I came across some interesting articles over the past week that are influencing my thoughts about how orchestras can survive and even grow in the future. Whilst my thoughts are specifically focused on the Northern Rivers Symphony Orchestra, the principles can be applied to any orchestra.
Firstly, an article in last week’s Australian mentioned that the Sydney Symphony, despite a critically acclaimed first year under new Chief Conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy, posted a deficit of just over $1 million. The named culprit is, of course, the Global Financial Crisis pushing down ticket sales.
The article also noted something that didn’t surprise at all; rather it confirmed my opinion of the average classical concert-goer: ticket sales were strong for concerts featuring well-known repertoire (particularly those that make an appearance in a film here or there) but were significantly down for concerts featuring lesser-known repertoire. The symphonies of Anton Bruckner gain specific mention.
The Austrian Wagner devotee himself who wrote symphonies that at least matched Mahler’s for sheer length (certainly not in terms of depth and scope), hit me as a rather apt metaphor for the place that orchestral music occupies in most people’s minds today.
As I continued reading Six Pixels of Separation, Mitch Joel reminded me of a point that I heard years before at university. iTunes had just been made available in Australia and, like its counterparts around the world, was making a big impact. One of my lecturers mentioned, as does Mitch Joel, that today’s music consumer would much rather buy a collection of single tracks instead of a whole album, included in which is perhaps 3 or 4 tracks that they want to listen to. This no doubt drives many recording artists crazy, but that’s how it seems to be going.
The iTunes model fits this phenomenon like a glove – but the modern operational concept of orchestras runs in the complete opposite direction.
Now I certainly don’t think that orchestras should reduce themselves to playing 3-4 minute snippets of the works that everybody likes. Nevertheless, the success of iTunes and the trend it is symptomatic of perhaps reveals an awakening fact that all musicians, not just orchestras, should realise. No matter the quality of what is being played or the profile of who is playing it, today’s music goers do not go into things blindly. They simply will not pay for uncertain outcomes – they won’t buy an album full of tracks they don’t know, they won’t pay to sit through a 2-3 hour concert of works they haven’t heard before written by guys who died over a century ago. Quite simply: money doesn’t grow on trees and life is too short.
So….what do we do about it? Try to educate an entire planet of people to change the way they think, or give up the game and let orchestras fade away?
Neither can happen. I still firmly believe that the death of the orchestra – and the artistic expression it makes possible – would be a tragedy for all future generations. But it needs to change in order to become relevant, indeed important, to today’s music consumers. And by music consumers I mean everyone. Who today *doesn’t* listen to music?
That’s it for now – I’m still thinking.
Adam 