1)The Goal of Having Orchestras and Music Organizations in New Zealand

Dear Friends,

Following my two visits to New Zealand, my interim report and after having listened, both live and on cd, to the NZSO, Vector Wellington, Auckland Symphony, Christchurch and Dunedin orchestras, I herewith submit to you my final report.

In attempting to understand the situation and coming up with practical recommendations, one has to bear in mind the following elements:

1)The goal of having orchestras and music organizations in New Zealand

2)Excellence in the performing arts

3)The special geographical circumstances of New Zealand, vis-à-vis the size and breakdown of its populace

Referring to the first item, we must address it looking at the bigger picture of the cultural life of New Zealand, the future of the next generation of musicians and their public, the importance of existing orchestras in the various communities, their services to the communities and their contribution to the local cultural scene as well as the general cultural life of New Zealand.

The question of population and geographical circumstances must be approached in a different manner other than economics, balance sheets, benefits and disadvantages based on nickels and dimes. I believe it is the State’s responsibility to support the local orchestras and finding the financial sources to maintain the existence of these orchestras in a dignified way. I believe all five orchestras are necessary to their communities and essentially provide and guarantee the right quality of life required for a civilized 21st century society.

Despite the fact that distribution of the population in comparison to the geography, does not economically justify the existence of the orchestras, as I said, this is the wrong way of looking at the tasks of the orchestras and the duties of the Ministry for Culture and Heritage.

The orchestras’ duties and reason to exist can be identified and defined:

a)Providing and exposing New Zealand’s people to classical music – and obviously one should include opera and ballet under this definition.

b)Education for children and underprivileged communities, reaching out to as many listeners as possible, whereby one will use music as a general tool to educate about values such as discipline, order, tolerance, etc., as well as providing them with a key to the world of classical music and culture.

c)Reaching out to communities means much more than merely performing. It must also have the aspects of personal involvement in those communities; musicians getting to know the students and their parents, initiating various activities that have to do with music and are not part of the announced programme. This can only happen with musicians who live in and are part of the community. Each city wanting to have, and justly deserving, a coherent, complete cultural life must have its own orchestra and the orchestra should be versatile and able to participate in whatever musical activity is required by and being initiated for the for the city. No visiting or touring orchestras can undertake such a role and become a coherent part of the cultural tapestry of the city’s community.

d)Developing the industry of recording cds, movie soundtracks, etc.

e)Producing crossover products to cultivate new audiences.

At the end of the day, excellence in the performing arts is the ultimate goal of the artists and the communities. In order to attain excellence in the performance of musicians and orchestras, one must endeavour to get as many layers as possible of not-so excellent musicians and performers as, ultimately, quantity will create quality, always remembering that the not-so excellent orchestras have their own right of existence because of their contribution to the communities as artists and as publics.

As I aid, I have listened to the recordings of all the orchestras and to four out of the five’s – excluding Dunedin – live performances and I must say I see no major differences in quality between the NZSO and the other four orchestras. It was stated to me that the NZSO is the flagship orchestra and is a very good one according to international standards.

Whilst the structure of engagement and payment between the NZSO and the rest of the orchestras is totally different, the NZSO musicians are employed on a monthly payroll with yearly contracts, while the other orchestras are what one describes as “being on call” – getting paid per service – except for Auckland that has a minimal guaranteed monthly retainer as well.

No doubt the economic security and monthly guaranteed pay has a major influence in attracting the better musicians to join the orchestra and enables the orchestra to create a better reservoir of good musicians. All orchestras and musicians deserve it and should have it.

The question of recording has two aspects to which to relate, the first being to provide work for the musicians and secondly, developing those industries in New Zealand, thereby adding to the fame and exposure of the orchestras in New Zealand and the world.

As to the crossover products, one should be aware of its importance as long as one realises it is meant for a very specifically defined public, which is absolutely legitimate, but it is not a tool to bring that audience to become regular concert goers.

There are two additional subjects to be addressed: one is the criteria according to which money is being distributed to the orchestras (most by Creative New Zealand and some through the Ministry for Culture and Heritage) and secondly, the uncertainty of assignments, job descriptions and task allocations.

My strong recommendation is to create a manifest criteria according to which the orchestras will be compensated. This makes it transparently clear to everyone and will foster a positive atmosphere between the orchestras, ultimately allowing for co-operation in a harmonious way and initiating co-production.

