2001 NACTMUS Conference
Byron Bay: June 30- July 2, 2001
Creating Musical Futures:
Challenges to Music Education in the 21st Century
Abstracts of papers
Byron Bay: June 30- July 2, 2001
Creating Musical Futures:
Challenges to Music Education in the 21st Century
The Symphony Orchestra of the c21-community of musicians or herd of dinosaurs?
by Nathan Waks
The Symphony Orchestra as we now know it is headed for major change-in fact it is happening already.
Two paths have been chosen-one goes forward, recognising and embracing the profound changes occurring in western society, the other resolutely backwards, to the c19 from whence the bulk of current symphony repertoire emanates.
The questions facing young classically trained musicians today, and indeed the ways they are trained will have a major bearing on the outcomes...".
I chose this topic, as it one of very few on which I feel actually qualified to have an informed opinion!
As some of you will know, I have had experience on both sides of the orchestral fence, going back, I hate to admit over 30 years.
Not just to fill you in on my own experience, but equally to set the stage for consideration of the changes which have occurred, are occurring and may/should occur, let us flashback to the mid 60s when my orchestral experience began. I apogolise for the inevitable inaccuracies and gaps in my memory..
And, let me also say, there's good and bad in the stories I now tell. Indeed the wheel was invented a long time agoÉ.
Story No. 1
Sydney Town Hall-Sydney Symphony Prom Series (good), conducted by John Hopkins, who is also ABC Director of Music, the employer of the musicians (not good, not because of his conducting but the position!!)
The repertoire (very good, mixing the entirely familiar with the new and challenging in the same programme)-includes a new work by Xenakis-Pithoprakta, which requires the musicians to sit through the audience as spokes of a wheel (good, but challenging).
The musicians initially refuse (not good, but probably understandable, given the employment conditions of the day)
The audience, (very good-full hall, mainly sprawled out on the floor, they have queued for tickets, some overnight!) are excited. They can get close to the musos, and they wave their banners (my teacher, principal cellist Lois Simpson, of the immaculate coiffure and fabulous sound is an especial favourite-banners like "We love you Lois" are waved enthusiastically.
This audience also responds vocally, not always positively..They probably prefer the 1812 Overture, but they will listen to anything served up.
Story No. 2
The orchestra's schedule for the week (probably not that week as the Proms were in summer, but a typical week) sees 10/ 3 hour calls with often 2 separate programmes.
Most players work most of the orchestra's calls. They are often tired and many of them legitimately underprepared. My teacher is happy for me to come and work as a casual to get the experience, but would be horrified for me to consider the SSO as a place to work. Her husband John Painter, has recently left the position as Principal to form the Sydney String Quartet, quartet-in-residence at the Sydney (sorry NSW State) Conservatorium (of Music) (very very good). They, along with my other major teacher and mentor, the great Robert Pikler guide me towards a chamber music career. They had all been in the orchestra because they had no other option. All good students at the Con (by the way I never actually did a course there) are actively discouraged from considering the SSO, or any other ABC orchestra as a career. Many of them have in fact headed to London, where there are 5 full time orchestras, or a 6th if you took the Australians out of the other 5!
The SSO's pay is not good (not good), and most SSO players are either married to other musicians (not very good), or do a lot of casual work and teaching (sometimes good) or both.
The orchestra rehearses in a leaky ex cinema in Chatswood (not good at all) and performs at the Town Hall (good, but lots of street noise, and the stage is too small.)
Subscription numbers are consistently high (good), but except for the proms, they are aging (not good). There are often swathes of empty seats which have been sold, whenever anything vaguely "modern" (meaning Stravinsky on) is programmed (not good).
In addition to the concerts, the SSO does a lot of studio recordings of Australian repertoire with indifferent conductors (good and bad). Good because the works get commissioned and performed, bad because no one listens to them on the radio, and they are generally consigned to the library after one outing.
Orchestral members require management permission to do other work. This permission is not always forthcoming.
Story no 3.
1969 I've just played in some masterclasses for the BBC TV with my teacher Paul Tortelier. (good) (Between the last story and this, I won the ABC Instrumental and Vocal competition , fortuitously the first time there was a cash prize, (very good indeed) went to Moscow to study-another story for another time, ended up in Paris just after the Student revolution and did a year at the Paris Conservatoire, but didn't complete the course).
I don't know what to do with myself next. Tortelier has resigned from the Paris Con in a huff over a new piece of cello music written by a man with the unfortunate name of Marc Carle who Tortelier consistently refers to as Karl Marx (also a great story for another time). He's going to teach in Essen and tries to get me to come with him. After an exciting (not just musically) year in Paris I aint going to the Ruhr valley..
London, however seems interesting, and a chance meeting with Pierre Boulez, who has recently accepted the job as Chief Conductor of the BBC Symphony leads to a successful audition and a season with the BBC Symphony ( a lot of fun and great experience for me). They are paid particularly poorly, but at least they have a salary. The other 4 London orchestras have no job security at all, although they are self-governed (good and bad). Programming is ultra conservative, except for the BBC Symphony which, like the SSO does a lot of new music, but they also perform a lot of it in Studio recitals to a hard core of devotees (what's changed?).
