In her Sunday (1/1) blog entry at ArtsJournal, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra President and Managing Director Sarah Lutman reviews Robert J. Flanagan’s The Perilous Life of Symphony Orchestras: Artistic Triumphs and Economic Challenges, published this month by Yale University Press. “The central thesis of the book is a search for changes in operating structures that would result in greater financial and artistic health for orchestras, given their long-standing economic challenges. Flanagan helpfully divides orchestras’ challenges between ‘the weather,’ meaning the changes in economic cycles that bring ups and downs to the overall economy, and ‘the climate,’ meaning the pervasive economic and societal trends and conditions that transcend the weather at any given moment and must be studied over longer periods. Weather and climate demand different responses, and in this study, Flanagan is focused on the climate. Specifically, Flanagan looks at paths orchestras could take to arrive at a stronger operating platform…. The fact that there’s ‘no silver bullet’ (Flanagan’s conclusion) to the economic challenges faced by orchestras will come as no surprise to anyone working in the field today. What Flanagan has contributed to the discussion is a thorough and fact-based analysis of how orchestras’ past choices are playing out in today’s economic and social environment.”
Posted January 3, 2012
