Slovak Radio Orchestra: how further?

When skimming the internet in the past months, some orchestras over the world, have gotten the unfortunate honour to be in the news because of drastic cost-cutting plans, even with complete dismantling. Classical music lovers and all those involved in this business, whether directly or indirectly, are aware which orchestras I am referring to. Equally, I have mentioned some of them in my previous postings. Canada's Vancouver based CBC Orchestra seems already to be a signed-and-sealed deal, while the Columbus Symphony Orchestra (Ohio, USA) initially was only presented a scale-down of its size, the conflict between management and orchestra players has gotten in such a stage, that management finally threatened to pull the plug out completely. Fortunately, they resumed negotiations again. On his Adaptistration site, musician and orchestra management consultant Drew McManus is closely following the whole discussion.

Though I am not living in the near vicinity of Columbus Ohio, yet this orchestra's developments and its future is nevertheless interesting for me to follow. Especially, since I remember the times, when in the early 1980s, the then Dutch minister of culture André van der Louw proposed a plan to "merge" a number of provincial orchestras in the Netherlands. Merging was just a nicer word than dumping: If you merge, let's say a software-company, you add the 2 organisations together, dealing perhaps with a handfull of redundancies, but you end up with a bigger organisation, more production, more business.... In the case of 2 orchestras, there is a problem. An average symphony orchestra has perhaps 72 musicians plus admin staff. Merging 2 orchestra will form then 144 musicians (plus staff), and I cannot imagine (except of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, but due to its opera playing and stage concerts, their huge number of musicians is justified and workable in their case) such a big orchestra in a province in the Netherlands. Obviously, you then cut the numbers down to a regular size orchestra, and there is your result: you sack a complete orchestra after all. But of course: never call it that way in public! A shrewd idea which almost seems to come from Sir Humphrey from the series "Yes, (Prime)-Minister". The negative impact of these plans on the individual musicians was immense, and until today, Dutch orchestra- and cultural life seemingly hasn't recovered from these cost cutting plans.

Just freshly arrived in Slovakia, a few months after that, the Symphony Orchestra of the Slovak Radio (SOSR) hit the very same fate. While 2006 looked promising, with a pay-rise prospect for the musicians, suddenly at a press conference in February 2007, it was announced that the number of musicians would be reduced to improve quality and more money for salaries. Although I can agree, that a quality issue was indeed there, the plan presented was far from adequate. Despite many protests, even from abroad, the orchestra was nevertheless harshly reduced. Not that the salaries were increased as promised. The orchestra's manager Matej Drlička resigned soon after, since he could not agree to the changes as forced upon him from the general management, not being able to keep the promises, leaving the orchestra only in the hands of conductor Mário Košík, who is regarded highly controversial (to say the least) by the orchestra musicians. (see also my earlier posts). Despite that the orchestra in a confidence-ballot voted 91% against him.

The status as of today is as such - just highlighting a few:

• The orchestra is working only 50% (yes, two weeks of the month the musicians sit at home),
  
• the orchestra is losing revenues because losing projects as the orchestra is no longer interesting for organisers,
  
• no official chef-conductor, prominent and renowned musicians have left, the salaries are at the lowest level of the salary scale for most of the musicians (compared to e.g. the Bratislava State Opera sometimes a dramatic difference),
  
• even though maestro Košík tries to convince everyone, that everything is tightly under control, plans change every other day.
  

Yet, the blame is constantly put on the musicians as being the culprits and the fact that there's no money (who caused it in the first place, when the orchestra has gotten extra funding, but management refuses to use it for the purpose it was officially inteded?)

