London Philharmonic Orchestra’s new Chief Executive and Artistic Director, Timothy Walker – the latest in a wave of Australians to take key UK arts posts – is due to take up his appointment next month. His arrival in the capital, however, comes at a time when British orchestras and other large-scale arts organisations, including the Royal Opera House, are entering a new era after a period of financial instability.
While education and outreach – buzz words on the government’s ‘access’ agenda – now play an increasingly important role in music organisations’ remits, the push to reach broader audiences is also influencing debates on ticketing systems. A number of West End shows have, for instance, recently introduced cheaper ticket offers, and the Association of British Orchestras’ annual conference last month featured keynote speakers from easyJet and a premier league football club, to discuss their marketing and ticketing schemes.
One of the Australian’s first tasks at the London Philharmonic (LPO) will be to implement new strategies for the future put in place by his predecessor, Serge Dorny. One of these is to build a new resource centre for the organisation, to bring it closer to the community – a prospect Walker is excited about, and one which parallels the expected opening next month of the London Symphony’s new base-cum-music education centre (the first venue of its kind in the UK) in a converted Hawksmoor church.
‘They [the LPO] are interested in broadening their activity, but also going out into the community to do more education work. That’s something I’m really looking forward to,’ Walker enthuses.
Although there is an argument that education programmes run by arts organisations are essential to nurture the next generation of audiences and pracititioners, concerns have been raised regarding the degree of emphasis placed on such schemes, suggesting the arts may be compensating for a funds-starved education system. But Walker, although recognising this problem, says he can see both sides of the coin.
‘I think there is a lot of truth in the argument [that orchestras are making up for the education system],’ he agrees, ‘but orchestras are not going to be relevant unless they’ve got support in the community. The fact that orchestras are picking up the slack a bit [from the education system] is perhaps not the best use of the scarce funding they’ve got – but,’ he continues, recalling the role school visits to symphony orchestras played in his own formative years, ‘I think it is the right of every child to be exposed to a music education as much as it is to an education in mathematics or literature. Everybody should be given the opportunity, and then be able to make their own decision whether or not to pursue it.’
Previously, Walker was General Manager of the Australian Chamber Orchestra (from 1989 to 1999), a position which required him to develop an originally small organisation into a full-time orchestra. The experienced manager now admits he is looking forward to taking up a position within a well-established organisation and implementing future strategies.
At the same time, Walker has negotiated a contract with the LPO enabling him to continue to act as Artistic Director for World Orchestras, an organisation he established in 1999 to present an annual season of international symphonies in Australia. ‘I can obviously do that much better from London than from here [in Australia]’, he comments, indicating his closer proximity to – and ties with – the world’s leading orchestras from a London base.
But he also hopes the position will enable him to give Australian composers greater exposure in the UK, while offering London Philharmonic the opportunity to perform in the antipodes through the World Orchestras programme. Ideally, forging creative partnerships between the two is an ambition Walker would like to fulfil.
And when it comes to commissioning new work, collaboration between orchestras is the way forward, he asserts.
‘I hope that we [LPO] would be able to co-commission some work – and we would look not only at British composers, but Australian composers and from other countries as well,’ Walker envisions. ‘I think that the money goes a bit further if you do that. But obviously, part of my interest in this position is to drive Australian music a bit more in the UK.’
As one broadsheet critic pointed out earlier this year, the current season of orchestral performances in the UK includes only about eight world premieres by British composers. Are orchestras taking enough risks with new work?
‘It’s a difficult question when funds and sponsorship money are scarce,’ Walker responds. ‘Orchestras are stuck between a rock and a hard place when it comes to supporting new music, but I certainly think it is very important.’ Again, he points to collaboration as both a cost-effective and artistically rewarding approach to creating new music – considering the distinctly different sounds produced by various orchestras around the world.
Meanwhile, when it comes to accessibility for audiences – a topic never far from the arts news pages of late – Walker highlights the obvious anomaly between the amount young people are prepared to pay for rock concerts, and how much they expect to pay for an orchestral concert.
‘People have got to understand that there are 110 musicians playing, and that they’re all being paid salaries to do it. So, I think that when [you are] making things accessible, it’s got to be done with a particular purpose, so that it never devalues what you do.’ Instead, he suggests an alternative model and approach to pricing.
‘I think the pricing of concerts can be built around the length, the repertoire and the start-time,’ Walker explains, suggesting different time slots will appeal to various age-groups and audiences. The £10 ticket, for example, might be for a performance of an overture from a major symphony, rather than cutting the price of a more expensive seat in order to appeal to punters.
Walker also favours a ‘Yield Management’ model of ticketing, recently discussed at the annual ABO conference, whereby tickets start out at a set price, but incur a premium the closer a concert comes to selling out. If audiences can be convinced to book earlier, Walker adds, marketing costs can be cut – which means more money for the art.
‘Whether it’s commissioning new work, or simply supporting new work where you know the audience is going to be smaller anyway,’ he comments, ‘the ultimate objective is to see as much money in the artform as possible.’