Story No.4
1970- I am approached by the ABC to consider coming back to Australia to take up a newly created co-principal position with the SSO (what has indeed changed?). I do an "audition" for Moshe Atzmon, the chief conductor, and despite playing rather poorly, if my memory serves me right, I get the job and come back (good and bad).
Before returning home I spend the summer with a piano trio doing very farsighted practical work into the presentation of live music to young kids, thanks to a Ford Foundation Fellowship. (Very good indeed). We have all the latest equipment, including a video camera which has just been invented. We also give a performance to the Uni students, selling ourselves as a pop group called the Military Industrial Complex.(very good and successful, but for another time).
Story No 5
I arrive home to be greeted by old friend John Harding, also 19 and star student of Robert Pikler. On the way home from the airport, we drop in on Pikler, who after greeting us in his underwear, gets down to business, in his usual direct way (no phone call with Pikler ever lasted more than about 30 seconds). You boys should start a string quartet. He obviously hasn't given up on me becoming a chamber musician, despite my joining the SSO, about which he is a little suspicious. We do (form a quartet), (very good) and after a very turbulent 9 months (I am 19 and bolshy) I leave the SSO to join the Elizabethan Theatre Trust Sydney Orchestra with John Harding, Winifred Durie and Brecon Carter, as the Fidelio Quartet, and with very attractive conditions. (very good)
The deal is brokered by Maestro Carlo Felice Cillario, who is desperate to entice John into the orchestra after hearing him. We are invited to dinner cooked by the maestro himself (pasta al dente of course), and not unlike Robert Pikler, he wastes no time in getting down to business. What do we have to do to get you boys into the orchestra?
Our answer was simple. Give us the time to work as a string quartet. They did.
Story No. 6
Not only that, but I get to organise a regular series of chamber music concerts featuring members of the orchestra at Chalwyn castle.(very important) For those old enough to remember, Viv Chalwyn was a rather eccentric patron of the arts and ex English footballer who made a fortune from car parking. His private baroque theatre was the venue for hundreds of concerts in the 70s. The AETT management under a very enlightened young man named Robert Stead also tried to get the orchestra out of the pit and on to the stage and feature its members as soloists (also very important). I learned a lot in my 4 years there, and come to think of it the ideas I hold now on this subject were undoubtedly formed then.
Story No. 7
Early 70s .ACSOM. I think it stood for Australasian Council of Symphony and Opera Musicians (we had very grand ideas), but membership was in fact the SSO and the AETT Sydney orchestra, and although I'm not sure what it ultimately achieved, the idea of a Vienna Philharmonic Association was hatched, and quite possibly could have come to fruition, if the ABC hadn't been the rather possessive owner of the SSO.
We now have a gap of nearly 20 years, during which time I had a number of interesting and more or less fulfilling careers which don't feature in this story. The Sydney String Quartet was the only musical one anyway, but its key feature, being quartet-in-residence at the Sydney Con is relevant, and I'll come back to it.
Story No. 8
1992, and with my young family. I'm visiting Australia for a few months from our home in France, when the phone rings. It's David Hill, head of the ABC, whom I know quite well through my brother-in-law Kim Williams. He has a bit of a problem with his Concert Music Department which runs the 6 ABC orchestras, and could I help. I agree (goodness know why?) and deliver a report with 10 recommendations, all of which the ABC agrees to implement.
Story No. 9
1993 and back in France another phone call. This time from Kim Williams, warning me of an impending call from a head hunter. For my sins, a year after my report has been written I am asked to implement it. Despite having no formal administrative experience to speak of I accept the challenge. The head hunter puts it this way. "I always say to people that someone who starts new job on Monday was in another one on Friday, so don't be daunted". Of course he ignores the fact that I wasn't in another job before this one, at least not one which had an office and a personal assistant.
Story No. 10
Despite what some people think, the seeds of the future independence of the orchestras have already been sown-in the mid 80s when for the first time, believe it or not, the ABC hired general managers for each of them. Artistic direction is still out of my office in Sydney for the whole country, and we gradually set about strengthening the individual identities of the orchestras. Artistic administrators are eventually appointed to all orchestras, relationships with the States are improved (dramatically in some cases) and new more flexible enterprise agreements are negotiated. David Hill is totally supportive, and equally as importantly Peter Lidbetter (who tragically passed away a few weeks ago), the ABC's Head of Finance gives us the means to effect the changes. (For those of you who don't already, get to know your organisations' finance people really well. They can be fearsome opponents but your best friends if handled properly. In Peter Lidbetter's case, a glass of scotch (which I never drink) in his office when everyone else has gone home produced some miraculous outcomes for the orchestras)
Story No. 11
1994 Creative Nation. This is too long a story to tell here, and it is both good and bad. Suffice to say, it was the result of a lot of work by a lot of well-intentioned bureacrats and an imperious but well-intentioned national leader.
It gives the SSO more money but singles it out for development as Australia's international orchestra, not what we had asked for. It also requires it to leave the ABC, something we certainly hadn't asked for!
