The fight for survival:- Adelaide Symphony Orchestra

Address given at the 2005 National SOMA (Symphony Orchestra Musicians Association) Conference, Melbourne by Paul Blackman

When I joined the ASO 24 years ago, I took up the newly created position of Principal Contrabassoon. This brought the orchestra up to a full strength of 66 players, all nestled in the secure arms of Auntie ABC. Since that time, after increasing to 78 players around the first production of Wagner’s Ring Cycle, 7 year ago, the ASO had reduced back to 72 musicians at the start of this year with a debt of well over $2 million.  

Late last year we were involved in a second production of The Ring. The two productions of the Ring Cycle, with glowing praise for our efforts, brought to the orchestra a level of international credibility and standing in our local community, that money just couldn’t buy. However, for at least the last decade, due for the most part, to a lack of government funding, we have lived in fear of our future existence and also with a feeling of guilt at the cost of running an orchestra in Adelaide.

While the standard of the orchestra has been rising during that time, we have seen debt steadily rise. And every five years, there has been yet another review of orchestras that hasn’t resolve any issues for us. All these reports, seemed to challenge the existence of orchestras, especially in the less populated centres. Each time, significant amounts of money that would have been better spent on the orchestras themselves was used up running these reviews. It has been pretty obvious over the years that politicians have concluded that there are not many votes in properly funding orchestras and they want to find different answers to funding challenges.

Historically, ASO has received the smallest dollar amount of Federal Government funding of all the ex ABC symphony orchestras and the diminution of the funding in real terms thanks to the “efficiency dividend”, had significantly contributed to our financial difficulties for a long time.

The paths of politicians and musicians rarely cross. So when one of our number Ann Axelby, developed a friendly relationship at her local gym with Alexander Downer’s wife Nicki, opportunities to develop a rapport between then and the ASO musicians arose. About 2 years ago, the Downers were having an open garden day for a horticultural society at their house in the Adelaide hills and a trio from the ASO volunteered their services. This was a great opportunity to meet them on a more casual basis.

Expecting that the Strong report would be due out at the start of this year and fearing a bad outcome for the ASO, Ann, Howard Manley [SOMA Industrial Officer] and I arranged a meeting with Downer last December. He greeted us with a big smile and the comment…”Are yes, SOMA… I have just had the Police Association… It must be union day today… pity they don’t vote for us!” Pleasantries aside, he proved a keen supporter of the ASO and seemed genuinely concerned about our situation, giving us over an hour of his precious time. He understood and agreed with all our points, even the more subtle ones that would make mere mortals glaze over.

Of course, this was just one of many, many meetings that Howard Manley has had with politicians over the last year or so in particular, and a mere vote of thanks for Howard would not be big enough to acknowledge his fantastic untiring efforts!

The Strong report was due out on Jan 1^st, presumably to hide bad news over the holiday period and to come out at a time when parliament was not sitting. However, that date came and went, as the report was not ready. It was then decided that the report should come out on March 24 in the afternoon, the day before Easter and after the deadline for the TV news that evening. Also, this was at a time when the House of Representatives would not be sitting for a number of weeks and for the Senate, not sitting for a couple of months.

We must all give a big thank you to the person in Tasmanian Government who leaked the report’s findings & in so doing, brought this timetable forward 2 weeks when the s**t could hit the fan with maximum effect. And our SOMA rep in the TSO at the time, Matthew Goddard passed on the leak to the SOMA executive at 11.20 the night before it hit the Tasmanian morning paper.

That next morning, I informed everyone at the ASO, musicians and administration, of the leaked information:- that the recommendations of the report meant that the ASO Orchestra would be downsized 25% from 75 players to 56. Actually as the recommendation was for 56 full time equivalent positions, the reduction in full time players could have been down to about 50 players. The Queensland Orchestra and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra would also be cut back. This was the answer to the inquiry's terms of reference which basically asked the question, how do you make orchestras sustainable without giving them any more money.

With Howard Manley's help, we had organized a statement for the Media on behalf of the ASO musicians, and I read this out to the orchestra before its release. After the rehearsal, I did an interview in the studio for ABC TV news that evening. I noticed that the committee of the Friends of the ASO was meeting in an adjacent room and they asked if I could fill them in with all the news. So I spent over half an hour putting them well in the picture. They were gob-smacked at the news and background information but jumped at the opportunity to help.

