Chad Speaks

Fact-Checking the BSO CEO

On June 11, the New York Times published a story about the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s crisis. The reporters interviewed CEO Chad Smith at some length. Let’s run a quick fact check.

Three months after the crisis erupted, the leader of the Boston Symphony acknowledged in an interview that it mishandled the termination of Nelsons’s contract.

“Oops.” — Napoleon Bonaparte, after mishandling the invasion of Russia.

The board and Nelsons were not able to come to terms on fundamental changes that Smith thought were necessary to re-establish the Boston Symphony as one of the leading orchestras in the nation — in particular, to be more adventurous in its programming.

Programming is the Music Director’s job. Chad Smith wanted to meddle in programming. Andris Nelsons pushed back. Good for Andris.

It does not matter whether Chad’s artistic ideas are good or bad; the front office should not dictate artistic policy. BSO Founder Henry Higginson never did, and he covered the orchestra’s deficit out of his own pocket.

The BSO was one of the leading orchestras in the nation with Andris Nelsons on the podium. Now, it’s in limbo.

But Smith said, “I see audiences that are at 55 percent of our hall capacity on multiple nights, and I think: ‘Something’s not working.’”

In fiscal 2024, the BSO reported average Symphony attendance of 1,997, or 77% of capacity. That was down slightly from 81% in fiscal 2019, the last season before COVID, but up from fiscal 2023.

Programming is one of many factors that affect attendance. Pricing and marketing play a key role, and that’s Chad’s responsibility.

The orchestra is also facing daunting capital expenses, including $150 million to maintain both Symphony Hall and Tanglewood, during a time of declining ticket revenues and contributions.

Every time Chad mentions maintenance, the number increases. First, it was $50 million, then $80 million. The BSO’s State of the Boston Symphony Orchestra memo claimed a need to spend $100 million. These are all manufactured numbers.

BSO ticket revenues and contributions are increasing, not declining. The BSO reported record ticket revenue in its last IRS filing, and Chad claims record fundraising in fiscal 2025.

Smith said an attempt that began last September by him and the board to negotiate a contract extension with Nelsons had collapsed by January, and that the next months were spent negotiating Nelsons’s termination, which was then announced in March.

Nelsons’ contract with the Boston Symphony included automatic renewal; there was no need to “negotiate a contract extension.” Chad opened negotiations with Nelsons’ agent because he wanted to change the terms of the existing contract.

In one sign of how much Nelsons’ relationship had deteriorated with the board, the two sides failed to even agree on a joint statement announcing Nelsons’ departure. The board issued a statement, and Nelsons soon followed with his own.

Let’s unpack that. Chad and the Board decided in January to abandon negotiations with Nelsons. At that point, Chad had one job: work out an amicable transition. He failed.

“That was not our intention,” Smith said. “Our intention was to have a joint statement, but that wasn’t agreed to.”

Chad could not secure a joint statement because he isn’t very good at his job.

Deborah Borda, a former chief executive at the New York Philharmonic and Los Angeles Philharmonic, said she was startled by the bitterness in Boston, and noted that the departure of a music director is typically negotiated in an “outwardly amicable” way.

Borda was Chad’s boss and mentor at the LA Phils. That’s her polite way to say that her acolyte fucked up.

In the past 50 years, no Big Seven symphony orchestra has ever fired a Music Director without a succession plan. Kurt Masur famously fought with the New York Philharmonic’s front office; eventually, the Board announced that his tenure would end in three years and gave him an Emeritus role. The Chicago Symphony kept Daniel Barenboim on the payroll for five years while searching for a successor.

The BSO gave Gail Samuels $1.6 million to walk away quietly. If the Board thought it was time to move on from Nelsons, it was Chad’s job to figure out how to make the transition seamless.

Smith said he was hopeful that the Boston Symphony leadership would be able to restore trust with the orchestra and patrons, but that such healing would likely not begin until the symphony had settled on the next music director. That search, he said, would not begin until the fall.

Buckle your seatbelts. As I wrote here, Music Director searches take time, and scheduling is complex. Symphony orchestras book guest conductors and artists several years in advance. In the postwar period, no Big Seven symphony orchestra has completed a search in less than a year; three to five years is the norm.

After James Levine resigned, the BSO lacked a Music Director for three full seasons. Levine resigned on September 1, 2011; the BSO announced Andris Nelsons as its next Music Director on May 16, 2013. However, Nelsons could not immediately begin his role as Music Director. On September 27, 2014, he led his inaugural concert at Symphony Hall.

The Nelsons search took 20 months. That was fast by modern standards; Nelsons had already appeared several times with the BSO as a guest conductor.

Smith defended the organization’s process, which he said had been restricted by nondisclosure agreements.

That’s disingenuous. The BSO imposes the NDAs, and can release all parties if Chad wants to be more transparent.

“The BSO for 100 years had been the most innovative orchestra in the world,” he said. “Somewhere along the line, we lost that spark of imagination, or we lost that sense of momentum pushing us forward and breaking boundaries. That’s something that we have to get back.”

What kind of leader trashes his own organization? Chad casts himself as a turnaround specialist, parachuting into Boston to save the day. He reminds me of that Army officer in Vietnam: We had to destroy the village to save it.