Before I Analyze Music, My Amygdala Has Already Voted

A Conversation with Composer Behzad Ranjbaran

 

Finding a voice on the podium: a conversation with conductor Mei-Ann Chen

 An internationally renowned conductor known for her energetic podium presence, adventurous programming, and commitment to expanding the symphonic repertoire, Mei-Ann Chen has appeared with orchestras across North America, Europe, and Asia, working with ensembles of widely varying traditions and institutional cultures.

She is Music Director of the Chicago Sinfonietta, where she has been a central artistic force, shaping programs that combine core repertoire with contemporary and underrepresented voices. Her work there has emphasized both musical excellence and audience engagement, positioning the orchestra as a model for mission-driven symphonic leadership.

She also serves the equivalent position in Austria, as Chief Conductor of Recreation – Grosses Orchester Graz at Styriarte (the first female Asian conductor to hold this position with an Austrian orchestra), and is the first-ever Artistic Partner of Houston’s ROCO, and Artistic Partner with Northwest Sinfonietta (WA).

In addition to her work in Chicago, Chen maintains an active international guest-conducting career and is regularly invited to lead major orchestras and festivals. She is also deeply involved in musical training and mentorship, serving on the conducting faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music, suggest instead: working with Carnegie’s esteemed NYO2 for young musicians (age 14-17), New England Conservatory (her alma mater), and Manhattan School of Music, among others, where she works closely with the next generation of conductors and orchestral musicians.

Chen’s career reflects a balance between interpretive rigor, institutional leadership, and a forward-looking view of the orchestral field, grounded in a belief that symphonic music remains a vital and evolving art form.

William Ford recently interviewed Chen in advance of her appearance as guest conductor with the Macon-Mercer Symphony Orchestra at The Grand Opera House in Macon, Georgia, on February 23, 2026. Their conversation has been carefully reconstructed in the Q&A below, edited for clarity, flow, readability and length.

• • •

William Ford: Where are you based right now?

Mei-Ann Chen: Chicago is my home base, though I’m on the road most of the year. I work regularly with about six orchestras and guest conduct with roughly twenty to twenty-five ensembles annually, so I’m constantly moving. But Chicago is where I reset.

For the complete interview, go here:  https://www.earrelevant.net/2026/02/finding-a-voice-on-the-podium-a-conversation-with-conductor-mei-ann-chen/

Is the Kennedy Center Facing a $100 Million Deficit?

 

Is the Kennedy Center Facing a $100 Million Deficit?

Recent reporting in the Wall Street Journal and other outlets cited statements from newly installed leadership at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts claiming they inherited a roughly $100 million operating deficit.

It is a striking number. But in nonprofit finance, terms like “deficit” can carry multiple meanings. The word may refer to a projected shortfall, a multi-year structural imbalance, restricted funds that cannot be used for operations, capital obligations, or simple timing differences between pledged and received contributions.

Without a precise definition, the headline number alone tells us very little.

So what do the publicly available financial documents actually show?

The Kennedy Center by the Numbers

To evaluate the claim, the starting point is the Kennedy Center’s most recent IRS Form 990 filing (FY2023, covering 10/1/2023–9/30/2024)

A $306 Million Operation

For FY2023, the Kennedy Center reported:

• Total revenue: $306.9 million
• Total expenses: $266.2 million
• Operating surplus: $40.7 million

On the balance sheet:

• Total assets: $691.4 million
• Total liabilities: $133.1 million
• Net assets: $558.3 million

Net assets increased year over year, strengthening the organization’s overall financial position.

These figures describe a large institution with substantial resources and a reported annual surplus. They do not, however, describe forward-looking budget projections or internal operating gaps beyond the fiscal year covered by the filing.

Revenue Structure

The Kennedy Center’s revenue mix reflects diversification.

Contributions and grants: $182.6 million (≈59%)

Including:

• $55.4 million in government grants
• $14.8 million from fundraising events
• $4.4 million in membership dues
• $107.1 million in other gifts and contributions

 

Program service revenue: $104.9 million (≈34%)

Including:

• Programming receipts: $93.6 million
• Ticket handling fees: $9.1 million
• Theater license fees: $2.2 million

Additional operating revenue:

• Parking income: $8.6 million
• Restaurant income: $2.7 million
• Other event income: $0.9 million

 

Investment income and asset gains added supplemental diversification.

The financial model combines philanthropy, public funding, and earned income from programming and facilities.

Expenses: Labor-Driven Operations

Total expenses were $266.2 million.