I can but agree with Mr Drlička, who has wisely decided to draw the right conclusion as a manager, at least showing managerial courage to resign, instead of twisting and turning and at all cost stick to a comfortable manager's desk. What is maybe a very odd but interesting detail: Mr Drlička was having a classical programme time on Radio-FM. After openly criticising the current SOSR management, the radio's programme manager sacked him immediately, literaly stating that "we have some difficulties with Mr Drlička's expressed criticism". So it's not just hearsay, but openly admitted by the Radio-FM management! Perhaps I missed the news lately, that freedom of speech was completely abolished here, but this is strongly showing a very very ugly trend, of how things are run at the Slovak Radio. As far as I can remember the totalitarian regime was toppled in 1989, but do we still work with mutual intimidation and sacking, if we don't agree with someone's (justified) criticism? Am I having just a bad dream or a real déjà-vu? It's not a dream, as the fact was published in the newspaper on 12th May.

Andrej Šuba, one of the editors of the Slovak Hudobný život-magazine, in his excellent article has written extensively on the aforementioned developments in the latest issue of this periodical. Sometimes, you hear a lot of information from people, where you hardly believe your ears, or you think "this must be a misunderstanding, they exaggerate!" ... until you find out, that it is indeed a fact. I was very much hoping, that Mr Šuba would have written an article, where things would have fortunately looked much sunnier, where some of my info seemed wrong, only to see, that his article is only confirming - if not worse - of what I had gathered myself.

When looking back at the long suffering of Dutch orchestras in the 1980s and 1990s, what is happening in Columbus Ohio, then we should have learned a lot from that. Taken into consideration, how things evolve around the SOSR, I can hardly express my disbelieve. Being a pessimist is often regarded as a bad characteristic. I like to refer to the saying that a "pessimist is an optimist with experience" or in Slovakia the saying goes like "a pessimist is a well-informed optimist". Whichever way you like it, unless the SOSR management would be finally willing to openly discuss and address true and relevant issues, the orchestra is a very sick patient already dying. And aspirins will not keep him alive, even more if you insist on buying the cheapest tablets you can get.

What the Slovak Radio's management - especially the General Director Ms Zemková and to a certain degree maestro Košík as well - should be fully aware of is this: As a public organisation, your salary (and therefore your responsibility for your daily functioning for the past months) is paid with my money which I paid as income-tax, including my radio-and-tv license which I have to pay, and so paid by others as well - ironically: even by all those tax-paying musicians, who became a victim of this mismanagement. We definitively have the right to insist on accountability from your side. Hopefully, nobody will again try to make me believe that this is normally to be expected in a country like Slovakia, where these managers are not managers but just musicians, teachers, and whatever. No, these are people who are paid to be a manager, and in our age and even according to their laws they are fully accountable. What time do you think we live? This is supposed to be a 21st century EU-member state and not being back in the 1950s Stalinist era.

sad regards,
MS

PS - in the event, it is really impossible to some people concerned to face criticism ; perhaps in Pyongyang there's is an opening for a director or two. No criticism guaranteed there!

Open letter to Mário Košík

Dear Maestro, dear colleague,

In the latest issue of the Slovak classical music periodical Hudobný život [Music Life, issue 3-4,2008], you give a reaction on the previous interview article, where maestro Peter Feranec is airing a critical view on the current situation of the Symphony Orchestra of the Slovak Radio. I was very glad to finally see your personal reaction - to which I would like to place a reaction and a few comments:

It is quite natural, that you want to publicly give an insight to the whole matter, as the discussion around the SOSR is very high-tense, such that people would understand the difficult position, which you are in. Nevertheless, the points which you bring forward, are not quite adequate, and it seems to me that you mistake a few facts, which discolour the situation more or less.

Firstly, you refer to the Slovak Philharmonic's sacking (let's just call it that way) of Musica Aeterna and the Moyzes Quartett, implying perhaps, that maestro's Feranec' musical corpus was equally guilty of drastic cost cutting in the past. While it might seem the same, I tend to disagree, since the severance of the said ensembles is not a similar case, and moreover, Musica Aeterna and the Moyzes Quartett are better off - at least quality-wise Musica Aeterna, with which I am closely working with, has attained a far better and stable level ever since it became an independent body. Such a situation is not at all comparable to individual players which had to leave the SOSR.

