DOS Orchestra #11 - 6 September 94

News from the world of professional orchestras.
Copyright 1994, International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians

Topics

Denver Chamber Orchestra: Rebirth

Musicians of the Denver Chamber Orchestra, which was dissolved on August 1 by its board of directors, have incorporated as a new organization called the "Chamber Orchestra of the West." Its first concert is scheduled for September 24 at the Temple Events Center in Denver.

The DCO was dissolved by its board because of a deficit of $140,000. The new orchestra's newly appointed resident conductor, Tom Blomster, said "the musicians in the DCO were mostly making less than $2,000 per year. But we were paying (music director) Paul Dunkel $40,000 for six or seven weeks a year. Conductor and soloist fees have just become too high; they're not realistic... we're going to be very fiscally responsible in this organization. Musically it's always been a great group to play for, and I don't see that changing."

The move follows by several years a similar move by the members of the defunct Denver Symphony Orchestra to reorganize as the Colorado Symphony, an organization with a mandated balanced budget and significant musician control over operations.

Israel Philharmonic to Tour India with Zubin Mehta

The Israel Philharmonic announced that it would perform three concerts in India under Indian-born music director Zubin Mehta during a tour that will run from November 27 to December 3 and that will take the orchestra to New Delhi and Bombay.

"This is one concert that I have looked forward to for decades" said Mehta.

India and Israel did not have diplomatic relations until 1992, although that did not prevent an earlier one-concert tour of India by the orchestra in 1961.

Louisiana Philharmonic: Successful Fund Drive

The Lousiana Philharmonic has announced the successful conclusion of its 1993-94 Campaign for the Philharmonic, "Keep the Music Live!" According to LPO Executive Director Sueayn Wood, "this was the orchestra's first million-dollar fund drive. It generated over one million dollars in funding for the LPO, a 50 percent increase over last year's campaign total. This support for our professional orchestra is outstanding, and we are pleased by the response of the community. The LPO is the only full-time professional orchestra in the State of Louisiana and the only musician-operated orchestra in the United States. The orchestra provides many community services, including young people's concerts, education of Orleans Parish public high school students and special concerts of interest to a wide spectrum of New Orleans area residents."

The Lousiana Philharmonic is the successor orchestra to the defunct New Orleans Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra. It is run as a cooperative venture.

National Symphony: Ex-Manager to Run Pittsburgh Theater

The Board of Directors of the Pittsburgh Public Theater announced on August 30 that Stephen Klein had been appointed to the position of Managing Director. The announcement capped a 3-month national search.

Mr. Klein had most recently been Executive Director of the National Symphony Orchestra. Prior to that position, he had held the position of Orchestra Manager of the Cleveland Orchestra from 1977-82, and had served as Executive Director of the Denver Symphony Orchestra from 1982-85.

Artistic Director Eddie Gilbert said "Stephen will bring a wealth of experience and vast reserves of enthusiasm and energy to our endeavors. He's a man of wit, warmth, and intelligence, and I look forward with a great deal of pleasure to the prospect of working alongside him to make exciting theater happen in Pittsburgh."

Klein said of his appointment "I am excited at the prospect of working with Eddie Gilbert and the rest of the Pittsburgh Public Theater staff to provide an institution poised for the future, artistically excellent, sensitive to, and a vital part of, the community -- fiscally responsible and something that all can point to as a benchmark of regional theaters... on a national and international scale, the news in much of the not-for-profit performing arts world is grim. In many cities, attendance figures show a discouraging downward trend, and financial support from government, corporations, foundations, and individuals is growing increasingly scarce. The life of Pittsburgh Public Theater must be one of thoughtful and creative expansion of activities and operations to be competitive for the contributed dollar, worthy of increased ticket revenues, and able and capable to take on the delightful challenges of a new theater space downtown."

National Symphony: Slatkin Appoints Co-Associate Conductors

The National Symphony announced on August 31 that Barry Jekowsky and Elizabeth Schulze had been appointed co-associate conductors. Their first public appearance with the NSO will be at the orchestra's free Labor Day concert on the West Lawn of the Capitol.

Leonard Slatkin, the NSO's music director-designate, said that his "extremely gifted appointees share [his] commitment to education in the performing arts and community involvement."

Schulze is entering her last season at the Buffalo Philharmonic, where she has been sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts. She has also been on the conducting staff of the Paris Opera and the Aspen Festival.

