as the region’s “best international ambassador.” This has been one of the boons of Welser-Möst’s leadership. Audiences love him on the podium, and his popularity has been parlayed into increased revenue and a higher profile overseas, during a time when the orchestra needed that. In addition, this past season, an annual half-week residency focusing on education began at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington. The agenda was brief but ambitious: there were 30 events over the course of three days, including master classes, meetings between orchestra and student musicians, and a re-
part,” says Sandi Macdonald, managing director of the Cleveland Orchestra’s Miami residency from 2007 until this past June. (Bruce Coppock, former president and managing director of The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, has since taken over the job.) These residencies are important developments in the history of the Cleveland Orchestra—when first announced, news that the Cleveland Orchestra was heading to Miami for a winter residency made for some great headlines—but they are part of a larger turnaround plan that aims to transform the orchestra by addressing is-
Bill Wisser
Cleveland Orchestra musicians—from left, Chul-In Park, Eliesha Nelson, and Sae Shiragami—perform at a donor appreciation event in Miami, where the orchestra has an annual three-week residency and a local board.
hearsal led by Welser-Möst. (The Indiana University residency was supposed to have started a year earlier, but was cancelled due to a brief work stoppage following a labor dispute between musicians and management.) Lucerne, Vienna, New York, and Bloomington are significant, but not as significant as Miami, where the orchestra has been spending three weeks every year since 2007, performing about six eveninglength programs, as well as shorter concerts, earlier concerts, and family-friendly presentations, as part of a decade-long contract with the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County. “This is the one that represents the biggest, most innovative work on our
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in Cleveland.” They were talking about the possibility of Cleveland, Ohio with no Cleveland Orchestra—and soon, no less. A year earlier, a committee had been put together to find solutions. It came up with two options. One would involve reducing the size of the orchestra and its activities, resulting in fewer concerts, fewer educational efforts, etc. The other involved embarking on a business model the orchestra called “Leveraging Excellence,” capitalizing on the orchestra’s artistic quality and reputation—essentially maximizing its brand and with it, its value, especially outside Ohio. The plan would also entail changing operations and musical offerings at home, with an eye to attracting a coveted younger audience. The board approved the latter option. A year later, the orchestra secured $17 million in donations and grant funding, which would keep it stable through 2010 while it continued to work toward long-term survival. A major component of the Cleveland Orchestra’s survival strategy was the Miami residency. What was the rationale behind the choice of Miami? “There’s a single key measure, in my view, of institutional potential in a community,” says Gary Hanson, the Cleveland Orchestra’s executive director. “Population growth. If you don’t have population growth, then you have to grow in new ways.” In terms of pure population numbers, Miami and Cleveland are remarkably similar. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, they rank 44 and 45, respectively, of the country’s 50 most populous cities. The city of Mi-
The orchestra embarked on a business model it called “Leveraging Excellence,” capitalizing on the orchestra’s artistic quality and reputation—essentially, maximizing its brand and its value, especially outside Ohio. The plan also entailed changing operations and musical offerings at home. sues both at home and outside Cleveland. In 2004, the board recognized in its annual report that increasing deficits due to “expense growth that exceeded inflation” were catching up with the orchestra and threatening its future. The 2004-05 report noted that “without fundamental changes in the orchestra’s business model, our growing annual losses, together with a mounting accumulated deficit and substantial unfunded pension liability, would soon make our institution unsustainable
ami is home to just under 400,000 residents. Meanwhile, the city of Cleveland is home to just under 397,000. But in terms of growth, it’s another story. Over the last decade, Cleveland has lost 17 percent of its population, while Miami’s population has increased by more than 10 percent. During the same period, South Florida experienced the ninth-largest population increase in the country. Still, the board recognized that making all these big changes could be risky. That symphony
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