Moreover, you remind maestro Feranec on the fact, that the SOSR is offering opportunities for young conductor-students of the Music Academy, which they had never before. Although, it is a very kind gesture to be concerned about the next generation conductors, I think, that this point has nothing to do with justifying the current situation. Yes, every conservatory abroad would be jealous to have a professional symphony orchestra ready waiting, to give its young students a chance to perform. However, this is not the reality.

In the event, you had a fully functional orchestra, the situation would be a bit different. Be reminded, that your SOSR is not fully functional at all; an orchestra that is being sent home half of the month, where the number of musicians is not at the level as promised by management, banking on the availability and benevolence of music academy students to compensate the open seats. Maybe one could (justly) argue, that the number of musicians would suffice for most of the romantic works (even Brahms rarely had a 1960-megaloman-sized Herbert-von-Karajan-style symphony orchestra at his disposition, so let's not be confused by 20th our century spectacles to lament a smaller sized group). But even though the absolute numbers are not that dramatic per sé, it is the fact that being sent home for half of the time, makes the orchestra a sitting lame duck. In addition, as I hinted before, there is still a strong discrepancy between what management has been promising and what has happened or put into effect. The result is a massively demotivated group of musicians, who have lost all confidence. That is the main problem and deadly in any organisation. With this given, you can never start working on quality, if you intend to give still the little precious time away to students. The SOSR therefore is reduced to merely a (demotivated) student orchestra.

Concurrently, you don't agree with the often heard criticism on the lack of direction, mentioned the fact, that never before has there been such a thoroughly planned regie. Perhaps at this very moment you have maybe clear plans and scenarios - but given the experience of management's behaviour in the past and not keeping their word, this is not very credible anymore. Hopefully it will prove later in time that the impression was wrong. The current dramaturgy appears to be just a result of the change, and not that the change was directed by a pre-concepted dramaturgy. Again, if this is not the case, then we deal with a poorly managed PR, since the reality and projection (=impression) are too far apart and that makes public as well as your organisation restless, even unconvincing.

Having said that, I agree, that perhaps many critics and discussions were obviously driven by high emotions, perhaps resulting in a fierce show of blaming-culture. This is very understandable, since musicians tend to be people with emotions (though not a fact exclusively for musicians only). In any transitional stage where changes are being implemented, people are not feeling comfortable. This must have been acknowledged by management beforehand and pro-actively channelled into a workable direction. This chaos is obviously uncontrolled.

You appeal to all those, who are seriously concerned about the SOSR's survival to hand you an "economical recipe" (financial blueprint) for the orchestra's survival. This is not what will save the orchestra. Here you mistake management with simple accounting. I agree, that you deal with serious financial/budgetary constraints - despite Slovakia's rapid economic growth (for some time the biggest within the EU), this is a strangely enough a chronic disease. But, dear colleague, a financial plan is not what you need. Moreover, if indeed a so-called economical recipe would exist, all people would be rich entrepreneurs. The outside world is not that simple. It would be simply too naive to blame only the numbers and to believe there's one magic recipe to solve the matter. It is management conduct in general that needs drastic changing, since its wrong priorities (inexperience?) have lead the SOSR into this direction.

Arguments like "having to save the oldest symphonic orchestra in Slovakia" are not acceptable or debatable to you. I am very sorry to hear that, even the more, since you add that an orchestra derives no legitimacy for its existence this way, that only the (financial) situation will dictate what the SOSR will have to look like (or in that case even perhaps to be dismantled). As a conductor, I would have hoped for a bit more visionary attitude, and as part of the orchestra management more strategic goal setting. In my eyes this is a very passive and defeatist attitude, which no manager (or even a conductor) should ever show. This way, why not close the joint right away?

