Larger audiences? University music faculties can help.(Forum focus: college faculty)

These are troubling times for the classical music establishment. Our orchestras across the country and Canada are fighting (and sometimes losing) the annual and continuing battle of the budget. This war is not limited to just the smaller orchestras. Our most prestigious orchestras in our largest cities are in the same plight as their smaller counterparts.

Not only are most large and small orchestras struggling with deficits, but some have declared bankruptcy or simply closed down, selling libraries, equipment and instruments to satisfy creditors.

Here are some details of this financial retrenching. Some orchestras have large enough endowments (or generous angels) to operate with annual deficits. Other orchestras' musicians have accepted pay cuts or reduced the number of players and administrative staff. Still other organizations have decided to work without pay for several weeks of the concert season. Another approach to this dollar problem has been shorter performance schedules. The orchestras of Rochester and Buffalo are considering combining their resources (a project proposed--and rejected--years ago). The Pittsburgh Symphony is considering selling its concert hall. Even European orchestras, which generally receive much larger government subsidies, are fighting this deficit war.

The root cause of this monetary dilemma is a lack of interest in classical music in our society. The audience is smaller and older. And this trend has persisted for at least two generations. It is disheartening to attend an orchestral performance in a hall that is less than half full of listeners. At times, enlightened management will offer free seats to classes of student from local public schools--or offer a concert at a very low price for first-come, first-served seating. Both techniques help fill the seats and encourage the music makers. But neither approach begins to solve the problem.

The audiences are not small because of the quality of the orchestras. To the contrary, our symphonies are arguably better than they have ever been. Because of the hundreds of talented, well-trained instrumentalists, our schools of music and conservatories turn out each year, we no longer have "the big five orchestras"--traditionally, New York, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Chicago and Boston. Instead, we have a great number of first-class ensembles from coast to coast in both the United States and Canada.

If our orchestras are good, then where have the audiences gone? Obviously, the demise of the audience is at least partially due to the lack of music education in our public schools. When budgets in our public schools are squeezed, music and art are frequently the first disciplines to suffer.

...