"Extreme regulation, high taxes, high labour laws, and anti innovation/entrepreneurship is the problem." Couldn't agree less. Entrepreneur who moved his startup from US to Scotland here. Labor costs: 50% of US,
lab rent: 1/6th
Grants: many more and much higher allocation.
Red tape? None met- but lots in US. The EU has a different matrix. SAP is still bigger than Oracle and Germany's Lidl with its own cloud provider is growing leaps and bounds - but doesn't want to conquer the world. Different mentality.
Makes a lot of sense for cash strapped American Symphonies. I was part of a group of musically trained business people assembled to save the Gewandhaus in Leipzig - one of the best and biggest Symphony Orchestras in the world which after German unification was on the brink of collaps. We decided to offer well heeled and well educated amateur musicians the opportunity to play one concert incl. 3 rehearsals for a fee. We were swamped with requests. CEOs, lawyers, medical doctors, you name it. We held auditions with Blomsted and later Abbado to select those who were good enough. It was a raving success. We repeated it for several years until it morphed into a separate orchestra - the Management Symphony. It also became a vital source of financial support as its members not only "paid-to-play" but also donated financially or bought valuable string instruments that were lend to the orchestra's principal soloists.
I have had a question for a long time, and this may be my one chance to ask someone who actually knows how these things work.
When you were working on this, have you considered playing music that (and please don't take this the wrong way; this may be exaggerated but maybe you will understand what I mean) pre-retirement non-musicians would listen to, where the composer is still alive, and that hasn't been played in the same venue a hundred times? Looking at the Gewandhauses schedule right now, there's absolutely nothing for me.
The San Francisco Symphony plays a top-tier movie (Top Gun, Titanic, Lord of the Rings, etc.) with the film music performed live by the orchestra every few months, and I go to many of these. I got tickets for the Game of Thrones series finale concert (different venue). I absolutely loved Video Games Live, which actually has been in Leipzig too, but in the Arena, and well over a decade ago. I went to a Lindsey Stirling concert, who I knew from YouTube.
So my question is: Why can't the Gewandhaus do something like that regularly? Why can these events only be available in large cities like San Francisco? It's actually frustratingly difficult to find such events in smaller cities. Is it licensing/artist fees? Not interesting for the local musicians? Events like this reliably book out large venues several times in a row, so can it really be lack of demand? Maybe only from the wrong customers?
Thank you! I always wonder this as well. Maybe part of it is "what is the difference between classical music and music played by a symphony/orchestra?"
I suspect it boils down to such things being done far more for social status and such than actual enjoyment.
Indeed. I'd say a major annoyance. After all it includes filing taxes and sometimes you have to "align" your company name if for example you apply for federal grants.
reply