Live Orchestras, Prerecorded Musicians and Money

The 21st Century has seen some radical changes to the music insdutry and as technology grows, its use becomes even more over powering. West End shows are now being 'performed' by digitally recorded orchestras, pit musicians are having their contracts thrown out in favour of one time recordings that fit all shows and more concert venues are struggling to fund their musicians. Are there enough performance oppurtunities for budding young musicans to flourish and begin a career? Or are we setting them up for an aspiration that is doomed from the start? What is technology doing to live music?

So, the War Horse incident is still pretty fresh is everyones mind but the long and short of it is that the Pit Musicians who had been running with the show since 2009 had their contracts whipped out from under them once the show had accumulated enough music to create a prerecorded soundtrack to use in place of them. However, this 'one size fits all' recording allows no margin for error or live happenings on the stage on any particular night.

They were given very little notice and even sought council, seeking an injunction to let them back into the show, claiming breach of contract. In April 2014 their bid to be reinstated was lost and were urged by a judge to seek damages for breach of contract instead. The BBC quote the theatre saying "the National was not questioning the ability of the musicians but theatre management believed its live music budget would be better used elsewhere". Of course, the crux of the matter comes down to money, as one would suspect in the time we live in. 

The U.S is particularly feeling the squeeze as many of their Orchestras come under financial threat despite having a healthy amount of orchestras and plenty of sell-out concerts across the country. 

Things have become so critical that the Philadelphia Orchestra, known as one of the 'big five', filed for bankruptcy in 2011. Many claim these hard times are due to lack patronage, an ageing clientele and the marginalisation of Classical music as a whole.  For a long time, the American orchestras were able to ride the wave of a marginalised art form, claiming that only 40% of their income came from ticket sales, with the rest being made from memberships, donations and endowments. However, in this frosty financial climate, donations have been lessening, meaning that they are also feeling the crunch.

Rome, the birthplace of Opera, also took a hit this year when the Rome Opera house fired all of it orchestra and choral members due to financial debt. It was claimed that a total of 182 jobs were lost during this cull in a desperate bid to save money by outsourcing jobs for concert performances. Not to say that Rome would have been immune to cuts instead of culture, but one would have thought they would have stayed strong through this.

So, what are we letting todays up and coming classical musicians get into? As a musician and teacher, should i really be encouraging students to push for a career in classical music performance, given what is happening right now? Are we just setting these people up to fail in an already dying market? With all the various music genres circulating currently, is the Classical Music art form actually dying? Should we just accept it and leave it to technology... because it's cheaper?