Pittsburgh Ballet Replaces Orchestra with Boombox

[Ralph]

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Canned music acknowledged as tough choice in hard times

By William Loeffler
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, August 3, 2005

Few were happy with Monday's announcement that Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre would replace the musicians of the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre Orchestra with recorded music for its 2005-06 season.

Not the 42 musicians of the orchestra, who have made two pay concessions in the past four years and who say they stand to lose between $6,000 and $7,000 they would normally make providing music for "Coppelia," "The Nutcracker" and other ballets.

Not subscribers, many of whom already had bought season tickets on the assumption that they would be hearing live music when "Carmen" opens the season Oct. 6 at Downtown's Benedum Center.

And not the officials at Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, who insist the cut was necessary to preserve a $6.4 million budget.

"I think there'll probably be a handful of people who don't want their tickets any longer," says Betsy Teti, of Mt. Lebanon, who has been a ballet season subscriber for more than 20 years and will continue to subscribe. "The majority of people I know who have been subscribers ... will support the ballet through thick and thin."

David Briskin, music director and principal conductor of Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre Orchestra, e-mailed a statement from Israel, where he is conducting the opera "Cosi Fan Tutte" for the International Vocal Arts Institute. He wrote: "I was profoundly disappointed to learn that the musicians of the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre Orchestra are to be replaced with recorded music. I was not privy to the discussions that led to this unfortunate decision and sincerely hope that this situation can be remedied before the opening of the season."

Recorded music often is the bitter pill that struggling ballet companies must swallow, says John Munger, director of research and information for Dance USA, a national service organization for dance companies.

"I would be surprised if they were the only ones in the last five years," Munger says.

He says he has no statistics on how many of the 77 professional ballet companies in the United States with budgets of $1 million or more use recorded music. Nearly all modern dance companies use recorded music, while ballet companies use it when a program is choreographed to the music of a specific artist, such as Bruce Springsteen or Paul Simon, whose work cannot be reproduced by an orchestra.

"The majority of musicians are making more than dancers, and there are more of them," Munger says. "What you're dealing with is professional people saying we've got to make a damn hard choice in damn hard times."

BalletMet in Columbus used recorded music last spring for one of its three productions in the Ohio Theatre, says executive director Cheri Mitchell. They are trying to avoid doing the same thing next season.

"It was a terrible decision to make," Mitchell says. "Right now we are still continuing negotiation with the orchestra management to come up with ways to continue to work together. Obviously, the preference is to have live music."

Edward Villella, founding artistic director of Miami City Ballet in Miami Beach, Fla., says his company has been using recorded music for at least the past eight years. He described it as a last resort after numerous other budget cuts.

"We started with administrative personnel," he says. "The next thing, we cut back a few dancers. Then we shaved a week or two off (the season). Then we realized that we were damaging the product. What we needed to do was go to recorded music. That is fraught with complications. Number one, when you are used to live music, there is another dimension to everything. The dimension is not only from the dancers' point of view, but from the audience's."

The Pittsburgh orchestra members are represented by the American Federation of Musicians, Local 60-471. Their contract with the ballet expired June 30. They are still negotiating a new contract, but no new talks have been scheduled, says oboist Cynthia Anderson, co-chair of the the Pittsburgh Opera and Ballet Orchestra committee, the negotiating arm of the orchestra.

Monday, ballet board of trustees chair Jeanne Gleason said she would not rule out the possibility that the orchestra could return during shows for this season, under extraordinary circumstances, such as an 11th-hour cash gift or windfall.

More than 80 percent of the musicians in the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre Orchestra also play for the Pittsburgh Opera Orchestra, says Mark Weinstein, general manager of the Pittsburgh Opera. He says the ballet's decision won't affect the Pittsburgh Opera.

"Our players will play for us and we'll pay them," he says.

But he empathizes with both the ballet and the musicians.

"The board over at the ballet is facing really difficult decisions, and they've got to figure out how to get through these things," he says. "It's a struggle right now. This is not unusual for ballet companies across the nation. This is not unique to Pittsburgh."

Weinstein, who is also chair of the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council, says Pittsburgh arts organizations need to rally individual donors, who can provide more long-term support than one-time foundation grants.

"A foundation grant from the Heinz foundation or R.K. Mellon, they tend to be a large amount, a lump sum," he says. "Individual giving is a different pattern. Usually you have dozens of individuals or thousands of individuals supporting a company. That broad base of support is much more important and critical to long-term survival of an arts organization than one-offs."

Many foundations are being asked to expand their giving to other causes, Weinstein says, which can leave less for the arts. There is an over-reliance on grants foundations and corporations, he said.

"They have a lot of other social responsibilities as compared with someone who loves ballet or loves opera or who over a lifetime will support a company at the $500 or $1,000 level," Weinstein says.

William Loeffler can be reached at wloeffler@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7986.

[Peter Schenkman]

They’ve tried the same thing for years with the Broadway shows calling it the “Virtual Orchestra”. To date the AFofM has been successful in beating it back but the producers keep right on trying.

Peter Schenkman

[daycart]

"Boombox"

It is bad enough that recorded music is used. It is worse that the sound quality is often simply awful. The ballet company here in the OC uses particularly trashy sound.

[Ralph]

They’ve tried the same thing for years with the Broadway shows calling it the “Virtual Orchestra”. To date the AFofM has been successful in beating it back but the producers keep right on trying.

Peter Schenkman

*****

I prefer "Actual Fraud."

[Heck148]

“Virtual Orchestra”.

I prefer "Actual Fraud."

LOL!! that is good, Ralph.

virtual orchestra = what a hoax, what BS.