A number of them had very useful connections and intended to pull what strings they could. They also organized a special mailout in no time at all, encouraging their members to write to the media and talk to politicians. Straight after speaking to the Friends, I met photographers from the Advertiser and the Australian for some photos to run with the stories the next day.

During that first day, we also emailed every politician in SA, both State and Federal. The next morning, audio bites from the evening TV news were being used on talk-back radio at the same time that a sombre orchestra boarded the bus for a country tour to play up north in the Bundaleer Forest.

With so many captive musicians on the bus trip to & from Bundaleer, it proved to be a great opportunity to talk through scenarios, get bright ideas and plan a strategy. In the middle of the rehearsal, on-site at Bundaleer, I received a call on my mobile from Alexander Downer, voicing his outrage at this proposal and vowing to use all his influence to ensure that the downsizing didn’t happen. He asked that I pass on his message to the orchestra.

Straight after breakfast on the day of the Bundaleer concert, I organized a joint meeting of our SOMA union committee & our Players Association Committee. Among other things, we organized printed leaflets for the audience that was put together on the Motel’s office computer and then organized the printing of 600 hundred copies at the local Port Pirie printing shop. I had checked with the CEO about it being OK to distribute them at the concert and in the end, he and an ex SA politician went through the crowd handing them out.

By the time we were on stage at Bundaleer, every member of the audience knew about the hot news regarding the ASO. This concert was a live broadcast on ABC FM and when the announcer introduced the orchestra, the crowd went wild with supportive enthusiasm sending a clear message to the national audience. This reaction gave every member of the orchestra a big shot in the arm and a spring in their step as they left the stage at half time.

As soon as we returned from our country tour, leaflets and bumper stickers were being ordered, a website [savetheaso.com] was being constructed by our Bass Clarinet player Haig Burnell, a media event in Adelaide's Rundle Mall was planned, and meetings with a number of politicians were being organised. We also arranged that players would talk to audience members in the foyer of the Gala concert at the end of the week. We had hit the ground running!

And all of this with Howard Manley in constant contact at the end of a mobile phone. The following evening the CEO & I both were involved in a live segment on local ABC Radio about the issue. The chat got onto musicians’ wages. I was asked what a musician was paid and so I gave them the base rate of $39,500. The comment came straight back, “well you’re not in it for the money, obviously!”

The media event in the mall went very well. We had three players in evening dress [flute, violin & tuba] playing the quartet Eine Kleine Nachtmusik with one empty chair;- this symbolising a downsizing of 25%. We also had some other musicians and admin handing out leaflets and talking to people. We were lucky, in that the V8 racing car drivers were also in the mall that lunchtime 100 metres away, signing autographs, so all the commercial TV camera crews were already there. They were joined by a number of ABC Radio stations, and local and national newspapers. The local ABC Radio morning chat show had a live link to find out what we were doing and talk about our issue. The message got out very clearly and soon reports were coming in from far and wide across the country about the effectiveness of the exercise. Soon people were writing into newspapers (1, 2)

One passer-by told a journalist "Look, I have never been to an orchestral concert and I do not know it I ever will, but this shouldn’t happen to South Australia" On hearing that comment I knew that the tide was turning from despair to hope. By targeting the ASO for 25% downsizing, Strong gave our community a clear threat that would generate support from so many different quarters. That he chose the orchestra that contributed so much to SA's recent international success of The Ring Cycle, made this threat more focused and outrageous to so many in SA. Of course it also raised the issues of centralizing musical excellence in Sydney and Melbourne thus inspiring the parochial sentiment of “why should the state be treated this way”.

 At the reception for the Ring Cycle last December, I had buttonholed the SA Arts Minister John Hill about the ASO problems and I had agreed to get in touch with his assistant to organize a proper meeting. I duly rang up and left a message and heard nothing in 4 months. That is, until I came home from the media event in the mall. The minister’s assistant was on the phone to organize a meeting as soon as possible.  He wanted to work with the federal government to increase the funding to the ASO.

It was soon 7 days since the leak and we had seen the tide turn. Haig Burnell and I had been up more than 18 hours a day, every day doing nothing else but working on the campaign and the playing the odd ASO call here and there. My outbox had sent over 400 emails in that time and the inbox received over 350. The players and admin staff were always keen to help to do whatever was needed and to pass on any information they came across.

At the Gala concert and organized that 20 musicians would go out into the foyer before the concert and talk to the audience members handing our newly printed bumper stickers and leaflets.

Audience members were very interested in finding out how they could help. At the start of the concert, our CEO also gave a short speech to the audience.