External factors will unavoidably always be on your way, blaming them is not a sign of good leadership. True leadership takes responsibility - even if external factors were unexpected and out of your control. This responsibility is part of your role in management (being a conductor within this hierarchy is another discussion) and it's simply part of the game. Whichever way the situation will turn, and none of us is owning a magical cristal looking glass to foresee all things happening, as a manager - and this role you have visibly and actively taken upon your shoulders - you must accept the consequences; not seeking for excuses. Every managers faces tight budgets - or is accountable for proper expenditure - but also needs to identify and address (new) sources to continue his business.

To summarise: yes the orchestra is in a precarious situation, which is unfortunate and never easy. Your points which you had published, however, are beside the point (even though I can imagine why you name them). The initial step was that due to financial constraints to start improving the quality of the orchestra (which in itself is a very valid argument, with which in principle I tend to fully agree) - an objective which unfortunately became so blurred due to failing management, that big and to some degree irreversible harm has been done. As a manager, you must address these issues adequately, not downplaying them, nor hiding behind false arguments. I fully appreciate your position to wanting to defend your cause. Keep in mind that, statistically there are far smaller nations than Slovakia, having more thriving orchestras and a more flourishing cultural podium life, yet coping with the same budget. Too many people are staring at the wrong picture, and I have the feeling as if constantly cause and consequence are being mixed up, where the tendency is rather to blame the consequences for the cause. And to remind you of the fact, that perhaps this very same 'cost cutting' is causing your orchestra to lose potential income as event organisers have shown no longer interest in dealing with an incomplete orchestra.

In addition, I think you can always find me (I am not that invisible in Bratislava), so - coming back to your appeal to all those concerned with the SOSR's survival: in case you are interested in genuine solutions - as far as there's still something to be saved - I am more than willing to have a friendly chat, since the survival of the SOSR (or any orchestra if you will) is for me not only of professional interest, but also for the sake of the community.

Yours truly,
MS

Classical Cyber Celebrity

While on a tour, you tend to get in touch with new people, and with some colleagues you finally have some time to finally discuss matters, which you hardly had any time for. A couple of days ago, next to enjoying French foods and wines - and performing music of course - we had several interesting discussions on music marketing and how internet facilities are insufficiently used. Obviously, my readers are familiar with my preferential view on computers. It was a great and pleasant surprise, that a colleague of mine shared many views and opinions, and some interesting issues were discussed. Unfortunately, there's always a balance (or maybe rather an imbalace) that of trying to catch up with all your calendar's appointments, that there would be hardly enough time to focus on internet-networking or presentations. Understandably, needless to say.

After returning to our own little vineyard city North of Bratislava, life began again picking up the usual routine, preparing again for the usual work-appointments, studying, preparing, planning, meeting people, etc., as I suddenly read this interesting article by Fiona Maddocks today in the London's Evening Standard: .... "A Diva for the 21 Century". A true opera soprano singer Daniella de Niese happens to be on the web - not just the usual personal website posted on the internet either by her agency or a fan-club, but having a real MySpace page. A sign that even classical music business is slowly but finally breaking through in the networking areas and forums of the internet. After all, music and culture business has always been a matter of who you know. Contacts are and will remain to be the first essential priority in this business.

MS

Blogging culture forward

In one of his recent articles (interesting as ever), Christian Henner-Fehr highlights a subject which is fairly current. Arts management on the internet. His article is linked to another blog by Karin Janner, recently publishing on the web herself. Since both sites are in German, I would like to add a small article in English myself. Moreover, the subject is therefore interesting, since I have hardly analysed my own reasons upfront, why I have started a weblog on managament of the culturalrealm, yet in the meantime I am meeting people, who see the computer only as a sophisticated typing-machine to type-and-print an incidental letter, maybe make an address-listing of their friends or CD-collection in excell, and a few are even reading some e-mails (forgetting to reply to them sometimes). Maximising the internet, and therefore not only to download a game or a video-clip, is sometimes a bridge too far.

