The New Orleans Model: Philanthropy as Institutional Reconstruction

The passing of Adelaide Wisdom Benjamin recalls the specific mechanism that saved symphonic life in New Orleans during the 1990s. When the New Orleans Symphony declared bankruptcy in 1991, Benjamin’s leadership facilitated the creation of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra as a musician-governed cooperative. This shift moved the institution away from the traditional 19th-century impresario (a person who organizes and often finances concerts or operas) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impresario] model and toward a structure of collective responsibility. While the American orchestral landscape has largely reverted to top-down administrative hierarchies, the New Orleans model remains the most successful case of a local culture surviving the disintegration of its formal funding apparatus. Her legacy is found in the persistence of the ritornello (a recurring passage in baroque music for orchestra or chorus) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ritornello] on Canal Street, long after the old boards had retreated.