I don’t know if it is anything more than a coincidence but two stories came out in Minneapolis media outlets that couldn’t do a better job at pointing out opposite ends of the fortune pole. One reported on an 11.3 percent pay cut for St. Paul Chamber Orchestra (SPCO) musicians while the other reported on a $5 million gift to the Minnesota Orchestra’s Building for the Future capital campaign. It is difficult to imagine more diverse news pairing for a city that boasts two large budget performing arts organizations…
SPCO
Process Still Matters
The 4/6/2009 edition of the Star Tribune published an article by Graydon Royce that examines a recent round of budget and pay cuts at the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra (SPCO). The article reports that the organization’s president indicated that pay cuts for management and staff took place before approaching musicians. This is the same procedure most organizations instituting pay cuts this season have demonstrated and on the surface it sounds fine, but in reality it contains a fundamental procedural flaw…
A Tale Of Two Ticket Prices
Recently, two orchestras located on opposite coasts have shared some PR spotlight for the same reason: ticket prices…
On the East Coast, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra has been drawing attention to a new subscription ticket program that offers discounted tickets thanks to a $1 million grant from the PNC Foundation. On the West Coast, the Seattle Symphony found itself in local newspapers thanks to a steep hike in subscription ticket prices for targeted seating areas.
2006 Compensation Report: ICSOM Executive Directors
The 2003-2004 season was a busy year for the executive shuffle among ICSOM ensembles. In fact, there was so much shuffling that almost 1/3 of all ICSOM symphonic orchestras had one or more executive receiving compensation for only a portion of the season. And then there’s that thing in Saint Paul… Where The Numbers Come From All data presented in these reports coincide with the corresponding documentation from the 2003-2004 season. …
A Flood of Responses To Lowering Ticket Prices
Monday’s article on the reduced ticket price initiative at the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra has generated a great deal of private responses from professionals inside the business. More impressive than the number of responses was the sheer variety of opinions, I simply can’t think of another issue here at Adaptistration which generated such an assortment of opinions. Everything from absolute support to condemnation has come through my email…