Karin Jenner very nicely and systematically started her first blogs, by explaining (analysing) management in general, then arts management, then why she decided to blog. The reason is clear and simple - the fast and easy access to it! In my case, I also searched for all kids of information, comparison material, readers, and let's be honest: imagining myself to go to libraries, talk to people, make phonecalls to order something, to obtain the quantity of materials which I have gained through the internet, I would have needed a multifold number of workweeks to succeed the same result. Internet is faster. Then comes the point, where you gain some experience or information, or sometimes just ideas and findings, which are perhaps interesting enough to share. In the old days, you sent it to a publisher, maybe a magazine, and weeks or months later you might be lucky if it was published. Here we have the ability to publish within minutes, where anyone from Vancouver to Sydney can read my article.

And reading your article, makes you visible in the market. Remarkably, people write me many mails regarding my articels (only very very few post a comment on my articles, maybe because publicly posting something seems a bit scary to most of us). But the number of contacts, which I got within a very short time period was something that even surprised me.

In the old days, offices (of managers, or consultants) had perhaps only a phone. Calling overseas was a costly thing, therefore limiting the quick communication slightly. Most of the communication was envelope, stamp and dispatch. Internet is unlimited - once you have access, whether you contact your neighbour down the road, or at the other side of our planet, is no difference any longer. You don't have to wait for the courier to stop in front of your door or waiting for the post office to open. You don't need paper, stamps, tipp-ex, paper-clips.

Internet and blogging, is therefore a splended tool - in my view - to present your strategies, your haves and to gain efficiently a network, mobilising people around you, to manage your cultural issues. It is the fastest and cheapest PR-tool you can get. So why not maximise this fascinating opportunity?

And to end with a light note: yes, I hear some sceptics mumble already - "we should not be dependent on the internet all the time": True - not to hang all the time on the web, but the more efficient you become on the web, the more time you gain to enjoy private life outside the laptop. But the saving of time and effort to attain the same simply cannot be compared. Let's admit, that if you miss this train, you miss the whole lot.

MS

Investing to maintain itself

We often hear these days about orchestras' budgetary constraints, forcing to make abrupt decisions, which sometimes heavily affect either its repertoire choice or personnel issues - in short it endangers its identity.

A couple of days, however, the news was published that Riccardo Muti was appointed the new Chicago Symphony Orchestra director. Not that new director appointments are very unusual (yet interesting to follow), but it was exactly the news analysis by John von Rhein of the Chicago Tribune that followed, which made my day: It is exactly here, where John von Rhein is hitting the nail on the head, why a conductor (and maestro Muti is definitely not a rebate-priced conductor, who would be desperately in need of any available gig; he did turn down the New York Philharmonic before). Von Rhein correctly points out in his analysis that

The city's world-class orchestra could not afford to tarnish its reputation, or that of Chicago as a major cultural center, by settling for someone second-rate.

It nicely illustrates, that the already 'seemingly dwindling importance' of orchestras in society (which everyone seems to believe) is "forcing" orchestras to settle for less prominent (read: cheaper) choices. But isn't such choosing-trend, in fact, cexactly contributing to this very waning of importance? As if prestigious car manufacturers like Volvo or Mercedes, would suddenly start using inferior cheap components to make their cars cheaper, losing their reputation and image of quality. Would they still be a successful brand? Perhaps maybe available to a bit more consumers, but in the ling run?

In my view, choosing for reputation may perhaps affect your budget in the short term, but it is an investment that can be in the end paying off. Needless to say, not every orchestra in the world is able to afford a prominent conductor like Muti, Abbado or Haiting, but it is necessary to seriously reconsider the current trend in making choices. It requires a great deal of a businessman's spunk to dare such approach, which I unfortunately do miss a lot in the orchestra world (a few exceptions aside, of course).

Hopefully, this will give a positive signal to the orchestra world. Let's not be too defeatist and dare to show, that classical music is alive and kicking!

MS