Orchestras improve with more performances not more rehearsals! The act of being at your best happens at the point of contact with an audience. The challenge is:
How do we perform more with expenses rising and budgets stagnating?
Simple, if you have good musicians, TRUST THEM and don’t rehearse them to death! In fact by cutting rehearsals an orchestra can become better and fast!!…..
When I arrived in Springfield, there were 5 rehearsals for each classics, and 3 rehearsals for each pops, rehearsals were 2 hours and 45 minutes long. In my first season the first rehearsal for each concert was always a bit hair raising. They had been used to preparing in that rehearsal and I could tell some sight reading was going on..shock horror!!! In truth (I know some of them will be reading this but I am not pulling back) it took nearly 2 full rehearsals to get things going in the Classics weeks and at least for the Christmas pops there was not enough to do to fill 3 rehearsals, no matter how much one consults the Urtext for Sleigh Ride!
Having been so used to the 2 & 1/2 hour rehearsal, that extra 15 minutes on the end in my opinion made things seem a little too relaxed, so we trimmed it by 15 minutes and since we start rehearsals at 7:30pm, ending at 10pm seemed more civilized with people having to get up for work the next day. Plus which, by leaving the per-service rate where it was for that season, it meant the musicians were getting paid a little bit more for their time. Occasionally there will be overtime of course, but I feel as though with the right planning and preparation on my end I can get what needs to be done in 2&1/2 hours almost all of the time or I’m not doing my job! There have been many instances not just in Springfield but elsewhere too, that if I have to move on from a passage or movement that could have used more time, I simply tell them that I trust that they know what to do the next time even if the next time is in the performance! I’m not just saying that though, I really do trust them. I can’t think of a time in a performance when getting to one of those particular moments that any orchestra I’ve worked with, didn’t play it better than the last time through in rehearsal. It’s one of the most liberating and pleasurable feelings to be able to trust an orchestra. We make such a big deal of being respected as conductors, yet trust is much more important as well as for respect to go the other way, from us to the musicians. Respect in my view can only be earned when we ourselves demonstrate it. As far as being a conductor/Music Director, I don’t see it as a position of power, but as a position to empower those in the orchestra and the audience. I see it as a position of privilege.
This is what I did here: I threw down a challenge and cut a rehearsal from each classics and one from the Christmas Pops. I told the musicians that now it was up to them to be more prepared because they are good musicians and combining this with intense, lean and concise rehearsals would make for better performances. Initially there was a mini-shock wave and maybe a suggestion that we were trying to save money. Not the case at all! With the saved rehearsals we added a Classics concert to our season, and in year 3 we added a Pops, so we went from 7 subscriptions to 9 (with other opportunities we have created our service count has risen from 45 in my first season 3 seasons ago, to over 70 last season). The point I made and also something I truly believe in, is that an orchestra will get better not by rehearsing more, but by performing more. The learning curve is so much sharper when you have to be at your best more often and when it is all on the line. It has paid huge dividends here, it’s a different orchestra, and not only that, the over 60% increase in attendance over the last 3 seasons (and a 97% renewal rate for this season) proves that the audience agrees also! By the way, creating more performances with roughly the same amount of services will do wonders for revenue!
This time last year I guest conducted the Boise Philharmonic, what a terrific orchestra, and they have an overblown rehearsal schedule also (as I am sure many orchestras do). I am hoping for Boise that their next Music Director (unfortunately it is not going to be me!) hears what I heard and does the same thing, cuts rehearsals and adds performances. They deserve to perform more often, they are a true treasure in Treasure Valley!
It is not about cutting quality, just cutting waste. I also believe and musicians have told me that over-rehearsed performances can yield bad results simply because there is a point at which things become stale. Sometimes not having enough rehearsal time (having been an Associate Conductor this is all too common!) can make for the most exciting performances. Here next season I am going to program Mahler 5 (plus a concerto) for one of our classics. This would not have been realistic 3 seasons ago, and yes we are going to do it in 4 rehearsals!
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To help with our musicians preparation, last season we started subscribing to classical.com, a reasonably priced and an incredibly vast library of performances both live and recorded that the musicians can access to familiarize themselves with the repertoire we are doing. With the subscription (we didn’t buy one for each but bought several with the company’s permission for multiple use) our musicians can live stream the recordings which takes out the hassle of downloading or worse having to purchase recordings for everything. A board member paid for it too!
Hi Ron!
We have cut one rehearsal for each subscription concert series this year. We’re using the ‘saved’ rehearsals to do a Pops concert at the end of the year. Maybe this was your influence from last year!
Keep up the great work!
Wow! Not to take all the credit here as others might have suggested it too, but that is exactly what I had suggested should be done as it is a low risk way to try and start Pops in Boise. I am glad they did it, thanks for letting me know!