A Symphony Apart
New CSO president makes major changes
By Lia Eastep |
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Entering the offices of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra can be an intimidating prospect. Riding the elevator to the fifth floor of the Ohio Theater, I suddenly feel culturally inadequate, and desperately search my brain for some morsel of classical music knowledge I can add to the conversation. When I realize that my alarm clock's charming tendency to play Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" is not likely to impress the newly installed CSO president and CEO Roland Valliere, panic sets in.
But not for long.
Valliere, who arrived in Columbus in August, is on to people like me, those intimidated by the high-brow reputation of symphonic music, and he seems to have made it his mission to put us at ease. Meeting him is like having a casual conversation with a pleasant stranger on an airplane that leads to the perfect job opportunity. A highly skilled small-talker, Valliere knows how to take an advantage of an opening. When I showed him the September Pet Issue of 614, he reached for his iPod to show me a picture of his new Pomeranian puppies, Charlie and Mingus.
It is this inherent personal skill combined with an unflappable optimism that seems to be the not-so-secret secret of Valliere's success. In 2002, he resigned after seven years as Executive Director of the Kansas City Symphony to develop the Concert Companion, a hand-held, digital device that provides an informational supplement to a live performance. In discussing the impact of the Internet on traditional art forms, he is enthusiastic to report that classical music currently accounts for 12 percent of iTunes downloads, an impressive feat considering classical CD sales historically comprise only 2-3 percent.
New CSO President Roland Valliere
Valliere understands that without great risk, there can be no great reward. In fact, he has forged a career out of transformational opportunities. After attending Harvard for his academics and receiving a Bachelor of Music at the New England Conservatory, he tried on the role of a PhD fellow at Brandeis University at the suggestion of an admired mentor. Realizing he was not cut out to be a scholar (and shuddering a little at the mere mention of ninth century Gregorian notation), he found himself at the first of many crossroads.
"I realized I could either be a small fish in a big pond or a big fish in a small pond." He chose the big fish option by accepting the CEO position for the New Hampshire Symphony. Discovering he had a knack for "finding opportunity in troubled situations," he went on to oversee the Hudson Valley Philharmonic and Nebraska's Omaha Symphony. When the Columbus Symphony found itself in its own troubled water, it turned to Valliere for rescue.
"There are two types of change," says Valliere, citing an article by Clayton Christensen and Michael Overdorf in The Harvard Business Review. "Sustainable and disruptive."
He describes the former as admirably serving an existing customer better. The latter, however, is far more complex (and appealing) to Valliere. Disruptive change comes about when a particular innovation creates improvements that the marketplace never expected - the invention of the telephone impacts the telegraph, digital film impacts the production of photographic film, the Internet affects live entertainment.
"The Columbus Symphony Orchestra does not have a divine right to exist," declared Valliere. "We are in the market place like everyone else, competing for people's time." When I ask him what his innovative disruptions will look like, he is ready with ideas most wouldn't associate with symphonic music.
"Who says we can't broadcast our concerts at Shadowbox, or at the corner bar? Why not have Yo Yo Ma do an eight-minute introduction of a particular piece of music on YouTube? He could say something like, 'This is Yo Yo Ma and I'll be in Columbus next week and let me tell you why this particular piece of music is meaningful to me.'"
Attracting supporters is one thing, but I wondered how the musicians were taking all this "disruptive change."
"We have no choice but to survive," said Douglas Fisher, CSO bassoonist since 1984 and president of the Local 103 of the Association of Federated Musicians. Describing Valliere as "defiantly optimistic," Fisher added, "There is an energy there that, frankly, has been missing from CSO leadership for quite some time. His arrival alone has energized things and given people hope."
Originally Published: November 1, 2009
