It’s an understatement to say Richard Wigley takes over the reins of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra at a difficult time.
In a year when its musicians declared their lack of confidence in management, which has seen ongoing legal action against the organisation, and with an operating deficit, he has his work cut out.
Richard Wigley says it’s all about the music for him at the MSO.Credit: Simon Schluter
But the new chief executive’s vision for the MSO is all about the music.
“We’ve just come off the Beethoven symphony cycle, which has had a huge response with the audience going nuts, which doesn’t always happen in the concert hall; we’ve created that energy. And I am saying: Let’s keep doing that. I think that’s really been an uncomplicated breath of fresh air,” he says.
“We need to look at this from 2040 – in 2040, what would they have expected us to begin in 2024? That tends to be my approach. We’re a very slow-moving business and operate in 30-year cycles, that’s why we’ve survived so long. I’m trying to plant those seeds now.”
The New Zealand-born chief executive says change has been a preoccupation for him in the past two decades.
“Change situations follow me around – or I follow them, I don’t know what it is,” he says with a laugh. “I have a particular style of management: I tend to be very open. If your idea is better than mine, we’re going with yours.”
Wigley won’t comment on the idea that all art is political, saying instead that all art is storytelling.
“I wouldn’t break it into a strict ‘art is this or art is that’, it’s such a conglomeration of stories,” he says. “I want that richness.”
The MSO hit the headlines internationally in August when then-managing director Sophie Galaise removed guest pianist Jayson Gillham from the orchestra’s line-up after he dedicated a piece of music to journalists killed in Gaza.
Gillham is suing Galaise personally, as well as the MSO, in a case set for mediation next week.
The Gillham incident prompted the MSO’s Players’ Association to write to the board asking for an explanation of what happened, and calling for Galaise and chief operating officer Guy Ross to be sacked. Within a week, Galaise had been sacked by the board. She subsequently took legal action against the MSO, which was settled recently.
A review of the organisation was then announced, to have been overseen by former MP and Midnight Oil lead singer Peter Garrett. But delays caused by the legal action meant Garrett was no longer available to run it. KPMG is now completing the review.
On the financial front, Wigley will oversee a reduction in head count in administration, cutting about 10 roles, with staff to number in the mid-40s when the cuts have been made.
“Also [for] 2024 we’ve got a number of one-off costs, postponed major concerts and other one-off costs as you might expect, given the situation, so this year is a very difficult one,” he says. “But they’re not recurring, and we have the reserves to cover it – that’s why you have reserves.”
Other streams of revenue are also in his sights.
“I’m a generalist in this situation – if you create an energy and excitement and a buzz, something that people want to be part of, the money will follow. That’s been my experience in the past,” he says.
Asked about the axing last year of the MSO’s Pizzicato Effect, in which musicians taught students in disadvantaged areas of Melbourne, Wigley says he is a huge fan of such community programs.
“We had one in Belfast, which you can imagine in a divided community is a really tough proposition … I need to look more closely at the Pizzicato Effect and why those changes were made,” he says.
Such systemic programs are important for a range of reasons, he says, citing teamwork, cognitive abilities, confidence and communication. It’s transformative, and that’s known, he says.
“Also particularly in parts of society where life is really difficult, this is an oasis.”
A classical bassoonist, Wigley studied at the New England Conservatory of Music in the United States before playing the bassoon for the Halle orchestra in Manchester. At Halle, he was appointed the orchestra’s education director and then head of artistic planning.
He went on to head the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra for a decade and was managing director of the Ulster Orchestra in Northern Ireland for six years. Most recently, he spent nine months as interim CEO for the Dunard Centre, a new concert hall being developed for Edinburgh.
But he still sees himself as a musician: “I don’t play any more, but I still have the artistic mindset and the willingness to look at things 100 different ways.”
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