Boston Symphony's Strategic Plan Defended by Former Critic
A former New York Times music critic and orchestra administrator defends the Boston Symphony Orchestra's controversial 14-page strategic plan dated April 17, 2026, which has been widely castigated by musicians. The plan outlines financial challenges and proposes symphonic cycles, festivals, and affinity programming to attract diverse audiences. The critic draws on his own experience implementing thematic festivals at the Brooklyn Philharmonic and New Jersey Symphony, and cites the South Dakota Symphony's Lakota Music Project as a successful model. He notes that similar upheavals occurred at the Seattle Symphony and San Francisco Symphony, costing them conductors Thomas Dausgaard and Esa-Pekka Salonen. The critic also mentions that his NEH-funded consortium Music Unwound was terminated in April 2026 by Elon Musk's DOGE task force.
Key facts
- BSO strategic plan dated April 17, 2026, proposes symphonic cycles, festivals, and affinity programming.
- Plan claims a financial emergency that may not withstand scrutiny.
- Critic cites his experience at Brooklyn Philharmonic, where attendance increased fourfold and grant income from Mellon, Knight, Hearst, Rockefeller grew.
- Brooklyn Philharmonic ended when BAM audit revealed deep debt; CFO was fired and symbiotic relationship terminated.
- New Jersey Symphony winter festivals, curated by the critic, solved January ticket sales issues.
- Music Unwound consortium funded four times from 2010 until April 2026, terminated by DOGE.
- South Dakota Symphony's Lakota Music Project, led by Delta David Gier, is a model for affinity programming.
- Seattle Symphony lost Thomas Dausgaard; San Francisco Symphony lost Esa-Pekka Salonen due to similar upheavals.
Entities
Artists
- Andris Nelsons
- Nathan Cole
- Hermann Prey
- Harvey Lichtenstein
- Dennis Russell Davies
- Frank Candelaria
- Delta David Gier
- Simone Shaheen
- Arthur Farwell
- Derek Bermel
- Alex Ross
- Thomas Dausgaard
- Esa-Pekka Salonen
- Igor Stravinsky
- Serge Koussevitzky
- Diego Rivera
- Frida Kahlo
- Silvestre Revueltas
- Kurt Weill
- Elon Musk
- Larry Tamburri
Institutions
- Boston Symphony Orchestra
- Arts Fuse
- Carnegie Hall
- New York Times
- 92nd Street Y
- Brooklyn Philharmonic
- Brooklyn Academy of Music
- Lincoln Center
- Pratt Institute
- Mellon Foundation
- Knight Foundation
- Hearst Foundation
- Rockefeller Foundation
- National Endowment for the Humanities
- New Jersey Symphony
- Newark Museum
- Montclair State University
- University of Texas at El Paso
- Vanderbilt University
- El Paso Symphony
- South Dakota Symphony
- Lakota Music Project
- The New Yorker
- Seattle Symphony
- San Francisco Symphony
- Detroit Symphony
- Harvard University
- Los Angeles Philharmonic
- DOGE
- Music Unwound
Locations
- Boston
- United States
- New York
- Brooklyn
- El Paso
- Texas
- Sioux Falls
- South Dakota
- Newark
- New Jersey
- Detroit
- Michigan
- Seattle
- Washington
- San Francisco
- California
- Los Angeles