Classical music venues are wondering how to make it through to the other side of COVID-19. National Sawdust’s Managing Director Brian Berkopec joins Classical Post to discuss National Sawdust plans on emerging as a leader in their field.

The Role of Managing Director

Classical Post: You are acting as the Managing Director. When did you get this position? If it was before March, how has the role changed? 

Brian Berkopec: My mandate has been to help NS understand where it has been over the last 5 years in order to inform and execute a strategy of artistic and financial sustainability for the next 5 years.  This work seeks to amplify the incredible success NS has had in starting an organization from scratch, building a brand, and putting incredible work into the world that supports artists and builds diverse and engaged audiences for music discovery.

Reduced Staff

CP: How is the organization keeping things running with such a reduced staff?

BB: As you may know, we took the proactive step in March to pause programming for the foreseeable future and make the very difficult decision to reduce the team significantly, and reduce other expenses as well in response to the pandemic. 

NS was on track to meet its break-even budget this fiscal year (ending Aug 31) until the pandemic hit and wiped out all of our earned revenue (ticket sales, food & beverage, venue rentals) for the remainder of the year. We were also forced to cancel our gala, which represents over 25% of our overall contributed revenue for the year.

So together with our very supportive board and team, we put in place a number of business continuity plans to increase donation revenues and reduce expenses to manage through these unprecedented times.  We were also able to obtain a PPP loan and a meaningful grant from the New York Community Trust to help cover general operating expenses over the summer as we plan for the future.  

We have necessarily pivoted our programming model to emphasize the building and presentation of National Sawdust’s Live@NS, which started out presenting incredible work from our archives. Thanks to a very generous grant from the Alphadyne Foundation, we were able to add the Digital Discovery Festival (DDF) as part of our digital stage. The Festival is a weekly program of live performances, interviews, and artist masterclasses designed to bring audiences together with artists; continue artist development during quarantine and compensate artists in the hope that we can help each other build community while we continue physical distancing.  We are particularly proud to be able to provide artists with compensation for their collaboration, while also allowing NS to build its digital capacity and skills.

Thanks to our incredibly dedicated team, we have all been doing this remotely and spending a lot more time in front of screens than any of us would have ever imagined.  

Reinvention and reimagination in the arts is needed now more than ever, and we are deeply appreciative for the opportunity to continue amplifying our mission-based work of music discovery and artistic collaboration, even with a briefly reduced real-world footprint.

Investment Background

CP: From LinkedIn I’ve gathered that you’re coming from an investment background. What made you want to become involved with National Sawdust? How does this outsider perspective help you see things from a different perspective? 

BB: I have held many differing strategic and operating roles for more traditional businesses in the past, both in the US and abroad, but for the last 10 years I have worked as a consultant, operating partner and investor in impact-related companies and organizations with strong social purpose.  My work has bridged both for-profit and non-profit sectors, but I’ve always been committed to bringing my strategic and business skills to mission-based organizations doing important work in the world, no matter their tax status.

I do not have a traditional classical music background, but I deeply believe in the power of the arts to allow us to better experience each other and our world, while entertaining, educating and inspiring us to be better people.  

Furthermore, the values of NS--equity, work that springs from unique and undervalued perspectives, inclusion, discovery, innovation--are values I personally deeply believe in. It has been a joy to be able to bring my business skills and experience to help NS continue to do such important and necessary work.

Creating a Financially Viable Ecosystem

CP: How do you and Paola Prestini collaborate to create a musical ecosystem that’s financially viable?

BB: Paola and I have been wonderful work partners, and friends. She is an incredible artistic entrepreneur who had the prescient vision, together with Kevin Dolan, to create National Sawdust back in 2015.  I have been deeply impressed by her excellence as an artist and composer, by her visceral instincts to collaborate broadly as an artist, and in her deft hand in the role of Artistic Director at NS.

NS is very rightly an artist-led and artist-centric organization and Paola sets the artistic vision and programming of NS.  That drives everything else. I work with the team to handle general management, marketing, finance and special projects to ensure we can execute the plan and to do so as fiscally responsible as possible.  We both collaborate very closely on overall strategy, board development and fundraising together with our tireless chair, Kevin Dolan, and board president Jill Steinberg.  

CP: What are some of the ways that you can think of to keep NS stable financially in the coming months? Where do you think the classical music industry is going in the coming months if we can’t return to live performances or if we can only sell limited tickets to abide by social distancing?

BB: First and foremost we are extremely focused on cash-management, both on a day-to-day and medium-term basis to ensure that NS is able to meet its obligations as best as possible, while working diligently to continue to raise money and reduce expenses wherever possible.  

We are closely watching the legislation in Congress which seeks to extend the forgiveness period of PPP loan monies from 8 to 16 or even possibly 24 weeks, as this will be a very important step for small businesses and non-profit organizations.

For the foreseeable future, we intend to emphasize our digital stage and create and develop innovative Season 6 programming that is on-mission and gives artists, audiences and funders continued reason to believe in, participate in and support the work of NS.

Even if we are able to open the venue in the fall, we plan to be very prudent about any traditional programming, so that we first and foremost ensure the safety of our team, audiences, and artistic collaborators.

As soon as we are able to open the venue safely, NS is uniquely positioned among performance venues, as we don’t have fixed seats bolted to the floor.  The NS space is intimate and acoustically world-class, featuring the highest quality technical and sound capabilities, which also allows NS to function effectively as a recording studio.  

We are in talks with a number of artists and partners to explore what it might look like to have artists perform to either empty houses, or socially distanced audiences while simultaneously streaming to digital audiences.  We are thankful to past New York City Department of Cultural Affairs grants to be able to have the technical foundation and know-how to explore these options.

All of us in the field are working to understand how to eventually monetize this content, as people historically expect performance content on the internet  to be free.  We intend to experiment with a number of models that balance freemium and premium content, while also exploring further content distribution partnerships with groups like WNET/ALL ARTS.

Whatever we do, we will follow a “program-as-we-can-afford” model to ensure that we do not over-extend the financial obligations of NS in what is likely to remain an uncertain time through the fall and potentially into 2021 as well.

Overall, I think the industry is in for an uncertain and volatile period for the foreseeable future.  First and foremost the pandemic has marked a tragic and traumatic period for the family and friends of those who have lost their lives. It is deeply hard to fathom how we recover, especially given some reports of a potential resurgence of the virus in the fall.

Economically, the arts have been decimated. It will require all stakeholders to be nimble and agile to re-invent new strategies and models in this post-COVID world. I don’t foresee us “going back to normal”  necessarily, perhaps ever.  

As a relatively small organization - with nevertheless big artistic impact and aspirations - we are hopeful that the combination of continued sound strategic, operational and financial planning, coupled with the amazing artistic leadership of Paola - will see National Sawdust emerge as a leader in our field.

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