An alternative view of Orchestral Musician Compensation according to Flanagan

So we’re often told that orchestras run deficits.  Sure, ok–but how often do we hear that orchestras in countries with a higher level of subsidies actually run bigger performance deficits?  Here’s what Flanagan says:

Symphony orchestra bankruptcies, an unwelcome feature of the U.S. classical music scene, are essentially unheard of abroad, although foreign orchestras are no more likely to cover their expenses with earned income than U.S. orchestras.  In fact, most foreign orchestras report larger performance deficits. (Flanagan 2012, pg. 145)

And also this:

The evidence that U.S. orchestras generally report smaller performance deficits than orchestras in most foreign countries may surprise some readers.  At the least, it signals possible moral hazard in countries that subsidize the arts substantially. (Flanagan 2012, pg. 155)

What if there’s really no “decline” in Classical Music audiences?

So a few weeks ago I was playing around with numbers, namely I was playing around with the numbers given by various surveys regarding arts participation as well as population.  Keep in mind that data are simply the raw numbers you work with while statistics (or statistical methods) is (are) the interpretation of the raw numbers.

The NEA (2009) released some figures from its Survery of Public Participation in the Arts for 2008 as well as the preceding 10 year intervals of the survey (which began in 1982).  Note that the sample is relatively large (18,000) so extrapolation from the sample size to the whole of the population isn’t especially problematic–at least in many ways but more on this later.  Given that, then for the four years with data we have:

• 1982 – 13.0% = 21.3 million
• 1992 – 12.5% = 23.2 million
• 2002 – 11.6% = 23.8 million
• 2008 – 9.3% = 20.9 million

where the percentage and following number is the adults attending at least one classical music concert during the previous year.

Flanagan and Changing Tastes for Classical Music

Last night of the Proms

In Chapter Five, “The Search for Symphony Audiences,” of Robert Flanagan’s book, The Perilous Life of Symphony Orchestras, the author discusses several reasons for audience decline (as well as the statistics demonstrating this decline).  He does note, since this is what the NEA data tells us, that decline has happened for virtually all types of live events (which I often point out here and in other discussions about the decline) so whatever conclusions we can draw about the supposedly “more popular” types of live entertainment and the way they get marketed and draw audiences isn’t going to necessarily be of much help if it doesn’t allow those other events keep audiences.

Looking good can make you play worse…

Lola Astanova

Bryan Townsend, in a post about Uzbek pianist Lola Astanova, made some comments about a review of the pianist by Zachary Woolfe in the NYT.  I’m going to quote an extended excerpt of the piece as it relates to some interesting studies about how visual stimuli can affect how we hear things (ironically, the studies came to light after Yuja Wang’s recent ‘scandalous’ attire at a concert from last year).

Asian Invasion of Classical Music

Seattle Chinese Orchestra

So Greg Sandow wrote a post on diversity in classical music and somehow it just left me feeling a little bit betrayed.  Not that what he’s saying is necessarily wrong, but it’s the typical issue that many of us Asians/Asian-American have with regards to any idea of diversity.  Historically, ethnic diversity talk in the US focused on Blacks (and more recently, Hispanics) while the issue of, say, Asians rarely gets mentioned.  Part of that is because of the false stereotype of the “Model minority,” which, when taken in conjunction with the phenomenon of the Perpetual Foreigner stereotype demonstrates just how oddly strange many Asians get treated in the US.

Factor in the fact that, when talking about Asia as a continent, we’re talking about roughly two thirds of the Earth’s population and quite probably the most diverse human population on the planet.  Remember that, technically speaking, Russia is in Asia; China, India, Thailand, Indonesia are more obvious Asian countries, but recall also that Turkey, Iran and Azerbaijan are also in Asia.

So when it comes to talking about Asians in Classical music, usually that is just shorthand for East Asians–particularly Chinese/Chinese-Americans and Koreans/Korean-Americans with a smattering of the Japanese/Japanese Americans.  Granted–this is nearly a third of the Earth’s population with tons of diversity (often unrecognized even within those countries for various reasons), but as you can see from the link above, most folks refutation (r at least questioning) of Greg’s position frame it within the context of the over-representation of [especially] Chinese-Americans in Classical music in the US.

But that’s not really a good reason to doubt Greg’s primary thesis, that there is a problem with racial diversity in Orchestras.  Just not quite the problem as everyone sees it.  Or rather, it’s not just an *ahem* White/Black problem.  But again, going back to my what I said above–that’s usually how the issue gets framed.  Take, for example, this recent piece by Kevin Berger about the Oakland Symphony.  Here’s a quote in particular:

There are very few black conductors, period. A 2011 survey of more than 300 orchestras by the League of American Orchestras, an advocacy group, turned up nine black music directors. In fact, the paltry share of black musicians in the nation’s approximately 1,200 orchestras — less than 2 percent — reflects the pervasive lack of racial diversity in classical music.

The bolded statement in particular is precisely the framework I’m talking about.