Personnel costs represent the largest component:

• Salaries and wages: $93.4 million
• Officer & key employee compensation: $5.8 million
• Pension contributions: $8.6 million
• Employee benefits: $12.4 million
• Payroll taxes: $6.2 million

Personnel-related costs exceed $126 million, nearly half of total expenses.

Operational scale provides context:

• Approximately 1,800 annual performances and events
• 1.4 million on-site attendees
• Roughly 50 million reached via broadcast

 

Fundraising expenses totaled about $17.5 million, supporting $182.6 million in contributions.

 

Executive Compensation

Former President Deborah Rutter reported $1.42 million in compensation.

The filing also reports 290 individuals earning more than $100,000, reflecting the staffing scale and technical complexity of the institution.

Why This Matters

The term “deficit” can carry different meanings depending on accounting framework. In public discussion it often implies insolvency, while in nonprofit finance it may refer to projected operating gaps or planned spending exceeding anticipated unrestricted income.

The Form 990 does not confirm or reject such projections. It documents only completed financial activity during a specific fiscal year.

For FY2023, the filing reports:

• $306.9 million in revenue
• $266.2 million in expenses
• A $40.7 million surplus
• $558.3 million in net assets

Those figures describe past performance, not future projections.

If the Kennedy Center is facing a structural gap approaching $100 million, that gap would likely involve forward-looking budgets, restrictions on funds, capital plans, or internal financial modeling that does not appear in the Form 990 summary itself.

Public narratives and public filings sometimes diverge — not necessarily because one is incorrect, but because they are describing different financial frames.

The Form 990 provides a standardized snapshot of what occurred during a fiscal year.
Deficit claims typically describe what may occur in future years.

Understanding that distinction is essential before drawing conclusions about financial condition.

 Clarifying note: 

How a Nonprofit Can Show a Surplus and Still Claim a Deficit

Form 990 vs. Operating Budget

A nonprofit tax filing and an internal operating budget answer different questions.

Form 990 shows:

• Completed fiscal-year revenue and expenses
• Total contributions (including restricted gifts)
• Assets and liabilities at year end

Operating budgets track:

• Future spending commitments
• Cash-flow timing
• Restricted vs. unrestricted funds
• Pledged vs. received donations
• Capital maintenance obligations

Because of this distinction, an organization can report a surplus in its Form 990 while still projecting a significant future shortfall in unrestricted operating funds.

The key issue is not simply whether a number exists — but what financial category that number represents.

 

Balancing the Scales II: The Precarious Middle

A New Feature!

 Over time, a few AMC interviews have stood out for their density of ideas and conceptual clarity. These are conversations that don’t just document careers, but explore how artists think, work, and reflect.

I’m planning to tag these selectively as AMC Classroom—not as a separate series, but as a way of identifying interviews that could comfortably live in a classroom setting.

More to come.

The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra: Leadership, Repertoire, and the Long View

 

Introduction

This article marks an experiment in a different way of looking at an American orchestra. While Balancing the Scales of Classical Music (BTS) (www.AtlantaMusicCritic.net) approached orchestras through comparative financial and structural analysis, the focus here is deliberately narrower and more narrative in character. Rather than benchmarking the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra against its peers, this essay draws on extended conversations with its leadership and a close examination of its artistic record to explore how one orchestra understands itself, how it operates, and how its values are expressed in practice.

Whether this becomes an occasional series remains an open question. Meaningful institutional portraits require unusually rich source material, sustained leadership access, and a depth of documentation that is not always available. In the case of the BPO, interviews with Executive Director Daniel Hart, long-time Music Director JoAnn Falletta, and an existing analysis of Falletta’s recorded legacy together offered a rare opportunity to examine an orchestra from the inside—artistically, organizationally, and civically.

What follows is not an argument about best practices, nor a model to be replicated wholesale. It is an attempt to understand the artistic and organizational heart of a single American orchestra, on its own terms.

One additional factor made this portrait possible. Senior leadership at the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra has been notably open about its internal workings, its decision-making processes, and the trade-offs inherent in running a modern orchestra. That level of transparency is not universal. Many organizations remain wary of sustained, behind-the-scenes examination. In Buffalo, the willingness to engage candidly—to step out from behind the curtain rather than guard it—proved essential to understanding how the institution actually functions.

An Orchestra Built for Its City

Founded in 1935, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra’s identity is inseparable from Kleinhans Music Hall, a National Historic Landmark completed in 1940 as a WPA project during the Great Depression. Designed by Eliel and Eero Saarinen, the hall was conceived not simply as a venue, but as a civic investment—built to employ workers, support musicians, and anchor cultural life during a period of economic uncertainty.

