With the latest news of Lehman filing for Chapter 11 and Merrill Lynch apparently selling itself to Bank of America, the question uppermost in everyone's minds is surely, "What will happen to all that corporate sponsorship upon which orchestras and music organizations rely so heavily?"
Large corporations and foundations subsidize a huge chunk of the concerts we go to. Yes, the big boys tend to have their own endowments and funds, but so many groups have concert series sponsored by corporations that one has to wonder how that's going to work in the future. Sports stadiums have occasionally had to change their names when the original sponsor failed to live up to the agreement (for instance, Enron Field became Minute Maid Park), and a couple years back a few arts organizations had to scramble a bit when Alberto Vilar failed to meet his promises. These things happen often enough, but this year is probably going to be worse than most.
Even in the ticket sales department, orchestras and opera companies will feel the pinch. If some company goes south, there are probably ten others waiting to buy that skybox at their local football stadium. That's probably not the case with the opera house or concert hall. The same thing goes for sponsorship of concert series, and possibly even the money some group might need to bring in that one big name of their season.
Ticket sales account for barely 15% of the average orchestra's annual budget. The rest is made up from fund-raising campaigns, grants from various government and arts organizations, and random individual gifts. If they're very, very lucky, an orchestra can make a few pennies from merchandising and CD sales.
It's hard to tell whether this will affect major ensembles in big cities more than other groups. If nothing else, this season will be a good indication of just how engaged communities are with their local orchestras, large or small. Obviously everyone needs to find more revenue streams, but that's easier said than done.
Fortunately, technology now allows for a whole lot more of the concert experience to be made available outside of the concert hall. I've spoken before about online broadcasting, and the potential there. Peter Gelb's greatest contribution during his tenure at The Metropolitan Opera may very well turn out to be those live opera broadcasts in movie theaters. That idea has already been taken up by the San Francisco Opera, and Glyndebourne did this last year as well. For years now, groups like the London Symphony Orchestra and the San Francisco Symphony have been selling their own concert CDs. Other orchestras such as The New York Philharmonic have arrangements with labels to release a few live recordings. All these ideas can be adopted by an orchestra or opera company of just about any size, and, depending on how they do it, without a massive up-front cost.
These ideas can apply to any program a group wants to offer, even the non-Classical ones. Kiddie concerts and holiday celebrations can be tapped for merchandising and souvenir recordings just as well as any serious concert.
Of course, all of this will require some seriously intelligent negotiation with the players and unions. It's certainly in everyone's best interests to be smart and not greedy, with the long term firmly in focus. I hope everyone on both sides of those discussions will keep these things in mind.
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