Cultural summit will take place Friday, February 1, 2019, at the North Brabant Provincial House. Reason: The 'Orkexit', or, the decision by the Philharmonie Zuid Nederland to cease all education activities in North Brabant with immediate effect. This not only deprives thousands of children of culture, but also puts a number of small youth theatre companies in dire financial straits. The Philharmonie, a merger orchestra formed from the Brabants Orkest and Limburg Symphony Orchestra, receives a total subsidy of more than 10 million euros, but is now punishing youth theatre makers and children from the province of Brabant because its board cut 5 tonnes from its provincial subsidy of 2 million a year ago.
Stunned
Theatre company Schippers&VanGucht is deeply disappointed, by the orchestra's unilateral action. Last week, the company sent a letter on legs explaining its dismay: 'Not only does this deprive the children of Brabant of a beautiful performance, but Schippers&VanGucht is suddenly faced with a decrease in the number of performances. While the amount of our subsidy from the national FPK is based on numbers of performances and we are judged on that. As a small company, we are not in a position to absorb such a blow: we have no replacement production on the shelf or staff to play something else. Failure to achieve the number of play dates leads to subsidy cuts. And on top of that: the subsidy volume of philharmonie zuidnederland (even with a provincial discount) is in no proportion to our subsidy volume.‘
Similar responses are from The Silence and Brabant Menu, the arts education organisation in which the companies collaborate on a joint offering. Moreover, that response contains another salient detail: 'We are surprised that you have not managed to generate more income for education and control costs. After all, since the launch of BRABANT MENU, Philharmonie Zuidnederland's low pricing has been an issue.'
6 tonnes shortfall
So the orchestra is not only discontinuing educational collaboration, but was undermining it anyway by charging lower prices. But there is more to it. The province states in its response: 'In July 2017, we communicated to you our decision that you will receive €1.5 million in annual subsidies from us in 2018 and 2019. Subsequently, your organisation has not taken any measures in line with this new subsidy decision, even though the province has consistently insisted on this in various discussions. On the contrary: the philharmonie zuidnederland deliberately carried out more activities in 2018 than agreed and had a deficit of 4 tonnes in 2018, for 2019 you expect a deficit of €800,000. After implementing the measure you announced, that still remains €600,000. It looks like you are deliberately not implementing any change in operations.'
The orchestra claims it is making up the deficits from the reserve. However, according to the province, this is not allowed. That reserve is meant for "transition funds" and, moreover, made available by the state. It is clear that the province is betting on a conviction for improper management, something that could see the members of the supervisory board held jointly and severally liable for the deficits incurred.
The orchestra, through a spokesperson, said it would not respond until after Friday, February 1, as high-level consultations with the province will take place that day.
Talent development
The question now for a moment is how it could have come to this. It all started with an announcement, in July 2017, that the province was going to cut 500,000 euros from the provincial subsidy of 2 million. That money was taken away from the orchestra because the province felt it was not doing enough on innovation and talent development. Until then, joint consultation between various talent development organisations in the province had always been difficult, precisely because of the music sector, which wanted to take a different course.
The five tonnes the province took away from the Philharmonic was then invested in talent development projects and innovation. To this end, cultural manager Geert van Boxtel was appointed 'arranger'. So far, he has come up with manifestations with urban artists and classical music, mini festivals and the city composer of Tilburg: all things that connect with a wider audience for classical music. No one can be against that. The visibility of his projects is in question, though: no investment has been made in his own web domain. The site resides on the province's server.
The Philharmonie, however, has a different view on talent development and innovation. Above all, the orchestra wants to offer its own musicians opportunities to develop their craft, so that the orchestra can compete at the very highest level in Dutch symphonic music culture. That is where a project like 'Marching and Breakin' of classical percussionist Dominique Vleeschouwers and and number of breakdancers apparently not in.
Logic
What is strange, however, is that the orchestra only mentions the difference of opinion on innovation goals indirectly. In a first reaction on the announced cutbacks, it is directly targeting education: A 25 per cent cut in the subsidy affects the orchestra to its core and means that hard choices have to be made with far-reaching consequences. The reasoning that the orchestra can make do with slightly fewer numbers per type of orchestral activity and cope with the reduction in subsidy by skimming orchestral tasks across the board does not make sense. A reduction of this magnitude means that the orchestra has to actually cut back on some of its core activities. It is expected that the reduction in the provincial subsidy will mainly affect the orchestra's educational activities.‘
This line of reasoning is striking because it takes a few hop-step jumps in logic: other options to cushion the blow are dismissed in half a sentence, then cuts to education are immediately offered as the only possible option. The logic increases when you realise that education hits the province hard in the soul because the provincial government is always about education.
Unhappy
However, it now seems that the attempt to 'get back at' the province in a place where it hurts is going to backfire publicly for the Philharmonic. This also puts pressure on political support for the orchestra in the provincial councils. Both GroenLinks and CDA informed me that they were not really happy about the fact that education for schoolchildren was being sacrificed in what is mainly a cockfight between the orchestra and the province.
Friday's summit meeting seems mainly intended to somewhat repair seriously sourced relations, and limit the damage for the provincial council election campaign. In doing so, Philharmonie Zuid Nederland is hoping for a heavy loss for the SP, which it holds responsible for the measure, and is relying on gains for CDA and GroenLinks, both of which are squarely behind the orchestra. That now children are so loudly slaughtered by the orchestra suits those parties very badly.
To be continued.
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