“It costs about a million dollars a week to take a major symphony orchestra on tour,” writes Anne Midgette in Friday’s (6/8) Washington Post. “So says Rita Shapiro, the executive director of the National Symphony Orchestra; and she should know, because her orchestra has just announced a second international tour within a span of eight months. The National Symphony Orchestra, which leaves for a 15-day trip through South America this week, is also going to Europe in January. Touring has long been a staple activity of orchestras. It declined in the early years of the 2000s, precisely because of the prohibitive cost. Now a lot of orchestras are on the road again: Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco, Pittsburgh are among those that have made national or international tours this season. The reasons for touring may have changed, though $1 million a week is a lot of money to throw at a target without knowing exactly what it is you want to hit. … The NSO’s 1959 tour was sponsored by the State Department, at a time when the State Department was active in the cultural outreach game and sponsoring visiting artists all over the world. … For orchestras today, another aspect of cultural diplomacy lies in an emphasis on outreach activities—a new focus of orchestra’s lives at home that, increasingly, they’re taking on the road.”
Posted June 12, 2012
