Orchestras Create New Opportunities As The Old World Slowly Fades
Classical music orchestras face many challenges these days. Season subscriptions are dropping and a shift to promoting individual events and exploring alternatives seems to be the order of the day. At this point none of the challenges are a surprise but a number of orchestras are showing they still have some new moves. The Royal Shakespeare Company is releasing recorded music though it seems to be simply a part of their mission. And the Boiler Room is helping out with a series of concerts/collaborations between Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood and The London Contemporary Orchestra.
Orchestras Adapt To Drop In Subscriptions
A big part of the revenue model for orchestras is the subscription season. People pay in advance for tickets to every show. It's a big bundle of shows.
This used to make sense for a variety of reasons but subscriptions have radically declined and the LA Philharmonic's CEO says "everyone [there] has been operating under the assumption that in 10 years subscriptions will essentially be gone" though she later toned down her comment.
Some hope this situation will force more creative programming and orchestras are experimenting in various ways such as mini-festivals and intimate events at alternative spaces.
Nevertheless, orchestras are not designed well for adaptation as Alan Gilbert, music director for the New York Philharmonic, points out:
"I can’t tell you the number of times we’ve torn our hair out during meetings, saying, if only we could be nimble on our feet, change a program on a dime."
Royal Shakespeare Company Releases Commissioned Music
The Royal Shakespeare Company's music releases are an interesting initiative. They've regularly commissioned original arrangements and compositions for at least the last century. It's unclear how much deeper the print music archives go but that alone would be substantial.
They're now starting to release recordings of some of this music but I guess it's mostly for loyal fans of the RSC cause they sure are hiding it on their site.
Unfortunately some parts of the RSC site aren't even available at the moment due to an expected rush on ticket sales, so they have some technical challenges maintaining basic operations. Multiple subsections within the site shop contain music options though the article seems to be discussing RSC Recordings (which aren't their only recordings!). The navigation is not well designed for people that don't know what they want and some of the releases don't even have a track listing that includes the composer.
That said, they're combining recordings of music written for productions from different time periods. It's a great concept and I'm sure the quality is very high. Sad to see the final step so poorly handled at least online.
Boiler Room Hosts Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood
& The London Contemporary Orchestra
Boiler Room is a live music concert streaming platform that has expanded from its underground beginnings and are now edging into concerts that feature collaborations between popular musicians and classical orchestras.
"Teaming up with a full orchestra and Jonny Greenwood, the guitarist in Radiohead, to host a series of classical music events in concert halls across the country…The Boiler Room classical series will feature performances of work by Iannis Xenakis, Purcell and Olivier Messiaen."
While orchestras have often experimented with covers of pop music and the like in order to reach new audiences, the Boiler Room series represents a more serious alignment between forces.
[Thumbnail image cover of Henry IV Parts 1 & 2 Music & Speeches.]
More:
- When Reaching The Youth Goes Wrong: B-Classic Gets Cheeky
- Successfully Crowdfunding Classical Music
- Classical Musicians As 21st Century Entrepreneurs
Hypebot Senior Contributor Clyde Smith (@fluxresearch) recently launched DanceLand and is relaunching Crowdfunding For Musicians. Contact: clyde(at)fluxresearch(dot)com.
