Choral Economics

Philip Morris sings with the Albany Pro Singers and blogs. He said some great words following their recent performance of the Brahms Requiem that are worth sharing:

Now, many other artistic endeavors are acts of love and charity as actors perform without pay in community theaters, artists hang exhibits without the hope of sales, and poets slave at words that do not yield royalties. The choral effort, though, has its own unique story.

Choirs need conductors. Conductors want to be paid. Choirs need accompanists for rehearsals and, often, orchestras or accompanists for concerts. These folks expect to be paid. Ticket sales never cut it and pay all the bills, so, typically, choir members are not only asked to rehearse and perform for free, but are expected to pay annual fees and dues to pay ongoing support costs as well as sell tickets and advertising in addition to participate in traditional fundraising efforts.

Its an amazing enterprise where the singer is, finally, the core of whether choral singing exists. The singer must not only be reasonably good at the musical craft, but at the business of music and event making. Community theaters typically have directors and stage folks with revolving actors and musicians. Choirs have singers. Those singers sit on the board of directors, personally support their conductors and orchestras and make sure their concerts succeed.

Its an amazing enterprise. Hard to believe, in many ways, that it exists at all in a society so often contemptuous of things that are not "economically feasible."

Read the whole post here.