Issue 2 | March 1, 2018 INNOVATE. MUSIC. LEAD. A magazine of the Institute for Music Leadership at the Eastman School of Music The Importance of Artistry in Arts Leadership Also featuring: The How and Why of the Alternative Ensemble A Conversation with Donna Milanovich What is a Community Gamelan? Produced by the Paul R. Judy Center for Innovation and Research at the Eastman School of Music, Rochester, NY INNOVATE. MUSIC. LEAD. | Issue 2 2! EDITOR’S WELCOME INNOVATE. MUSIC. LEAD. There are important questions in our A magazine of the Eastman School of Music musical arts world that have no single answer, no clear solution, and no relevant ISSUE NUMBER 2 precedent. We face new challenges daily DATE OF RELEASE March 1, 2018 that require critical thinking, innovative solutions, and at times, improvisation. EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: James C. Doser MANAGING EDITOR: Steve Danyew One concept that we can reliably embrace and support is that the leaders of musical PUBLICATION SCHEDULE arts organizations – large and small – INNOVATE. MUSIC. LEAD. is published twice benefit from an intimate relationship and per year, in August and March. knowledge of music and music-making. It is this effective synergy between artistic SUBMISSIONS understanding and executive know-how that can be transformative for our We welcome submissions of research papers organizations, from the world’s largest to be published in INNOVATE. MUSIC. LEAD. opera companies, to artist-led orchestras We accept submissions on a rolling basis. If like the Chicago Philharmonic, alternative you have questions about your work and if it ensembles such as yMusic, and would be appropriate for this publication, community-based ensembles like Gamelan please email us at [email protected]. Dharma Swara, all featured in this issue of INNOVATE. MUSIC. LEAD. It is this dedication to the artist-leader MAIL: concept that has recently led the Eastman School of Music to appoint Rachel Roberts Paul R. Judy Center for Innovation and as the director of its new MA in Music Research Leadership degree program – designed for Eastman School of Music musicians who wish to lead and create 26 Gibbs Street innovative musical organizations of all sizes Rochester, NY 14604 and types. EMAIL: With this spirit of artistry-based leadership, I hope that you enjoy this issue [email protected] of INNOVATE. MUSIC. LEAD. Musically Yours, WEB: James C. Doser Director, Institute for Music https://iml.esm.rochester.edu/prjc Leadership Eastman School of Music Editor-in-Chief, INNOVATE.MUSIC.LEAD. Magazine INNOVATE. MUSIC. LEAD. | Issue 2 !3 IN THIS ISSUE 5 The Importance of Artistry in Arts Leadership JAMES C. DOSER 15 A Conversation with Donna Milanovich 19 The How and Why of the Alternative Ensemble WILLIAM ROBIN, PH.D. 24 What is a Community Gamelan? VICTORIA LO MELLIN 27 Sound Bits 29 Contributors INNOVATE. MUSIC. LEAD. | Issue 2 4! The Importance of Artistry in Arts Leadership James C. Doser This article first appeared in Volume 7 of the simply parroting the organization’s Journal of Performing Arts Leadership in messaging. Rather, this is a set of values acquired from being an artist, and/or Higher Education. having personal experience with arts’ ability to affect and change lives of INTRODUCTION individuals and communities. Arts administrators face decisions that require expertise in both the hard skills of Artistry must be at the foundation of business and the soft skills of training for arts administrators, and at the communication, interpersonal center of their professional practice. relationships, and advocacy. The most logical decisions, the most PART ONE: LEADING THROUGH A LENS promising initiatives, and the most OF ARTISTRY inspiring projects can fail if leaders lose For arts organizations, the clearest vision track of the core artistic values that of operational, artistic, and economic brought them to the profession in the first success comes through a lens of artistic place. insight. The most effective administrators possess Arts organizations – sometimes just one both a thorough knowledge of art and the poor season away from financial collapse – sensitivity to articulate the arts experience are particularly vulnerable to severe on a deep level. They understand the economic downturns. In response to the transformative power of art as the core of 2008 recession, most arts organizations the mission. decreased their annual budgets. In the arts capital of New York City, 39 percent This is more than bridging a gap of cancelled or postponed programs.1 In the understanding, being sensitive to the same period, the unemployment rate for sensibilities of artists, and being a good artists more than doubled that of other listener; and it is certainly more than professionals.2 1 Patricia Jones and Christina Knight, ed., “The Recession & the Arts III: The Impact of the Economic Downturn on Nonprofit Cultural Organizations in New York City,” Alliance for the Arts (June 2011), accessed April 12, 2017, https://www.nyc-arts.org/pdfs/Recession&theARTSIII.pdf, 4. 