Tag: Detroit Symphony

Detroit and the Myopia of Nonprofit Arts Organizations

In its Arts, Briefly section today, The New York Times reported on news that Detroit’s emergency manager, Kevyn Orr, is contemplating selling some of the Detroit Institute of the Arts’s collection to cover the city’s $15 million debt. Metropolitan Museum president and CEO Thomas P. Campbell predicted that the “disheartening reports out of Detroit today will undoubtedly shock and outrage the city’s residents.”

Let’s look at some data that Campbell probably didn’t consider before making his comment:

Campbell’s words speak to the myopia that non-profit arts organizations suffer from when it comes to the constituencies they purport to serve. For most arts managers “the city” constitutes a small number of well-heeled donors that give thousands–millions, even–in exchange for decision making power and access; the job of the arts manager is to keep these people happy. Membership holders and ticket buyers fortunate enough to bask in the glow of reflected wealth are barely within the field of vision. Others without money are considered only occasionally, mostly through “outreach” programs. 
In a crumbling city with overwhelming economic problems affecting a huge number of its residents, it’s worth asking whose needs an arts organization is really serving and whether resources should be used differently. Many arts managers don’t have the bravery to ask these questions. The hope is that, in Detroit and elsewhere, someone will have the vision to come up with honest answers. 

Good Ideas Out of the Detroit Symphony? Yes, Indeed.

Mark Stryker of the Free Press recently wrote about how the Detroit Symphony is faring two years after settling its embarrassing, divisive strike. Some of the changes that the orchestra has made shows that the board and management are really making efforts to be forward-looking and relevant to today’s audiences.

For one thing, management is incentivizing musicians to participate in community engagement. Although the orchestra took a 23% pay cut–the base salary is still $81,000, pretty good in a city that has no money–there is a clause stating that musicians will get an extra $7,000 if they participate in education and “outreach” programs. It’s essential for orchestras to start thinking of themselves not as concert promoters exclusively, but as educators and advocates for their art; the bonus money, although modest, at least shows that the DSO is aware of this reality.

The DSO is also opening up new ways for people to enjoy its traditional repertoire. Because the contract agreed upon in 2011 made it less costly for management to distribute recordings, the orchestra now reaches an extra 10,000 per concert through internet broadcasts. The DSO is also playing 25% of its classical concerts on a suburban concert series that has brought in 2,200 new season-ticket holders.

A number of musicians bolted during the strike, but now the DSO is replacing them with fantastic new, young musicians. Stryker says that “the orchestra has hit home run after home run in auditions” and points to the orchestra’s new concertmaster, Yoonshin Song, as an example.

That Uncomfortable Feeling (Watching the Detroit Symphony Strike from Afar)

I’ve heard it said here, and I can well imagine it being said elsewhere, that finely trained musicians want to concentrate on the music-making they trained for; that they find too much community service detrimental to the fundamental goal of sustaining artistic growth. But the movement toward embracing the world beyond the safe routine of the concert hall is surely going to gather momentum. It makes sense, short-term and long-term.

Both sides had their chances to present new visions for the orchestra, and both blew it. The musicians fell back on the tired old tropes about needing to maintain the orchestra’s status as a top orchestra (for the sake of civic pride), about their value as fine artists who are enriching the city by exhibiting jewels of high culture on the concert stage.

Management stuck to its line of needing to acknowledge hard economic realities; there was no talk of how the short-term pain of huge budget cuts could not just ensure the fiscal health of the orchestra, but also make it a viable entity within Detroit again.

During the strike, a news story broke that the state government was cutting education funding so deeply that Detroit would need to close schools. There are opportunities for non-profits to step in and play a vital educational role, not through “outreach” concerts but as sustained partners in classrooms and community centers.

At the very least, one of the sides could have scored some points by taking the high ground; at best, some sort of blueprint for an orchestra integrated into the city could have emerged.

