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© St. Petersburg Times, published September 22, 2002
Jahja Ling is gone as music director. Stefan Sanderling doesn't take over until next season. What that means for the Florida Orchestra is that the 2002-03 season is something like an interregnum, which Webster's defines as "an interval between two successive reigns, when the country has no sovereign."
But being in transition from one music director to the next doesn't mean everything is on hold. Quite the contrary, actually, as the orchestra begins its 35th season this week, first with a special concert Tuesday featuring Garrison Keillor, creator and host of public radio's Prairie Home Companion, then Friday's masterworks series opener, with Pavel Kogan conducting Respighi's Pines of Rome and other works.
"There are a lot of changes afoot here," said Jeff Bram, the orchestra's operations director and artistic administrator. "This orchestra is primed for a growth spurt. It's definitely going to happen when Stefan gets here, but there's no reason it doesn't start this year."
Bram is new, moving up from personnel manager to succeed Jeff Woodruff, who left for a top management job with the Houston Symphony Orchestra.
The change most visible to concertgoers will be another conductor search, this one for a resident conductor to pick up the baton from Thomas Wilkins, now with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Last season, along with the music director search that ended with the signing of Sanderling to a five-year contract in May, the orchestra also auditioned a half-dozen conductors to replace the popular Wilkins, but none filled the bill of being both a strong musical presence and an effective communicator with the audience.
"In a way, it is a more complicated and difficult search than the one for music director," executive director Leonard Stone said. "It's not that we should replace Tom per se, but everybody would like us to replace Tom per se. He redefined the role of that position by virtue of his personality."
Five guest conductors, not including any of last season's candidates, will be considered as Wilkins' successor. Each will lead a variety of coffee, blue jeans classics and educational concerts, the stock in trade for a resident conductor. They are:
-- Crafton Beck, music director of the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra and the Lima, Ohio, Symphony.
-- Susan Haig, music director of the South Dakota Symphony.
-- Scott Speck, music director of the Mobile, Ala., Symphony and co-author of Classical Music for Dummies and Opera for Dummies.
-- Chelsea Tipton II, associate conductor of the Savannah, Ga., Symphony.
-- Richard Zielinski, artistic director of the Master Chorale of Tampa Bay.
All five were interviewed over the summer by members of the resident conductor search committee. Last season, the first step had candidates audition by leading the orchestra in rehearsal.
"This time, we reversed the process by talking with them, asking questions about their style on the podium when speaking to audiences," Bram said. "That way, we were able to choose folks we can assume will excel at that part of the gig when they have to turn around and put their back to the orchestra and work the crowd a little bit.
"The conducting, of course, is eventually going to decide if they work with us. Chemistry with the orchestra is the one thing you can't guess. They have to come here and stand up and deliver."
Zielinski's inclusion in the field is a departure from the norm, since he already is closely involved with the orchestra as director of its resident chorus, as well as being a music professor at the University of South Florida in Tampa. He will be on the podium for masterworks concerts of Haydn's Creation in addition to more typical resident-conductor fare.
"It came to pass because Rick indicated interest," Bram said. "The committee discussed it, we interviewed him, we put him through his paces and decided that, yeah, he ought to get a longer look. If it were to go that way, we'd have some figuring to do, because he's a very busy man, but he swears that he's at his best when busy."
Nationwide, the 2002-03 season is shaping up as rough one for symphony orchestras, as many are feeling the pinch of the economic downturn. In the last month or two, the bad news has started to pile up.
The San Jose Symphony said it would file for bankruptcy protection, having been forced to shut down in June. The 106-year-old Pittsburgh Symphony warned it might also wind up in bankruptcy, with the value of its endowment down by almost $40-million because of the slumping stock market.
The San Antonio Symphony of Texas cut musicians' pay to resolve a $1-million shortfall. The Cleveland Orchestra reported a $1.3-million deficit, its biggest in nearly a decade. The Tulsa Philharmonic suspended performances while it attempted to recover from losses of $1-million over the past two years.
The Houston Symphony, posting a $1.6-million loss last season, made cuts in staff and programming. The Dallas Symphony had an $850,000 loss.
A year ago, the Florida Orchestra had to cut $650,000 in order to balance the budget, but heading into this season, it is projecting better results. At its annual meeting in October, the orchestra expects to report a surplus for last season.
"It should be a six-figure surplus, in excess of $100,000. For us, that's huge," said Stone, who doesn't anticipate having to make cuts in this season's $8.4-million budget. Orchestra attendance held up surprisingly well in the wake of last year's terrorist attacks.
"We didn't suffer in the box office as a result of 9/11 as most orchestras did," Stone said. "Most orchestras, from 9/11, they dipped in attendance and then they worked their way back up. We didn't dip."
Still, the orchestra isn't free of its perennial problem of having reduced access to Morsani Hall in the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center. The center's 2,400-seat hall will be occupied for nine weeks in December and January by The Lion King, relegating the orchestra to the 1,000-seat Ferguson Hall.
"Some sponsors simply won't sponsor in Ferguson Hall," Stone said. "Corporations want to be in Morsani. It's understandable. There will be a revenue impact. It does hurt."
The orchestra also has problems at Ruth Eckerd Hall. In May, when the Clearwater venue is going to be closed for renovation, subscribers to programs there will be asked to attend concerts at TBPAC.
Behind the scenes, another change may have a significant impact on the orchestra's future. The board of directors has been restructured, with the number of directors reduced almost in half to 25. The thinking was that too many directors previously were not engaged with the orchestra beyond writing a check to the annual fund or representing a corporation or government entity that made a contribution.
"In the past, the board had about 50 people, of whom only about 25 or 30 were really interested in the orchestra and were willing to come to meetings and discuss difficult management and fundraising decisions," said Clearwater attorney John Slaughter, the director who headed the restructuring effort.
In July, the scaled-down board was put in place, with former St. Petersburg Mayor David Fischer continuing as chairman. There is a new committee system intended to promote more community input on orchestra decisionmaking.
"I don't think the orchestra has really developed deep roots into the communities of Tampa, St. Petersburg and Clearwater," Slaughter said. "The hope is that this reorganization will be effective in getting more people involved. The orchestra isn't just for a small effete group of individuals. It has a much broader appeal that hasn't been developed yet."