Well, it seems that our friend Junichi in Columbus is taking some fire for “not putting down roots in the community.” On the opposite side of that coin one of the Columbus musicians has come to his defense by noting that the Executive Director, Tony Beadle, hasn’t put down any roots in Columbus either. While I appreciate the defense on behalf of Junichi I’d like to make another point – it is time for orchestras to drop this outdated idea of the Music Director In Residence. Starting right now.
You hear this in every Music Director search at some point: “if you are the next Music Director of the So-and-So Symphony are you going to move here?” The answer of every conductor from now on should be: “why in the world would you expect me to move to your community just for this job?” Sorry to bust bubbles but the idea is no longer realistic for many reasons. First, the historical.
Look back 50 or 60 years or so. You had Ormandy, Koussevitzky, Reiner, etc. One looks at their careers and it’s easy to say from this distance that they were orchestra builders. They stayed at their orchestras, made their names and reputations there, and actually had somewhat limited guest appearances because they spent so much time with their orchestras. This is all true, but it’s also a different time. For better or worse we now live in the 3rd Millenium. It’s a different world. In order to have a consistent long-term career as a conductor you are expected to keep a presence on at least two continents, preferably three or more. Part of this is the fault of the vampirish management firms who, let’s be honest, are in it for the money. But that’s what goes on these days. Many conductors I know work as much as 44 weeks a year. Also, it has become commonplace for conductors to run more than one institution. Hell, Levine runs the Met AND the BSO!!! That’s insane, and we won’t even begin to talk about what Gergiev is supposed to accomplish on a daily basis. Frankly, it’s impossible, but that’s another rant. Honestly folks, any conductor worth his/her/it’s salt is damn busy with multiple orchestras, and that’s just the way it is.
But this alone shouldn’t immediately preclude that aforementioned residency question. There are other factors. Let’s take Junichi as an example. The guy lives in Japan. No idea if he’s married, gay w/partner, or what, let alone what his professional life is like. He’s with Frank Salomon and it looks suspiciously like that’s just management in this hemisphere, so it’s a little hard to tell. But why oh why should he have moved to Columbus? First of all, despite it being the largest city in Ohio it’s not a major airline hub. In this crazy world if you have to travel for a living believe you me you want to be at a major hub – it will simplify your life on levels most people will never, ever understand. But besides that, think of this – his contract was for three years!!!! Imagine this happening out in the real world: “we’d like you to take over our multi-million dollar business, completely uproot your family and your life and move here, dedicate most of your professional time to this outfit, but we’re only going to give you a three year contract and if things don’t work out that’s just tough.” HUH???
I absolutely guarantee you this would never, ever, ever happen in the real world. At the very least there would be all sorts of ancillary buyout clauses in the contract that would compensate the person in question. Crazy, you say? Watch ESPN the next time some coach is fired. I bet my next year’s salary they’ll talk about how much said coach gets as a buyout. Still not convinced? Turn on MSNBC and see how long you can go without hearing the words “golden parachute.” But there’s no compensation for the conductor. You are left to the wizardry of your management to jump start your guesting career, and that is no where near as easy as it sounds when orchestras routinely book two or three years ahead. Oh, and don’t forget that you now have to sell that house you bought just a couple years ago, and did I mention that the housing market is in the toilet? You’ve now officially lost money on your investment AND now where are you going to move to? God forbid you have children who are now looking at being uprooted again! Double God forbid if your wife/husband/significant other/sex toy has given up his/her/it’s job to move with you to whatever orchestra has just given you the shaft. For some reason that never seems to be a consideration (yes, my wife and I are still sore over the “you’ll have plenty of time to volunteer for the orchestra” incident).
And in case that’s not enough to worry about, do remember that because you’re a conductor you are an independent contractor. You are responsible for your own health and life insurance, as well as any 401K or retirement plan. No union perks for you, no sirree. In Junichi’s case God only knows how all this would play out if his life is based in Japan (which it certainly seems to be) and he would have to move into the U.S. system (is there anyone out there actually thrilled with their HMO?).
People, if you want a Music Director of international standing you’ve got to be prepared to have someone who has international standing. This means they’re going to already HAVE a career. Do you honestly want your Music Director to look at your orchestra as the high point of his/her career? That’s an artistic dead end if there ever was one.
I just did a little searching amongst some conductors I know. Falletta, Christie, Guerrero, some others. Frankly they all work almost every week it’s possible to work as a conductor and they’re all over the place. They live where they live and it doesn’t really matter if that’s where their gigs are. The conducting world, for better or worse, has changed from the time of Reiner, Koussevitzky, Ormandy. I’m not saying it’s better, I’m saying it’s different. There’s a lot about it I don’t like at all and I would personally much rather follow the career paths of our ancestors rather than those of my contemporaries. But stop with the ridiculous “are you going to move here.” You wouldn’t want a Music Director who answered “yes” to that question.
Orchestra managements/boards that are on the defensive because they’ve MIS-managed the organizations, tend to grasp at any straw that might cast them in a more favorable light.
This happened with the Sacramento Symphony in the 1990s. I was on both the Orchestra and Negotiating committees and witnessed this phenomenon first-hand.
You are absolutely RIGHT that the era of conductors living in their orchestras’ towns have passed. Most higher-tier orchestra managements have accepted this increased global mobility and flexibility. It is the smaller-town orchestra management that tends to focus on this outdated mode of operation.
Gee, I’ve never seen Maestro (“smile when you say that”) Eddins on such a tear!
It’s not unreasonable to ask the question – it’s just unreasonable to make that a requirement for getting the job.
BTW, executive directors face the exact same “we’d like you to take over our multi-million dollar business, completely uproot your family and your life and move here, dedicate most of your professional time to this outfit, but we’re only going to give you a three year contract and if things don’t work out that’s just tough” scenario, too, and we don’t even have management. My last employer expected me to re-locate 2,500 miles for the job and only offered a one year contract.
More of the same along the lines of what went down in San Antonio…
Another point worth mentioning: the business about being asked to uproot family, move, etc. is the same for everyone in the institution, including the musicians: “we want and to move out here for a salary that is far less than the music or executive directors but there’s a one (or two) year tenure process and if you don’t make it past that you’re out of luck.”
Then what about staffers? If they want a job they have to move but don’t even get the security of a contract…
Ultimately, everyone in the business faces this issue in different ways but Bill’s points are all quite valid and comparing administrators or musicians to the points he made isn’t terribly applicable.
Drew is right. People in all professions choose to re-locate for a new job and not have any security. Just think about a college professor who re-locates, then spends seven years teaching, then is denied tenure. Happens all the time.
As far as the “residence” of Tony Beadle, whether he lives in a house, apartment or hotel doesn’t prove anything. To be strict about it, the only way to determine his residence is to find out in what state he files his tax return.