Jekowsky, currently principal timpanist of the San Francisco Symphony, is the founder and music director of the California Symphony Orchestra, where he started educational programs for both children and adults and a residency program for young American composers. He won the Leopold Stokowski Conducting Prize in 1985.

Schulze and Jekowsky were chosen after auditions on July 26. Slatkin said that the orchestra members had a valuable role in the selection process, saying that "we worked very well together and this augers well for our artistic future."

Previous NSO associate conductors have included Hugh Wolff, currently music director of The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and Andrew Litton, currently music director of the Dallas Symphony.

New York Philharmonic: Borda Speaks

Deborah Borda, executive director of the New York Philharmonic, spoke at the recent meeting of the Association of Canadian Orchestras. Her speech to that group is reprinted here with her permission.

Do We Need to Reinvent Ourselves?

What is the problem? Is there something seriously wrong with our orchestras, our musical life? Are we heading willy-nilly down a road to obliteration? Doomsayers posit that the end won't come in a cataclysmic, fatal heart attack. No, the fashionable diagnosis is that we have contracted a chronic, degenerative disease which will slowly and miserably drain our vital functions,destroy our faculties and eventually result in the blessed eternal rest. Orchestras, "Rest In Peace".

The elderly who now come to our concerts will die; the young people who haven't been educated about music won't come at all; Beethoven is boring and besides we've heard him before; our concerts are Eurocentric memorials to dead white males; CDs and the electronic highways of the future are, after all, much more exciting than a live concert which has the ritual constrictions of a set time, location, and program.

My goodness - it's the 90's, so we had better downsize, actualize, prioritize, multi-culturalize, pro-activitize, and resensitize. Oh yes, and make music.

Today, I have been asked to address the question: "Do we need to reinvent ourselves?" Is there some fatal flaw in the nature of modern orchestral life? Are there obvious answers we have missed?

It is said that on her deathbed Gertrude Stein's final words were "What is the answer?", and after a pause, "What is the question?" Here is where we begin.

There is no question that the gleaming ensembles which represent today's orchestras are the result of a remarkable line of evolution. In a process beginning in ancient times and continuing to the present, one hesitates to point out a single period and date that the modern orchestra was born. Yet towards the end of the 18th century, musical and sociological forces converged to spark the creation of a new ensemble - the classical orchestra, which prospered and gained international status. There was not a single dramatic breakthrough but a logical, gradual transformation.

By the late 18th century, music which had been centered in church and court was changing. The concert life which flowed and flowered at Mannheim and Esterhaza was essentially a private entertainment financed by aristocratic families. But democracy was in the air, and public concerts seemed infinitely more democratic.

To meet these new needs, public concerts and now revenues derived from sales were necessary to finance such events. This meant larger concert halls, different repertoire, and higher standards. The late 1700's saw the rise of such institutions as the Harmonie Gesellschaft in Hamburg, the Gewandhaus in Leipzig,and the Hannover Square concerts in London.

Indeed the audience for music was being profoundly altered by the sociopolitical transformations which were laying the foundations for the industrial and political revolutions of the 19th century. The ascension of a successful bourgeoisie and the resulting transformation from private to public concerts began and over a considerable period effected change that shaped our musical life today: However, perhaps the most significant development was that composers now wrote for the public. The orchestra's existence was dependent on the music written for its use. It succeeded only if that music was vital, vigorous, and valued by the public.

And finally, quality really mattered. Salomon advertised his London concerts as featuring "musicians of the highest quality", and published lists of players' names to back up his claims.

Let's remind ourselves that such changes did not occur overnight, but over more than two centuries. As orchestras moved to the New World, American ensembles took on a special look and structure of their own. As we trace their development over the past century we see an evolution from town bands with a few professional European ringers, to the emergence of powerful volunteer Boards of Directors, to orchestras occupying key positions in the fabric of the community, to the influence of the labor movement with its many results, not the least of which was the guarantee of year-round employment to musicians in larger orchestras.

The pattern, the theme, is basically unchanged. Gradual responsive change and growth, not radical transformation. History shows us that successful change has been rooted in standards,quality, vitality, and providing a product people want.

We now stand at the close of the 20th century with 100 years of music distinguished by unprecedented diversity in aesthetic style and technique ranging from the familiar to the bizarre, from imitation of the ancient to experiments with technology. What now? What next? It's easy to be overwhelmed by the myriad possibilities, and panicked by the fact that we aren't somehow taking action for our future survival.

