Classical Connection: Whither the Orchestra?
“The arts have to be incorporated into our daily lives,” said Grammy Award-winning conductor and National Symphony Orchestra Director Leonard Slatkin at a speech on January 31 at the Woodrow Wilson Center. Slatkin expressed concern over the repercussions of budget cuts to school music programs, exorbitant recording costs, rising ticket prices, and declining audience attendance at the symphony.
As someone who grew up surrounded by music, Slatkin is saddened by the declining emphasis of music in our homes and schools. His father was the concertmaster at 20th Century Fox. His mother was the first cellist and his uncle a pianist at Warner Brothers. By night, his parents were part of a classical string quartet. And, his parents also worked for Capital Records, as part of the freelance recording industry, with such legends as Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Art Tatem, and Doris Day. “Our house was the focal point for all these people to come over,” Slatkin recounted.
He recalled how his public school teachers instilled a passion for music in them. “The people who taught it cared about it and fought for it.” And, today, as he meets professionals who approach him and say they remember him from school, he said, regardless of their careers, “Each of them remembers what music meant to them, and how public education carried them through that.”
Yet in the last two years, he said, 15 major orchestras in the United States have experienced declines of up to 20 percent in their audiences. Meanwhile, most orchestras have deficits and musicians’ salaries are high. For example, a musician joining the San Francisco Symphony—the second highest paid orchestra in the country—would immediately earn about $100,000 a year. Ticket prices have risen to help cover rising costs but raising prices any further might further shrink the audience. “The numbers go down as the pay scale and fees of artists get higher,” he said. “We’ve helped to price ourselves slightly out of the business.” He added that audience attendance is precarious whether the program features Mozart or something more contemporary.
Another expensive venture is recording. A compact disc of standard orchestral music costs about $125,000 to produce and if it’s on a major labor, the consumer cost is about $20. That means the orchestra must sell about 25,000 copies to break even financially, but typical sales for such a recording are about 2,000 copies. In addition, he said, such budget labels as Naxos have capitalized on the opportunity to record in other countries “because the people don’t buy the records based on the orchestra that plays them.” And the average person can buy such a disc by, let’s say, the Slovak Philharmonic, for much less money.
Record labels are a profit-making business, said Slatkin, and “we’re in the music profession. Our business is to lose as little [money] as we can.”
Slatkin too has recorded for Naxos, which is the label that produced his Grammy-winning recording of William Bolcom’s “Songs of Innocence and of Experience.” Nearly three hours of music in a three-disc set, it was recorded using the University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra, supplemented by other musicians and a 450-member chorus. It cost $90,000 to produce, in part because it was not on a major label, and sales worldwide have exceeded an astounding 35,000 copies. Throughout his career, Slatkin has done more than 100 recordings, won 9 Grammy Awards, and was nominated for a Grammy more than 50 times.
Dispelling the idea that music is an international language, Slatkin said, “Music is a national language that tells us more about the people from that country and that place.” He spoke of the tremendous musical talent around the world, from Portugal to China, from Venezuela’s model music education program to Spain’s orchestras and opera. “In order to be players on the world scene, it became clear that not only do you have to participate economically, but you do culturally as well…You understand more about a people through its culture than anything else.”
Slatkin said the survival of orchestras will depend on having educated audiences and on the ability of each orchestra to offer something unique. If young people have appreciation and imagination, then in education, programming, and recording, “we will not be talking about the survival of the orchestra in the 21st century; it will always be there.”
When asked how to convey to others the importance of music in our lives, Slatkin responded, “Watch the last 12 or 13 minutes [of the movie ET] and turn the sound off.” Then watch it with the music on, “and then you’ll find out what a difference music makes.”
As someone who grew up surrounded by music, Slatkin is saddened by the declining emphasis of music in our homes and schools. His father was the concertmaster at 20th Century Fox. His mother was the first cellist and his uncle a pianist at Warner Brothers. By night, his parents were part of a classical string quartet. And, his parents also worked for Capital Records, as part of the freelance recording industry, with such legends as Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Art Tatem, and Doris Day. “Our house was the focal point for all these people to come over,” Slatkin recounted.
He recalled how his public school teachers instilled a passion for music in them. “The people who taught it cared about it and fought for it.” And, today, as he meets professionals who approach him and say they remember him from school, he said, regardless of their careers, “Each of them remembers what music meant to them, and how public education carried them through that.”
Yet in the last two years, he said, 15 major orchestras in the United States have experienced declines of up to 20 percent in their audiences. Meanwhile, most orchestras have deficits and musicians’ salaries are high. For example, a musician joining the San Francisco Symphony—the second highest paid orchestra in the country—would immediately earn about $100,000 a year. Ticket prices have risen to help cover rising costs but raising prices any further might further shrink the audience. “The numbers go down as the pay scale and fees of artists get higher,” he said. “We’ve helped to price ourselves slightly out of the business.” He added that audience attendance is precarious whether the program features Mozart or something more contemporary.
Another expensive venture is recording. A compact disc of standard orchestral music costs about $125,000 to produce and if it’s on a major labor, the consumer cost is about $20. That means the orchestra must sell about 25,000 copies to break even financially, but typical sales for such a recording are about 2,000 copies. In addition, he said, such budget labels as Naxos have capitalized on the opportunity to record in other countries “because the people don’t buy the records based on the orchestra that plays them.” And the average person can buy such a disc by, let’s say, the Slovak Philharmonic, for much less money.
Record labels are a profit-making business, said Slatkin, and “we’re in the music profession. Our business is to lose as little [money] as we can.”
Slatkin too has recorded for Naxos, which is the label that produced his Grammy-winning recording of William Bolcom’s “Songs of Innocence and of Experience.” Nearly three hours of music in a three-disc set, it was recorded using the University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra, supplemented by other musicians and a 450-member chorus. It cost $90,000 to produce, in part because it was not on a major label, and sales worldwide have exceeded an astounding 35,000 copies. Throughout his career, Slatkin has done more than 100 recordings, won 9 Grammy Awards, and was nominated for a Grammy more than 50 times.
Dispelling the idea that music is an international language, Slatkin said, “Music is a national language that tells us more about the people from that country and that place.” He spoke of the tremendous musical talent around the world, from Portugal to China, from Venezuela’s model music education program to Spain’s orchestras and opera. “In order to be players on the world scene, it became clear that not only do you have to participate economically, but you do culturally as well…You understand more about a people through its culture than anything else.”
Slatkin said the survival of orchestras will depend on having educated audiences and on the ability of each orchestra to offer something unique. If young people have appreciation and imagination, then in education, programming, and recording, “we will not be talking about the survival of the orchestra in the 21st century; it will always be there.”
When asked how to convey to others the importance of music in our lives, Slatkin responded, “Watch the last 12 or 13 minutes [of the movie ET] and turn the sound off.” Then watch it with the music on, “and then you’ll find out what a difference music makes.”
posted by Dana @ 12:51 PM
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