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|  | MARCH 24, 2006
by Marianne Lockwood This Orchestra is Conducting BusinessAn eye to the bottom line has allowed The Orchestra of St. Luke's to stay in tune with the timesThe Orchestra of St. Luke's is a nimble, adaptive organization whose vision is defined not by a music director but by musicians, and whose whose mission is dictated not by a board, but by the community. Most orchestras are made up of tenured musicians who play as an orchestra in a permanent venue. Since its inception in 1974, St. Luke's has been comprised primarily of chamber musicians who perform in groups of various sizes and styles and in a variety of places. The orchestra expands and contracts as needs dictate, and our musicians are equally at home in Carnegie Hall or New York City's public schools. This structure -- or lack thereof -- allows St. Luke's to distinguish itself in the fiercely competitive New York City market, home to more orchestras than any other city in the U.S. We can market ourselves as a chamber-music group, a full orchestra, or an ensemble to accompany dance or opera. This flexibility -- borne of necessity -- has become a great asset, enabling us to sustain a financially viable model with no deficit. As the orchestra world grapples with top-heavy, inflexible, deficit-ridden organizations -- many of which no longer respond to the changing needs of their communities -- we believe the distinctive structure we have created could end up being a model for the orchestra of the 21st century. REACHING OUT. Although our primary performing base is Carnegie Hall, we don't have a permanent hall to call our own. But not being confined to -- or defined by -- the walls of a performance space allows us to take our music to the communities and marketplaces that need us, reach audiences that we might not have otherwise, and create a diverse of program that challenges our musicians. Our repertoire spans the Baroque to the contemporary, with ensembles large and small. We pride ourselves on our large, comprehensive arts-education program that serves 15,000 New York City schoolchildren each year with performances and in-school workshops. The dearth of arts programs in the city's schools first came to our attention almost 30 years ago, and our musicians have always felt strongly that they had an obligation to provide whatever services they could to our youth. That commitment has grown over the years from simply providing performances to working in the schools with classes and individual children. We think of ourselves as New York's orchestra. ARTS PARTNERS. As a part-time orchestra, it's a challenge to keeping our musicians playing together as much as possible. The solution has been to collaborate as often as we can with others. As one of the few ensembles that works this way, we're greatly in demand by such presenters as Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center when they need an orchestra for a special event. We offer artistic excellence along with first-rate technical and production help. In turn, our partners -- many of whom have become long-term collaborators -- offer us the chance to perform works we might not ever have otherwise, as well as financial stability. Under this type of arrangement, we perform almost 80 events a year -- a sizable season for a so-called small- to medium-sized organization. Roughly one half of these performances are produced by us, the rest by the other organizations. Most of these partnerships consist of series in which we have artistic input and bear the costs. In lieu of box office revenues, we receive a payment. Sometimes we don't have the input, but we still receive a payment. And there are some partnerships, such as the one with the Caramoor Festival, where we have no formal artistic input and bear none of the costs, yet are still invested in the outcome. We will work closely with our long-term presenters to accommodate their schedules and, whenever possible, collaborate on marketing and PR. COMMON GROUND. Because we share so many marketing costs with our partners, our costs are lower. And with no permanent space, our overhead is significantly lower, too. We spend roughly 15 cents of every dollar on administration, vs. the 40 cents that's the average for orchestras of our size. Given the number of fee-based performances we do compared to self-produced concerts, we're much less dependent on box office revenues and can more accurately forecast a budget. We approach development and fund-raising with equally entrepreneurial vigor, and in the spirit of partnership. Foundations and corporations often have specific missions, and we want to learn what those are, to abide by them, and, whenever possible, to create relationships that help both parties further pursue their goals. We always seek the common ground that would make a financial relationship work. With corporations in particular, we believe providing opportunities for partnerships rather than relying on their philanthropic natures makes a lot of sense. And so we offer as many benefits as we can -- from employee discounts to concerts and volunteer participation, to product placement and client entertainment. GOOD MIX. We have one corporate sponsor, for example, which has been funding our arts-education program for almost 29 years. As its priorities changed over the years, we did our best to accommodate those changes. At every occasion, we do our best to acknowledge their sponsorship, working closely with their staff to evaluate, position, and expand the benefits we offer. We like to think we bring artistic excellence, imaginative programming, an entrepreneurial spirit, effective management, and a great deal of flexibility to every community we serve. It has proven to be a good recipe for us, and could work well for other orchestras too.  Lockwood is co-founder, president, and executive director of the Orchestra of St. Luke's. For more information on St. Luke's, see www.oslmusic.org/home
BW MALL
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