We face a world of seemingly infinite possibilities, yet the potential is unclear. Worried managers are being pushed to consider all sorts of actions or face the dreaded "C" word - "cutbacks".

We stand in danger of being lured into forgetting that we are part of an incredibly rich and flexible heritage. That we are participants in an ongoing process. Why? Because our confidence is shaken, the confidence that the heritage and intrinsic value of our art is a healthy basis for continual growth and development.

The time has come to declare - without apology - that we are museums. But, living, expanding museums. We should celebrate and revel in art of the past. Is a Vermeer any less glorious or essential than a Bacon? We need both. Please remember, when Brahms wrote his 1st Symphony, the orchestra had already been transformed from an operatic accompanist and courtly amusement into a museum for the display of great works from the past. The concept of a "canon" of great music was established with Haydn and Mozart,it was gradually added to with Beethoven, Schubert, and Mendelssohn, the rediscovered Bach, and more recently the additions of Mahler, Stravinsky, and perhaps Shostakovich. We will continue to add to this rich canon.

There is a lesson to be learned from museums when we see, as we do in the States, young people and families with absolutely no training in the visual arts flocking to attend. Why? Because they have displayed and marketed worthy products in attractive,exciting and flexible ways. Because they have in an unabashedly populist gesture made education available on the spot, on demand through innovative use of audio sets, graphics, roving docents,spot lectures and public lecture series. But above all, because they have not deserted the heart of their great collections, and have also been willing to make special integrated plans for the best of the new.

At the risk of blowing the horn of the institution which employs me, please allow me to tell you about a transformation that has been effected under the leadership of Kurt Masur and our Board of Directors.

Three years ago Kurt Masur came to the New York Philharmonic in an atmosphere, to be honest, of skepticism at best.Although the orchestra represents a remarkable milestone of artistic achievement and institutional stability in American musical life as the result of strong stewardship, it had become fashionable to deride the orchestra for lackluster performances,the perception that the musicians were at best apathetic and at worst cantankerous, lack of community outreach, and a mediocre hall. People seemed to derive a certain perverse pleasure from"Philharmonic bashing". Did this have an effect? Yes, it did.

The results were general demoralization of the orchestra, negative response from subscribers and critics, and a season ticket sales shortfall well in excess of $1,000,000 going into Masur's first season.

Three years later we exist in a different world. Last season we played to 96.5% of capacity giving 4 concerts a week in a 2900-seat hall, the orchestra sits on the edge of their seats during concerts and week after week gives committed performances that even the critics acknowledge. The community is developing a new pride in its orchestra, and by a measure I like to use, professional musicians come to our concerts. While I won't pretend all is perfection or that we don't face major challenges,this is still a success story. How did it happen?

First and foremost, a fierce commitment by Masur and the musicians to the highest standard of performance. The presentation of great central repertoire with excitement, gusto, and no apology. At the same time a thoughtful, intelligent approach to programming which I hesitate to simplify by calling thematic, but that encompasses this concept in the broadest sense, program by program. A classic example of such Masur programming was the partnering of Bright Sheng's "Lacerations", a work about the outrages of the Chinese cultural revolution culminating in Tienaman Square, with Shostakovich's monumental "Babi Yar" Symphony. Yevgeny Yevteshenko joined the orchestra onstage for a recitation of his poem "Babi Yar", and on each of four nights we turned hundreds of people away.

The Board leadership also cared for our future. Last year the New York Philharmonic celebrated its 150th anniversary. It would have been easy, acceptable (and profitable) to mark this milestone by mounting the usual cavalcade of stars and celebrity events. Instead, we chose to celebrate by investing in our future with a series of new artistic initiatives and programs. These programs have continued past the sesquicentennial and now form an important segment of the Philharmonic's artistic offerings.

Perhaps the best known of these initiatives are the Rush Hour Concerts . What makes them unusual? A time - 6:45 p.m.weekdays - designed to appeal to New York's working people. Informal stage commentary from the conductor, making newcomers welcome and giving them an introduction to the works to be performed. An 80-minute format convenient to busy people and less daunting to the uninitiated, an attractive price; and a chance to meet orchestra musicians individually at a post-concert reception. At the first Rush Hour Concert, many of us remember seeing Avery Fisher Hall's aisles lined with the briefcases of business people straight from the office. When Kurt Masur took an informal poll of the audience during his opening remarks fully half raised their hands to signify they were attending their first Philharmonic concert. Thirty percent of those new Rush Hour ticket buyers later became Philharmonic subscribers to longer series.