2 “Artist Unemployment Rates for 2008 and 2009: An Addendum to NEA Research Note #97,” National Endowment for the Arts Research Bulletin, (January 2010), accessed April 13, 2016, https://www.arts.gov/sites/ default/files/97-update.pdf, 1. INNOVATE. MUSIC. LEAD. | Issue 2 5! from 1999 to 2007.4 Faced with economic issues that threatened their organizations, many arts Mr. Owens, with a strong record of administrators, boards, artists, and donors business and administrative skills, also were forced into decisions that challenged brought an artist’s background and their ability to work as a team with sensibilities, having earned master’s common visions. Their futures, in part, are degrees in Music and English from determined by the ability of leaders that Dennison University. His decision-making not only understand, but feel the artistic reflected a dedication to the mission of the missions of their organizations. The story orchestra. His relationship with musicians, of Charlie Owens and the Hartford coupled with his instinctive artistic Symphony Orchestra (HSO) provides a leadership, paved the way for collaborative solid starting point. and positive growth. Despite economic and labor pressures, the But in 2007, Charlie Owens left the HSO, HSO has been one of the leading medium- causing a notable shift in the ability of market professional orchestras in North management to communicate effectively America for several decades. In the early with its musicians and to face the difficult 1990’s, a new model of governance situations yet to come. emerged for the HSO after a period of contentious labor negotiations. Labor The serious financial challenges of the mediator Ron Compton suggested that ten recession and the inability to sustain the HSO musicians become full voting orchestra’s growth forced the HSO to members on the board of directors, which consider new cost efficiencies, including a was declared “unprecedented territory for merger with its longtime performance members of an orchestra.”3 For the first venue The Bushnell Center for the time, the board was to experience Performing Arts. Hoping to save representation from its artists, who would administrative costs, management bring first-hand knowledge of the artistic consolidated the administration of these process to the governing body. In the two organizations, but in so doing it also fifteen years that followed, the HSO removed essential leadership personnel, flourished: most notably the leadership that possessed a central understanding of the artistic From 1993 until the economic mission of the HSO. recession of 2008, the HSO boasted a series of successful contract Musicians felt that the mission of the negotiations and not a single orchestra was no longer understood or grievance filed by its musicians. supported. The trust and shared vision that More than half of that prosperous had been guided by knowledgeable time was under the leadership of leadership soured, as noted by an HSO executive director Charlie Owens, musician on the negotiating team: who guided the orchestra through a period of significant fiscal and A symphony orchestra is about artistic growth through his term number one, the music; number two, the musicians, who are the 3 Michael Anderson, “At the Core: Contract Negotiations at the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, Eastman Case Studies, Vol. 1 (Rochester: Eastman School of Music, 2016), 3. 4 Ibid., 4. INNOVATE. MUSIC. LEAD. | Issue 2 !6 music makers, we’re the product; This merger was initiated because one and number three, everything else. organization’s strength compensated for We believe that this management the other’s weakness. and this board, are concerned with everything else, above numbers one The school in fact was facing nearly and two. One does not grow the the exact opposite challenges of the Hartford Symphony by cutting the orchestra. Whereas the orchestra Hartford Symphony.5 had financial stability and was looking to strengthen its The necessity for cost-cutting may have educational programs, the Music been obvious, but its implementation School’s programs were flourishing lacked the sensitivity that Mr. Owens’s in spite of financial instability. artistry may have brought to the role. The Despite the institutions’ distinct resulting environment lacked the trust, objectives, the two musical arts teamwork, and sacrifice necessary to organizations were inherently successfully implement painful linked by their mission of enhancing adjustments. Today, the HSO continues to the region’s