SYRACUSE — A new book written by a local professor delves into the inner workings that allow the show to go on.
Released today, Travis Newton’s 10-chapter “Orchestra Management Handbook” is, as that title suggests, an explanatory guide through the leadership realm of the orchestra enterprise and its logistics.
“A lot of people go to orchestra concerts and see what’s happening onstage without always thinking about everything that has to happen behind the scenes,” Newton said.
This includes, in part, the decisions that go into marketing, budgeting, venue booking, piece selection, stage arrangement, rehearsal scheduling, and airport and hotel accommodations for the performing musicians, he said.
Newton added that the essence of his book deals with relationship building, something he sees as both central to the orchestra manager’s job and crucial for anyone in such “turbulent times.”
“Internal relationships are needed so that everyone working within the orchestra is on the same page,” said the trained violinist and conductor. “There are also relationships externally with those in the community whom the orchestra is serving, whether that’s an individual donor, a school, a community center or a corporation.”
The author’s knowledge of orchestra management is derived largely from firsthand experience. He worked for a handful of years as a manager of operations for the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra and as a leader in its community engagement and education sectors.
On the side, he started teaching part-time at Le Moyne College while conducting a student string ensemble, which has now grown to be a full symphony orchestra that performs classical pieces, segments of film scores and Broadway tunes.
For a year, Newton fulfilled a role as the operations director for The Florida Orchestra, but he decided to return to Syracuse in 2010 to become a full-time professor at Le Moyne and, in due time, the director of arts administration for both undergraduates and graduate students at the college.
“It’s a great community, and it’s small enough that I can get to know my students and colleagues well,” he said.
Always drawn to the “colorful” and “dramatic” music of Tchaikovsky and Korsakov, Newton said it wasn’t until his time as an undergrad at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro that he started getting involved in the backstage aspects of the orchestra.
“At that point, though, I didn’t think about how the management of all the moving parts could be its own career,” he said. “This is the book I wish I had had when I started.”
Published by Oxford University Press, the 248-page “Orchestra Management Handbook” was written during the summer of 2020 and throughout Newton’s sabbatical that fall.
A virtual book launch party will be held this evening at 6 p.m. Eastern time over Zoom. Those interested can register through the applicable eventbrite.com page to receive a link to the orchestra-related discussion.
Launch attendees will be given the exclusive opportunity to purchase signed copies of the book with proceeds benefiting the Sphinx Organization, a Detroit-based nonprofit devoted to the increase of racial, ethnic, gender and age diversity in the arts.
For more information, visit orchestramanagementhandbook.com.
