Why Media?

The media history for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra began with a series of recordings for the fledgling Columbia Recording Company made between 1917 and 1921 with Music Directors Ernst Kunwald and Eugene Ysaye. The recordings took place at the Columbia recording studios in New York City while the orchestra was making annual appearances on tour at Carnegie Hall. Subsequent recording projects took place in the 1930s and 1940s for RCA Victor with Music Director Eugene Goossens, with London Decca and Remington under Music Director Thor Johnson during the 1950s, and for CRI and Decca during the 1960s with Max Rudolf. The addition of an Electronic Media Guarantee to the musicians’ weekly wages in 1971 revived recordings for Music Director Thomas Schippers on Moss Music Group/Vox, and included Pops recordings with Conductor Erich Kunzel after 1977. The orchestra began recording exclusively for Telarc in 1984, and combined pops and classical albums with Kunzel and Music Directors Jesus Lopez-Cobos and Paavo Jarvi have had sales of over nine million units worldwide since then. Occasional PBS television appearances have featured Lopez-Cobos, Jarvi, and the May Festival under Music Director James Conlon. An entire series of pops television broadcasts devoted to holidays (Christmas, Halloween, New Years, etc.) with Erich Kunzel have been produced since 1994. There are over 100 CD albums still available in the Telarc catalogue.

The benefits to the institution of these media projects are threefold: As the fifth oldest professional symphony orchestra in America, the Cincinnati Symphony is now one of the highest budget orchestras in only the 25th largest metropolitan area. The recordings and broadcasts are still a validation of the national prominence of the ensemble for the purposes of local corporate sponsorship. The high-tech “niche” clientele of Telarc worldwide has maintained an interest in the orchestra both domestically and abroad for touring. Both the Symphony and Pops have enjoyed tours to Asia featuring recorded repertoire, and the Symphony has toured domestically and in Europe performing pieces from the discography. The ability to record with Telarc was certainly an attraction to Music Directors Jesus Lopez-Cobos and Paavo Jarvi when they were being engaged. All the previous Music Directors have been afforded the opportunities to record unusual repertoire, including compositions by Lutoslawski, Falla, Peter Mennin, Eliot Carter, and Czibulka, among others.

Where media revenues have dwindled for the Cincinnati Symphony from their highs of the early 1990s, there is still approximately $100,000 coming in each season. The members of the orchestra are still participating in the Special Payments Fund when money is disbursed in August, and there are occasional payments for commercial new uses of individual pops and classical tracks.

The orchestra records in studio sessions at Music Hall under the terms of the Sound Recording Labor agreement (formerly Phonograph Recording Labor Agreement), and under the PBS provisions contained in the Symphony Opera, and Ballet Audio -Visual Agreement.