Conn-Selmer to shut down Eastlake

[1 Ton Tommy]

Are European orchestras in such dire straits as orchestras in the US? Is their cost structure more favorable?

I suspect most European venues are long since paid for while the municipal bonds floated for Seattle's Fine Arts infrastructure still pay me a nice dividend -- tax free. I do know that union contracts have hamstrung the Seattle Opera who is/was under contract to use Seattle Symphony, and the Ballet uses their own orchestra,( which may or may not be local 70, I don't know) and not the Seattle Symphony who have their own local. But unions or not, none of the musicians is getting rich. And our local rural music arts organization is about $50K in the red this year due to competition for grants what with the demise of NEA funding.

It seems only big touring acts and venues who pay homage to Live Nation/Ticketmaster are getting rich. And yet, BMI comes to the small town pubs with their hand out based on square footage. Ya gotta sell a lota beer to cover the fee and so the venues often don't have live music. Boo Hoo Hoo.

So who in the US is gong to buy new musical instruments? None of my progeny plays so... When I die there will be some good used ones on the market. There may only be amateur musicians by then, though. Playing guitar.

[bloke]

People can be political and anti-analytical about NEA funding, but it only hands orchestras a few thousand dollars each a year. (Realize that it's been doing the same to other art forms as well and not just symphony orchestras... and with the United States of America bankrupt, printing fake money to hand to these orchestras does nothing more than cause more inflation, which means that - when orchestra musicians are paid, their dollars buy less at the grocery store than without the funding, ironically due to the very funding that they desire).
Being more of an originalist American, I believe that any corporation or able-bodied individual should be able to sink or swim on their own. If the demand isn't there, forcing people to supply or purchase a not-in-demand product or service anyway is a economic system known as fascism (and I was sort of under the impression that most people in the arts community are anti-fascism). The decline of social sophistication in America isn't unique to America, and - make no mistake or misjudgment - it has been top-down orchestrated (pun intended).