Another important element that will foster harmonious music-making is in creating a clear definition of the orchestras’ assignments, job descriptions, task allocations and designations. To avoid a situation of orchestras competing with each other on various jobs such as recordings, accompanying pop stars, etc., a clear description would prevent that and enable the orchestras to work together and initiate sharing the visits of international artists whereby the orchestras and the artists would all benefit as well as initiating the commission of orchestral works by New Zealand’s composers. Both the orchestras and the composers would feel better, being able to propose to the composer a large number of guaranteed performances and sharing the expense.

Clear assignment of the orchestras’ jobs will not only help to create a harmonious environment for creating music, but can also become a solution for the lack of permanent orchestra for the ballet and opera companies. The fact that the ballet and opera do not have permanent orchestras and the fact that they need to tour

New Zealand, both because they wish to bring their art to the various audiences as well as the fact that they do not have enough of a public in their cities, creates an unprofessional situation wherein they must rehearse in each city with a different orchestra that which they have already rehearsed for prior same productions.

All orchestras around the world are faced with the unresolved situation of losing their public due to the existing public’s aging. New Zealand is no different. I feel that all the orchestras do not really have a solution as to how to address this matter. All orchestras try to educate potential future audiences, trying to attract a younger public, using tools of information popular with the young generation: public media facilities, i.e. the internet, sms, facebook, etc., where the name of the game is fast availability and easy access to information.

Educating audiences serves another purpose as well, from the orchestra’s point of view, i.e. securing more work for the musicians.

Touring – Orchestras tour New Zealand for two reasons: exposure to the continent’s entire public and creating work for the musicians due to thefactthatthe specialdistributionof the population does not provide enough need for concerts. This issue needs to be addressed only after one reaches a decision as to how to economically secure and maintain the existence of each orchestra in its city. Perhaps cutting touring will enable a different restructuring of budgets and will simplify life for the Ministry.

Allocation of Funds – With the understanding that the budget allocated for the orchestras will remain between 19-20 million NZD, my recommendation will be to balance the distribution of funds between the various orchestras. In the current situation, the NZSO receives the vast part of the government’s money while the rest of the orchestras receive a very little support. I therefore recommend a cut of up to 2 million NZD from the NZSO’s government allocation and rechanneling this money to other orchestras. I recommend that the Auckland Symphony receive 1 million NZD, besides what they are getting now, due to the fact

that they serve over a quarter of New Zealand’s population.

Dunedin should receive 350,000 NZD, Christchurch should receive 200,000 NZD and the balance to be decided later. This cut should obviously be done in stages.

Another potential solution can be uniting the Vector Wellington orchestra with the NZSO as I believe there is a way that such a unified orchestra can meet all the needs of music-making in Wellington as well as touring, if necessary, and therefore the Vector Wellington orchestra’s allocation of 450,000 NZD can be rechanneled into other orchestras and the cut for NZSO can be reduced.

Rechannelling funds into the various orchestras will enable them to function in a minimally decent existence and will enable them to change the system of remuneration of the musicians which will lead to a better music-making situation with better artistic results.

City Council Allocation – I believe each city council should become responsible for part of the orchestra’s budget. The Ministry should reach an understanding with the councils as to the quality and system of sharing responsibility. I have visited various city councils; some of them realise the importance and do sponsor the orchestras, others barely do, but it should be the city’s responsibility, as well as the State’s, to assist the orchestras financially.

Trusts – In some of the cities, there are orchestras that receive support from the local Trust and in others they do not. This subject should be addressed and looked upon as a possible source for support of the arts.

Reallocation of Budgets from Other Ministries – one should look at the budgets of other Ministries and see whether one can identify monies from their allocation that can be directed to help out the classical music world of New Zealand. Usually, underdeveloped districts and poor communities have special budgets and perhaps part can be used to help out the orchestras.

Board Members – I believe it must be established that Board members can become so only if they follow the ‘3G’ rule: give, get or get off. One should provide incentives for fund-raising by having the government match whatever monies were raised by the Board. Some of the Board members whom I met already act accordingly and I am sure the matching encouragement will be helpful.

In closing, I wish to say that I am at your disposal to provide more explanations and to be available to escort the procedures when implemented.