Orchestra Strike Watch: Detroit Symphony

It’s no surprise that the Detroit Symphony Orchestra today cancelled all concerts up to December 11. The musicians have been on strike for months, and there’s no end in sight; the two sides aren’t even talking.

Here’s how startlingly bad things are financially for the Motor City band, as Jeff Bennett reminds us today in the Wall Street Journal:

The DSO reported a $3.8 million deficit for its 2009 fiscal year compared with a $509,000 loss in fiscal year 2008. Corporate giving, driven largely by Detroit auto makers and parts suppliers, was cut in half, falling to $1.59 million from $3.29 million. The 2010 fiscal year results are due out in December.

That’s almost $4 million dollars on a $31.4 million operating budget, with a primary source of revenue drying up. There’s no way the musicians can be ignorant of the realities here: their city simply can’t support an 85-member orchestra with a base pay even at $82,000 (their base pay was $104, 650).

What the musicians can bargain for–and probably get–is control over how their orchestra is managed. If they feel that the orchestra administration has mismanaged the budget, they should get it in the new contract that musicians be a part of the process. If they don’t think their fundraising is up to snuff, step up and agree to actively participate in raising money, as well as in public relations and marketing.

Clearly the Detroit Symphony musicians are smart and self-starting: while on strike, they’ve mounted and promoted their own concerts, and have articulately argued their case through social media. There’s no reason why they shouldn’t now trade money for power and take hold of their own destinies as the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

(More on the Detroit Symphony strike)


Raising Taxes for the Detroit Symphony, Cont.

I found a couple of people weighing in on the proposal to raise property taxes for the Detroit Symphony, which has been on strike for almost two months now. Bottom line for both: this would be a quick fix with little long-term benefit.

The Detroit News opined as such:

Musicians rejected a sweetened offer last week, saying the pay reductions it still demanded would compromise the quality of the orchestra. That seems a specious claim, considering that work rules in their contract make it almost impossible to fire a musician whose skills have waned. This contract fight is about the long-term viability of the DSO; taxpayers would do the orchestra no favor by approving a bailout before the tough decisions are made. 

After arguing why governments should support cultural institutions, Edmonton Symphony Orchestra conductor Bill Eddins makes a similar point:

Cultural Heritage tax proposals tend to embolden the opposition who thinks that the Arts aren’t important to a healthy social system.  And even if the proposed tax passes in the Detroit area I worry that it would just paper over the very real systemic issues that the DSO has been dealing with.  Just throwing more money at it does not a solution make.

Five Questions to Ask About Raising Taxes for the Detroit Symphony

In an attempt to end the Detroit Symphony strike, a Michigan state representative wants to make it possible for people in three area counties to vote to help fund the orchestra with a small increase in their property taxes.

It’s worth considering: orchestras, privately run as non-profits, are nonetheless civic institutions, and there’s no reason why property owners shouldn’t pay a little bit for something that improves the cultural life of their city (and their property values). The tax increase would be small, only about $20 on an assessed $100,000 worth of real estate (by my calculations, so I could be way off).

Assuming such an initiative goes before the public, here are some questions to ask before voting on it:

1. Is the orchestra an essential service? These are tough times for Detroit, and before voting to saddle neighbors with an added expense, it’s worth asking if the orchestra is something that the area absolutely needs.

2. How much government money already goes to the orchestra? The Detroit Symphony has taken some hits, delivered by the musicians, for mishandling its budget. Instead of raising taxes, perhaps local governments should pressure the orchestra’s financial managers to more responsibly account for how they use public money.

3. Is this a symbolic act? It’s great to show your love, but such as small amount may do little to solve the problems the orchestra faces.

4. Will this money really go to the orchestra? Can the municipal government take the money and appropriate it for something else? What are the guarantees?

5. In the end, will it really make any difference?

Any more questions? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Detroit Symphony Musicians Will Put on Holiday Shows

The Detroit Symphony Orchestra musicians, on strike for weeks now, are putting on their own holiday concerts, starting this weekend:


This isn’t the musicians’ first foray into concert production; back in September, after their contract was up but before the went on strike, they performed two concerts.

