Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra - the Auckland Philharmonia

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The APO needs to be able to offer more work (ie controlled by the APO itself rather than externalhirers) to its players. It can only do this through more core funding enabling a competitive and liveablerate.7.2 Destination OrchestraWith its limited pay rate, and a form of employment that appears unstable and which no otherprofessional orchestra in Australasia follows, musicians do not widely regard the APO as a"destination" orchestra ‐ ie one to which a player can be assuredly contracted for a tenure of severalyears and in which the player's career can progress.The issue here is about the difficulties for the APO in getting players of the high standard thatAuckland is demanding. Challenges exist for APO in attracting high‐level players, and maintaining asense of identity and belonging for players.7.3 Players are not on salaryA unique pay model exists at APO for players, who are contractors and not employees.The difference is about security of income for the players, all of whom identify as fulltimeprofessional musicians engaged by the APO. The issue is that players need to be able to earn asustainable income from APO, but may have to supplement their incomes with temporary work,often including work in other (non‐music) sectors, which at times can detract from the ability tokeep themselves fresh and well prepared artistically, in order to make ends meet.7.4 Core size of orchestraCurrently the APO is home to 70 fulltime orchestra players. Extra players are contracted in asavailability and the budget allow, bringing the orchestra to its full complement for targeted specificevents such as performances of music by Romantic and 20 th century composers that form the core ofthe repertoire for any symphony orchestra.Due to core funding levels, the APO regularly performs late Classical/ early Romantic repertoire with10+ fewer players than when the NZSO performs similar repertoire. This is sometimes reflected in asound that is not as rich as the repertoire demands.The issue here is that APO could gainfully employ from within, and in addition to, this pool of localtalent to meet its programme demands on a permanent basis. It cannot do so because of the corefunding issues raised above.8 Practical implications: Efficiency of deliveryIt is not possible for the APO to access detailed information about other orchestras’ budgets, and inparticular about the NZSO’s, including all of the costs associated with its travel to Auckland.However, from experience APO does know that it is substantially less expensive for APO to contracta local player for an APO concert (including rehearsals) than it is to engage an NZSO player who is onrespite (but still on full pay from NZSO) to come to Auckland and perform with APO. Costs for anNZSO player’s travel, hotels and per diems (ie excluding any salary) are still more expensive than anAPO player’s wages for a week of work.Contextualising Auckland and the NZ orchestral sector Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra Page 14
Costs for the NZSO to travel to Auckland approx 13 times a year (13 concerts are scheduled in 2012)include plane travel, hotels, per diems, trucking costs, bus costs, in addition to production,advertising, artists and salary costs.With so many areas in New Zealand NOT having their own professional orchestra, the questionneeds to be asked whether the taxpayer dollar is being most effectively used by the NZSO coming toAuckland as many times as it does, to play repertoire that the APO is now able to deliver at a highartistic level.Part Three: Solution pathways and APO learnings for NZ orchestralsector modelAPO has a number of ideas to contribute to some solutions for the orchestral sector. We are keen tomeet to discuss these.With an improved structure and greater funding relativity across the country, the orchestras couldlook for opportunities for collaborative planning. This may include sharing of artists andcollaboration on programme planning in a way that could celebrate the unique size and scale of NewZealand. An example might be a festival of music by one composer presented in such a way thatworks appropriate to the size of the orchestra were performed in each city, forming acomplementary whole that would be greater than the sum of the parts across the country.It is this kind of real‐world, collaborative, cohesive and forward‐looking environment that the APOhopes can be achieved through the orchestral review for this sector and for New Zealand.ConclusionA glass ceiling has been hit by APO. It cannot proceed to its next step as the fulltime symphonyorchestra that Auckland demands and wants it to be because it does not have sufficient COREFUNDING of the type that normally comes/would be expected to come from central government.At present APO exists on a ratio of 1:1 funding ‐ that is, $1 from Central Government and $1 fromAuckland Council. The normal ratio for this funding in Australasia is 3:1. As a fulltime city‐basedsymphony orchestra, APO is significantly underfunded by central Government.APO continues to prove that it is a good investment for New Zealand Government orchestralspend. However, APO receives less core funding than any other comparable fulltime citysymphony orchestra, which limits its ability to develop and to meet current and future demand.In addition, government should consider looking at the most efficient and strategic use for thenational orchestra.APO is excited about its developing role, is poised to take up the challenges and opportunities of itsfuture, and looks forward to an improved orchestral environment as a result of this review.Contextualising Auckland and the NZ orchestral sector Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra Page 15
Page 1 and 2: APO Submission for New ZealandOrche
Page 3 and 4: Part One: Contextualising Auckland
Page 5 and 6: Importantly, these advances over se
Page 7 and 8: Figure 2: Government funders of APO
Page 9 and 10: 3 Context for overall NZ orchestral
Page 11 and 12: the arts, and the following excerpt
Page 13: further CORE funding the APO’s ab
Page 21 and 22: model is still used in most formerl
Page 23 and 24: 3.3.3 New Zealand Symphony Orchestr
Page 25 and 26: APO Education Activity 2011JANUARY
Page 27: 01-Jul-11 1-Jul Connecting With Mus

Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra - the Auckland Philharmonia

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