It’s Official – We are the #1 Orchestra in all of….

Springfield Missouri! I don’t know how Gramophone Magazine missed us, obviously they are biased by not mentioning us in their top 20 orchestras of the world issue! PLEASE, what is the point of doing this except to p@#% off people? The truth is, the arguments wont rage, and no one is relocating from the city with the #2 orchestra to the city with the #1 orchestra (although it is in Amsterdam and there are some benefits)…..are they?….

So Gramophone is a magazine primarily dedicated to reviewing recordings, both new and classic, which they do well.  They publish great articles from time to time,  (last year they did a terrific interview of Harnoncourt, one of my heroes).   But to approach naming the top 20 orchestras through a single filter like they do for recordings is ridiculous!   We need to demolish the ivory tower, not continually remodel it!  In fact if you google them, their title on google is the World’s Best Classical Music Magazine!

The Chicago Sun Times article about this had some choice quotes from the CSO President Deborah Rutter.  She kind of puts it in the Whatever! column after she learned they were the top US orchestra on the list:

I think it is safe to say that we are not advocates or necessarily firm believers in lists of this sort, given the subjective nature of these types of rankings….

As everyone should know,” Rutter continued in an e-mail, “on any given evening anywhere and everywhere in the world there are ‘best concerts’ taking place by many great orchestras. Music is always a subjective experience, and that’s why there isn’t and can’t be a World Series in our world to firmly, regularly rank orchestras

Too right!  There is a deeper problem with this kind of poll, that goes even beyond the artistic questions such as: Did they hear them all live performing similar repertoire in their own halls? When did they hear them, in the beginning, the middle, or end of their season?  Were there key absences or major personnel changes? Did they hear them with their Music Director, guest conductor or assistant conductor?  Was the orchestra between Music Directors etc…..  The problem is with their definition of the word best.  Now it might have been more valid if they said best “sounding” orchestras, but there was no consideration for the criteria listed below….here goes:

• Community outreach and the community narrative i.e relevance
• Economic and social impact
• Education programming and effectiveness
• Hall size, sound and accessibility
• Audience size, retention and growth including percentages served
• Management structure, growth and effectiveness
• Ratio between artistic and administrative costs and if manageable
• Board size, structure, effectiveness and governance policy effectiveness
• Personnel stability (management and orchestra) and the working relationship between management and the musicians
• long range plan
• Compensation and benefits
• New media integration in particular the orchestra web-site
• Individual giving growth, foundation and government support, and corporate giving growth
• legacy giving program and endowment strength and growth
• Overall financial health
• Marketing effectiveness
• Programming
• Support societies strength and effectiveness i.e Symphony guild

Please shoot me any more! 

In any best rankings when it’s done for cities, colleges, travel destinations etc..there are always numerous criteria used to establish rankings.  The Gramophone ranking is so singular and subjective, with no data.  All the orchestras listed are number 1 in their cities (although there might be some argument about the London Symphony, as there are 5 major orchestras in London!), so is it not more important for us to be the best for where we are? I see new MD’s quoted saying that they want ot make their orchestra the best regional or major orchestra.  What is the point of that goal?  We are not competitors with each other, we are competitors with whatever is relevant to our individual communities! 

Akin to the tree falling in the woods with nobody there, no one hears us either if there is no one in the audience, so it wont matter if we sound the best!

Hey I know, let’s do a ranking of the top 20 music critics, and we can move our orchestras accordingly!

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