Steve Schwartz <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>I keep saying that music is a risk: for composer, performer, and audience.
>The problem is that at least two of those folks want something close to
>sure-fire.

I found the following quote...from Musical America? to be quite informative...

 "A Stanford University study has found that most U.S.
 orchestras spend more money than they take in and that those
 who dig into their endowments are risking their future
 viability.

 The author canvassed 63 orchestras, including the 50 majors.
 Findings: although concert attendance is in decline,
 orchestras have changed neither their marketing nor their
 fund-raising techniques.  For every $1 spent on the latter,
 the return is 51 cents.  Most board members "shy away from
 conflict" and so are not as tough on the bottom line as
 they would be in their day jobs.  Also, while technology
 has enabled smaller employment rolls in the rest of the
 world, "The salaries of symphony musicians increased more
 rapidly than the pay of most other groups of workers in the
 late 20th century."

For me, we have inefficiently run organizations, with overpriced conductors
and soloists, inflated administrative staffs, with marketing staffs that
don't know their own product, pushing a product line of increasingly
less variety.  You don't need a Harvard MBA to figure out where that
will lead you.

Karl

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