With the Casual Saturdays series, designed to appeal to families, the Philharmonic's musicians themselves became involved in audience outreach and instruction. At the beginning of each matinee concert, an orchestra musician makes the audience welcome and invites them to a post-concert panel discussion, where they may learn about anything from the audition process, to how a rehearsal actually works, to other aspects of a professional musician's life. Next season the series will integrate chamber music works which relate to the orchestra repertoire being performed.

The Children's Promenades have added a new, interactive dimension to the Philharmonic's famous Young People's Concerts. In the lobby of Avery Fisher Hall, a veritable music fair takes place where children are guided through a variety of hands-on exhibits by members of the orchestra. Imagine the excitement generated by hundreds of children trying out real string or percussion instruments for the very first time - with "up close and personal"guidance from some of the world's greatest musicians!

Philharmonic Forums, yet another innovation of Kurt Masur, had their origins in musical town meetings he held in Leipzig. Members of the public meet with Mr. Masur at Avery Fisher Hall and, occasionally, now over the airwaves on a live Philharmonic Radio Forum broadcast by New York's leading classical music station.

Composer Week gives our public a sustained exposure to the work of a living composer in a variety of events, ranging from Symposia to Chamber Music concerts. This year Alfred Schnittke became a celebrity in New York and the Philharmonic's subscription series of his music was one of the hottest tickets in town. Working closely with Schnittke, Kurt Masur fashioned a program mainly of his music, but also including other works which had influenced the composer. The concerts culminated in the world premiere of Schnittke's 7th Symphony, and standing ovations.

Philharmonic Pre-concert Lectures, offered free with admission to many concerts, give us an opportunity to make new and old works more accessible to our listeners. Composers such as Ned Rorem, David Diamond, and Joan Tower are invited to discuss their new works; these lectures sometimes take the form of a dialogue or interview moderated by the Philharmonic's Artistic Administrator or Composer in Residence. Just a few weeks ago over 2000 seats were filled for Michael Steinberg's lectures on Mahler's 9th Symphony.

Philharmonic Celebrations are one-week mini-festivals with a unified theme, combining concerts with lectures, exhibits,symposia, chamber music and other events to place the week's music in a broader context. Next month, for example, we celebrate The American Eccentrics, with works by Ives, Cowell, Cage, Nancarrow and other musical nonconformists. This is complimented by a Trimpin interactive sound sculpture and a Cage exhibit"Rolywholyover: A Circus" - held in conjunction with the Guggenheim Museum, as well as various other events.

All of this is examined and evaluated on an ongoing basis. We address what should be maintained, changed or allowed to go away if it isn't working, while also designing new initiatives that will take us into the next century.

Please don't think these ideas, or ideas like them, require a vast new infusion of capital or the resources of a New York Philharmonic. Certain of the initiatives were actually redirection of existing funds through the elimination of older programs. Sure, some of this requires new money, but what is much more important is creativity and action.

Finally, there is Kurt Masur's very visible public presence as a force with our orchestra and in our community. Working with settlement music schools, rehearsing with the conservatory orchestras, visiting children's choirs, and even appearing on TV talk shows.

Although it might surprise the doomsday group, somehow this is working. Our goal is to do what we do best but to content explore ways of not necessarily radical change but successful evolution. We look for what is right and healthy, and capitalize on that. Our marketing plan is based on artistic policy.Reinvention is not revolution. It is a long-range process with constant attention to what is needed and what works.

It seems to me that we must now be very careful. As we move close to the end of the century, we are gripped by the classic fin de siecle phenomenon, a combination of revisionist nostalgia and fear for the future.

In a time like this we must guard against tendencies to panic. We must recognize that like the rest of society, of which we are only a mirror, we are under subtle and not so subtle forms of attack. These attacks, be they from the right or the left, or about money or control by anti-musical elements, threaten the essence of what we are about: great music and great music-making.

