tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post8412527589501205472..comments2024-03-26T15:57:13.443+00:00Comments on On An Overgrown Path: What price classical music's celebrity culture?Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-22094663481189954902015-10-14T19:07:19.808+01:002015-10-14T19:07:19.808+01:00Thanks for that Graeme. I think we need to be care...Thanks for that Graeme. I think we need to be careful here. Although there may well be a degree opaqueness in the LSO's accounts, I am sure that they meet the statutory requirements in all ways, including disclosures.<br /><br />Disclosure of how much is paid to a principal conductor (or their management company) is not a statutory accounting requirement. But, in my view, disclosure should be a requirement of an orchestra (or other ensemble) receiving significant amounts of public funding. A number of ACE funded organisations receive £50k or less. So breaking down how the £2 million that the LSO (and LPO and Philharmonia) receive is spent, allows a more considered view to be taken on whether limited funding is being allocated equitably. Pliablehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10616598845886342325noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-11248966216280314442015-10-14T16:07:26.557+01:002015-10-14T16:07:26.557+01:00I just ventured into the LSO accounts for 2014 fil...I just ventured into the LSO accounts for 2014 filed at the Charity Commission and, as a qualified accountant, I find them rather opaque in a way that the accounts of Facebook, Google, Starbucks etc are not despite the fuss kicked up some of my more clueless colleagues. For example, I was surprised to learn that the musicians are not "employed" by the LSO. The employees are the 78 or so backroom staff plus the directors some of whom are selected from the corpus of musicians. I presume that the musicians' pay comes out of the bulk figures for Charitable Activities: Barbican concerts and Engagements. Together some £10m of direct cost is attributed to these activities. Somewhat alarmingly, these activities only generated £6m of income.<br /><br />I am amazed that there is not more disclosure of what is going on. It is intriguing that one member of staff is paid between £170 and 180k, a very reasonable salary for a business turning over £15m I would have thought. I am with you that it is cause for concern that we know more about the Antonio Brenzi viola than we do about how much they paid Gergiev.<br /><br />Given the fact that they would find it hard to survive without £2m from Arts Coiuncil, £2m from City Corporation, and £2m of sponsorship/donations, there really ought to be more clarity about where the money is going.Graemehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11007306140530173428noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-31657922407857666112015-10-14T11:09:44.303+01:002015-10-14T11:09:44.303+01:00Graeme, I agree with your comment. But it only app...Graeme, I agree with your comment. But it only applies to my thoughts on the LSO and BAT, which were an aside rather than part of the main thrust of the post.<br /><br />The main thrust was non-judgemental - "This debate is not about whether celebrity conductors are paid too much: it is about transparency". If fees that represented a material part of an orchestra's outgoings were disclosed, everyone could come to their own conclusions on important questions such as whether classical music's limited funding is distributed unequally. Pliablehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10616598845886342325noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-83787092991999621852015-10-14T00:02:09.592+01:002015-10-14T00:02:09.592+01:00This is a hard one. The conjunction of ethics and...This is a hard one. The conjunction of ethics and music. Should I deplore the music of Duke Ellington in the 1920s because he developed it at the Cotton Club, funded by thugs and bootleggers? Should I deplore the music of Earl Hines and his band in Chicago because he was employed by Al Capone? Without the gangsters, bootleggers etc, what we know as classic jazz might just have withered on the vine - no recordings, no airtime.<br /><br />Obviously we are living in different times. If you are outside the mainstream you can use youtube, facebook and internet radio to gain exposure in a way that would have been impossible in the 1920s and 30s. But orchestral uses of web media are odd and clumsy...the streaming, the control they want to keep....why not put the music out there and gamble that the public might want to hear it live in a real acoustic?Graemehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11007306140530173428noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-77945156108332740042015-10-13T14:49:02.836+01:002015-10-13T14:49:02.836+01:00While on this thread I find it disappointing that ...While on this thread I find it disappointing that the London Symphony Orchestra still has British American Tobacco as a corporate sponsor. In the UK, tobacco companies are allowed to sponsor cultural and sporting events on the condition that they use their company name rather than a brand of cigarettes. So the LSO is within the letter of the law. But it does not help foster an ethically responsible image for classical music.<br /><br />http://www.overgrownpath.com/2011/12/classical-musics-ethically-compromised.html<br /><br />http://lso.co.uk/support-us/thank-you <br />Pliablehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10616598845886342325noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-8140865526601185012015-10-13T13:55:44.785+01:002015-10-13T13:55:44.785+01:00More hard information on the balance, or imbalance...More hard information on the balance, or imbalance, in the distribution of funding within classical music is provided by Drew McManus' orchestra compensation reports - http://www.adaptistration.com/the-orchestra-compensation-reports/Pliablehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10616598845886342325noreply@blogger.com