Don’t let the music stop: Lebanon’s Philharmonic Orchestra’s fight to survive
It’s hard, almost unimaginable, to find a Lebanese state or private institution not reeling under the burden of the country’s severe economic and financial collapse.
The Lebanese Philharmonic Orchestra, the only one of its kind in the small Mediterranean nation, is no different.
Founded in 1998 by the former President of the Lebanese National Higher Conservatory of Music Walid Gholmieh, the orchestra has found itself weaving through a crisis that the World Bank has said will possibly rank among the world’s three worst since the mid-19th century.
The arts organization is one of Lebanon’s only state-sponsored cultural institutions with the Ministry of Culture paying the salaries of its members, while local and international donors contribute for anything from music stands to the purchase of instruments.
Its expenditures are part of the Ministry of Culture’s budget which has continued to drop over the years.
The ministry’s budget was slashed to LL44 billion in 2021, down from LL48 billion in 2018. At the current market rate, that’s around $2.5 million.
Over a 21-month period, Lebanon’s currency has lost more than 90 percent of its value, pushing more than 60 percent of the population below the poverty line as food insecurity soars and businesses shut down.
“Our biggest problem currently is financial and the struggle to retain our foreign musicians,” Lubnan Baalbaki, the permanent conductor of the orchestra, told Arab News.
Baalbaki, who hails from a family of artists, has been the chief conductor of the orchestra since 2012.
His father is a painter while his siblings have also left their mark on the world of music and art.
Now, however, he along with the other musicians that he leads, are facing an uphill battle.
“Their salaries, which are similar to local musicians, range now between $150 and $200,” Baalbaki, who earned a Ph.D. in the “psychology of conducting,” said.
When first conceived, the orchestra was just composed of Lebanese, making it a chamber orchestra comprising around 50 musicians. In order to fulfill his aspirations of turning it into a philharmonic orchestra, Gholmieh had to expand his horizons and attract foreign musicians skilled enough to play uncommon instruments like the trombone and double bass.
“These instruments, such as the French horn, are only played by foreigners because we simply don’t have them in Lebanon,” he said.
At its peak, the orchestra had some 100 members, with foreigners sometimes outnumbering local musicians. Now, the orchestra comprises some 70 members, split equally between foreign nationals and locals.
“Unfortunately, foreign musicians are barred from working other jobs according to the employment law, unlike their Lebanese counterparts,” Baalbaki said.
Despite the financial distress, Lebanese musicians can play at private events, both locally and abroad, to secure additional sources of revenues, he explained.
As the crisis accelerates, several musicians have decided to seek pastures new, leaving behind an orchestra that has won accolades for its artistry, hosted countless international guest conductors and morphed into a national symbol of unison.
“We still have at least one musician for almost every instrument, but the ensemble has been thinned out,” the young maestro told Arab News.
The classically trained violin and lute player has also expressed concern about his musicians taking up other offers or abandoning the industry completely.
“Like schoolteachers, our musicians go on their summer break now and there’s a big concern that some of them will simply not report back,” Baalbaki said.
If that’s the case, the ensemble will find itself in a severe predicament, Walid Mousallem, the interim director of the Lebanese National Higher Conservatory of Music, told Arab News.