Adaptistration: Orchestra Governance: Management

Orchestra managers are typically individuals with some musical training who have moved into administration positions or academically trained nonprofit marketers, fund-raisers and administrators. These professionals have transferable skills allowing them to move from careers the nonprofit to for profit sector.

Orchestra managers face most of the professional hurdles as do their colleagues in other for profit disciplines as well as additional frustrations resulting from the significant fixed costs and restricted cash flow associated with nonprofit structures. This limits their flexibility to address annual budget shortfalls via cost control methods and increases a reliance on generating revenue streams, both contributed and earned (such as ticket sales). Attracting and retaining highly competent staff, especially senior managers and leaders are difficult due to these issues.

Approximately 20 years ago, the academic world created a dedicated arts administration degree to address the shortage of competent arts administrators. These programs are designed to train arts managers for dealing with the unique environment within nonprofits function.

The typical orchestra administration is organized into the following sections:

Executive Leadership: Responsible for overseeing all administrative departments and act as a bridge between board, management, and musicians. Includes the Executive Director and administrative department heads (typically classified as "Directors" or "Vice Presidents".
Development: Responsible for all matters related to fundraising.
Operations: Responsible for all matters related to concert production issues. Includes unique administrative positions such as the orchestra librarian, stage manager, and personnel manager.
Artistic: Responsible for developing the artistic programming for most orchestra performances and developing new performance venues. They negotiate and hire guest soloists and conductors who perform with the orchestra.
Marketing/Public Relations: Responsible for all matters related to advertising the concerts and public/press interaction with the organization.
Accounting: Responsible for monitoring the organization's cash flow, managing health insurance issues, and all matters regarding payroll and benefits.
Education: Responsible for developing a connection to the community and raising public awareness of the organization's mission. They create in-school programs and may also operate auxiliary ensembles such as youth orchestras. They may work n conjunction with the marketing department to develop public outreach materials.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Good: A well-organized, effective administration with active leadership can create an environment where the respective community views their orchestra as a part of the community in addition to becoming a destination for entertainment and cultural enrichment. They maintain steady expenditures between periods of rapid growth and have well thought defined goals for the organization. Successful revenue enhancement practices from both earned and contributed sources ensure that its coffers are full enough to meet the cash demands of producing world class performances.

Ideally, most members of management are trained in classical music or have been professional performers; therefore, they have an intimate understanding of this unique business. Additionally, they are competent enough in their respective fields that the need for outside consultants is kept to an absolute minimum. All members of staff have a good working relationship with the musicians, which will marginalize an "us versus them" mentality.

Bad: An unfortunate reality is that quite a few senior administrators are former musicians that have lost their edge and have been given a job in management because they are nice people. They are unprepared for the business demands related to their respective administrative positions and end up requiring significant additional assistance, in the form of expensive professional training and consultants.

Contrary to this scenario is the manager who comes to orchestra management with strictly for profit training and experience. Quite often, they are ill prepared to deal with the highly chaotic world inherent to nonprofit governance. They treat the orchestra talent as replaceable "human resources" as opposed to artists which creates a volatile workplace that produces unenthusiastic performances. Unimaginative, inflexible leadership bent on enforcing a mostly for profit business model onto a nonprofit vehicle is one of quickest ways to marginalize an orchestra. If not held accountable by the executive board, the organization will be the victim of unrealized potential.

Ugly: Currently, many orchestra administrators are overwhelmed by today's negative cultural climate and only concentrate on getting by from concert to concert. The lack of long term vision and strong, visible leadership only serves to make matters worse. Many arts administrators feel they do not have adequate budget resources, proper training, and sufficient staff to successfully reach the organization's goals. This leads to high personnel turnover, rapidly escalating operational costs, and widespread apathy.

Additionally, there is an enormous leadership vacuum among the ranks of senior executives throughout all size ensembles. Most executive administrators are not capable of properly inspiring their staff to cope with the challenging world of nonprofit administration. They are inexperienced in all fields of arts management, which prevents them from leading by example and they do not satisfy the role of being a bridge between the musicians and the board. Their failure to fully understand nonprofit administration and governance will negatively impact their ability to educate board members about the unique nature of the business. Unfortunately, due to the shortage of executive talent, bad executives have a very easy time moving from one organization to another leaving a trail of financial distress and institutional chaos in their wake.

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