The negotiations which followed see the framework which now governs all 6 orchestras established, and in 1996 after a change of government and an impending budget cut to the ABC, the time is right to implement the new structure and
Symphony Australia is born.I become its first MD.
Story No. 12: the last one
The orchestras are all subsidiary companies of the ABC, but their Commonwealth funding comes directly from the government, and now, following the Nugent inquiry, through the Australia Council.
Many changes have occurred. The orchestras have different enterprise agreements, with a number of significant differences in the way they work. In the case of the SSO, it is an almost self-governing orchestra.
The basis for a community of musicians has been established. It now remains to see how far each of our orchestras will go down the pathÉ.
So what do I mean by a community of musicians?
In the stories I have told, there are many clues, and many instances of practices which characterize a model community of musicians or COM (not dot), but as I promised Michael Hannan let me crystal ball gaze and describe my ideal COM.
It is important to understand that the size of the city in which the COM is based will affect its numbers and range of activities, and in Australia's case, not all of our capital cities which currently have full-time traditional orchestras could expect to undertake all the activities and range of employment options which I will now describe.
For the purposes of this discussion, and when I have finished, I hope we will have the opportunity to have a discussion, I will presume Sydney or Melbourne to be the base of my COM. Some of the things I describe are of course already happening in one form or other.
1. A traditional contemporary ensemble with a small core membership which rehearses and performs as a unit, and which is augmented as repertoire demands. Its repertoire will be varied, but will invariably include a significant amount of Australian new music, much of which will be commissioned.
2. A second contemporary ensemble with improvised music at its core
3. A traditional chamber orchestra
4. A period instrument ensemble
5. An educational ensemble (I won't go into the details of an educational programme, but it will be vast).
6. A number of smaller permanent chamber groups- eg. string quartets, wind quintets, brass ensembles and percussion ensembles as well as combinations of the above, which may form spontaneously.
All the larger ensembles, including the full orchestral ones will have a training component which will enable on the job training for advanced students (not necessarily but most often drawn from tertiary institutions). There will also be succession planning and training of principal players provided by the COM. The Com will employ assistant conductors and composers-in residence. Of course soloists for many of the concerts will come from the COM itself, and indeed so will conductors.
In addition to the stage and pit activities, the COM will make a wide of recordings in all media. Examples will include conventional CDs, videos and multi-media DVD Roms. COM members will be trained to be effective producers of these recordings, and record production will count as part of a member's commitment.
The COM will also make available ensembles of the appropriate size and skill base to undertake international commercial film score recording, and indeed will agressively pursue opportunities in this area. It will also make available ensembles for important sports activities, civic occasions etc on a commercial or partnership basis. This may include activity currently undertaken as part of sponsorship deals.
All of its ensembles will tour regularly, intra and interstate and also internationally.
Importantly for you folk, the COM will enter into innovative partnerships with institutions which teach instrumental music. Such institutions will of course include the existing tertiary music schools, but also secondary and primary public and private schools. These partnerships will provide instrumental teachers, conductors and coaches as well as providing ensembles which give live performances at the institutions. Teaching will be part of a member's the annual commitment to the COM, if they choose to undertake the activity.
It will encourage its members to continue to develop their skills in a wide range of areas, and may provide appropriate assistance.
I've probably left some activities out, but I think you get my drift. If it's a legitimate activity for a professionally trained, so-called classical musician of the C21 it is a legitimate activity for the COM.
Now many of the above activities are already part of what the SSO (the current Sydney COM) does. Some of it is formalised, much of it is not, and one of the important arguments against my vision, is that too much regulation stifles individual creativity. Of course the manner in which progress is made towards a COM will determine its success or otherwise. The COM will have a Board of Directors with COM performer membership (as does the SSO now), it will have artistic and management committees membership of both performers and non-performers (as does the SSO now). It will continue to receive Commonwealth, State and Local Government subsidies (or investment as I see it).
I see the COM as being an umbrella. Yes, it is an employer, but since it is essentially self-governing, the basis under which the various activities are undertaken, and the weighting given to them are determined by the participants themselves. So, if it works properly, as it can, every member of the COM will have an annual programme of activity which is both of the length and range they feel comfortable with. At one end of the spectrum, you will have individuals like yours truly (although sadly, I'll be too old) who have done everything listed above at some time or other, and are challenged and stimulated by the whole range of activities, and just don't have enough hours in the day. At the other end, there will be those, (probably mostly amongst the older members, at least initially) who prefer to play the symphonic and pit work and very little else. Indeed some of them will be very reluctant to do both, but I reckon that it hasn't hurt the Vienna Philharmonic!
So there it is, at least in broad strokes. I'll happily discuss the details with anyone who is interested. As far as you tertiary musical educators are concerned, the implications are obvious. The vast majority of your best instrumental students should aspire to such a career. A tiny number of them may become successful soloists, or full-time chamber musicians and of course you should continue to push for the highest possible individual standards from your students, but I would suggest that you have a significant role to play in helping this vision to become a reality.
In conclusion, may I say that, as our century progresses, those orchestras which do not attempt to at least seriously grapple with some of the issues raised above will find themselves increasingly isolated and ultimately threatened with extinction.