DOS Orchestra #36 - 5-April, 1995

News from the world of professional orchestras.
Copyright 1995, International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians

Topics

Brooklyn Philharmonic: New Music Director

The Brooklyn Philharmonic has appointed Robert Spano as its new music director. He will succeed Dennis Russell Davies, who has been with the orchestra since 1991.

Spano, 33, has served as an assistant conductor with the Boston Symphony from 1990 to 1992 and has a burgeoning career as a guest conductor. He is also director of the Oberlin Conservatory Opera Theater. Spano won the prestigious Seaver/ National Endowment for the Arts Conductors Award in 1994. His position with the Brooklyn orchestra will begin with the 1996-97 season, although he is scheduled to conduct a set of concerts with the orchestra next year.

A spokesperson for Davies, who has been music director for the city of Bonn (Germany) for many years, cited increased commitments in Europe, including recent appointments as chief conductor of the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra and the Austrian Radio Symphony Orchestra (Vienna), as his reason for leaving the position with the Brooklyn Philharmonic. Davies will, however, maintain his music directorship with the American Composers Orchestra, based in New York City.

Charlotte Symphony: Arts Fund Endowment Meets Goal

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Arts & Science Council announced on March 31 that its endowment campaign had exceeded its original goal of $25 million. The campaign, which was the only one of its kind in the U.S., received major gifts from the Knight Foundation of Miami, executives of NationsBanks, the Blumenthal family, Duke Power Company Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Leaders of the campaign, though, attributed its success to local support. NationsBanks chairman and CEO Hugh McColl Jr., who chaired the endowment campaign, told the Charlotte "Observer" that "philanthropy is like a good disease, and it can be caught. I think there are things individuals value, like the arts, but maybe they haven't thought through how they need to support them."

The campaign, which lasted two years, had a staff of four and a "campaign cabinet" of 87 volunteer fundraisers which, along with approximately 60 other volunteers, solicited nearly 1,500 donors.

Chicago Lyric, Symphony: Benefit Concert for Injured Musician

Over a hundred musicians from the Chicago Symphony, the Chicago Lyric Opera orchestra, and local training orchestras performed a benefit concert on March 27 for Rachel Barton, a prize-winning Chicago violinist who was severely injured in a train accident in January. Barton, who is still recuperating from her injuries, attended the concert and post-concert reception.

The concert at Orchestra Hall, which was attended by over 2,000 people, featured performances of chamber music by CSO music director Daniel Barenboim, members of the CSO, and students at the Music Center of the North Shore, where Barton teaches. Barenboim also conducted the combined orchestra in performances of the prelude to Wagner's "Der Meistersinger" and the Brahms Concerto for Violin and 'Cello with soloists Jennifer Koh and 'cellist Wendy Warner.

Video presentations at the concert featured Jim Tuck and Brian McCarthy, who treated Barton at the scene of the accident,and bassist Joseph Guastafeste, who donated blood to Barton.

Barton was disembarking from a train in Winnetka (IL) on January 16th when her violin case was trapped in the door of the train. She was unable to free herself from her case and was dragged under the train for 200 feet as it left the station before the train was stopped by railroad officials. Her left leg was severed below the knee, and she also sustained serious injuries to her right leg.

Detroit Symphony Dodges State Funding Bullet

The Michigan Senate passed a bill on March 30 mandating a 31% cut in Detroit's share of state arts funding. Supporters of the measure claim that the new method of allocating states arts money, which would transfer $8.5 million from Detroit arts groups to outstate groups, is fairer to smaller communities, while Senate Democrats unsuccessfully campaigned to restore full funding for the Detroit programs. Senator Glenn Steil (R-Grand Rapids), defending the new system, said "if you're going to open up the process and make it more fair, then those groups that have gotten the most will be cut the most. Sorry."

The new system combines the current $3.6 million in statewide arts grants and the $25.5 million equity grant program, most of which currently goes to Detroit organizations, into a single $26 million program. Each county could apply for grants totalling $1.23 per resident.

The Detroit Symphony, Institute of Arts, and Zoo are specifically exempted from the new funding system.

Milwaukee Ballet: Music Director Dies on Podium

Daniel Forlano, music director of the Milwaukee Ballet since 1975, collapsed during a rehearsal with the ballet orchestra on April 3 and died at the Performing Arts Center after paramedics were unable to revive him.

Forlano, 52, was conducting for the second time since October, when he had stopped on the advice of his physician. Shortly after that, he underwent quadruple heart bypass surgery, his second bypass operation since 1983.

Pasquale Laurino, the orchestra's concertmaster, told the Milwaukee ~Journal Sentinel~ that Forlano had been conducting Joan Tower's "Stepping Stones" for about 15 minutes and had gotten "about two-thirds of the way through the piece" when he stopped the orchestra and said 'I have to stop now.' After assistant conductor Jamin Hoffman approached the podium, Forlano "said something to the effect he couldn't get through it," according to Laurino, and collapsed into Hoffman's arms.

Forlano was a native of Philadelphia, where he studied trumpet, piano, and conducting at the Settlement School, the Curtis Institute, and the College of the Performing Arts. He also attended the Julliard School. He began his career with the Pennsylvania Ballet (with which the Milwaukee Ballet merged in 1987, a venture that only lasted two years), and came to the Milwaukee Ballet in 1975. He served as music director under three different artistic directors. He was also music director of the Waukesha (WI) Symphony, a position he assumed in 1980.

Forlano is survived by his wife Diane.

Phoenix Symphony: Music Director Resigns

The Phoenix Symphony announced on March 22 that James Sedares, the orchestra's music director and principal conductor since 1989, has decided not to renew his current contract, which expires on June 30, 1996.

"The goals that I had when I first came to the Phoenix Symphony seven years ago have been fulfilled," Sedares said. "The time has come for me to relinquish the reins as music director so that in my own career I may seek new fields of service and opportunity."

Joan H. Squires, president and CEO of the orchestra, said "we will be sorry to see Jim leave, but we respect his decision. He has been a tremendous asset to this organization and has made great contributions to the Symphony's growth both on the stage and in the recording studio."

Sedares, described by the orchestra as "the most recorded American conductor under the age of 40," has recorded extensively with the orchestra for Koch International. Several of his recordings with the orchestra have won American and European awards. The orchestra's recording of works by William Schuman and Bernard Hermann with Sedares conducting was on ~Billboard~ Magazine's classical album chart for seven months.

Sedares was appointed music director after serving three years as the orchestra's resident conductor. He has conducted orchestras in Denver, Hawaii, Louisville, North Carolina, St. Louis, San Jose, San Antonio, San Diego, and Virginia, as well as the London Symphony Orchestra, the English Chamber Orchestra, and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

His tenure in Phoenix has not met with unanimous critical acclaim. According to Dimitri Drobatschewsky of the Arizona ~Republic~, "under Sedares, the orchestra has regressed musically, and its performance standards have remained dubious. The musical leadership is uninspired and uninspiring."

Squires said that a committee will be organized to conduct a national search for Sedares' successor.

Pittsburgh Symphony: New Labor Agreement

The members of the Pittsburgh Symphony ratified a new four-year collective bargaining agreement on March. The contract, which is retroactive to September 1994, provides for a three-year wage freeze, with base wages in the fourth year increasing by 23% from the current figure of $1,230 per week to $1,530 in March of 1998. The contract follows a one-year wage freeze during the 1993-94 season.

Ratification of the agreement comes after months of negotiations and a threat by the musicians in September to strike over the issue of wages. A tentative agreement was announced on September 20.

Other terms of the agreement include three new joint management/union committees: a scheduling committee, a tour committee, and a recruitment and retention committee, the first such formal joint effort in the industry. It will meet with players who have been offered positions elsewhere. The new agreement also provides for an increase in the number of weeks of paid vacation from nine to ten and an increase in the pension from $25,000 to $35,000. In another unusual provision, musicians may earn an additional vacation week through performing musical services in the community.

Gideon Toeplitz, executive vice president and managing director of the orchestra, said the new contract "strips away the 'us versus them' mentality... I see the accord, one based on a cooperative spirit, as a new way of doing business."

The agreement reflects both management's desire for a three-year wage freeze and the musicians' desire to maintain salaries that are competitive with other top American orchestras. The orchestra is in the process of raising approximately $70 million to double the size of its endowment, currently $70 million, which would make it the largest endowment of any American orchestra. The orchestra is also looking for a replacement for music director Lorin Maazel, who announced on June 27, 1994, that he would leave the orchestra at the end of the 1995-96 season.

Vienna Philharmonic Admits To Female Harpist

The Vienna Philharmonic has listed the first woman orchestra musician on a program in its 153-year history. Harpist Anna Lelkes, who has played with the orchestra for 25 years, was named on the orchestra's roster for its March appearance at Carnegie Hall. Lelkes, who auditioned for the orchestra in 1970, is still not formally a member of the orchestra, although she has played full-time with the orchestra since her audition.

The orchestra, which is run by its musicians, has cited a number of reasons over the years for maintaining its male-only policy. Orchestra officials told the Associated Press that they offered to change the policy if the Austrian government subsidized the costs of complying with Austrian law regarding maternity leave, which permits new mothers up to two years of paid leave. One retired VPO musician, though, told the Associated Press that the reason the orchestra did not admit women was because "whenever there are women, there are always cabals and intrigues. That doesn't happen with us men. We yell at each other to clear the air. There are no resentments that go on for years, like with women."

Lelkes has refused to publicly criticize the policy, telling the AP that "other women have no idea how hard and complicated this life is. Any woman with a family cannot do this job. There is no room for a family! I was lucky that I was just getting divorced when I came here... I either respect the way they are, or if I don't, it's up to me to quit."

Orchestra officials, who have refused requests to photograph her at rehearsals, were silent on why she was listed on the Carnegie Hall program.

Deaths

Al Robison, long-time stage manager for the Boston Symphony until his retirement in 1989, died on March 18 in Vero Beach (FL) of cancer. He was 64. According to the Boston ~Globe~, "Robison was a gentle giant of a man who took a proprietary interest in the orchestra and its musicians... in high-pressure conditions in Symphony Hall and especially on tour, Robison let others vent their exasperation, fury and folly; he himself sized up every situation, then took care of it. World-famous soloists and conductors came to rely on his calming presence as much as the members of the orchestra did; Robison felt his job was to make it possible for everyone else to do his or her own job under the best possible circumstances. The musicians and staff of the Boston Symphony returned the affection Al Robison lavished on them."

Robison was buried in the Berkshires near the Tanglewood Music Center, summer home of the BSO.
Copyright 1995, International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians

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