 If I were the musicians, who seem to be both unified and highly motivated to do things their own way, I would start thinking about how they can abandon the orchestra as a corporation and form a new group in Motor City. Stop picketing, and start doing more playing.

It’s All About the Ask

Executive Director Lynne Meloccaro on why the American Symphony Orchestra offered its players salaries instead of maintaining the pay-for-service model it’s been operating under for years:

We didn’t want to do that because the perception people had that orchestras were collapsing all over the place was affecting philanthropy.

The primary reason that Ms. Meloccaro gave wasn’t artistic (although music director Leon Botstein said that it was “a way of stabilizing a very fine orchestra”) or at all related to ticket sales (that an ever-shifting roster would result in inconsistent performances and a lack of personal identity that could repel audiences).

This move had everything to do with the ask. No one will donate to a non-profit that is crumbling. The new ASO contract, so Ms. Meloccaro hopes, sends a signal to large donors that the orchestra is on sound financial footing.

You might want to keep ASO’s reasoning in mind the next time you see a non-profit arts organization put on a program that seems to have little reason for being, that couldn’t possibly pull in a crowd large enough to justify its existence.

The Detroit Symphony management might want to keep Ms. Meloccaro’s words in mind as they try to resolve the strike with musicians. I know things look bleak in Motor City, but GM did post a third-quarter profit.

More on the Detroit Symphony Strike

The Detroit News reported today that Detroit Symphony Orchestra management hired a lawyer to disuade local station WADL-TV from broadcasting a concert by striking musicians last weekend.

And the Wall Street Journal published a piece on the sad state of the Detroit orchestra. A few points stuck out for me that underscore just how out of touch everyone in that orchestra has been for years:

  • Since 2008, the Detroit Symphony has cut 30 managerial positions.  
  • The base pay for musicians entering the group was $104,650–and a pension and health insurance. 
  • The orchestra was $9 million in the hole last season, and were $10 million in the red in each of the previous two seasons. They owe $50 million in interest alone. 
  • This is the fifth DSO strike since 1969. 
It looks as if a lot of people in that organization–and the board has to take a hit here too–weren’t keeping watch, and were deluded about the state of the orchestra and the city as a whole. It’s not as if the problems with Detroit just happened: the Midwest has been de-industrializing for a long time.

Detroit Symphony Musicians Force Violinist Chang to Cancel Recital

The sad orchestral situation in Detroit just got worse this past weekend, when Sarah Chang announced that, because of an outcry from striking Detroit Symphony musicians, she would not perform her recital  scheduled for tonight. According to Mark Stryker in the Detroit Free Press, she also received offensive and threatening e-mails from the musicians’ supporters.

The musicians are publicly claiming that the cancelation shows that Chang is demonstrating her solidarity with them, but it sure looks like intimidation. And a missed chance to creatively make their case to the public (who, after all, are the donors and concertgoers that help pay their salaries).

Chang scheduled the recital when her appearances with the orchestra were canceled as a result of the strike. She wanted the money made off the concert to go to the musicians’ pensions fund, showing that she was at least a little sympathetic. Trying to enlist her as an ally–to pressure orchestra management, to make public comments; anything–would have been the way to go. Especially when, as Terry Teachout pointed out a while back, the DSO players need to convince people that it’s even worth having them around.

Detroit Symphony Set to Strike

Detroit Symphony players rejected management’s final offers over the weekend, but because of labor regulations requiring the filing of paperwork, can’t strike until September 24. But it looks like they will.

The musicians are arguing that the dramatic pay cuts–over 20% in base pay–will render the orchestra second class. “That top sliver of talent, the ones who can truly thrill the audience, will not come here,” says cellist Haden McKay.

It’s a pretty crazy pay cut, and I wouldn’t want to take it, but the argument that great musicians won’t come doesn’t really hold water. There’s more than a “sliver” of great musicians out there right now. The problem for musicians is there a glut–too much supply, and not enough demand.