The Weekly round up

Vancouver Kiwanis Music Festival
The Vancouver Kiwanis Music Festival wraps up this week with the final classes of this year’s festival taking place today. Congratulations to all of our students that participated in this event, and the other regional festivals across BC. These festivals are an excellent opportunity for students to perform for each other while receiving critical adjudication and feedback about their playing.

Throwing in the towel
The arts news this past week has been dominated by more  bad news from south of the border. Some of the biggest and best orchestras in the US are suffering from the wrath of the economic downturn.  The resulting loss of financial support from both public and private donors has resulted in one of the greatest orchestras in America declaring bankruptcy.

The Philadelphia Orchestra has filed for chapter 11 protection and is asking their musicians to take a 16% pay cut.  Also this week the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra also declared bankruptcy.  Last week as reported here Syracuse Symphony has also suspended its season and is seeking Chapter 11 status.

The old financial model for big arts groups seems to be failing. We will see where this leads as new ways of promoting and distributing the arts develop. Our times and culture continue to change, and it is important to note that not all arts groups are in trouble, but certainly the warning bell for big arts groups has been sounding for quite sometime. In the past year though is the first time we are seeing the real need for groups to change how they operate, no matter how big or important you may feel you are. 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.