The Friends of the ASO also got into the act in the interval with their own stall in the foyer.

The next few weeks involved meetings with a number of key South Australian Federal and State politicians who were all supportive with varying degrees of enthusiasm. Some became so involved with our issue, that they gave me a couple of hours of their busy time to talk through our concerns. It is interesting to note that it was the Liberals like Downer & the State Arts shadow minister, Martin Hamilton-Smith who gave us their time generously and spoke with passion about our concerns. He then released a media statement.

The state leader of the Democrats, Sandra Kanck, gave me two hours enjoying any anecdotes I had to offer about playing in the orchestra but also showing deep concern and support. She later presented a media release, speech & motion in support of the ASO in the state parliament.

The Federal Labor politicians were professional in their listening and sympathetic to our issue. The State Labor Minister responsible for the orchestra, John Hill, did take a keen interest. He was even interested in turning up to one of our rehearsals to experience the orchestra from the middle of the action. Other politicians were glad of inside information to help them write their speeches. In the case of one Senator, I wrote nearly all of the speech they delivered in the Senate. The issue was spoken about in both houses of State and Federal parliaments.

During this time Haig,s brilliant website, www.savetheaso.com) grew larger and larger, updated every day with anything that was spoken or written about the local & national campaign around the country. It continued to grow to become a resource that politicians and the media used as needed. In just two weeks it received 10,000 hits from all around Australia and overseas. We were very lucky to have someone with Haig’s expertise in our midst. He also organized the bumper stickers that are still being seen around Adelaide streets and in some unusual places

One thing that became obvious is that email is convenient, but a powerful tool. In the past, petitions were thought of as the way to get a message to politicians. On our issue, with help of disgruntled people in QLD & Tasmania, we so overwhelmed the Federal Minister’s email box that it was out of action for more than a day at one stage.

On our home page, we had links to the email addresses for all the SA state and federal politicians. It was so easy for supporters to flood the politicians with emails. Alexander Downer later congratulated us on our efforts in organizing an amazing amount of support through emails, saying it was second only to the response about the Indonesian trial of Chapelle Corby.

Messages of support also came in from the high flyers as well. The list included radio announcer Alan Jones, conductors Sir Charles MacKerras, Patrick Thomas, Myer Fredman, Nick Braithwaite, politicians, newspaper editors and players of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra & the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

On one occasion on my way through the stage door at the Festival Theatre, the guy behind the glass stopped me to show me the speech he had written for a Labor Senator, where he worked during the week in his other job. He also said he was the great grandson of Henry Kripps, chief conductor of the ASO decades ago. I told him it was a fantastic effort and showed a great depth of insight into the issue.

The local community radio station 5MBS, decided very early and at significant cost, that they would do a separate mail out to their 2000 members in order to gain support for the ASO.  This was backed up by my being involved in a half hour session of interview and music on their weekly classical music show.

The general reaction from all the media was overwhelmingly supportive. They pursued angles such as the dumbing down of society through this approach to the arts, to Federal/State themes such as the potential centralising of musical excellence in Sydney & Melbourne or alternatively the lack of interest in properly supporting the smaller centres of Australia. They also spoke of the uncompetitive wages offered by these orchestras and wrote at length of the drastic effect of the Efficiency Dividend on orchestras in general and on the other arts sectors.

After an incredible amount of work, we all looked forward to the Federal Budget to get the real indication of the effect of the campaign. However, the day before, the South Australian Government jumped in, to steal the thunder from the Federal government by announcing that they will put in $2.1 million extra over four years.

As there is an agreement that the State will contribute 23% of the total government funding, it was quickly concluded that negotiations had taken place already and that the Federal Government would be injecting an extra $7 million over the same period. The following evening, a figure of $25 million was declared as the Federal Government's extra investment in the future of the nation's professional orchestras. This should be matched by $7 million from the State Governments around the country.

The fate of orchestras has obviously touched a nerve in our community. That what we do, is something special above the more normal activities in our way of life in Australia. We are a valued part of the cultural infrastructure of our community.

In retrospect, it had been an amazing ride, something that I would never have thought possible beforehand. And Howard Manley’s support behind the scenes has been pivotal in achieving what we did in SA. In the past, I have been to media campaign training sessions at SOMA conferences like this and thought, “this is all very well but I couldn’t do any of this”. Well something obviously stuck. So for those of you who have been nodding off, can I just say you never know when this sort of training may be useful. In the words of Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca… Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life.