22nd July 2008

Murray Shaw, chief executive of the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra has resigned from the post.
Perhaps during the process of looking for a replacement, the orchestra board may do well to reflect on the quality of the administration and general direction. I found Shaw to be arrogant and dismissive of any criticism of the inner workings affecting subscribers and even though staff numbers have increased, dumb things still occur and the dismissive manner towards the subscriber base has continued. There is a vague overlapping of responsibilities between the Friends of the CSO and the orchestra management and there doesn't appear to be consistent policy from year to year.

A certain elitism has crept in which I guess corresponds with the increase in corporate sponsorship. There are now three "Gala" concerts this year, last year there were two (opening and closing concerts) and the previous year one, (at the start of the year). The only difference between a Gala and ordinary concert is that they jack the ticket price up, charge double for the programme notes and subscribers get booted out of their regular seats to make way for those dressed in dickie suits and finery. No doubt their Companie's contributions are paying for their seats and many are there not because of their love of music, but to "network" or to be seen rubbing shoulders with other industry barons. Now I realise that corporate sponsorship is a necessary evil these days to survive, but you don't disenfranchise your regular supporters in the process.

God knows what the marketing manager does, though I suspect any marketing is aimed at corporates rather than getting extra bums on seats. They had the good idea to offer a free concert to friends of subscribers this year, but managed to stuff that up by incompetence. If you want to know more of that you can read it here. The incentive to subscribe to more concerts by offering discounts changes every year. One year, you only got a discount if you were a member of the "Friends" so of course we all joined up. This year there seemed to be little incentive to attend more concerts as the discount rate was minimal after the first couple and apart from being able to choose early seats there was no advantage to being a member of the Friends. As I said, no consistency and I could go on with other examples, but little will be achieved by that.

Canterbury Opera folded, because it went elitist and didn't cut its cloth to suit the market. The CSO needs to re-evaluate where it's future lies, stick to its knitting and provide good music to the Christchurch masses, rather than the elite few. One can live in hope that a new CEO may lead the way.

TC