That origin story continues to shape the orchestra’s self-conception. Both Hart and Falletta describe the BPO as “the community’s orchestra,” an institution woven into Buffalo’s civic fabric rather than positioned above it. The orchestra’s relationship with the hall reinforces that identity: while Kleinhans remains city-owned, the BPO effectively operates and manages it, giving the orchestra first control of dates and a degree of autonomy that many peer organizations lack.

Operations: Stability Over Spectacle

Daniel Hart, who has led the BPO since 2004, frames orchestral management as a discipline of accumulated decisions rather than dramatic reinvention. The administrative staff numbers roughly two dozen full-time employees, organized across familiar functional areas: finance, development, marketing, education, and artistic operations.

Like most American orchestras, the BPO operates with a structural revenue gap. Ticket sales and earned income account for roughly one-third of the budget; the remainder must be raised through philanthropy and investment income. Corporate support, once more substantial, has diminished over time, reflecting broader shifts in corporate giving priorities. In response, Hart and the board deliberately reoriented the orchestra’s financial strategy toward endowment growth.

Over the past fifteen years, the BPO’s endowment has grown from approximately $7 million to about $60 million, transforming its role in the annual budget. What once contributed only a small fraction of operating revenue now provides close to one-fifth, reducing dependence on volatile fundraising cycles and creating a buffer against shocks such as the pandemic

This emphasis on financial resilience has allowed the orchestra to maintain artistic continuity during periods when many peers were forced into retrenchment.

Audience and Access

One of the most revealing aspects of the BPO’s profile is how little of its activity is confined to the traditional classical subscription series. In a typical season, education, family, summer, and community concerts account for the majority of performances and attendance. Classical subscriptions, while central to the orchestra’s artistic mission, represent only a portion of its public-facing work.

Hart resists the idea that this distribution reflects dilution. Instead, he frames it as an expanded definition of orchestral presence: summer concerts draw tens of thousands of listeners in outdoor venues, often free of charge, while education programs now reach approximately 50,000 students annually. Every first- through sixth-grade student in Buffalo Public Schools attends a BPO concert each year—an extraordinary level of saturation for a city of Buffalo’s size

Post-pandemic audience recovery remains a challenge, particularly among subscribers. Yet even here, the response has been incremental rather than reactive, focusing on re-engagement rather than reinvention.

Artistic Leadership and Repertoire as Strategy

JoAnn Falletta’s tenure as Music Director since 1999 provides the artistic counterpart to Hart’s operational continuity. Her approach to leadership emphasizes repertoire as an expression of institutional values rather than a branding exercise.

An analysis of her discography reveals a pattern that diverges sharply from late-twentieth-century recording orthodoxy. Rather than concentrating on endlessly repeated core repertoire, Falletta’s recordings—particularly through her long partnership with Naxos—prioritize underperformed composers, neglected works, and contemporary voices. This is not novelty for its own sake. It is repertoire expansion pursued with consistency, discipline, and technical seriousness.

Crucially, the recording enterprise is embedded in the orchestra’s labor structure. Contractual provisions allow recording activity to be integrated into musicians’ salaried work, enabling the BPO to produce one to three recordings per year without relying on external project funding. The result is a body of work that has earned multiple Grammy Awards while simultaneously deepening the orchestra’s technical and stylistic range.

Falletta herself describes recording as a tool for growth: the discipline of preparing unfamiliar works for permanent documentation raises performance standards and reinforces an ethos of curiosity within the ensemble.

Continuity as an Artistic Asset

The BPO’s artistic lineage is unusually strong for an orchestra of its size. Former music directors include William Steinberg, Joseph Krips, Lukas Foss, Semyon Bychkov, Julius Rudel, and Michael Tilson Thomas—each leaving a distinct imprint. Falletta situates her work within that lineage, noting how the orchestra retains elements of European tradition alongside the muscularity of American training.

That continuity has consequences. It shapes how the orchestra sounds, how it approaches unfamiliar repertoire, and how it positions itself in the broader ecosystem. Rather than chasing trends, the BPO has accumulated identity.

The Long View

What distinguishes the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra is not any single innovation, but the coherence between its parts. Financial strategy supports artistic risk. Education reinforces audience development. Recording activity feeds institutional confidence. Leadership stability allows each of these elements to mature rather than reset.

In an era when American orchestras are often discussed in terms of crisis, the BPO offers a different narrative: one of sustained alignment between mission and method. It is not immune to external pressures, but it has built enough internal coherence to respond without losing itself.

That may be its most instructive achievement.