As we grapple with the phantom of so-called relevance, well-meaning enthusiasts caution us to embrace multi-culturalism and doggedly pursue anti-elitism. Can we protect the integrity of artistic quality while being sensitive to a growing social agenda? This is a challenge. A recent official report published and widely disseminated in the U.S. provided a number of suggestions to be considered. Some were good. Some were not so good. My favorite, was the highly lauded example of a major orchestra which had commissioned a concerto for electric violin, played by Nigel Kennedy, orchestra, rap choir and graffiti artist. After subscription performances at home, this "masterwork" was to be performed as part of a national tour at Carnegie Hall. After the first performance a near mutiny occurred among the musicians and surprise: It never made the trip. Amusing as this story may be, it contains both a warning and an incorrect supposition. Aesthetic questions aside, do we seriously imagine that a person who bought a ticket to this event was being developed as a concert-goer of the future? Is this a form of reinvention?

Let us now return to the question posed at the outset: Do we need to reinvent ourselves? In a word, no. There is an individual core developed over a lifetime that is the essence of us. To effect a radical transformation of that essence would represent falsehood at worst, or comedy at best. It's not that we won't change. We as vital human beings continue to do so every day of our lives, but in the end, we are still who we are.

The zeitgeist of this decade is one of sorry insecurity and negativism. But frankly, a revolution isn't required. What we need is a counter-revolution of common sense and belief in the power and value of music.

It is incorrect to make orchestras the repository of excessive and misplaced hopes for the improvement of society. It is correct to find ways to tune our instrument to the pitch of the times -- to create programs which present music to audiences of today that do not condescend, but that resonate.

It is incorrect to panic over the relentlessly negative propaganda of late. It is correct to remind ourselves that we are in the midst of a serious global recession and that there will bean eventual adjustment.

In the United States alone, we have more than 600 professional orchestras. Openly spoken, there may not be the demand for all of these in their current form. A gradual evolution might see some of them not as institutions wholly dedicated to giving concerts year round. Rather, perhaps, a change to more flexible structures that see musicians still employed year round,but with a specific segment of their time being utilized as teachers and performers in the schools. This would, of course,mean our conservatories would have to expand professional musicians' training. Yes, this would be evolution, but a positive sort which might make a full-time orchestra a viable possibility in American cities like Milwaukee, Honolulu and Detroit, where serious cutbacks have taken place.

It is incorrect to ignore or "ghetto-ize" composers of today. It is correct to remind ourselves that audiences,conductors and orchestras, not critics or academics, shaped the great canon of our musical literature. Orchestras thrive when people are touched and excited by the music they perform.

Finally, it is folly to ignore or underestimate the essential issues of content and quality. Above all, we must do what we do very well.

Beethoven is not boring. The visceral experience of alive concert is more exciting than a CD, or a CD ROM can ever be.When I started in the business 20 years ago, audiences were as old as those who come today. If that audience died, at least in New York, someone is taking their place. And what if Mahler is a dead,white European male? His music still moves me greatly.

Yes. There will be change.

Yes. There will be growth.

Yes. There will be an orchestra in the 21st Century.

Paris Opera: High Noon Meets Maestro Myth

Myung Whung Chung, the music director of the Paris Opera who was dismissed by the management in a contract dispute, only to be reinstated by a court on August 29, was physically barred from returning to conduct a rehearsal on August 30 by the company s interim director, Jean-Paul Cluzel.

Chung, accompanied by his lawyer, was stopped at the door of the rehearsal studio by Cluzel as a rehearsal was scheduled to begin. After a 15-minute confrontation, Chung left the building, telling reporters "in any case, I can't even get back into my office. They've changed the locks."

On September 1, Judge Francoise Ramoff ordered the Paris Opera to pay Chung $9,260 per day as long as it fails to obey a court order to reinstate him. Christian de Pange, secretary-general of the company, said "the decision today is not surprising. We are obligated to pay him. We're not obliged to hold his rehearsals." He said that the company would await the outcome of an appeal this week, and that the amount the company had been ordered to pay Chung was a cut from his usual $16,000.

Also on September 1, Alain Lombard, music director of the Bordeaux Orchestra, said he would refuse to replace Chung, as scheduled, in the upcoming production of "The Damnation of Faust." In a letter to Cluzel that was made public, Lombard said he decided to step aside upon learning that Chung would like to direct the opera as originally scheduled.

Incoming company manager Hugues Gall told Le Monde that "the opera intends to find and will find the legal means to separate from Mr. Chung" before Gall takes over in August of 1995.
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