Symphony Summer 2020

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THE MAGAZINE OF

THE LEAGUE OF AMERICAN ORCHESTRAS

Where We Are Now Orchestras are seeking new ways forward amid the global pandemic and concerns about racial injustice

Orchestras and Pandemics: 1918 and 2020

Women Conductors On the Rise

Anti-Black Discrimination at U.S. Orchestras

“These are the stars of the next generation.”

Photo: Chris Lee

- T H E WA S H I N G TO N P O S T

Albert Cano Smit

PIANO

VIOLIN

SA XOPHONE

Martin James Bartlett Albert Cano Smit Do-Hyun Kim Maxim Lando Nathan Lee Aristo Sham

Benjamin Baker Randall Goosby Risa Hokamura SooBeen Lee

Steven Banks

ACCORDION

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CELLO

Jonathan Swensen

COMPOSER

Katherine Balch Saad Haddad Chris Rogerson

YOU N G C O N C E RT ARTI STS

Parker

ARTISTS

Managers & Consultants Thomas F. Parker 2021-2022 SEASON Pianists

Conductors

CHRISTOPHER ATZINGER

DAVID BERNARD

FACULTY, ST. OLAF COLLEGE

HANNA BACHMANN MARIKA BOURNAKI MISHA DICHTER RICHARD DOWLING ALEXANDER GHINDIN ROBERT HENRY

DIRECTOR OF PIANO STUDIES, KENNESAW STATE UNIVERSITY

TAKA KIGAWA SPENCER MYER

FACULTY, LONGY SCHOOL OF MUSIC OF BARD COLLEGE

JOHN NOVACEK ANNA SHELEST DIANE WALSH

Violinists ROBERT DAVIDOVICI JUDITH INGOLFSSON

FACULTY, PEABODY INSTITUTE OF THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY

MUSIC DIRECTOR, MASSAPEQUA PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA MUSIC DIRECTOR, PARK AVENUE CHAMBER SYMPHONY

TERESA CHEUNG

MUSIC DIRECTOR, ALTOONA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

ANTHONY BLAKE CLARK

MUSIC DIRECTOR, BALTIMORE CHORAL ARTS SOCIETY DIRECTOR OF CHORAL ACTIVITIES, THE GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY

KENNETH FREED NEAL GITTLEMAN

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, DAYTON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

ELLIOT MOORE

MUSIC DIRECTOR, BLUE PERIOD ENSEMBLE MUSIC DIRECTOR, LONGMONT SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

KEVIN RHODES

MUSIC DIRECTOR, SPRINGFIELD SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA (MA) MUSIC DIRECTOR, TRAVERSE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA PRINCIPAL CONDUCTOR, PRO ARTE CHAMBER ORCHESTRA OF BOSTON

BRIAN VILIUNAS

ORCHESTRA DIRECTOR, SAMFORD UNIVERSITY

PETER STAFFORD WILSON

FACULTY, UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON SCHOOL OF MUSIC

RACHEL LEE PRIDAY

MUSIC DIRECTOR, SPRINGFIELD SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA (OH) MUSIC DIRECTOR, WESTERVILLE SYMPHONY PRINCIPAL CONDUCTOR, TULSA BALLET

Cellist

Ensembles

ADRIAN DAUROV

Clarinetist BRIAN VILIUNAS

FACULTY, SAMFORD UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF THE ARTS

Special Attractions IVORY&GOLD ®, Eclectic Americana DONALD PIPPIN, Pops Conductor

DAUROV/MYER DUO MISHA & CIPA DICHTER DUO INGOLFSSON-STOUPEL IRRERA BROTHERS DUO SCHWARZ & BOURNAKI DUO STEPHANIE & SAAR SUMMIT PIANO TRIO EUCLID QUARTET

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VO LU M E 7 1 , N U M B E R 3

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uddenly, one of the most beautiful things that humans do—gather together to make music—has become one of the most dangerous. As COVID-19 metastasized across the planet, orchestras, conservatories, and concert halls postponed and then cancelled entire swaths of their seasons out of safety concerns. No one knows how long the pandemic will last, what the human toll or economic impact will be—and that includes orchestras, which are rethinking how to keep musicians, staff, and audiences safe and healthy even as they face an unpredictable crisis and precipitous loss of income. Yet in the midst of the pandemic, orchestras are keeping the music alive. Musicians are playing from their front porches; orchestras are giving concerts, with masked, socially distanced musicians, at drive-in movie theaters; everyone is performing online. Several scientific studies are underway to determine safer options for live performances. Meanwhile, orchestras are meeting this unprecedented challenge with creativity and deeper understandings of their missions.

On May 25, George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, was murdered while under arrest by a white Minneapolis police officer. Video of the tragedy sparked weeks of protests about police violence and racial injustice across the U.S. and abroad. Musicians, orchestras, and classical music organizations nationwide stepped forward with responses, many of which went beyond well-meaning statements and moved into actions. This issue of Symphony includes an in-depth article by Aaron Flagg that examines the orchestra field’s historic and ongoing lack of ethnic and racial diversity and offers ways to work toward a more equitable and inclusive future. The article addresses an important, painful topic that is seldom discussed. Yet, as James Baldwin wrote, “nothing can be changed until it is faced.”

THE MAGAZINE OF THE LEAGUE OF AMERICAN ORCHESTRAS

symphony®, the award-winning quarterly

magazine of the League of American Orchestras, discusses issues critical to the orchestra community and commun­icates to the American public the value and importance of orchestras and the music they perform.

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symphony

SUMMER 2020

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THE MAGAZINE OF THE LEAGUE OF AMERICAN ORCHESTRAS

2 Prelude by Robert Sandla

46

6 The Score Orchestra news, moves, and events

Viola Chan

16 Critical Questions President and CEO Jesse Rosen reflects on his time leading the League of American Orchestras.

22 At the League With group gatherings banned during the pandemic, the League of American Orchestras convened its first-ever virtual National Conference, free of charge for members, in May and June.

72 Todd Rosenberg

26 Fundraising Critical steps for orchestra fundraising in times of crisis. by Bob Swaney and James Leffler

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Anti-Black Discrimination in American Orchestras Greater awareness of the orchestra field’s historic and ongoing lack of ethnic and racial diversity will contribute to fieldwide change in behavior—and ultimately improve equity. by Aaron Flagg

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It’s About Time More women are getting high-profile jobs conducting orchestras. But have orchestras eliminated the glass ceiling? by Jennifer Melick

46

On the Right Track In just two years, the National Alliance for Audition Support is making an impact, with more Black and Latinx musicians taking auditions and winning positions at U.S. orchestras. by Janaya Greene

54

Flex Seasons How do you plan an orchestra season during a global pandemic?

By having more than one script. by Heidi Waleson

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Pandemic in Perspective The 1918 influenza pandemic had a drastic impact on American orchestras. What can we learn from 100 years ago? by Brian Wise 69 Advertiser Index 70 League of American Orchestras Annual Fund 72 Coda Conductor Tania Miller on curating a classical-music reset after the pandemic.

Text marked like this indicates a link to websites and online resources.

Xian Zhang with New Jersey Symphony Orchestra / Fred Stucker

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about the cover

Images of orchestras responding to the pandemic and to racial injustice, clockwise from top left: Alexandria Symphony Orchestra musicians perform for residents of a senior living facility (photo by Janet Barnett); Charlotte Symphony Orchestra Principal Viola Ben Geller performs from his backyard (photo by Logan Cyrus); the Minnesota Orchestra’s “Music of Power and Grief for a Community in Pain” video captured protest and grief in Minneapolis; Beong-Soo Kim plays cello on the porch of his home in Pasadena, California (photo by Christina House); New York Philharmonic Principal Clarinet Anthony McGill in his video protesting police violence; a graphic promoting the Charleston Symphony Orchestra’s livestreamed “Call and Response: A Concert for Equality;” masked, socially distanced Dallas Symphony Orchestra musicians in performance (photo by Ben Torres); Lynchburg Symphony Orchestra French Horn Drew Phillips and Principal Trombone Kevin Chiarizzio perform for an assisted-living residence; violinist Jennifer Koh performs a new work for her “Alone Together” commissioning project; the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s brass quintet recorded “Georgia on My Mind” for a video honoring frontline workers.

GETTING PEOPLE IN THE DOOR IS HARD WORK. THESE STUDIES CAN HELP. Taking Out the Guesswork: A Guide to Using Research to Build Arts Audiences Learn about three tasks key to successful audience building: understanding potential audiences, creating effective promotional materials, and tracking and assessing progress.

The Road to Results: Effective Practices for Building Arts Audiences Ten arts organizations that took on ambitious audience-building projects. This guide identifies nine practices their most successful efforts had in common.

Download these reports and many more free resources to help build audiences: Wallacefoundation.org

SCORE News, moves, and events in the orchestra industry THE

In the face of ceaseless intolerance, hatred, and violence against African Americans in our country, historically and currently, we are impelled to reaffirm that we value all Black lives. Our colleagues of color—and many communities served by the orchestras we represent—are living with deep pain and fear, subjected to the threat of police violence, to the risks inherent in serving as essential workers in a time of crisis, and to ongoing oppression in a society scarred by racism. There is an urgent need for White people and predominantly White organizations to do the work of uprooting this racism.

We recognize that for decades, in our role as a national association and voice for orchestras, we have tolerated and perpetuated systemic discrimination against Black people, discrimination mirrored in the practices of orchestras and throughout our country. And while we have called the field’s attention to the need for change and provided resources to support that work, we struggle to move as quickly as we should to align practices with our stated beliefs.

There is a gap between our espoused desire to serve communities and our readiness to confront racism. Closing that gap must be our work going forward. And as such, we are committed to dismantling our own racism and our role in perpetuating the systems of inequity that continue to oppress Black people. We stand ready to listen, learn, take action, and support you, the network of orchestras, as you continue to advance this work through your actions and artistry. We salute the many musicians who have raised their voices, including New York Philharmonic Principal Clarinet and League Board Member Anthony McGill, for his musical demonstration, #TakeTwoKnees.

Jesse Rosen, President and CEO Douglas Hagerman, Board Chair Aaron Flagg, Chair, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee of the Board League of American Orchestras, June 1, 2020

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DAVID CHARLES ABELL has

been selected as music director of the Philly Pops, effective in July.

California’s Ojai Festival has named its next music directors: JOHN ADAMS in 2021 and AMERICAN MODERN OPERA COMPANY in 2022.

The Cape Symphony and Conservatory in Hyannis, Massachusetts, has named MICHAEL ALBAUGH executive director.

The Boston Symphony Orchestra has promoted BSO section cellist OLIVER ALDORT to the position of assistant principal cello. Aldort also becomes principal cello of the Boston Pops Orchestra.

The Vermont Youth Orchestra Association has named MARK ALPIZAR as music director.

MARIN ALSOP has

been named chief conductor and curator of the Ravinia Festival, a new position, effective this summer. She will step down as the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s music director on August 31, 2021, retaining her post as chief conductor of the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra in Austria.

Alsop

The Delaware Symphony Orchestra has appointed J.C. BARKER as executive director.

PETER BIGGS has

been appointed acting chief executive of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

The Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic has named MÉLISSE BRUNET music director. She had been serving since 2018 as the orchestra’s interim conductor.

has been named the London Philharmonic’s principal guest conductor, effective in September.

KARINA CANELLAKIS

North Carolina’s UNC School of the Arts has named BRIAN COLE as chancellor. Cole has served as the institution’s interim chancellor since August 2019.

VIET CUONG has

been selected as Young Cole American Composer-in-Residence at the California Symphony, a three-year appointment that begins on August 1, 2020.

TANYA DERKSEN has

been hired as the Philadelphia Orchestra’s vice president of artistic production.

From the Top, the long-running National Public Radio program, has appointed PETER DUGAN as permanent host, beginning with the 2020-21 season.

The Phoenix Symphony has named KATE FRANCIS as chief development officer.

California’s Santa Rosa Symphony has named KATHLEEN GEBHARDT as director of finance and administration. KATE MATWYCHUK is the new manager of the orchestra’s Simply Strings and Summer Music Academy programs.

symphony

SUMMER 2020

Adriane White

On June 1, as demonstrations protesting the death of George Floyd and racial injustice took place in dozens of U.S. cities and around the globe, the League of American Orchestras issued a statement of solidarity with #BlackLivesMatter. Floyd, a Black man, was killed while under arrest on May 25 by a white Minneapolis police officer who pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes; a video documenting the tragedy went viral and sparked mourning, protests, marches, and nationwide re-examinations of racial injustice. On June 2, the League suspended all public events, including that day’s sessions of its virtual National Conference, to honor #BlackoutTuesday in solidarity with those responding to racial injustice and to provide the League’s staff and community of stakeholders an opportunity for reflection and personal action.

The text of the League’s statement is below. Read the statement on the League’s website at americanorchestras.org/racialinjustice and learn more about the League’s equity, diversity, and inclusion work at americanorchestras.org/EDI2020.

MUSICAL CHAIRS

Musical Chairs

League Issues Statement on Racial Injustice

Minnesota Orchestra

Orchestras Respond to Racial Injustice On May 25, George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, was killed while under arrest by a white Minneapolis police officer. Video of the tragedy, which documented the officer pressing his knee into Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes as three officers watched, sparked weeks of protests about police violence and racial injustice across the U.S. and abroad.

On May 28, Anthony McGill, principal clarinet at the New York Philharmonic and a board member of the League of American Orchestras, posted a video protesting Floyd’s death and racial injustice. After McGill finishes playing his own minor-key arrangement of “America the Beautiful,” he falls to both knees with arms behind his back. Text encourages others to #TakeTwoKnees in support of the struggle for justice and decency.

As re-examinations and protests of racial injustice continued, orchestras and classical music organizations nationwide responded. On June 1, the League of American Orchestras issued a statement of solidarity with #BlackLivesMatter and committed to “dismantling our own racism and our role in perpetuating the systems of inequity that continue to oppress Black people.”

The League added a new session, “Anti-Black Racism and American Orchestras,” to its online National Conference on June 4 (see articles in this issue).

Many classical musicians issued artistic responses to the situation. Violinist/ composer Daniel Bernard Roumain posted a “Declaration and Affirmation of Anthony McGill, principal clarinet of the New York PhilLove for Black People.” Trumpet player Aaron A. Flagg, chair and associate harmonic and a member of the board of directors at the director of Jazz Studies at Juilliard, posted a video of his solo rendition of League of American Orchestras, in his video protesting “America the Beautiful” and “What Did I Do to Be So Black and Blue?” Charles George Floyd’s death and racial injustice.

Dickerson III, executive director and conductor of Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles (ICYOLA), released new video to accompany a prior ICYOLA performance of his composition “This Is Why We Kneel.”

Roumain, Flagg, and Dickerson are members of the League’s board of directors. Among musicians of color who posted artistic statements are tenor Lawrence Brownlee; Demarre McGill, principal flute at the Seattle Symphony and Anthony McGill’s brother; composer and flutist Allison Loggins-Hull; and Weston Sprott, trombonist at the Metropolitan Opera and a dean at Juilliard.

The Minnesota Orchestra created a video, “Music of Power and Grief for a Community in Pain,” that mourns Floyd’s death and shows protest and grief in Minneapolis, as four of its musicians—masked and socially distanced—perform music of Shostakovich. The orchesThe Minnesota Orchestra’s “Music of Power and Grief for a Comtra stated, in part, “The Orchestra has a role to play in our commumunity in Pain” video captures protest and grief in Minneapolis, nity’s search for justice, and we are committed to listening, learning accompanied by music of Shostakovich performed by Felicity James and taking action to effect change in the weeks and months ahead.” (violin), Sarah Grimes (violin), Sam Bergman (viola), and Anthony Ross (cello). The musicians were recorded while masked and social The orchestra subsequently cut ties with the Minneapolis Police distanced in Orchestra Hall’s Target Atrium. Minnesota Orchestra Department, stating that it “will no longer engage Minneapolis Police digital producer Frank Merchlewitz created the video, with still phoDepartment officers to provide security at Orchestra concerts until the tographs by Joseph Scheller.

MPD implements fundamental changes.”

The Philadelphia Orchestra postponed its online June 6 gala and replaced it with a livestreamed public conversation about racial injustice. The event featured a conversation with Wynton Marsalis and Valerie Coleman, as well as a performance by Marsalis and the world premiere of Coleman’s Seven O’Clock Shout, her second Philadelphia Orchestra commission, dedicated to pandemic frontline workers. The orchestra dedicated the event to “George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, Breonna Taylor, and the countless Black Lives wrongfully and tragically lost before them, and to the value and dignity of all Black On June 19, the Charleston Symphony Orchestra livestreamed “Call Lives.” and Response: A Concert for Equality,” a virtual event curated by In Washington D.C., the Kennedy Center, home of the National Assistant Conductor Kellen Gray, featuring commentary from local Symphony Orchestra, dimmed its lights for nine nights in June to honor speakers and music by African-American and Afro-British composers. “Our community has many voices that deserve the stage and Floyd and mark the final nine minutes of his life. The Kennedy Center this program addresses that directly, by giving stage to voices mutstated, “Dimming the lights is a symbol. It is not the solution.” ed by inequality, those that empathize and want to help, and those who see how inequality has wounded our community,” said Gray. americanorchestras.org

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MUSICAL CHAIRS MATTHEW HERREN has

been appointed executive director of Pennsylvania’s Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra.

The Annapolis Symphony Orchestra has named EDGAR HERRERA as its executive director and chief development officer.

Montana’s Bozeman Symphony has named NORMAN HUYNH music director.

BLAKE-ANTHONY JOHNSON has

been appointed chief executive officer of the Chicago Sinfonietta.

The Orchestra of St. Luke’s in New York City has selected ALEX JOHNSTON as director of the DiMenna Center for Classical Music.

Johnson

ROGER KALIA is

the new music director of Indiana’s Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra.

Composer and conductor ROB KAPILOW has been named an artistic partner of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, a three-year appointment.

The New York City-based International Contemporary Ensemble has appointed JENNIFER KESSLER executive director.

has been selected as the Las Vegas Philharmonic’s assistant principal viola.

TIANTIAN LAN

The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra has appointed KEVIN LIN as its next concertmaster, effective at the start of the 2020-21 season.

The Elgin Symphony Orchestra has chosen ERIK MALMQUIST as its new executive director.

has been named interim CEO and executive director at California’s Santa Barbara Symphony.

KATHRYN R. MARTIN

The Dayton Performing Arts Alliance has named PATRICIA McDONALD interim CEO, replacing Paul Helfrich, who stepped down to become executive director of Florida’s Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra.

The Juilliard School in New York City has named ADAM MEYER as provost, beginning July 1, 2020.

ANDREW NORMAN will join the college’s composition faculty, effective fall 2020.

California’s San Luis Obispo Symphony has named ANNA JAMES MILLER as executive director.

Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society has appointed REGINALD MOBLEY to the newly created position of programming consultant.

DAVE MOSS is

the new executive director of the Hawai’i Symphony Orchestra.

North Carolina’s Winston-Salem Symphony has named KAREN NÍ BHROIN assistant conductor, effective June 1.

The San Francisco Conservatory of Music has named conductor EDWIN OUTWATER as music director.

The Richmond Symphony Orchestra has appointed VALENTINA PELEGGI music director.

DEIRDRE RODDIN has

been named director of communications at North Carolina’s Charlotte Symphony.

HUNTER SCOTT SAFRIT, associate

8

When the most recent issue of Symphony was published, we were only a month into the pandemic. With orchestra performances suddenly cancelled and group gatherings forbidden, the world hunkered down at home to stay safe and slow the spread of the coronavirus. For a brief time, everything was quiet. But just because musicians are stuck at home doesn’t mean they stop making music. First came a trickle of virtual performances—and then a flood of streamed music by orchestras and musicians, indoors and out, on websites, YouTube, social media. These efforts are inspiring, even as they unfold against a backdrop of great financial hardship for musicians and orchestras, with seasons and concerts cancelled. Over the next pages, we chronicle this unprecedented musical outpouring, created under exceptionally difficult and challenging circumstances.

This spring, the League of American Orchestras launched Symphony Spot, an online hub of livestreams, videos, and digital learning resources from members and friends of the League across the classical music field. Symphony Spot features content from more than 100 orchestras, venues, and soloists, with new additions daily. Visit symphonyspot.org for more.

Videos for All

Perhaps the signature coronavirus-era music event features musicians in Hollywood Squares-style boxes on video screens, creating a composite musical performance.

There has been a dizzying number of these creations, including, early on, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra’s 65 musicians performing Elgar’s Nimrod from their homes, edited by Jeremy Tusz, the MSO’s audio and video producer; and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s performance of Copland’s Appalachian Spring.

The many music videos thanking and honoring doctors, nurses, and other essential workers during the pandemic include the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s brass quintet, which recorded “Georgia on My Mind” for a video (in photo) honoring frontline workers, in an arrangement by Principal Tuba Michael Moore. For their tribute performance, Boston Pops musicians performed John Williams’s Summon the Heroes, composed for the 1996 Olympic Games; joining them were Conductor Keith Lockhart and Williams, the Pops’ conductor laureate. The Hartford Symphony Orchestra Hartford Symphony Orchestra created an online performance of Stravinsky’s Firebird (in photo) thanking essential workers and community groups in a video created with The Bushnell, the HSO’s performance venue, that featured Hartford-area workers,

Musical Chairs

Florida’s Jacksonville Symphony has named STEVEN LIBMAN as president and CEO.

Sounds During Silence

Peleggi

symphony

SUMMER 2020

Anniversary Celebrations

executive director of the Salisbury Symphony in North Carolina, has been promoted to the post of executive director.

Musical Chairs

thank-you signs, and musicians performing from their homes.

Kentucky’s Louisville Orchestra created “Lift Up Louisville,” a music video (in photo) recorded at home by orchestra musicians and other local classical and popular musicians, to benefit city’s Louisville Orchestra pandemic-response fund. Houston-based River Oaks Chamber Orchestra (ROCO) released a new virtual performance of Anthony DiLorenzo’s Anthem of Hope, commissioned in 2017 in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, honoring essential workers and featuring ROCO’s 39 musicians, who recorded their solo parts at home. The Southern ­Arizona Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Linus Lerner honored Tucson nurses with a virtual performance of Ennio Morricone’s Gabriel’s Oboe from the 1986 film The Mission.

The Chamber Orchestra of New York, based in New York City, has named JONATHAN SALAMON principal harpsichord/piano.

The Los Angeles Philharmonic has promoted GAIL SAMUEL to the position of president of the Hollywood Bowl and chief operating officer of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association.

MARGIE KIM has been named chief advancement officer.

PHILIPPE TONDRE has

Samuel

been appointed principal oboe of the Philadelphia Orchestra.

LISA RICHARDS TONEY has

been named president and CEO of the Association of Performing Arts Professionals (APAP).

Boston Symphony Orchestra President and CEO MARK VOLPE plans to Toney retire at the end of February 2021. The following month, BARBARA W. HOSTETTER will succeed Susan W. Paine as board chair.

has been appointed the Philadelphia Orchestra’s vice president of marketing.

CHARLES “CHARLIE” WADE

Lincoln’s Symphony Orchestra in Nebraska has How are orchestras celebrating anniversaries during a pandemic? With music, of appointed TYLER G. WHITE as its inaugural composcourse, but in new ways. The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra originally planned er-in-residence, to serve through 2022. to perform its 125th-anniversary season finale on May 16. Instead, it streamed a The Minnesota Orchestra has appointed MARGUEsmall-scale, live, socially distanced concert from an empty Music Hall. The concert RITE LYNN WILLIAMS as principal harp. featured Mahler’s Piano Quartet in A minor played by Concertmaster Stefani Matsuo, The Phoenix Symphony has named SUZANNE WILPrincipal Viola Christian Colberg, Principal Cello Ilya Finkelshteyn, and Pianist SON as president and chief executive officer.

Michael Chertock—all wearing masks. Principal Oboe Dwight Parry, standing alone The Seattle Symphony has selected RAFF WILSON as vice president of artistic planning. in the balcony, performed the world premiere of Matthias Pintscher’s short fanfare The Dallas Symphony Orchestra has appointed vibrant vitres (fragment…). The Civic Orchestra of Chicago, the Chicago Symphony ROBERTO ZAMBRANO artistic director of its Young Orchestra’s training group, cancelled its 100th-anniversary concert. Instead, the young Musicians program, which provides free instrumusicians recorded excerpts from Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5, led by Principal ments and music instruction to students in Dallas’s southern area.

Conductor Ken-David Masur, in a composite video; the orchestra also commissioned and premiered short compositions by Josh Fink, Nathalie Joachim, Ted Moore, Peter Shin, Liza Sobel, Martha Tiesenga, and LJ White. The San Francisco Symphony had planned a grand concert in June to honor Michael Tilson Thomas, completing his 25th and final year as music director. That was replaced by 25 Days/25 Years, a 25-day streaming project, with each day focusing on one of Tilson Thomas’s seasons, culminating with a June 28 virtual event featuring musicians of the SF Symphony and Chorus, plus guest artists. The Utah Symphony marked its 80th anniversary with an online gala featuring interviews with Music Director Thierry Fischer and guest violinist Augustin Hadelich, and a “virtual lobby fest” where online audiences were encouraged to wear birthday-bash clothes and chat with orchestra musicians. West Virginia’s Wheeling Symphony Orchestra streamed a virtual 90th-birthday event with performances by musicians as well as Music Director John Devlin, who played clarinet.

Michael E. Keating

For its 125th-anniversary season finale, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra streamed a live, socially distanced concert from an empty Music Hall, with a string quartet wearing face masks onstage and its principal oboist performing from the balcony.

americanorchestras.org

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Students in Action

Student musicians have stayed busy during the pandemic. The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Youth Orchestras created a virtual performance of Bizet’s “Les Toréadors” from Carmen Suite No. 1 in place of their season finale concert, with 91 young musicians performing from their homes. The Juilliard School’s video of Ravel’s Bolero features more than 100 students and alumni of the conservatory’s music, dance, and drama divisions performing from their homes, choreographed by Larry Keigwin and Nicole Wolcott, in an arrangement by David Robertson, the school’s director of conducting studies. In Boston, the Berklee College of Music’s virtual performance of Burt Bacharach/Hal David’s “What the World Needs Now” received 300,000 views in three days—including by Bacharach himself. In New Jersey, twins Miles and Quincy Eby, who play violin/viola and piano, celebrated their fourteenth birthdays in May by performing Bach, Bartók, and Mendelssohn just outside three nursing homes.

The Juilliard School’s video of Ravel’s Bolero—which received more than 500,000 views—features students and alumni from its music, drama, and dance divisions.

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Youth Orchestras musicians performed Bizet’s “Les Toréadors” from Carmen Suite No. 1 in their virtual season finale.

Streamed Concerts

Denise McGovern

Many virtual performance series during the pandemic have “at home” in the name and feature frequently updated new and archival content. Little Rock-based Arkansas Symphony Orchestra musicians have been performing from home in a “Bedtime with Bach” live-streamed series. The Baton Rouge Symphony’s @Home Concert Series showcases its musicians performing small-scale works; some musicians use professional equipment while others use their smartphones. Buffalo Philharmonic musicians are creating and sharing videos via social media. On Saturdays, the Carmel Symphony Orchestra in Indiana streams archived performances and new conversations with musicians on social media. Musicians from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra are featured in a new “CSO from Home” website channel.

The Dallas Symphony Orchestra’s “Watch + Listen” page at its website features newly recorded small performances and archival orchestra concerts. Musicians, staff, and board members at Pennsylvania’s Erie Philharmonic are contributing stories and music to its “From Home” site. Michigan’s Grand Rapids Symphony has been releasing daily “From Our Home to Yours” videos, each featuring a different musician from the orchestra. Musicians from Montana’s Helena Symphony have been performing music from their homes on the orchestra’s Facebook page, and Pennsylvania’s Johnstown Symphony Orchestra has a JSYO@Home education series taught by Johnstown Symphony Youth Orchestra Director David Anderson. The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra’s “LACO At Home” streams feature its musicians in performances and Q&As. The Los Dallas Symphony Orchestra Principal Oboe Erin Hannigan, Associate Angeles Philharmonic has been airing its “At Home With” Concertmaster Eunice Keem, Principal Viola Meredith Kufchak, and Assoseries on West Coast radio stations. The New Haven Sympho- ciate Principal Cello Theodore Harvey perform Britten’s Phantasy Quartet ny Orchestra’s “NHSO At Home” series features streamed at Meyerson Symphony Center, a performance later streamed online. performances by musicians, and the New York Philharmonic

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has been posting performances by musicians on Facebook. The Portland Symphony’s “Notes from Home” series features orchestra members performing and talking about music, and the Princeton Symphony Orchestra has been hosting online conversations with musicians, Music Director Rossen Milanov, Executive Director Marc Uys, and others. The San Francisco Symphony has made its substantial “Keeping Score” television series available free to stream during the pandemic. The Seattle Symphony hosted a weeklong Digital Beethoven Fest in June, featuring performances and panel discussions with musicians, staff, and local artists and composers. The Springfield Symphony in Massachusetts has posted “Homegrown” webcasts hosted by Music Director Kevin Rhodes and musicians, while the Stamford Symphony in Connecticut has a website channel featuring archived performances, solo concerts, and informal videos by orchestra musicians, plus interviews by Executive Director Russell Jones.

Community Reach

Janet Barnett

Many Americans have not been able to see family members or leave their homes during the pandemic, especially those at hospitals, nursing homes, and retirement communities. So musicians are bringing the music to them—at a safe distance. In Upper Arlington, Ohio, a trio of musicians from the Columbus Symphony Orchestra performed Lynchburg Symphony Orchestra French Horn Drew Phillips and Principal Trombone Kevin Chiarizzio perform, six feet outdoors for residents at the apart, in the parking lot of Heritage Green Assisted Living First Community Village; and Memory Care in Lynchburg, Virginia; residents listen from open windows and a porch. musicians wore masks and moved outside the facility. A trio of string musicians from the Billings Symphony in Montana performed at senior living facilities. The Philadelphia Orchestra partnered with six area hospitals to show archived performance videos on screens in patient rooms.

Led by Music Director James Ross (playing French Horn, left) a brass trio from the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra performs for residents at Goodwin House in Alexandria, Virginia.

americanorchestras.org

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As the weather warmed up, musicians moved to safer outdoor environments to share music. In April, Charlotte Symphony Orchestra musicians performed the fifth movement of Beethoven’s Sixth simultaneously, while separated, with no conductor, from wherever they were isolating, for a performance entitled “A Symphony A Part;” videos were posted online. The orchestra’s weekly “Charlotte Symphony al Fresco” streamed series is hosted by Principal Cellist Alan Black from his backyard. Detroit Symphony Orchestra musicians have been playing informal concerts on their porches with the hashtag #playonyourporch, including Principal Trumpet Hunter Eberly, who—following requests from neighbors—played excerpts from The Godfather, with audiences watching from cars and across the street. The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra is posting performances on its Instagram account featuring its musicians performing in their front yards and porches. Saul Richmond-Rakerd, a cellist in the Santa Cruz Symphony, Monterey Symphony, and San Francisco Ballet orchestra, has been offering free solo concerts on his front porch in San Francisco.

Logan Cyrus

Outdoor Concerts

Charlotte Symphony Orchestra Principal Viola Ben Geller performs from his backyard for the orchestra’s “A Symphony A Part” performance in April.

“Pomp and Circumstance” for Graduates

With no in-person commencement ceremonies for graduating students this spring, orchestras are helping to make things more musically festive. In May, the Olympia Symphony Orchestra in Washington State released a recording of Elgar’s “Pomp and Circumstance” to be used in virtual graduation ceremonies for the class of 2020. Jason Leng, a violinist in the orchestra, compiled recordings to create a collaborative online video.

The Philadelphia Orchestra and Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin provided a recording of an excerpt from “Pomp and Circumstance” to the School District of Philadelphia, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s secretary of education, and local universities for graduation ceremonies. Many other orchestras—including the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic (which collaborated with singer/songwriter Lizzo)—also offered “Pomp The Olympia Symphony Orchestra in Washington State released a recording of Elgar’s “Pomp and Circumstance” for virtual graduation ceremonies this spring. and Circumstance” for virtual graduations this year.

Conductors are keeping busy with a wide variety of musical and other activity. Florida Orchestra Associate Conductor Daniel Black has been creating videos during lockdown with musicians from the orchestra; a “Thank You Tampa Bay” video is set to the finale from Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4, while a video of Edwin Christie’s 19th-century women’s suffrage anthem “Daughters of Freedom” features the orchestra and Master Chorale of Tampa Bay. Donato Cabrera, music director of the California Symphony and Las Vegas Philharmonic, has been hosting live-streamed online events with musicians from the California Symphony, and he is featured in new conversations on radio broadcasts of previous Las Vegas Philharmonic concerts. Cabrera’s independent projects include “The Music Plays On,” a daily blog, and “MusicWise—Conversations about Art and Culture with Donato Cabrera,” a weekly streamed interSouth Bend Symphony Music Director Alastair Willis is curating a view series. Gustavo Dudamel, music director of the Los Angeles virtual “Quarantunes” playlist and performance series from home.

Philharmonic, has been busy with a new “At Home with Gustavo” radio series broadcast and streamed in English and Spanish. Jed Gaylin, music director of New Jersey’s Bay Atlantic Symphony, has been streaming piano performances of Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, and Mozart as part of the orchestra’s new online Musical Postcards series. Robert Moody, music director of the Memphis Symphony, is presenting “From the MSO Archives: Concerts for Hope” on radio station WKNO. Twice a week, South Bend Symphony Music Director Alastair Willis is curating a “Quarantunes” series from home, featuring selections from his personal playlist and links to YouTube performances.

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Michael Caterina

Conductors—Off the Podium

Violinist Jennifer Koh performs a new work from home for her “Alone Together” commissioning project, featuring short works by 21 established and 21 emerging composers. Koh is a member of the League of American Orchestras’ Board of Directors.

Commissioning and Performing New Music The American Composers Orchestra has launched “Connecting ACO Community,” an initiative with the goal of supporting artists who need financial assistance by commissioning short works for solo instrument or voice. World premieres of the works were hosted in April and May on Zoom, with $5 tickets.

The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra has commissioned thirteen composers to write short fanfares in response to the pandemic, with each composer choosing a CSO or Pops musician to perform the work. The initial group of composers includes Peter Boyer, Bryce Dessner, Laura Karpman, Matthias Pintscher, Caroline Shaw, Georgia Stitt, Tyshawn Sorey, and Du Yun. Composer Gabriela Lena Frank has launched an initiative called GigThruCOVID, which pairs 65 composers with solo performers to create short video works, with premieres that began in May. Violinist Jennifer Koh created “Alone Together,” through which she is commissioning 21 established composers and 21 emerging composers to write short pieces for solo violin, which she performs online from her home. The New Haven Symphony Orchestra has started a songwriting competition for a work to be performed as a tribute to front-line workers next season.

The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra has commissioned Gratias Tibi from José Luis Domínguez, artistic director of the NJSO Youth Orchestras, which received its virtual world premiere in late June by the NJSO and the Montclair State University Singers. Oklahoma City Philharmonic Associate Concertmaster Marat Gabdullin composed a short orchestral work entitled Covid Romance and recruited musicians from his own and other orchestras to perform it from their homes for a video on the orchestra’s Facebook page. americanorchestras.org

Dave Bennett’s

“Whole Lotta Shakin’: Swing to Rock” Hold onto your seats as multi-instrumentalist Dave Bennett rocks the stage saluting music from Swing and Rock-n-Roll to Country, Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis and his Billboard charting release Blood Moon.

“The Show had the audience leaping out of their seats” Philly Pops A powerful concert that thrilled both the orchestra and audience.”

“A brilliant Pops concert beyond compare.”

Kingston Symphony “The whole show rocked, and the whole audience, comprised of all ages, dug it.”

Danville Symphony Booking Info: Marilyn Rosen Marilyn Rosen Presents 617-901-9580 marilyn@marilynrosenpresents.com www.marilynrosenpresents.com

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Since the start of the pandemic, the League of American Orchestras has been posting resources about coping with the pandemic for the orchestra field and has been advocating for the vital importance of orchestras at the federal, state, and local levels. Resources include information about the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security package; ongoing updates about the Paycheck Protection Program; discussion groups and one-on-one consultations for League members; guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and other authorities; and much more. Find regularly updated resources and information on the League’s coronavirus preparedness site at americanorchestras.org/advocacy-government/disaster-relief-for-nonprofits/coronavirus.html.

Don’t miss a single note!

Remembering Nick Webster, League Board Member and Orchestra Executive On April 3, Albert K. “Nick” Webster passed away at his home in New York City. He was 82 years old. The cause was complications related to COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. Webster was a widely influential orchestra executive who worked to raise artistic and business standards in the classical-music field and identified and nurtured the careers of a generation of forward-thinking orchestra leaders. Webster served an exceptional tenure of nearly half a century on the League of American Orchestras’ Board of Directors, from 1974 to the present, contributing his keen insights and deep experience to assist the League as it assisted orchestras nationwide. Webster was a longtime leader at the New York Philharmonic: as assistant manager from 1962 to 1970 and then as Nick Webster at work at the New York Philharmonic, managing director from 1975 to where he served as assistant manager and managing 1990. From 1971 to 1975, he was director between the years of 1962 and 1990. general manager of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. He was a consultant to many musical organizations, a music panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts, and served on the boards of the American Music Center, American Composers Orchestra, and American Arts Alliance in addition to the League. Webster actively sought out new executive talent for orchestras and helped to build the careers of future leaders of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, and Philadelphia Orchestra, among others. Webster is survived by his wife, Sally, and a daughter and grandchildren.

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Hear from the conductors, musicians, and people on the inside who are making innovative choices, provoking change, and electrifying the orchestral world.

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In Memoriam: Those We Have Lost We mourn the loss of musicians and others in the classical music field who have died of complications from COVID-19. Among them are Alan Abel, a former longtime Philadelphia Orchestra percussionist and instrument builder; Symphony of Southeast Texas trumpeter Mike Westbrook; Joseph Feingold, a Holocaust survivor and New York City resident whose donation of a violin to twelve-year-old Brianna Perez from the Bronx was chronicled in the 2017 documentary Joe’s Violin; cellist Lynn Harrell, whose passing was marked by an online Carnegie Hall tribute in May that featured cellists from around the world; jazz pianist and educator Ellis Marsalis, father of musicians Wynton, Brandon, Delfeayo, and Jason Marsalis; Joel Revzen, an assistant conductor at the Metropolitan Opera and artistic director and principal conductor of Nevada’s Classical Tahoe music festival; and clarinetist Paul Shelden, a music-education advocate and longtime teacher and administrator at Brooklyn College. In late May, Yo-Yo Ma performed Bach’s six suites for solo cello live from Boston as a memorial for those lost due to the pandemic; the performance was televised in Boston and broadcast nationally on public radio stations.

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Henry Grossman

League Provides Advocacy, Resources, Information During Pandemic

LETTER TO THE EDITOR Thank you very much for featuring the conversation between Jesse Rosen and Metropolitan Museum of Art CEO Daniel H. Weiss (“Arena or Sanctuary: The New Roles of Public Institutions”) in the Spring 2020 issue of Symphony magazine. I was particularly interested to read Mr. Weiss’s thoughts regarding, as he says, “who should pay for culture,” and the difficulties of parsing out whether to “accept gifts from people who might have objectionable behaviors.”

While the conversation touched on many revelatory points, it did not specifically mention endowments.

Since endowments command enormous sums of money, institutions should carefully consider where these funds are invested—not only from the standpoint of whether the investments will return a healthy income. Do the investments align with the mission of the organization? Will they positively impact the community the organization serves? As many orchestras deepen their commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion in the coming weeks and months, will they adapt their endowments to reflect their developing values?

It is imperative in this time of great change for any non-profit to carefully consider their endowment investments.

Imagine the impact of an endowment invested in racial justice, clean energy, and gender equality! (On the flip side, imagine the impact of an endowment invested in the status quo of systemic racial oppression, big oil, and male privilege.) The endowment is a key component to answering the question “who should pay for culture?”

Immense thanks to you and the entire League for your ongoing work and advocacy for American orchestras, especially now!

Caroline Eichler Main Series Artist Coordinator, Chicago Symphony Orchestra americanorchestras.org

League’s Catalyst Fund: Advancing Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion at Orchestras The League of American Orchestras has awarded grants to 28 U.S. orchestras to help deepen their understanding of equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI), improve practice, and strengthen organizational culture. Ranging from $12,000 to $25,000 each, the one-year grants comprise the second round of The Catalyst Fund, the League’s three-year, $2.1 million grant-making program made possible by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation with additional support from the Paul M. Angell Family Foundation. Member orchestras apply for Catalyst Fund grants to support their work with an EDI consultant, expand their knowledge of the issues pertaining to EDI, and create strategies that are relevant to their communities.

Catalyst Fund grantees are also given access to a learning community and a dedicated online forum, and participate in remote and in-person convenings. Orchestras receiving this year’s Catalyst Fund grants are in states from Arkansas to Wisconsin and cities from Charlotte to Seattle. For more about The Catalyst Fund, including a complete list of this year’s recipients, visit https://americanorchestras.org/learning-leadership-development/ the-catalyst-fund.html.

LegaL Notice

If you were a session musician or background vocalist on a covered sound recording that was performed digitally on non-interactive webcasting, satellite radio, or digital cable prior to December 31, 2016, and have not received all royalty payments to which you may be entitled from the AFM & SAG-AFTRA Intellectual Property Rights Distribution Fund, you could receive a payment from a class action settlement.

A proposed Settlement has been reached in a class action lawsuit concerning undistributed royalties currently held by the AFM & SAG-AFTRA Intellectual Property Rights Distribution Fund (or the “Fund”) which are owed to session musicians and background vocalists (“Non-featured Performers”) on certain sound recordings that were performed on non-interactive webcasting, satellite radio, and/or digital cable.

Who Is Included? You are included in the Settlement Class as a “Settlement Class Member” if you were a Non-featured Performer (i.e., a session musician or background vocalist) on a recording that received sufficient play on one or more of the digital mediums at issue (non-interactive webcasting, satellite radio, or digital cable) to be considered a “Covered Recording” prior to December 31, 2016, and you have not already received from the Fund the royalties that are due to you for such performances.

What Does the Settlement Provide? Defendants have agreed to undertake extensive efforts to locate and pay Settlement Class Members who are entitled to receive royalties from 2011 through 2016. As of November 30, 2019, approximately 61,298 Settlement Class Members were owed royalties totaling approximately $45,848,799.99 (the “Settlement Amount”).

After deducting Settlement and administration costs, attorneys’ fees and costs and $1,500 Service Award payments to the six Settlement Class Representatives, the Settlement Fund will be used to make payments to Settlement Class Members located by the Fund or who have submitted a Performer Information Form. The Fund will also follow the agreed-upon steps in distributing the royalties received from 2017 to 2019 and hire business and marketing consultants to help it better and/ or more efficiently identify and pay Non-Featured Performers the royalties owed to them received in 2020 and afterwards.

The Settlement provides that the Plaintiffs’ attorneys’ fees and expenses will be determined by the Court pursuant to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 54(d)(2) and 23(h) and Local Rule 23.1 and any applicable Court policies and procedures.

Settlement Class Counsel, Quilling, Selander, Lownds, Winslett & Moser, P.C. (“QSLWM”), 2001 Bryan Street, Suite 1800, Dallas, TX, 75201, and Jeeves Mandel Law Group, P.C. (“JMLG”), 12222 Merit Drive, Suite 1200, Dallas, TX 75251, will seek a maximum of $11,003,711.00 in attorneys’ fees (24% of the Settlement Amount) and a maximum of $86,309.32 in expenses. QSLWM will receive 60% and JMLG 40% of the first 50% of any fee award, and the remainder of any fee award will be split between them based on their relative lodestars (hours expended times hourly rates). They have further agreed that their expenses will be reimbursed on a pro-rata basis from any expense award made by the Court.

How Much Will My Payment Be? Your share of the Settlement Amount will depend on the amount of unpaid royalties that are owed to you (this is a function of the number of digital performances of the recording and the number of session musicians and background vocalists that performed on the recording). The amount could range from $10 to thousands of dollars.

How Do I Get My Payment? To ensure you receive any royalties owed to you, you should complete and submit a Performer Information Form. Performer Information Forms are available at www.SessionArtistRoyaltySettlement.com or by calling 1-844-799-1587.

What Are My Other Rights? If you are a Settlement Class Member, you can (1) object to the Settlement by August 18, 2020; (2) hire your own lawyer at your own cost if you want someone other than Settlement Class Counsel to represent you; and (3) you or your attorney may attend the Court’s Final Approval Hearing. Because this is a mandatory class pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(b)(1)(A), you may not decline to participate in the Settlement (“opt out”).

Final Approval Hearing. The Court will hold a hearing in this case (Blondell v. Bouton, No. 1:17cv-00372-RRM-RML) beginning at 10:00 a.m. (EDT) on October 22, 2020, in Courtroom 11-B of the United States District Court, E.D.N.Y., 225 Cadman Plaza East, Brooklyn, New York 11201, to determine whether the Settlement is fair, reasonable, and adequate and should be approved.

Want More Information? Go to www.SessionArtistRoyaltySettlement.com, call 1-844-799-1587, email admin@ SessionArtistRoyaltySettlement.com or write to Eric Zukoski & Roger Mandel, Settlement Class Counsel, c/o Blondell v.

Bouton Settlement Administrator, P.O. Box 43434, Providence, RI 02940-3434.

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QUESTIONS

CRITICAL

Jesse Rosen steps down as the League’s president and CEO this September after a distinguished twelve-year tenure.

But his links to the League—and to the orchestra field—go back much further. Rosen shares his unique perspectives as musician, administrator, and leader in a wide-ranging discussion of the past, present, and future of orchestras.

Jesse Rosen, President and CEO, League of American Orchestras

by Robert Sandla

S

oon after Jesse Rosen became president and CEO of the League of American Orchestras in 2008, he began writing Critical Questions, a column in Symphony magazine. In Critical Questions, he examined the new roles of orchestras in a changing society, explored the topic of innovation in depth, reviewed field-wide research, analyzed emerging practices, and highlighted the vitality of the music of our time. He interviewed orchestra executives, board members, and musicians; presented the perspectives of thought leaders from inside and outside the orchestra field; spoke with experts on topics including contract negotiations, nonprofit governance, and finance; and led frank discussions of equity, diversity, and inclusion.

Now it’s Rosen’s turn in the Critical Questions hot seat.

As Rosen prepared to step down from the League this September, he relinquished his usual role as Critical Questions interlocutor to talk about his dozen years leading the League. During his tenure, the League advocated for orchestras’ deeper engagement with communities, expanded efforts to address diversity,

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Chris Lee

A Career in Service to Orchestras

encouraged greater discipline in relation to fiscal health, and fostered support of contemporary composers. Rosen’s links to the League go way back, even before he joined the League as vice president in 1998. His father, Seymour Rosen, had a career in orchestra management: he was chief executive at the Buffalo Philharmonic, chief executive of the League from 1966 to 1967, and occupied the top positions at the Pittsburgh Symphony

“The League tries to bring forward information and perspective that our member orchestras may not otherwise see, so that they understand their work in a broader context.”

Orchestra and the Philadelphia Orchestra. So Jesse Rosen had an early start: he began attending League Conferences as a child.

Jesse Rosen is a conservatory-trained trombone player who moved into orchestra management early in his career at the New York Philharmonic, American Composers Orchestra, and Seattle Symphony.

You might say that he’s enjoyed a lifetime of service to orchestras.

ROBERT SANDLA: Classical music was a part of your life from early on.

JESSE ROSEN: Always. My mother was a modern dancer and my dad was a bass player. Between the two of them I was always around orchestral music. My dad’s first orchestra job as a manager was when I was a kid, but before that he was a musician. There was always classical music in the house and I enjoyed it immensely.

SANDLA: You trained as a trombone player and went to Manhattan School of Music.

ROSEN: First I went to New York University, then to Manhattan School of Music. My parents didn’t twist my arm, but they didn’t think a career as a performing artist was a great idea. There were the economic realities of how challenging a career as a musician would be—assuming you made it. This was before there were 52-week seasons and orchestra musicians had a shot at making good salaries.

SANDLA: What prompted you to explore orchestra management?

ROSEN: My assessment was that the prospects of a career as trombone player symphony

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were slim. Competition was extremely steep, as it continues to be. I was a good trombone player, but I wasn’t at the top of the heap; being somewhere in the middle wasn’t enough to be competitive. Once I decided that, it was easy to think about a career in arts administration, because my parents modeled that. My mother went from being a modern dancer to being a dance administrator and a dance teacher.

My father went from being a performer to being an orchestra administrator. My first toe in the water was as an intern in the Music Program at the National Endowment for the Arts.

My first job was with Affiliate Artists, an artist-management organization that doesn’t exist anymore, but it blended my love of classical music and my passion about making it more accessible to more people. It was immensely rewarding. Af-

Bill T. Jones was one of our dancers, Chris O’Riley was one of the pianists. Initially, my job was organizing residencies for artists. With the John Deere sponsorship in Iowa, we put artists on farms and in factories. With other sponsors, we put artists in plants and loading docks. We trained the artists in how to give authentic

“Our traditions were developed to solve different sets of problems. New situations and opportunities call for new ways to work.” presentations—Affiliate Artists coined the term “informance” to describe these—to audiences that didn’t know much about the arts. For the artists, if you can succeed performing on a truck loading dock with

Jesse Rosen (center) as a budding trombone player, with members of the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony Orchestra on tour in Monte Carlo, circa 1972.

filiate Artists was dedicated to supporting early-career professional artists. It put together sponsorships with Fortune 100 companies to place artists in communities that otherwise had no access to the performing arts. We had an incredible roster: americanorchestras.org

no lights, no acoustics, and an audience that knows nothing about you, then you can succeed anywhere.

It was thrilling to see the transformation in the communities. Working on programs like this took me all over the

country, meeting with 4-H Clubs, Future Farmers of America, church groups, community centers—all kinds of people. The response was always extraordinary. There was a huge hunger for the arts, and this was a way to reach regions where artists weren’t previously showing up.

Later, I ran the Exxon/National Endowment for the Arts Conducting Program, a residency program at major American orchestras, and then the Affiliate Artists Seaver/NEA Conducting Award. These programs put me in frequent contact with orchestras around the country and with the League.

SANDLA: You then moved into orchestra management. What did you enjoy about that, and what were the frustrations?

ROSEN: Running the conducting programs, I was basically everybody’s friend, because I represented subsidized conducting positions and big cash prizes. I was a benevolent presence. Now, every orchestra is different, but generally, when you work as an orchestra manager, benevolent is not usually how people think of you. Working at a big orchestra, like the New York Philharmonic where I started, I realized that the heavy intensity of production was not the best fit for me.

I took a job at the American Composers Orchestra as executive director, and I stayed for almost ten years. It was a tiny operation when I arrived, but it was a wonderful experience. It gave me a big education about music by American composers. We did a five-concert subscription series at Carnegie Hall, we had record deals, we had National Public Radio series. We did big festivals of Latin American music. The scale at ACO suited me and was a good match of my musical interest in wanting to play a role in shaping artistic work.

I then went to the Seattle Symphony as general manager, working for Deborah Rutter. It was a very exciting time: we were building Benaroya Hall and there was a lot going on. However, I did not enjoy living in Seattle and was anxious to get back to New York. After I was at the Seattle Symphony for two years, Chuck

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“The public is revealing a desire to experience and curate the music in different ways, see it online or in concert formats that are attuned to their tastes and preferences. Let’s be open to possibilities.” out how to provide help and have meaningful impact throughout our sector.

Chuck Olton’s big imperative at the League was learning and leadership development. The League launched the Orchestra Leadership Academy, at the time our most comprehensive attempt to provide a wide range of learning opportunities across the spectrum of all types of people working in orchestras. It eventually gave rise to what became the Institutional Vision Program and the Essentials of Orchestra Management program. Chuck elevated the importance of learning and professional development in our field.

SANDLA: What was the League’s situation when you arrived?

ROSEN: When I got here in 1998, the League was still recovering from the reactions to the Americanizing the American Orchestra report, which had come out in 1993. My sense was the League was in a defensive position, timid with respect to how it understood the field and what role it could play. In essence, Americanizing, which was based on extensive research, recognized that the world was changing, and orchestras had to change with it. But a very strong reaction to the report said, “No. We don’t need to change.” Americanizing was an enormously courageous act on the part of Cathy French, who was

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then the League’s president and CEO. of progressive, forward-thinking work— The report introduced important issues and help that work have a platform across and concerns to the field, some of which the field so others can look at it. That’s were tough and people didn’t want to talk a way of presenting ideas and practice about. I continue to admire Cathy’s courwithout saying “this is the right practice.” age; doing that then was a lot harder than Instead, we say that something merits atit is now. tention. We try to bring forward informaAmericanizing was the first wave of tion and perspective that our members several signals of change. The Knight may not otherwise see, so that they underFoundation’s “Magic of Music” program stand their work in a broader context. and the Mellon Foundation’s OrchesTen or fifteen years ago, as concerns tra Forum, which came out around the about community engagement emerged, same time, challenged the status quo the League realized that orchestras should of orchestras. The Knight Foundation examine their relationships with commuwork concerned the nature of the concert nities. We did extensive public-perception experience and explored ways of doing research—with policymakers, funders, naconcerts that would bring vitality and tional media—asking what they thought relevance. The Mellon Forum work was, to put it very simply, an attempt to bring musicians, managers, and boards together to identify their shared goals and visions and to address the inability of those three disparate parts to function successfully together. The Mellon Forum also introduced the idea that there are values beyond excellence for orchestras. Those investments helped shift what people thought was possible in the concert experience and established the idea that to the extent that management, At the League’s 2019 National Conference, in Nashville, Rosen board, and staff can work presented composer Joan Tower with the Gold Baton, the League’s together, everyone’s lives highest honor, in recognition of distinguished service to America’s orchestras. and the institution will be stronger. That was in opposition to the old idea that musicians, about orchestras. The data told us that board, and staff never need to talk to each orchestras don’t score very high on the other. question of serving a broad cross-section SANDLA: As a member association, of communities. We took that seriously, the League does not prescribe specific and every chance we got we showed the actions or solutions. How does the League data to our members. We then developed bring forward ideas that might challenge a rubric for community engagement and some members but that others might be how to do it by assembling a working willing to consider? group of 50 people in the field who came ROSEN: I suppose my approach has together over a year to build a communibeen to point out bright spots and models ty-engagement tool. Polly Kahn, our VP Alan Poizner

Olton, who was running the League, offered me a job as vice president, and I started in 1998.

SANDLA: What drew you to the League?

ROSEN: Organizations like the League work to address challenges across our whole system. It wasn’t consumed with producing concerts, but had the space to listen, to reflect, to test, to figure

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New World Symphony

We help you concentrate your efforts on the performance, and pay you for it.

Rosen attends a session with musicians participating in the National Alliance for Audition Support, which was started in 2018 by the League, Sphinx, and New World Symphony. NAAS addresses the underrepresentation of Black and Latinx musicians in orchestras by providing financial and mentorship support to those musicians as they audition for orchestras.

for Learning and Leadership Development at the time, led this work brilliantly.

It wasn’t dictated by the League; it came out of the membership. This was the field teaching itself and helping itself.

Another approach is to bring important voices into our conversations. One occasion was when Alberto Ibargüen [President of the Knight Foundation and former publisher of the Miami Herald and El

“Commitment to artistry and excellence goes hand in hand with commitment to engagement and access and service. These are not opposing ideas; they reinforce each other.”

Nuevo Herald] spoke at the League’s 2009 Conference. He said, in effect: “Don’t make the mistake the newspapers made.

We thought we were in the newspaper business. We weren’t. We’re in the journalism business. Journalism and newspapers are not the same thing. And if you think they’re the same thing, you’re conflating mission and strategy. Orchestras need to think about their missions.”

In terms of mission today, what better example is there that orchestras can’t give americanorchestras.org

concerts? Does that mean orchestras have to go away? No, we can still deliver on mission. Orchestras are doing that by going online. Obviously, that’s not something that we want to do permanently, but it raises the question: will society support live performances at the volume and frequency that it has until the COVID-19 pandemic? It’s helpful to be clear about what your mission is and separate that from the many options available for how to execute it.

SANDLA: Apart from the pandemic, what do you think the biggest issues facing American orchestras today are?

ROSEN: Continuing to address the questions of what business are we in, why are we here, our role in the world. Orchestras need to keep asking and answering those questions and moving toward answers that are grounded in today’s realities. There’s such a preservationist outlook in how we approach our work. Some of that is to be expected; we play a lot of old music, and it’s worth preserving. It’s great culture, and it matters. But because we are so attached to that preservation mentality, we miss opportunities on the creative side and pertaining to organizational models.

Our traditions were developed to solve different sets of problems. New situations and opportunities call for new ways

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ROSEN: I’ve told this story many times, but it remains the best answer to that question. A group of musicians in the Louisiana Philharmonic told me that after four years of playing in high school gyms, churches, and community centers while waiting for their concert hall, the Mahalia Jackson Theater, to be renovated after Hurricane Katrina, their ensemble playing actually improved.

Rosen and cellist Yo-Yo Ma head into a session at the League’s 2018 They said that when National Conference in Chicago. Rosen presented Ma with the Gold they couldn’t hear Baton, which the League gives to those whose service to America’s so well because the orchestras has been distinguished, at the Conference. acoustics were poor, they relied more on to work. The idea in a big orchestra that eye contact and physical signals to sustain musician services can only be utilized for good ensemble. When they couldn’t see rehearsing and performing full-orchestra each other because the sightlines were concerts does not feel really connected poor, they listened harder than they ever to the creative potential of the people in did before. But they added that what the orchestras, and to opportunities to really elevated their playing was that in serve our public, live and virtually. There’s these smaller venues they could see the a lot about our basic structure that would faces of the audience and see how they benefit from a complete refresh and were being moved by their performance— reimagination. and that inspired their finest playing. The The pandemic has underscored that orlesson here isn’t that we should have poor chestras and their musicians are full of all acoustical environments and concert halls, kinds of creativity. But the field has hard but rather it’s an invitation to revisit what boundaries about what musicians do that we think excellence means and how we feel like barriers to orchestras’ potential, achieve it. and like barriers to meeting a huge desire SANDLA: As orchestras’ missions from the public. The public is revealing a evolve, values like equality, diversity, and desire to experience and curate the music inclusion, which were formerly sidelined, in different ways, see it online or come have moved to the foreground. to performances at prices they can afford ROSEN: I feel some pride in League or in concert formats that are attuned to work in this area. In 2016, the League their tastes and preferences. Let’s be open published two studies: Racial/Ethnic and to possibilities.

Gender Diversity in the Orchestra Field and SANDLA: Where does that leave Forty Years of Fellowships: A Study of Orartistry, musicians playing together as an chestras’ Efforts to Include African American ensemble? Does this shift detract from and Latino Musicians. They were groundthat? breaking wake-up calls for the field.

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The quantitative data in the diversity study did not contain many surprises— but seeing the facts laid out right before you, and the rigorous body of research behind it, illuminated the seriousness of this issue. The longitudinal data demonstrated that, with the exception of gender, there was little change in the makeup of orchestras over long periods of time. The fellowship study, which was primarily qualitative, addressed the question of why, if orchestras have been trying to increase diversity for years through musician fellowship programs, things had not changed. The study showed that, even when the fellowship musicians went on to career success, the internal cultures of orchestras were not changing. You could not expect to see major change across the field without confronting the values and culture of orchestras and the extent to which they embraced equity, diversity, and inclusion.

That research, combined with our 2016 Conference in Baltimore, which was devoted to equity, diversity, and inclusion, was a signal to the field that this subject had to be elevated to the highest priority. And it was being reinforced in many orchestras’ communities. The League was not a voice in the wilderness. We were underscoring, framing, consolidating ideas and issues that people were experiencing at home.

We didn’t merely commission studies and put them out there. They helped to inform us about opportunities to make change, and we launched The Catalyst Fund and the National Alliance for Audition Support (NAAS); we are a founding partner with Sphinx and the New World Symphony for NAAS. The Catalyst Fund is a regranting program to support orchestras in advancing their understanding of equity, diversity, and inclusion. NAAS addresses the underrepresentation of Black and Latinx musicians in orchestras by providing financial and mentorship support to those musicians as they audition for orchestra positions. While we were putting NAAS together, virtually every musician of color said something like this: “We’re glad you’re doing this, but it is not symphony

SUMMER 2020

sufficient. The problem is not primarily on the talent-pool side, it is inside the organizations themselves.” NAAS will make a difference—as long as the people who are doing the hiring, namely the orchestras, are ready to change.

SANDLA: Looking ahead, what qualities does Simon Woods, your successor, have that makes him a fit for the League?

ROSEN: I’ve known Simon for a long time, going back to when he was the artistic administrator at the Philadelphia Or-

“The music has never sounded so rich, so detailed, so warm…”

© WHITNEY COX

involved will you be with orchestras? working full-time, going non-stop, I am What might you miss? looking forward to not working for a ROSEN: I love going around the while, or working with less responsibility country and attending concerts, seeand less activity. Of course, I want to be as ing musicians I know, talking to board helpful as possible to Simon as he transimembers and staff and others. After being tions into the job. in this field so long, I have a lot of friendOne lesson I learned from how Henry ships. I’ll miss that. I’ll miss the League’s Fogel did this job was the value of being staff and board, too. The staff, always closely connected with our professional hardworking and gifted, had their finest community. He demonstrated the hour this spring with the online Conferimportance of showing up. People love it ence, an extraordinary success and service when the person running the League gets to members. And while I was CEO, the on a plane, comes to hear their orchestra, “Orchestras must continue to partnership with three incredible board and listens to what’s on their mind. They address the questions of what chairs—Lowell Noteboom, Pat Richards, get a firsthand connection to the League, far away in New York City, that is very business are we in, why are we and Doug Hagerman—has been a gift, and the whole board has been a brain real and palpable. That part of the work here, our role in the world.” trust, a source of tough love, and a cheerwas of great value to our members—and chestra. He has been a part of the League leader. All these relationships have meant deeply rewarding to me.

Symphony 1 5/8/18 for many years. He loves the League Akustiksso much to Ad-2018_Layout me, and I will miss them.6:32 PM Page 1 Conferences, he’s hosted Conferences At this point, I don’t know exactly what ROBERT SANDLA is Symphony’s editor in in Philadelphia and Seattle, and he had my connection to the field will be. After chief. started work on our Conference in Los Angeles. He’s the director of the League’s Essentials of Orchestra Management program and is deeply devoted to professional development. He’s a gregarious guy, very caring and thoughtful. He has a highly cultivated artistic sensibility, which Thom Mariner about rejuvenated Cincinnati Music Hall will serve him well as he works with our Mover & Makers Cincinnati membership around the evolving creative October 8, 2017 work of our field. He will be terrific.

SANDLA: At the Seattle Symphony, he led an orchestra with a high artistic profile that also did a lot of social-impact work with the homeless community and other groups.

ROSEN: Simon in some ways embodies the idea that commitment to artistry and excellence goes hand in hand with commitment to engagement and access and service. These are not opposing ideas; they are ideas that reinforce each other.

During Simon’s time at the Seattle Symphony, the orchestra commissioned John Luther Adams to write Become Ocean, and it won the Pulitzer Prize. At the same time, the Seattle Symphony was producing the extraordinary Simple Gifts program with the homeless community and • • agencies throughout Seattle. The orchestra was doing great work on both fronts.

93 North Main Street • South Norwalk, CT 06854 SANDLA: Once you step down, how tel: 203-299-1904 • fax: 203-299-1905 • www.akustiks.com

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americanorchestras.org

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2020

CONFERENCE

Global Stages / Local Stories In a global society, orchestras are significant public institutions confronting the question of what it means to be citizens of the world. Due to the pandemic, in midMarch the world changed dramatically. To help orchestras meet today’s extraordinary challenges, the League of American Orchestras shifted its 2020 National Conference from a three-day gathering in Minneapolis-St. Paul to a free online event running May 5–June 12. More than 3,700 Conference registrants heard diverse voices on how orchestras are relevant and essential organizations for their communities—especially now—and how they can best weather the current crisis.

By David Styers

T

he first week of March, the League proudly launched the website for its 75th National Conference, highlighting the exciting sessions we had planned with our hosts at the Minnesota Orchestra and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Within days, as we watched the pandemic spread and saw orchestras move from postponing individual concerts to cancelling the rest of their seasons, we realized that an in-person Conference in June would be impossible.

We knew, though, that the orchestra field needed information and resources from the League more than ever, so

canceling the Conference was not an option. And we knew that orchestras needed those resources right now, so waiting until mid-June to do a three-day virtual Conference did not make sense. We also wanted to preserve as much of the planned Conference content as we could, plus have room to add new, coronavirusspecific sessions without overwhelming attendees. And we wanted to provide the content for free to League members. So, an online Conference event stretching six weeks, with near-daily sessions starting the first week of May, was born.

And, as the League’s online Conference progressed and worldwide demonstrations

in June protested racial injustice following the death of George Floyd while in police custody, the Conference adapted again, this time to include new and newly refocused sessions on today’s most urgent social issues.

Inspiring Speakers and Live Music

The online Conference commenced on May 5 with live music and a stimulating discussion of where orchestras are now. At the Opening Session, Anthony McGill, principal clarinet of the New York Philharmonic and a board member of the League of American Orchestras, shared his musical artistry, and he was then joined by New York Philharmonic President and CEO Deborah Borda

Conference 2020 The League of American Orchestras’ 2020 National Conference, “Global Stages / Local Stories” took place online, free of charge for League members, from May 5 to June 12. Visit leagueconference.org for more about the League’s 75th annual Conference, including videos of select sessions.

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symphony

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The League of American Orchestras’ 2020 National Conference was presented online from May 5 to June 12, free of charge to League members. The schedule of the general sessions, above, was adapted as the Conference progressed to incorporate new and newly refocused sessions on today’s most urgent social issues. In addition, the Conference included a comprehensive lineup of Constituency Meetings for groups including executive directors, artistic administrators, composers, conductors, musicians, staff members, volunteers, and board members.

americanorchestras.org

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and Lincoln Center President and CEO Henry Timms for a thought-provoking conversation on what opportunities and inspiration they had been seeing to understand the moment unfolding around us and how to navigate this new world.

McGill stated, “The normal is not going to be the normal of the past. There’s

nothing we can do to make it so. Through this obstacle we can become stronger, and more beautiful, and more diverse, than ever before.” Timms observed, “This world is opening up. Our job is to get people to engage in our mission on their own terms.”

And Borda offered, “New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said that ‘shutting down

was easy; reopening will be an art form.’

And who’s better at art forms than us?”

Over the course of the six weeks, nearly 40 hours of keynote addresses, elective sessions, and sponsored sessions— streamed and recorded on Zoom, and broadcast and archived on our Conference portal PheedLoop—highlighted the current challenges and opportunities orchestras face; the need to continue committing to equity, diversity, and inclusion; and the artistic work and digital evolution in a changing world. Throughout the Conference, small-group Constituency Meetings gathered delegates by peer group to focus on their most pressing concerns. And a

Anthony McGill

virtual Exhibit Hall provided an opportunity to connect with Conference exhibitors and sponsors.

Mid-Conference, National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Mary Anne Carter opened our Annual Meeting with the reassurance, “By being apart, we’re actually coming together more. And we need to. This is an incredibly challenging time. Especially for the performing arts.

Yet, despite the unknown and uncertainty, you continue to create and share your music. I applaud the orchestra community for adapting so quickly to this new digital environment.… Please, stay safe, healthy, and always let the music play.”

The Annual Meeting was followed by an inspiring address by Nina Simon, a museum director turned community activist who founded OF/ BY/FOR ALL, a nonprofit that aims to build a more inclusive world by helping organizations embrace the full diversity of their commu-

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symphony

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Nina Simon

nities. Civic and cultural organizations are focused on inclusion and relevance—and Simon discussed how orchestras can turn aims into actions. She stressed four questions to re-envision relevance to build a more inclusive future:

• What do you choose to change?

• Who do you commit to involve?

• What assets can you share?

• How?

GETHER: A Healing Conversation in Music and Words event; Coleman’s work was commissioned for musicians performing and recording during social distancing, and honoring frontline workers.

At the Closing Session, Coleman stated, “I have to ask: can we afford not to reconsider where we place the arts in our society? As Robert Battle, the director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, said: ‘The arts nurture the positive imagination, and the imagination costs nothing.

But, if it is not used, it will cost everything.’ As I see it, the arts are as crucial as the air we breathe.”

In addition, the League’s Gold Baton award was given to two of the orchestra field’s most vital organizations: to the American Composers Forum for cultivating a vibrant ecosystem of music creators, performers, advocates, and new-music listeners; and to New Music USA for foster-

ing a thriving, interconnected new-music community and unparalleled support of creative artists and their work.

To all who attended the Conference online to exchange ideas, resources, and tools: thank you for your work to lead, support, and champion your orchestra during a time of crisis. Each session of the Conference opened with an energizing selection from Jessie Montgomery’s Starburst, performed in a recording by the Minnesota Orchestra. As League President and CEO Jesse Rosen said in his opening remarks, “We’re looking forward to the time we can hear it live.” And we look forward to the time we can have in-person convenings again. Until then, thank you for gathering with us online.

DAVID STYERS is the director of Learning and Leadership Programs at the League of American Orchestras.

Matthew Murphy

For the Conference Finale on June 12, flutist and composer Valerie Coleman shared her story of founding Imani Winds, an American wind quintet known

Valerie Coleman

for adventurous programming, and her work to stretch awareness and understanding of the musical art form while engaging more communities. And she shared Seven O’Clock Shout, her recent world premiere performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra at its June 6 HearTOamericanorchestras.org

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FUNDRAISING

Orchestra Fundraising in Times of Crisis With the arrival of the pandemic, the world changed dramatically for orchestras. Theaters and concert halls were closed, concerts and events were cancelled, and orchestras were forced to cut short their seasons. With single-ticket revenue instantly drying up, and subscription money for next season slowing, the only reliable stream of revenue has become fundraising.

In April, fundraising experts Bob Swaney, founder and CEO of Robert Swaney Consulting and the League’s interim vice president for development, and James Leffler, vice president of development for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, presented Orchestra Fundraising in This Time of Crisis, a free, two-part League of American Orchestras webinar that examined the critical steps for effective fundraising now. This article builds on the contents of the webinar.

by Bob Swaney and James Leffler

W

hen the national shutdown due to the pandemic began in March of this year and orchestras were forced to delay or cancel performances, many orchestras quickly realized that— with no box-office income—fundraising would become the most reliable means of addressing their immediate and critical cash-flow needs. For the majority of orchestras, however, the economic aftermath of the pandemic put

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fundraising confidence in doubt, creating a perfect storm that limited their ability to produce music, drive revenue, and create value nationwide.

Across the country, orchestras were reacting and responding to changes that affected every part of their organizations—from cancelled performances and stunned patrons to musicians, staff, and volunteers who collectively found their organization in sudden dire straits. When the pandemic hit the United States, the two of us worked both independently and

cooperatively to help solve the economic challenges facing not only longtime clients like the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, but Robert Swaney the orchestra field at large. Beyond working with current clients, Robert Swaney Consulting also offered pro-bono consulting for a limited period by phone and video James Leffler to any arts organization that asked. We spent dozens of hours coaching and listening, and in the process, redefining our best practices for this unprecedented and challenging situation.

In our shared view, the most important action orchestras can take right now is to continue engaging donors through well-crafted fundraising and stewardship strategies—and to do so with confidence.

To achieve this, we start by applying our steadfast belief that during crises, patrons will remain generous and will want to experience the music, no matter how it is delivered. Organizations that confidently symphony

SUMMER 2020

address the challenges associated with an uncertain future will engender support from their patrons.

Prioritizing revenue-driven decisions is also necessary to stabilize cash flow for the short term. Imperative actions to advancing fundraising include:

• Converting ticket revenue to donations

• Accelerating high-expectation gift solicitations

• Creating inspired messaging • Producing and distributing music • Voicing value to the community Efficiently putting our theories into practice has become the daily challenge.

Eliminating distractions, doubts, and the natural desire to examine an uncontrollable volume of “what ifs” helps orchestras keep focus. Concentrating on areas that can either be controlled or influenced can equate to better decision-making and quick action. This approach leads to an immediate mobilization of high-leverage, high-return fundraising activities, resulting in increased and immediate philanthropic support.

Another part of a successful fundraising formula focuses around philanthropic messaging. RSC clients intentionally

do not employ needs-based messaging, widely used by other non-profits during a crisis, in favor of enhanced value-based messaging. Any disappointing news should be offset by aspirational and inspirational information whenever possible.

The most important action orchestras can take right now is to continue engaging donors through well-crafted fundraising and stewardship strategies—and to do so with confidence.

The frequency of messaging to patrons dramatically increases, and stewardship and relationship-preservation mature as organization-wide priorities.

ADDRESSING IMMEDIATE PRIORITIES

In reviewing the key gift categories (Board, Major Individual Donors, BroadBase Individual Donors, Sponsors, and other Institutional Donors), we reconfigured our approach with positive urgency.

As PPP became a familiar acronym for the federal Paycheck Protection Program, RSC adapted the initials to mean “Patron

Learn More In April, the League of American Orchestras presented Orchestra Fundraising in This Time of Crisis, a free, two-part webinar by Bob Swaney, founder and CEO of Robert Swaney Consulting and the League’s interim vice president for development, and James Leffler, vice president of development for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. The webinar was intended for orchestra executive directors, youth orchestra directors, trustees, development and fundraising staff, and anyone seeking to learn more about fundraising throughout the pandemic. The Fundraising in This Time of Crisis webinar took place on April 15, followed by Maintaining Donor Relationships on April 22.

Watch the webinars free of charge at americanorchestras.org/fundraisingtimeofcrisis (please note that you will need to register first). For more information, contact Bob Swaney at (317) 300-4443 x71 or rsc@rscfundraising.com, and James Leffler at (214) 871-4515.

The webinar was made possible by generous grants from American Express, the Howard Gilman Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

americanorchestras.org

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Preservation Program,” giving a common focal point for our clients to make revenue-based decisions. Our tactics were—and continue to be—aimed at effectively engaging patrons throughout the crisis and into recovery.

Board Giving: A longstanding goal of board giving is to achieve 100% participation, and securing this goal became a top priority. Additionally, to increase giving from this group, a core tactic became creating a collective challenge grant to inspire other donors. We discouraged an over-reliance on board giving to solve the entirety of cash issues but did (and do) rely on the board’s leadership-level giving to be the pacesetter for all other giving.

This group also sets the tone by converting their ticket money and, in some cases, year-end gala and special-event monies, into contributed support.

Major Individual Donors: Approaching this group has required a deeper, donorby-donor review depending on personal circumstances and their relationship with the orchestra. Donors in this category were approached to accelerate the timing of their renewal gift, make an increased gift, make a second gift, convert ticket and/or event support into contributions, or all or none of the above. A subset of this group, often the top ten or twenty donors, were also considered for a “heroic gift” to temporarily and dramatically improve cash flow while concerts and events are on hold.

Broad-Base Individual Donors: Although the total cash represented by this group is comparatively small, investing in their retention as part of our PPP approach remained a priority. We emphasized continuing to ask via distance channels, such as direct mail, telefunding, email, and social media, and aligning asks with other social media content and new offerings for the orchestra.

Sponsorships and Institutional Giving: Similar to the Major Individuals category, Institutional Giving required a case-by-

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case review. The strategy for this group was geared to keep support in the current fiscal year rather than pushing into the next year. Realigning sponsorship recognition with new online content became an appealing option and proved to be an effective strategy. For gifts designated for

Although baseline fundraising activities will increase, fresh approaches must be considered. education and community programs that were suspended, grantors were approached individually to gauge flexibility and adaptability with the possibility of reducing or removing restrictions, most often resulting in positive outcomes for the orchestra.

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE

After we addressed the immediate cashflow opportunities, we began to develop a path for 2020-21 fundraising. Given that many uncertainties related to performances remain, we project fundraising will be the dominant, if not sole, revenue stream for many orchestras over the next twelve to eighteen months.

With a new fiscal year approaching, we are focusing on expanding our Patron Preservation Program methodology— along with philanthropy’s primary tools to cultivate, solicit, and steward donors at all levels. This approach will address the key gift categories and tactics to maximize donor retention and philanthropic support while live performances find their new footing.

Three Operational Plans: We first suggest that our orchestra partners develop three operational plans for 2020-21, including supplemental fundraising and tactical outlines for marketing. Each plan, similar to but independent from the others, would pivot on a different date for music returning to the stage, thereby providing a pre-planned approach to a still rapidly changing environment. As examples, we chose “Holiday,” “Spring/Summer 2021,” and “Fall 2021” launch possibilities. symphony

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Deepening relationship-based fundraising skills is crucial in helping to provide some financial stability during this challenging time. RSC relies on a time-tested “Donor Cycle” model of identification, cultivation, solicitation, and appreciation/ stewardship. The focus is on attracting donors, keeping donors invested, and increasing donor commitments as the relationship between your orchestra and the donor matures.

health and economic crisis subsides? We simply don’t know. What we do know, as evidenced by our work with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and RSC clients of all sizes and budgets, is that even if the industry changes forever, there are likely silver linings that are not yet fully defined.

In the meantime, orchestras will find ways to do what they do best: provide high standards of performances and community services that are meaningful to their communities. And if aptly involved, donors will continue to be there and will partner in this irreplaceable work.

What fundraising practices should be emphasized in the coming months?

Although baseline fundraising activities will increase, fresh approaches must be considered. Donors, sponsors, and other funders are all dealing with their own recovery situations, so fundraising tactics

Deepening relationshipbased fundraising skills is crucial in helping to provide some financial stability during this challenging time. must balance urgency with flexibility, expectations with reality, and tradition with innovation to accommodate the changing philanthropic landscape. Donors will continue to give—not so much for what you can do for them, but because they have a deep affection and affinity for your orchestra. Supporting this idea, asking for gifts should become personal at more levels, and should always be value-based.

Increasing communications to all patrons and continuing to produce and distribute your music in whatever ways feasible are paramount. Showing appreciation to donors at every opportunity will also leave both immediate and long-term positive impressions that support the PPP model.

In short, bring your donors along on the journey with your orchestra. Be flexible to accommodate their needs, make them part of the conversation, and treat them each as indispensable partners in leading through the recovery—not just as donors, but as trusted friends.

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Anti-Black Discrimination in American Orchestras A broad historical look at American orchestras puts into context the field’s persistent lack of ethnic and racial diversity and examines the underlying culture of privilege, exclusion, and unacknowledged bias that contributes to it. Greater awareness of our shared history will contribute to fieldwide change in behavior—and ultimately improve equity.

by Aaron Flagg

As part of its planning for equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) work in 2018, the League of American Orchestras engaged in extensive listening and learning from orchestra staff, boards, and musicians about the state of EDI efforts in their orchestras as well as their expectations of the League. One of the frequent and emphatic messages to the League was t​ o “acknowledge the painful history of discrimination within the orchestra field.” That view was echoed

by Bryan Stevenson, founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, who said in his J​ une 16 video How We Arrived Here: “We need an era of truth and justice in America. We need to commit ourselves to being honest about our pasts. Truth and justice [are] s​equential. You have to tell the truth before you get to the restoration, before you get to the reconciliation.” These beliefs gave rise to the article that follows, one effort in the League’s ongoing work of coming to grips with the past and working toward a more inclusive and equitable future.

—Jesse Rosen, President and CEO, League of American Orchestras

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Thy magic power re-unites All that custom has divided, All men become brothers, Under the sway of thy gentle wings.

—from Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller’s “Ode to Joy,” later used by Ludwig van Beethoven in his Symphony No. 9

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hen we speak of the world of symphony orchestras in America, we say “the field.” “The field” has included many different stakeholders over the decades. Of course, we mean the orchestral music itself; the musicians who compose, organize, play, and conduct the music; the staff who arrange and publicize concerts to share the music; the audiences who listen to the music; and the volunteer community members who set policy, hire lead staff, govern, and raise the non-earned income needed to fuel the organizations that house the above. There are other stakeholders such as guest artists, musicians’ unions, service organizations like the League of American Orchestras, public and private foundations, governmental agencies, vendors, and more, all of whom support and impact the work of “the field.”

Despite a broad and functionally diverse group with many sincere individuals and well-intended initiatives, the field has never effectively engaged a fair representation of the racial and ethnic talent in the country within all the onstage and offstage roles noted above. One might ask: In 2020, are the musician, staff, and board roles equally accessible to everyone interested in this music? Sadly, the simple answer is no.

The reasons why include an ignored and uncelebrated history of minority artistry in classical music (by composers, conductors, performers, and managers); ignorance of the history of discrimination and racism against classical musicians of AfricanAmerican and Latinx heritage by the field; and a culture in the field that is indifferent to the inequity, racial bias, and microaggressions within it. symphony

SUMMER 2020

What the above question, and those like it, ignores are the discriminatory practices embedded in the critical systems that people need to access the field. These practices, by which I mean exclusion, harassment, micro-aggressions, and an absence of cross-cultural sensitivity, discourage engagement and disrupt many aspects of one’s journey into the field. They impede formal educational pathways, regular interaction with the art and its artists, networking opportunities, informal mentorship, and access to industry information and performance opportunities that build confidence in and increase commitment from people of color to classical music.

In 2020, are the musician, staff, and board roles at orchestras equally accessible to everyone interested in this music? The simple answer is no.

These practices make the field inequitable.

The only question is, how committed are we—individually and collectively—to changing the status quo? Since the victims of these practices did not create and do not control these systems, it is the field’s responsibility to remain aware of the history that built them, fix the inequitable practices, and then mitigate the damage caused by them.

Here is an analogy: If I said that anyone in town can come to my home to eat dinner this weekend, but assumed there was no need to include my address, shared this invitation only with people I already knew and liked, spent no time learning how to make all guests feel welcome, and neglected to consider that for decades my ancestors had literally and figuratively burned most of the bridges from certain parts of town to my home, you would advise me to not be surprised by a lack of diverse attendees. The systems in place to enact my invitation are not sufficient or equitable despite the possible sincerity of my offer.

In the case of orchestras, there is a documented history of conscious exclusion, harassment, and discrimination that includes segregated unions; hostile groups of musicians, staff, and board leaders; and bifurcated access to gatekeepers and mentors.

This history, like all history, has a presentamericanorchestras.org

The League of American Orchestras’ 2016 Racial/Ethnic and Gender Diversity in the Orchestra Field study, with research and data analysis by Dr. James Doeser, documents gender and ethnic/ racial diversity in U.S. orchestras among musicians, conductors, staff, executives, and board members. Read the complete report at https://americanorchestras.org/knowledge-researchinnovation/diversity-studies.html.

day impact: a legacy embedded in the routine processes of life that we may not even see. Therefore, the roles within our music profession are not accessible to all.

In my analogy, it would be surprising and illogical for me to assume that the reason I lack diverse dinner attendees is because people were simply not hungry. This is the same type of irrational conclusion many in American classical music make about the lack of diversity in the field.

What Statistics Reveal

Per 2018 U.S. Census Bureau estimates, 13.4% of Americans identified as African American/Black, and 18.3% of Americans identified as Hispanic or Latino. This adds up to a total of 31.7% of the country.

In 1980, the total percentage of African

American/Black, Latino, and Asian people was 30.4%. However, in 2014, per the League of American Orchestras’ Racial/ Ethnic and Gender Diversity in the Orchestra Field study, 14.2% of orchestra musicians identified as non-white—and this figure includes African American/Black (1.8%), Asian/Pacific Islander (9.1%), Hispanic/Latino (2.5%), and others. To break down other orchestra roles, 10% of conductors and music directors identified as non-white; 14% of orchestra staff identified as non-white; and 6% of governing boards identified as non-white. By comparison, a national survey by the nonprofit organization BoardSource found that non-white people on all types of nonprofit boards totaled 21% in 2017. The League’s study on diversity, issued in 2016, covered

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As documented in the League’s Racial/Ethnic and Gender Diversity in the Orchestra Field report, board membership at orchestras remained predominantly white during the period studied.

the years 1978 to 2014. It is important to note that over this span of time the musician portion of the field became proportionally more representative of the general population in terms of gender (from 38.2% women musicians in 1978 to 47.4% women musicians in 2014) and has seen

an increase (from 5.3% to 9.1%) in the presence of individuals with Asian/Pacific Islander backgrounds (race and ethnicity data on musicians began to be tracked by the League in 1980).

For comparison in another field, Major League Baseball refused to hire play-

Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion at the League In addition to its longstanding commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in the orchestra field, in 2018 the League of American Orchestras launched two major initiatives to increase EDI: The Catalyst Fund and the National Alliance for Audition Support.

The Catalyst Fund provides annual grants to help League-member orchestras increase their understanding of equity, diversity, and inclusion and to practice more effective EDI strategies. The Catalyst Fund awards one-year grants, ranging from $10,000 to $25,000 each, to multiple U.S. orchestras; participating orchestras are required to use the funds to support the costs of retaining a skilled EDI practitioner to advance EDI learning objectives. The Catalyst Fund is supported by a three-year, $2.1 million grant to the League from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Grantees share their learning via an online forum as well as remote and in-person convenings, made possible by the Paul M. Angell Family Foundation. Visit the League’s Catalyst Fund.

In 2018, the League partnered with the Sphinx Organization and the New World Symphony to create the National Alliance for Audition Support (NAAS), a fieldwide initiative with the goal of increasing diversity in American orchestras. Supported by a four-year, $1.8 million grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, along with additional financial and programmatic contributions from America’s orchestras, the Alliance offers a customized array of support to Black and Latinx musicians to enhance their audition skills, increase their participation in auditions, and expand their representation in orchestras. Participating orchestras help provide funding for NAAS and also provide mentoring and guidance for musicians of color. Visit the League’s National Alliance for Audition Support site.

The League’s online Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Center provides advice, insight, and paths to greater diversity and inclusion at orchestras. Hundreds of free resources are available to help orchestras better understand and create deeper connections with their communities. Resources include the recent Update on the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Work of the League of American Orchestras; information and best practices on advancing EDI work among board and staff; Symphony magazine’s report on how representation of LGBTQ+ composers, musicians, and audiences is increasing at orchestras; and more. Visit the League’s Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Center.

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ers of color for decades, just as orchestras did. Both industries would claim they welcomed all who would audition or try out—but ensured behind the scenes that no players of color were ever engaged.

Kenesaw Mountain Landis, the first Commissioner of Baseball from 1920 until his death in 1944, famously enforced this status quo. Jackie Robinson’s entrance into the Minor Leagues on October 23, 1945 and the Major Leagues on April 11, 1947, were only possible after Landis’s demise.

Similarly, in his 2001 memoir Fiddle and Fight, former St. Louis Symphony Orchestra bassist Russell V. Brodine notes an apparent ban in his orchestra on hiring any African-American artists during the same period until after the death of “the most obstinate bigot on the Symphony Board.”

As reported by the Society for American Baseball Research, in 1980 0% of Major League Baseball players were Asian, 11.6% were Latinx, and 17.4% were African American. However, in 2016, 2.1% of MLB players were Asian, 27.4% were Latinx, and 6.7% of MLB players were African American.

I’m reminded of a saying attributed to the business management guru Peter Drucker: “What gets measured gets improved.” The League began collecting race/ ethnicity data on orchestra musicians in 1980 and on orchestra board members in 2010; Major League Baseball began tracking comparable data in 1947, and the United States Census has enumerated people by race since 1790.

A Grassroots Organization for Orchestras

In 1941, Leta Snow was an enterprising new manager of the semi-professional Kalamazoo Symphony in Michigan. She was interested in learning solutions from other orchestras on the various problems of prosymphony

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ducing symphonic music for the community. She inquired whether a group of managers from smaller orchestras could join an annual meeting of managers at larger orchestras. The request went to Arthur Judson, then the manager of the New York Philharmonic ( Judson was also involved with the founding of Columbia Artists Management and CBS). He felt the two types of orchestras—large professional groups and smaller community-based ensembles—were too dissimilar and turned down Snow’s request, instead suggesting she form a separate organization dealing with the special problems of the “civic” orchestra. She and those like her were not welcome. Fortunately for us, Snow went ahead and arranged a meeting in Chicago on May 21, 1942. The meeting consisted of 23 representatives of orchestras, most of them managers but some of them conductors, orchestra players, and board members who served also as managers. They organized and founded the American Symphony Orchestra League (the original name of the League of American Orchestras).

Over time, the League became a primary source to which local orchestra boards and staff turned for business recommendations and other advice about running orchestras.

Interestingly, after Snow’s successor at the League, Helen Thompson, led a successful grassroots letter-writing campaign in 1951 to persuade Congress to repeal a federal tax on symphony concert tickets and other forms of entertainment, the large orchestras decided to join the “civic”orchestra-minded League. Those included in Thompson’s campaign were conductors, orchestra officials, musicians, patrons, and members of women’s volunteer committees. A broader, more inclusive definition of the orchestra field won the day.

Musician Unions: Don’t Go it Alone

By 1855, New York City had the thirdlargest German population in the world, just behind Vienna and Berlin. In 1860, a number of German-speaking musicians banded together to form the first musicians’ organization, “organized for social and benevolent purposes,” called the Aschenbroedel Verein, or Cinderella Club.

It purchased the building at 74 East 4th Street, then in the heart of Manhattan’s Little Germany. Members included instrumentalists as well as conductors Theoamericanorchestras.org

dore Thomas, Carl Bergmann, and Walter Damrosch. The Philharmonic Society of New York, which eventually became the New York Philharmonic, shared space in the same building. Also in New York around this time, a group of musicians was demanding fair remuneration for their services from a group of theatrical producers. They formed the Musical Mutual Protective Union (MMPU) in 1863 for the purpose of “protecting the members and their interests.” This was the same year that Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.

In 1865, the same year as the abolishment of slavery in America through the enactment of the 13th Amendment, the new union posted an announcement in The New York Times of a planned strike.

The purpose was to “protect the profession from imposters who had entered its ranks

The unionization of musicians, like that of other industries in the late 19th century, came with the social prejudices of the time, which discouraged solidarity among racially diverse musicians. and by dint of smart management had the business all in their own hands, and paid the performers whatever they saw fit, oftentimes pocketing the amount due the musicians for their whole engagement.”

The musicians described discriminatory practices. For example, “If a member of a band or orchestra complained [about delayed or low wages], he was suspended or excluded from the business altogether.”

They also made a point of stating, “The present strike is by no means of a national character; that is, it belongs to no particular nationality, but is purely one involving a fair and just demand for payment for services faithfully rendered by the musical profession, who are organized into a Mutual Protective Association.”

Segregated Musician Unions

The unionization of musicians, like that of other industries in the late nineteenth century, came with the social prejudices of the time, which discouraged solidarity among racially diverse musicians. Black musicians

generally could not join white unions and were treated as competitors in the marketplace. Most musician unions could not certify the professional quality of their members, having no internally imposed standards, as did other artisan unions. Employers therefore could hire the musicians they preferred and who had the skills they sought, be it sight reading, improvisation, knowledge of certain repertoire, or presentation abilities. There were cities such Cleveland, Ohio where Black musicians held a majority share of the local performing arts business due to their musical skills. To avoid being underpaid or otherwise mistreated, these musicians founded their own organizations that standardized pay rates and enforced fair treatment.

(Throughout this and subsequent eras, professional musicians were male by overwhelming margins.)

In 1875, Black musicians in Boston formed the Progressive Musical Union to protect themselves. Other establishments were formed for Black musicians, such as the Clef Club in New York City and Philadelphia, that served as booking agency, social club, and a type of trade union. By 1886, several of the unions federated into a loose organization named the National League of Musicians. The successor to this is the American Federation of Musicians.

The work to consolidate and unify these various organizations under one national banner would take many years.

Also in 1886, Walter Craig, a Black violinist residing at 103 West 29th Street, joined the otherwise all-white New York musicians’ union, the Musicians’ Mutual Protective Union (MMPU). His action— integrating a white musicians’ union— would take 88 more years to complete within all chapters of the American Federation of Musicians (AFM). By 1910, about 300 Black musicians had joined the MMPU, comprising a small but not insignificant segment of the roughly 8,000-member union. By 1920, their ranks had swelled to about 600. However, the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision authorized the “separate but equal” doctrine, which allowed statesponsored segregation. This encouraged separate schools, societal institutions, and musicians’ unions. In 1902, the AFM authorized the first charter for a union local specifically for Black musicians. Local 208,

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in Chicago, Illinois, was formed because Local 10, formed in 1901, excluded African Americans. This began the clock of segregation within the AFM. Although the U.S. Supreme Court found “separate but equal” to be unconstitutional in 1954 with Brown v. Board of Education, it took several decades to overturn all segregation laws and until the 1970s for musicians’ unions to integrate.

This overview of musicians’ unions provides a backdrop to the 72 years of segregated musician unions within the American Federation of Musicians, from 1902 to 1974. As noted above, there were often two different unions in a town or city based on race and symbolized by two

could rehearse, meet, and network with other musicians, and obtain access to gigs.

Since unions and their halls were segregated, not all musicians had access to the same information and networks. Segregation occurred not only at the unions, but at places of employment as well. Jazz musician and former Berklee College of Music faculty member Andy McGhee recalled how in 1945 only whites could work at Blinstrub’s Village club in South Boston, while the Crawford House in the Scollay Square section of what is now downtown Boston had all Black players. Musicians’ unions were segregated by custom until the federal government forced the merger of white and Black unions in 1967. It still took years to enact. According to one source, Boston had “protracted, tense and divisive discussions ending in 1970 with the creation of Local 9-535,” the nowintegrated Boston Musicians Association.

Motivating Change

Wikipedia Commons

In May of 1958, the Urban League of Greater New York published Job Status of the Negro Professional Musician in the New York Metropolitan Area. The report stated that throughout their histories, neither the New York Philharmonic (founded in

In 1886, Walter Craig (1854-1933), a Black violin soloist and orchestra conductor, joined the otherwise all-white New York musicians’ union, the Musicians’ Mutual Protective Union.

His action—integrating a white musicians’ union—would take 88 more years to complete within all chapters of the American Federation of Musicians.

different numbers (e.g., Locals 47 and 767 in Los Angeles). This period symbolized a clear disenfranchisement of African American musicians from the orchestral world. For example: the notice of an orchestral job opening was for many decades shared by word of mouth and later by notice only in the white musicians’ unions.

This presented another obstacle for prospective minority orchestral candidates.

The union halls themselves provided access to audition notices, rehearsal facilities, and camaraderie, in addition to protected work. These were the places where you

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Elayne Jones, shown here on the cover of her 2019 autobiography, was a percussionist at New York City Opera Orchestra when the New York Philharmonic hired her in 1958 as an extra player. Philharmonic Associate General Manager George E. Judd described Jones as “the first Negro orchestral musician to perform with the New York Philharmonic.”

Jones was subsequently a member of the American Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, and others.

Patricia Prattis Jennings was hired by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra as principal keyboard in 1966; she is considered to be the first Black woman hired as a principal player in a major American orchestra. Jennings also appeared as a soloist with multiple orchestras; edited Symphonium, which reported on African-American orchestral musicians; and wrote for Symphony magazine and other publications. She retired from the Pittsburgh Symphony in 2006.

1842) nor the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra (founded in 1883) had ever hired an African-American orchestral musician.

It also noted that three Black musicians were engaged in 1956 to perform with the Symphony of the Air (1954-1963), an orchestra organized by former members of the NBC Symphony, which was conducted by Leopold Stokowski. Those three musicians were not rehired the following season due to a racist campaign within the orchestra to exclude them.

The minutes from the New York Philharmonic’s November 24, 1958 board meeting note that Managing Director Bruno Zirato discussed the Urban League report, commenting, “In the past ten years not one Negro has showed up for a Philharmonic audition.” A few weeks later, in a December 11, 1958 memo to file, Associate General Manager George E. Judd noted the hiring of Elayne Jones, a member of the New York City Opera Orchestra, as an extra percussionist for Philharmonic concerts a week earlier. To be clear, Jones did not apply to audition. The Philharmonic sought her out and invited her multiple times until it could work with her schedule. Judd points out that the performances “caused no public notice whatsoever,” and expresses surprise or perhaps frustration at symphony

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New York Philharmonic Archives

ductors as Dean Dixon (1915-1976) and James DePreist (1936-2013) are part of the tradition but not sufficiently known despite the unquestioned excellence of their artistry. Also ignored are the many nineteenth-centur y American instrumental soloists of color, among them Hazel Harrison (piano), Joseph White (violin), John Thomas Douglass (violin), and Joseph Douglas (violin), who played with orchestras and gave reIn May of 1958, the Urban League of Greater New York published Job Status of the Negro Professional Musician in the New York citals around the world.

Metropolitan Area, an in-depth report on the employment of Black They are the ancestors musicians at orchestras, opera companies, Broadway, and media. of today’s soloists such The study’s summary reaches stark conclusions. as Melissa White (violin), Tai Murray (vionot receiving press attention for the Phillin), and Terrence Wilson (piano) as well harmonic’s efforts toward a historic moas contracted members of professional orment. In his memo, Judd describes Jones as chestras in the mid- to late 20th century, “the first Negro orchestral musician to persuch as Henry Lewis (bass, Los Angeles form with the New York Philharmonic.” Philharmonic, hired in 1948; Lewis also The Urban League report and subsequent articles catalyzed a new level of action or at The history of discrimination least attention within the orchestra. at America’s orchestras is In 1989, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra received political pressure to hire not discussed or commonly more Black musicians. Two state legislaknown, because it is painful, tors withheld $1.24 million in state aid embarrassing, and contrary and threatened to boycott and picket the orchestra if it did not hire more Black muto how we want to view sicians. Bassist Rick Robinson, who was ourselves. performing with the orchestra on tour at the time, was voted in by the musicians and hired. The Detroit Symphony also had a distinguished career as a conductor); started its African-American Orchestra Charles Burrell (bass, San Francisco SymFellowship the next year. phony, hired in 1949); Elayne Jones (perFor its entire history, the orchestra field cussion, New York City Opera Orcheshas been branded as being by and for white tra, hired in 1949); Donald White (cello, men. There is no natural, biological, enviCleveland Orchestra, hired in 1957); Sanronmental, or talent-based reason for this. ford Allen (violin, New York PhilharmonAnd this is despite the history of racially ic, hired in 1962); Wilmer Wise (princidiverse orchestras, among them La Société pal trumpet, Marlboro Festival Orchestra Philharmonique du Nouvelle Orleans (acand associate principal trumpet, Baltimore tive in 1840), the Camden Negro SymSymphony Orchestra, hired in 1965); Paphony, Baltimore Negro Symphony, and tricia Prattis Jennings (principal keyboard, the Symphony of the New World. EarlyPittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, hired in twentieth-century symphonic composers 1966); Ann Hobson Pilot (harp, National such as Florence Price and William Grant Symphony Orchestra, hired in 1966; hired Still, and even such relatively recent conat the Boston Symphony Orchestra in americanorchestras.org

1969 and served as principal harp from 1980 until her retirement in 2009); Robert Lee Watt (French horn, Los Angeles Philharmonic, hired in 1970); Langston Fitzgerald (trumpet, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, hired in 1970); Jerome Ashby (French horn, New York Philharmonic, hired in 1979); and Judy Dines (flute, Houston Symphony, hired in 1992).

In the twenty-first century thus far, orchestras have hired musicians of color including, among others, Tage Larsen (trumpet, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, hired in 2002); Demarre McGill (principal flute, Seattle Symphony, hired in 2011); Alex Laing (principal clarinet, Phoenix Symphony, hired in 2012); Sonora Slocum (principal flute, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, hired in 2012); Ryan Murphy (cello, San Antonio Symphony, hired in 2012); Anthony McGill (principal clarinet, New York Philharmonic, hired in 2014); and Titus Underwood (principal oboe, Nashville Symphony, hired in 2019).

These individuals and others like them are wonderful artists, but unfortunately, they are exceptions in a field that remains overwhelmingly white.

Diversity Efforts

“Most important of all, of course, is the sociological impetus behind the project— a truly integrated symphony orchestra.

The success of this project will certainly stimulate more of the same, and may provide us with our first big step out of the unfair and illogical situation in which we now find ourselves with the Negro musician.”

– Leonard Bernstein, writing about the debut of a new orchestra called the Symphony of the New World, 1965 The pathways for people to be identified, nurtured, mentored, and accepted in the orchestra field have not welcomed ethnic or racial diversity. To address this, the League of American Orchestras has redoubled its efforts to support the field in embracing ethnic and racial equity, diversity, and inclusion. To do so, it is paramount that the field document and acknowledge its heritage—including the systems of separation and discrimination. These systems help explain the relative failure of the first 40 years (1976-2016) of orchestra fellowships to effect noticeable change in

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Published in 2016, Forty Years of Fellowships: A Study of Orchestras’ Efforts to Include African American and Latino Musicians, commissioned by the League of American Orchestras with research and analysis by Nick Rabkin and Monica Hairston O’Connell, examines orchestras’ past efforts to diversify their musician ranks with fellowships for African American and Latinx musicians.

Read the complete report at https://americanorchestras.org/knowledge-research-innovation/ diversity-studies.html.

the profile and inclusive culture of orchestras. Although begun in the 1970s to stem nepotism and favoritism, not to increase diversity, the blind audition process (e.g., screen up from preliminary through final auditions) has contributed to a reduction in some preferential treatment and contributed to the increase of women musicians in orchestras. However, the blind audition process has not helped diversify our organizations in terms of ethnicity and race. Whether or not an orchestra has successfully recruited a racially diverse pool of qualified applicants, say 13.4%, before the audition starts is not asked or tracked.

Currently, a racially diverse applicant pool is not viewed as a requirement for an orchestral search to be legitimate, as the Rooney Rule is in the National Football League. It could and should be.

The American symphony orchestra began as private, musician-led collectives in cities like New Orleans, Charleston, Boston, and New York. Their predecessors included private subscription concert organizations like the St. Cecilia Society (1766) and amateur orchestras such as the Euterpean Orchestra Society (1799). In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, many cities started all-volunteer, com-

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munity, or “civic” orchestras. Over time, many of these entities transformed into professional, board-led institutions, as the New York Philharmonic became in 1909.

Congress enacted tax-exemptions for the charitable and voluntary sector between 1894 and 1969. Most orchestras are now public, board-led, tax-exempt 501(c)(3) charitable non-profits chartered for the

Similar to the #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter movements, there is an increased awareness of and willingness to disrupt cycles of oppression and stand up for equity and fairness. purpose of education. The term “charitable” is used in its generally accepted legal sense and includes relief of the poor, distressed, or underprivileged; advancement of religion; advancement of education or science; erecting or maintaining public buildings, monuments, or works; lessening the burdens of government; lessening neighborhood tensions; eliminating prejudice and discrimination; defending

human and civil rights secured by law; and combating community deterioration and juvenile delinquency.

Given the origin of some professional orchestras as private societies or as projects of single benefactors, such as William Andrew Clark for the Los Angeles Philharmonic or Henry Lee Higginson for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, there is often a false conflict between a private ethos and a charitable public mandate. The private focus is on perpetuating one group’s cultural norms and an undefined, subjective definition of “excellence,” while the public focus is concerned with remaining worthy of taxpayer support in many ways, including providing equitable access.

Throughout their long history, American orchestras have not evolved in isolation. They have developed within the context of a country whose unprecedented economic growth and pillar institutions of church, state, and academy were built on the sin of African slavery. This “peculiar institution” existed from 1581 to 1865, but its destructive impact lingers in the country’s racism, which has a personal and internal manifestation in the form of denial, as well as external acts of discrimination based on a racial superiority belief system.

These actions are undergirded by a fear of difference and theories of biological supremacy and inferiority. We see the gruesome reality of anti-Black racism in recent headlines about the deaths of Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Ahmaud Arbery and Rayshard Brooks in Georgia, George Floyd in Minneapolis, Jamel Floyd in Brooklyn, Dominique “Rem’mie” Fells in Philadelphia, and in the inhumane actions of Amy Cooper in New York, and Robert Larkins and Lisa Alexander in San Francisco. The history of discrimination in America’s classical music field, particularly in orchestras, is not discussed or studied or commonly known, because it is painful, embarrassing, and contrary to how we want to view ourselves.

There is, to be sure, positive movement in the field to actively seek and embrace more diversity; to address the internal cultural practices that undermine true equality; to learn the full heritage of the field; and to build pathways to welcome more diverse talent. In the mid-1980s the New York Philharmonic began the Music Assistance Fund, now housed at the Sphinx symphony

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• What

On June 4, Aaron Flagg, the author of this article, led Anti-Black Racism and Symphony Orchestras in America as part of the League of American Orchestras’ 2020 National Conference, which was held online. The session explored racism’s connection to orchestras, what orchestras can do about it, and how the League’s EDI Committee is engaging with and furthering its understanding of racism, diversity, equity, and inclusion.

The session was introduced by League President and CEO Jesse Rosen, and Flagg was joined by members of the League’s EDI Committee of the Board of Directors. Watch the session at https://leagueconference.org/ schedule/2020/6/4/anti-black-racism-inamerican-orchestras-hty48?rq=flagg. Slides from Flagg’s session examine the field’s history—and suggest ways forward.

Organization in Detroit, “to identify and support African American and Latino string players who aspire to orchestral careers.” A number of orchestral fellowship programs followed. In April 2018, the League of American Orchestras, the Sphinx Organization, and the New World Symphony announced the establishment of the National Alliance for Audition Support (NAAS), which prepares Black and Latinx musicians to enter and succeed in auditions for orchestras (see the article elsewhere in this issue of Symphony reporting on NAAS). Also in 2018, the League launched the Catalyst Fund, a three-year pilot program that awards League-member orchestras annual grants to support effective practices to advance their understanding of equity, diversity, and inclusion.

Additionally, the League’s Board of Directors embraced and recently achieved an aggressive diversity recruitment goal.

Today, it is clear that the field by and large wants to dismantle the impact of systematic discrimination on future generations of musicians. Similar to the #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter movements, there is an increased societal awareness and willingness to disrupt cyamericanorchestras.org

cles of oppression and stand up for equity and fairness within orchestras. Recently, an orchestra manager told me how a finalist of color for a principal position was being met with discrimination and unfair practices by at least one vocal player in the orchestra. Several musicians, staff, and board members came together to ensure that this highly qualified candidate was not kept from the principal position

How committed are we— individually and collectively— to changing the status quo? that they had rightfully earned. Despite the shock of realizing that this was racism at work, the manager had the strength of character to step forward and stop it. The manager also grew in appreciation for the type of perseverance required by all of us to overcome the status quo.

The League of American Orchestras is determined to play a useful role in helping all stakeholders build a more inclusive classical music field. This includes becoming more aware of our shared heritage, so our shared future can better reflect the beauty of the music we all love.

Begin by asking some questions. For example:

•

support is in place to educate your orchestra employees on the industry’s history and core values including equity and inclusion?

• Are you aware of the “locker-room culture” that exists with orchestra musicians, staff, and orchestra boards? How are standards of behavior communicated and enforced?

• How does your orchestra hire substitute and extras players? Is it possible those systems can be made more inclusive?

• How do you advertise vacancies in your orchestra and recruit candidates? How can these practices evolve to ensure an inclusive pool of candidates?

How are programming decisions made in your organization? What does your decision group look like? How can it be more inclusive to represent broader views, access more repertoire knowledge, and advise on how to support musicians in learning to play repertoire less familiar to them?

To help face these and other questions, the League and each of us must play a role in acknowledging our field’s history and demonstrating our shared commitment to do better. All the critical stakeholders in the orchestral field—artists, musicians’ unions, boards, staff, orchestra committees, elected officials, and audiences—must be willing to do the same. This article is one action in that ongoing effort.

DR. AARON A. FLAGG is chair and associate director of Jazz Studies at the Juilliard School; former dean and professor of The Hartt School, University of Hartford; a professional trumpeter; a former board member of the Stamford Symphony Orchestra; and a current board member of the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project and the League of America Orchestras, where he serves as secretary and chair of the League’s Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee.

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It’s About

Time

Sylvia Elzafon

Gemma New, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra’s principal guest conductor, leads the DSO at Meyerson Symphony Center.

The good news: more women are getting high-profile jobs conducting orchestras. The bad news: it’s not yet time to retire the phrase “glass ceiling” for once and for all. Will we get there, and if so, when?

by Jennifer Melick

I

n 2016, a ten-year-old violinist named Madeline de Geest went to a St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra concert led by Gemma New, who had just been appointed the St. Louis Symphony’s resident conductor. De Geest, enthralled, came backstage after the performance to ask for an autograph, and New gave the young musician her conducting baton. In 2017, New invited De Geest to a St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra rehearsal, and De Geest brought her violin and music folder. New commented at the time in the

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St. Louis Symphony’s blog, “She has so much energy and potential. She reminded me of myself when I was that age.” Since then, De Geest joined the SLSYO as one of its youngest musicians, and New’s profile has continued to rise. In addition to her St. Louis position, which concluded in May, New is now principal guest conductor at the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the first woman to hold that title there; serves as music director of Canada’s Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra; and has a full slate of guest conducting engagements. symphony

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Mariana Garcia

assistant conductor at Australia’s Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, principal conductor of the St. Woolos Sinfonia in Wales, and the first woman to serve as

Courtesy San Francisco Conservatory of Music

Conductor Nicole Paiement: “I never thought of myself as a woman conductor. I was attracted to conducting because of my deep love of music.”

New may modestly downplay being a role model for young female conductors, but seeing this 33-year-old New Zealand native in action on the podium makes a powerful statement on its own.

She is not flamboyant. She speaks quietly.

But she has an authority that is instantly communicated to the musicians and the audience; watching her clear beat, even in complex new works, is like seeing the architecture of a score turned inside out. All her energy goes into getting the sound she wants from the musicians— who return the favor by playing their hearts out for her. Not everyone gets to see the example of a Gemma New on the podium when they are growing up. Another conductor on the rise, Tianyi Lu, 30, has said that when she first contemplated a conducting career, “I had never seen a woman conduct a professional orchestra before.” Despite that, she is making a name for herself: currently she’s an americanorchestras.org

Brainstorming Solutions, Pondering Numbers

Alsop is not the only one frustrated by the pace of change when it comes to women holding top posts in the classical field. Last November, Kim Noltemy, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra’s president and CEO, decided to address the situation by hosting the DSO’s inaugural Women in Classical Music Symposium.

At that three-day event, women from all over the U.S.—and some men—gathered to brainstorm ways to get more women into leadership roles. “Orchestras in general are a little slower keeping up with the pace of change in society. That is something that we all think about, and try to find the right way to address,” Noltemy said in opening remarks at the

conductor in residence with the Welsh National Opera. But it’s easy to imagine there might be a lot more like Tianyi Lu, if there were more role models.

The growing list of women holding assistant, associate, resident, and principal guest conductor positions is encouraging. But the number of women music directors at larger-budget orchestras seems to inch up ever so slowly. “When I started conducting,” Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Music Director Marin Alsop quipped in Billboard in December, “I assumed there were going to be a lot of women doing it Tianyi Lu is assistant conductor of Australia’s Melbourne pretty soon. Five years went Symphony Orchestra; in Wales, she is principal conductor of the by, and then ten, and I was St. Woolos Sinfonia and conductor in residence with the Welsh like, ‘Where is everybody?’ ” National Opera.

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Antony Potts

“Fifty years ago, it was very rare that you would have a female conductor,” New told me recently. “So to get the experience, to be at a level where it’s comfortable, that is going to take time. You don’t want to push anyone into a situation, but you want to make sure that the opportunity—depending on the level—is equal.

In St. Louis, there is a boy, Logan, I think he must be eleven or ten. He said he was really inspired by a St. Louis Symphony Orchestra concert and wanted to become a conductor. He comes to so many of the rehearsals, he has scores, he always asks questions. He’s been conducting at a high school now. I’m really proud of Madeline and Logan. It’s very inspiring. I like to welcome everyone to the table. When I relate to someone and have a strong relationship with them, it’s because we have a kindred personality—it’s not because of their gender.”

Marin Alsop leads the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. In addition to serving as music director in Baltimore, she is chief conductor of the Ravinia Festival in Illinois and Austria’s ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra. Alsop has mentored many women conductors through the Taki Concordia Conducting Fellowship program she established in 2002.

Courtesy Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra

Women’s Philharmonic Advocacy

Jeri Lynne Johnson conducts the Philadelphia-based Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra, which she founded in 2008.

symposium. The gathering for composers, performers, orchestra administrators, artist managers, and conductors was timed to overlap with the neighboring Dallas

sic conductors and administrative leaders, and conducting opportunities.

Themes that came up over and over at the Dallas Symphony Orchestra sympo-

Sylvia Elzafon

Dallas Symphony Orchestra President and CEO Kim Noltemy speaks at the organization’s 2019 Women in Classical Music Symposium, designed to help get more women into leadership positions, including on the podium.

Opera’s annual Hart Institute for Women Conductors, which includes master classes, seminars, one-on-one meetings with prominent opera and classical-muJoAnn Falletta is the Buffalo Philharmonic’s longtime music director. She concludes her 27-year tenure as music director of the Virginia Symphony Orchestra in June 2020.

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sium included the importance of having mentors, male or female, who provide support in the right ways, and not always aiming for absolute perfection, which seems to

be very common in women in the classical field, judging from the number of people who brought it up in Dallas. “I suffer from extreme perfectionism,” Noltemy admitted when we spoke last fall. “I follow up on everything. If I say I’ll do something, I do it. I always apologize for not doing things fast enough. I believe words matter, and committing to do things matters.” By hosting the symposium, says Noltemy, “We’re kind of just Conductor and reorganizing peo- composer Victoria ple’s priorities. You Bond, who in 1977 need to spend your became the first woman to receive a time on the things Doctor of Musical Arts that matter the degree in Orchestral most. At symphony Conducting from orchestras, we need the Juilliard School, to focus on what says when she was studying conducting our real priorities there were very few are.” female role models.

The DSO symposium included panel discussions on topics including “Changing the Script of Women in Classical Music,” “Pathways for Change,” and “Practical Next Steps”; an hourlong “speed-dating” session for mentors and mentees; and achievement and career-advancement awards for vocalists Dawn Upshaw and Lucy Dhegrae, who gave inspiring, frank talks about the challenges they have faced during their careers. Other discussions at the Dalsymphony

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Anna Ablogina

In May 2019, the nonprofit Women’s Philharmonic Advocacy surveyed 21 U.S. orchestras’ 2019-20 season announcements.

Of those 21 orchestras, there was a total of 142 conductors (including guest conductors), sixteen of whom were women.

Chicago Sinfonietta Music Director Mei-Ann Chen

Rosalie O’Connor

were hotly debated. It was clear that there was a hunger for people to tell their stories, to be listened to, and to learn from others.

When it comes to women conductors, the big barrier is the “glass ceiling,” namely the small percentage of women music directors at largebudget orchestras. Last spring, the Women’s Philharmonic Advocacy—a nonprofit that advocates for performances of music written by women and collects data about women composers and conductors—surveyed 21 U.S. orchestras’ 2019-20 season announcements. Of those 21 orchestras, there was a total of 142 conductors (including guest conductors), sixteen of whom were women. That comes to just over 11 percent. Those numbers are in great contrast to the pool of musicians at professional U.S. orchestras, where the introduction of blind auditions in the 1970s is credited with helping increase the number of women orchestra musicians to where it is today, at close to parity with male musicians. But there is no such thing as a blind conducting audition, and you need podium time and mentorship to get better at it,

las symposium centered around building and maintaining relationships throughout careers; and pushing the field to become more open to risk. In informal chats, people spoke candidly about the career frustrations and successes they have experienced. In her talk, Dawn Upshaw spoke about the moment she discovered she was being paid far less as a vocal pedagogue than an equivalent position held by a male colleague at the same university. During a panel discussion called “Employability and Career Pathway Development for Musicians and Administrators,” Katie Wyatt, president and CEO of El Sistema USA, shared a similar story about pay disparities in one of her previous jobs. During coffee breaks, inadequate family leave policies

Kathleen Munkel

Lidiya Yankovskaya is among an increasing number of conductors forming their own orchestras while balancing guest-conducting and staff positions at other orchestras. Below, Yankovskaya conducts the Nashville Symphony at the League of American Orchestras’ 2018 Bruno Walter National Conductor Preview.

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which means you need a large number of women conducting orchestras of all sizes in order to increase the pool of women who can advance to the next level.

There are, in fact, Lina Gonzalezmany women music Granados has directors at mid- held conducting size and smaller fellowships at orchestras. A very the Philadelphia partial list would Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, and include the Chi- Chicago Symphony cago Sinfonietta Orchestra. In 2014, (Mei-Ann Chen), she founded Unitas Chattanooga Sym- Ensemble, which phony Orchestra focuses on music

by Latin American (Kayoko Dan), composers.

Symphony Tacoma (Sarah Ioannides), Reno Philharmonic (Laura Jackson), Hartford Symphony Orchestra (Carolyn Kuan), and Allentown Symphony Orchestra (Diane Wittry). But attention generally focuses on the larger orchestras: Marin Alsop at the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and JoAnn Falletta at the Buffalo Philharmonic and Virginia Symphony are, for many people, the two names on the radar. Alsop and Falletta have Allentown Symphony earned that rec- Orchestra Music ognition and have Director Diane Wittry accomplished great things, but it would be nice to see media and critical attention spread out more widely in the field.

Over the past five to ten years, there have been real reasons for optimism, one of them being the many women hired for assistant, associate, resident, or principal guest conductor positions like the ones Gemma New has held in St. Louis and Dallas. These positions provide the necessary experience, training, and visibility to be considered for bigger posts.

On U.S. podiums, some names include Susanna Mälkki, the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s principal guest conductor;

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Symphony Tacoma Music Director Sarah Ioannides

Kayoko Dan, music director of the Chattanooga Symphony and Opera since 2011, is the first woman to hold that title at the orchestra.

Ben Torres

Erina Yashima, assistant conductor at the Philadelphia Orchestra; Anna Rakatina, assistant conductor at the Boston Symphony Orchestra; Katharina Wincor and Ruth Reinhardt as assistant conductors at the Dallas Symphony Orchestra; and at the Minnesota Orchestra, Sarah Hicks as principal conductor of the Live at Orchestra Hall series and Akiko Fujimoto as associate conductor. In recent years, participants in the League of American Orchestras’ long-running Bruno Walter Conducting Preview have been pretty evenly split between men and women, which was not always the case in earlier decades.

Marin Alsop has mentored many women conductors through her Taki Concordia Conducting Fellowship program, established in 2002, and the list of alumnae is impressive, with many serving as music directors at U.S. orchestras. