This is Part 3 of a four-part series on the Nashville Symphony and the Oracle gift.
This situation highlights a pattern. Once I point it out, you will see it everywhere.
Oracle’s $10M gift saved the Nashville Symphony. The 2026 season was saved.
It was a miracle. It was a reprieve.
It was also the third time in thirteen years something like this has happened.
In 2013, the Symphony found its building in foreclosure. The miracle that time was Martha Ingram swooping in to save the venue.
Ingram said the Symphony “has work to do to improve its operating results.”
In 2020, COVID forced the world to shut down. Governmental programs provided more than $16M in relief…another miracle.
The relief is real.
People could go back to work. Leadership didn’t have to make decisions in a panic.
Each crisis was met with a sense of relief:
- “Averting”
- “Stopping”
- “Lifeline”
- “Extraordinary relief”
Language of relief. Followed by language about the importance of doing the work to ensure the Symphony is on solid ground.
This bell has rung three times. Work has been demanded. But the bell continues to ring.
2013. 2020. 2026.
Three crises. Three miracles. Three reprieves.
Echoes.
From 2009-2012 expenses exceeded revenues by $39M. In 2012 alone, the loss was $11.7M. From 2014-2019, expenses exceeded revenues.
During 2020-2022, COVID relief helped the Symphony turn a profit in 2021 and 2022.
Once the COVID relief ended, the deficits returned.
Now, in recent months: budget shortfall, cancellations, and the Oracle gift.
This is a pattern: Deficit-Crisis-Miracle.
A miracle isn’t a strategy.
It is just a miracle…a relief.
If you’ve needed three miracles in thirteen years, the miracle has become the strategy.
A position no one wants.
This pattern exists outside of the arts. I’ll point to one famous example.
The company was one of the hottest private businesses in history: a $47B valuation.
Then, they tried to IPO and failed.
The value collapsed to $8B. SoftBank paid Adam Neumann to go away. The new Executive Chairman, Marcelo Claure, told employees there was “zero risk of the company going bankrupt.”
The ambition was “one of the most amazing comebacks in business history…”
This comeback started in October 2019.
WeWork filed for Chapter 11 in November 2023.
Between October 2019 and November 2023, the company tried to start over two more times. In 2021, with new management and a SPAC. And with debt restructuring in early 2023.
Deficit. Crisis. Miracle.
The pattern repeats.
You see it in Nashville currently. But it won’t be the only place you see it. The only way you escape the pattern…changing behaviors.
Five questions. Let’s call it our sustainability audit.
- What miracle are you waiting for?
- Who is the donor you can’t live without?
- What is your plan if they were gone tomorrow?
- What work has been demanded, but you haven’t done?
- What would you do immediately if you knew the miracle wasn’t going to come?