Text 17129, 98 rader
Skriven 2014-09-18 15:13:00 av NANCY BACKUS (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av MICHAEL LOO
Ärende: Re: institutions 972
============================
-=> Quoting Michael Loo to Nancy Backus on 09-17-14  07:48 <=-

 ML> Medium-size and -stature cities often have a maneuvering
 ML> advantage. Boston is medium in size but has cast a larger
 ML> shadow than normal, with corresponding status issues. Did
 ML> I say earlier that pretension has its advantages? It has
 ML> its disadvantages as well.

I suppose so... depending on which aspects of it one looks at... maybe
part of the issue is that Boston has a longer history than Rochester, as
a city, that is...  Pretension doesn't seem to be as big a thing here...
just folks that genuinely made good... 
 
 ML>> What's the financial condition of RPO?
 ML>> ...
 NB>> I don't know to what extent recording revenues play into the RPO's
 NB>> finances... they do still make some recordings, I think maybe less
 NB>> than they have in the past, but I don't know if they've been depending
 NB>> on them for revenue so much as wanting to preserve certain touchpoints
 NB>> of their existence..  :) 
 ML> Of course the BSO with its big RCA Victor and then Philips/DG
 ML> contracts was a big loser in the decline of serious music and
 ML> the (latest) technological revolution and has struggled to make
 ML> up the loss, especially to its pension fund.

There may also be more of a symbiosis with Eastman School of Music (and
thereby also somewhat UR)... From what little I know, I think that RPO's
pension fund is likely funded other than by recording revenues... In any
case, there's a lot of cooperation between groups and entities here...

 NB>> I'm also not involved with any of the arts
 NB>> funding groups here, but from the little I see of the "supported by
 NB>> grants froms" notices, it would appear that there's fairly even
 NB>> funding being handed out to large and small alike...  Perhaps there's
 NB>> more sponsorship of smaller groups by larger organizations, such as
 NB>> museums hosting smaller chamber groups, etc...   :) 
 ML> It's tough for us, and we've gone largely to a bang-for-the-buck
 ML> metric, which may or may not be right. It's borne some fruit,
 ML> though, as most of the struggling arts groups we've funded have
 ML> made good use of the aid; a sad couple of them have gone to a
 ML> perhaps undeserved demise, though.

Sounds like there's a different dynamic at work in funding there vs
here... even so, one can't always fund everything that could be
worthy... or, from an individual's point of view, support all worthy
organizations... one does have to pick and choose, and hope that someone
else is picking up the slack on the others...  
 
 ML>> for the musicians, the numbers have held steady for the last
 ML>> quarter century, so what used to be an extremely cushy job now is
 ML>> just another ticket into the dwindling middle class.
 NB>> That might be another factor...  I've had the impression here that
 NB>> the musicians by and large are firmly middle class, even if it takes
 NB>> having a teaching studio on the side to maintain it..  ;)  But not
 NB>> that really cushy job.
 ML> When I would have had a fighting chance at such a job, Boston
 ML> had just become the first orchestra whose base salary hit six
 ML> figures. That might have been a considerable incentive for me
 ML> to get my act together, but for the fact that I didn't want to
 ML> practice, didn't want the musical version of a desk job, and
 ML> thought I didn't need the money. As I've said before, my friends
 ML> envied my freedom, and I envied their financial stability. It's
 ML> still that way pretty much.

Do you have m/any regrets at this point...?  

 NB>> For a while, some years ago, I had a number of friends who were
 NB>> members of the RPO, and while they may have been comfortable, they
 NB>> really weren't rich...  So, funding to keep the orchestra going
 NB>> might not have had to be at the level that the BSO would need...   
 ML> Things may have equalized a bit, because the BSO salary is still
 ML> in the low six figures;

Possible.  I don't have the contacts I used to have... they've all moved
on to different orchestras or to different fields... so I don't know if
salaries have kept pace... I'd suspect though that, like the BSO, they
didn't raise salaries much, in order to try to keep things afloat all
these years, especially during the leaner years... 

 ML> while back then that was as much as
 ML> doctors and lawyers made, as well as perhaps the bottom rung of
 ML> major-league sports players, now any Cisco-certified computer
 ML> technician can make that much or more.

And now, doctors and lawyers and major-league sports players make far
more... dunno about some of the peons... Richard never went above the
high five figures at Kodak, although many of the management were six
(and above)...  Of course, that was some years ago now... but as well
since then Kodak went through bankruptcy so probably feels justified
in paying less to the few employees they've kept...

ttyl        neb

... Twinkies have a half-life.  Velveeta is eternal.

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