Imagining 2023 in Six Words Inspired by Ernest Hemingway’s concept of the “six-word story,” last spring the League invited the field to imagine what orchestras might be in 2013 using just six words. Before the Conference, people could share six-word stories, thoughts, meditations, and visions on the League’s Twitter and Instagram profiles by posting to the League’s Facebook wall, or via email. At the Conference, Post-it notes and pens beckoned, and delegates got creative. The results were integrated into the interactive closing session of the Conference, which also included open mics at which delegates were welcome to speak out. What did people have to say about the future of orchestras in a mere six words? Here’s a small sampling.
the shiny robots and the jet packs. We get fixated on the technology. Here’s a secret: it’s never really about the technology. The technology just ignites and accelerates cultural change, and helps shape people’s expectations. Do museums have to adapt to this expectation? Heck, no. There are examples of successful museums that haven’t changed in 150 years. The St. Johnsbury Athanaeum in Vermont was founded in 1871. Being an athenaeum, it has a burgeoning library, but it also has a traditional art collection that doesn’t have augmented reality, doesn’t have podcast tours, hardly even has labels. And it’s beautiful, and it’s beloved by its community. There is always space to be traditional, to adhere to what worked in the past. It may just not be a very big space. So if we’re looking ahead to see what museums might look like in the future, let’s remember: we’re not trying to predict what that’s going to be. We’re trying to imagine the different possibilities. One possibility I can imagine is a fragmented world, in which most museums stick to the traditional model of being inside the four walls, of presenting mostly nonparticipatory, authoritarian exhibits. And that’s going to be fine. They’re going to have dedicated audiences. But all of those addictive and essential art history and science experiences they aren’t providing are going to be provided by somebody else. It’s a fragmented future that still has vibrant art, history, science, all of these experiences—it’s just that many of them americanorchestras.org
don’t live in museums. Conversely, I can see a future of ubiquity, in which the majority of museums have chosen to be flexible, adaptive, immersed in their communities. More of them might end up looking more like Project Row Houses in Houston, which is founded on the premise that art is essential to the well-being of a community and that a community’s identity is housed in its historic structures. Is it historic houses? Yes. Is it about art? Yes. It also has a laundromat, because that community desperately needs a laundromat. It has daycare for working mothers, because otherwise they can’t get jobs. It has educational and vocational programs for the youth who need to find futures in Houston. It also has resident artists. And it also has preserved those historic row houses that were part of the fundamental identity of that neighborhood. So my challenge to you as you go
through the Conference is take those two potential futures—fragmentation and ubiquity—out of the many that are out there and fill in the word “orchestra.” In a fragmented future, if orchestras choose to fill a vital but more constricted role, who are the other players that are going to step in and provide compelling, addictive experiences? And in the ubiquitous future, what will an orchestra look like? What are all the ways it might be embedded in the community? How might it look very different from the orchestra that you saw 20 years ago? In 50 years if you fast-forward and I say to somebody, “What is an orchestra?,” I might get an answer as different as if I said to a child today, “What is a phone?” Because this isn’t about making phone calls; it’s about communication. It’s about sharing. That’s its core purpose. What is the core purpose of the orchestra, and what would it look like in a ubiquitous future?
“ An (American) composer with an International Perspective…What he is up to has far-reaching implications for the direction that classical music will take this century.” THE LOS ANGELES TIMES
Composer
Mark Grey Music for Orchestra
www.markgreymusic.com
• LEVIATHAN, Overture for Orchestra (2013) (Green Bay Symphony, California Symphony 2013-14) • AHSHA, Fanfare for Orchestra (2011) (Atlanta Symphony) • ĀTASH SORUSHĀN (FIRE ANGELS) for soprano and chamber orchestra (2010) (Carnegie Hall, CAL Performances) • ENEMY SLAYER, A Navajo Oratorio for baritone, full chorus and large orchestra (Phoenix Symphony) • THE SUMMONS for orchestra (2007) • ELEVATION for solo violin and orchestra (2006)
• PURSUIT for orchestra (2005) • 2014 PREMIERES: CHAMBER SYMPHONY, Los Angeles Philharmonic/ĀTASH SORUSHĀN (FIRE ANGELS) for tenor, soprano and orchestra, Atlanta Symphony • 2016 PREMIERE: FRANKENSTEIN full-length opera, La Monnaie/ Da Munt (Brussels) For additional information contact
1 (310) 945-5481 thekeyconsulting@gmail.com www.thekeyconsulting.net
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