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

For many years, most of the 1980s and 1990s, the concert repertoire of

America's orchestras was depressingly "Top 200": predictable, focused on

name-brand composers and soloists, and dull, dull, dull. Despite grants for

commissions, Meet The Composer's subsidies for composers-in-residence, etc.,

most new music was either played once and dropped, short works buried between

sure-fire war horses, or ghettoized on under-promoted all-contemporary

programs. The "code" was easy: if a composer just had a last name (Mozart,

Rachmaninoff, etc.) the music was reliably safe; if a composer had a first

name (John Adams, Richard Danielpour, Joan Tower) the warning was understood.

In 1985 the audience equation changed. Until then, the orchestras could

reliably expect about 20% to 22% of the college-educated professional classes

to begin attending regularly (three or more times per year) once they hit the

ages of between 38 and 42 years-old. This formula was reliable across the

nation, *in spite of* new arts centers, competition from other entertainments

and media, aggressive (and expensive) marketing, and increased governmental,

corporate and foundation funding. Given population increases and massive

growth in the college-educated professional classes both in total and as a

percentage of the total population, times were good and -- despite some

well-publicized financial collapses (which started and established in the

public mind the myth that the live performing arts were failing) -- audiences

grew nationwide. Total live attendance at the forty professional orchestras

in U.S. markets of more than 900,000 metropolitan population (out of more

than 1,500 orchestras nationwide) grew to more than 23 million people a year

-- far exceeding the NFL's annual attendance of 16 million for all games, as

well as the combined attendance for professional basketball and hockey

combined.

What happened in 1985? It was then that the unprecendentedly large Baby Boom

generation began to enter the 38-42 year-old age that had once signified the

entry to arts participation. For whatever reason -- this generation's

commitment to its own music, their unwillingness to kow tow to the accepted

wisdom of their parents, greater participation of women in the workforce,

whatever -- they attend orchestra concerts at roughly half the rate of their

predecessors. The great size of this generational cohort has masked the

severe drop-off, so total attendance nationwide has remained relatively

static. But those who recognize that "demography is destiny" realize that a

great blow-off is coming in the middle of the second decade of the new

Century. This is when the Boomer's children will reach the magic 38-42

year-old age bracket. Unless there is some radical change in participation

percentages, the numbers look bleak. I predict that, outside of major metro

"arts tourism" centers like New York, Chicago, San Francisco, etc., most

orchestras without massive $50 million+ endowments (Pittsburgh, Minneapolis,

Dallas, Cincinnati and Indianapolis are among the well endowed) will rapidly

disappear. Orchestras in Detroit, Milwaukee, Portland (OR), Denver, Phoenix,

Houston, all of Florida, Salt Lake City, San Diego, Columbus, New Jersey,

Louisville, Nashville, St. Louis, Kansas City, San Antonio, N. Carolina,

Charlotte, Memphis, New Orleans, Hawaii, Brooklyn, St. Paul and most

secondary markets like Grand Rapids, Richmond and Rhode Island, are already

-- 15 years out -- in deep trouble.

Something has happened, however, which might -- just maybe -- change this

Malthusian equation. Starting with a controversial mid-90s report by the

American Symphony Orchestra League (ASOL) entitled "Americanizing the

Orchestra," these institutions have been enthusiastically realigning

themselves with their communities. Educational activities have grown

exponentially, as have free concerts, collaborations with schools and

non-arts groups, public lobbying, and promotion directed at non-traditional

audiences, all designed to pulverize perceived barriers and create new

connections. The ability of musicians and conductors to speak and teach

engagingly became as important as their performing skills. The most

refreshing change has been in repertoire. The old

"overture-concerto-symphony" programs are rapidly disappearing. Themed

programs and programmatic festivals abound. And, surprise surprise, new

music is selling big-time. Here, Esa-Pekka Salonen's LA Philharmonic,

Michael Tilson-Thomas' San Francisco Symphony and Gerard Schwarz's Seattle

Symphony have shown the way. Across the country orchestras are trying to

emulate their success with innovative programs filled with music that is new,

fresh and exciting. Sure, some of this misfires (SF Symphony with

Metallica), but a lot of it is getting big press and big audiences, including

a lot of new faces.

This may just be the oft-seen last flowering before death, as seen in the

Romantic music of the first quarter of the 20th Century, and the stubborn

refusal of the analog LP medium to die on schedule, but it is too soon to

tell. The support base of committed conductors and orchestra administrators

is in place, along with a good number of talented composers. In the final

measure, it will be the ability of these and as-yet undiscovered composers to

make compelling, attractive music, which will finally determine if the

American orchestra thrives or fades to museum status.

- Rob Gold

Rob Gold is a performing arts administrator who has worked for 24 years in

marketing and concert production for major orchestras, including New Jersey,

Indianapolis and Detroit, as well as performing arts presenters and theaters.

He has consulted for over two dozen orchestras, arts centers and theaters on

marketing, customer service and ticketing systems implementation. He now

serves as Director of Marketing for Detroit's Meadow Brook Theatre,

Michigan's largest professional theater company (www.mbtheatre.com). Mr.

Gold's post to Phonogram, an on-line forum for vinyl record collectors, is

reprinted here with permission.

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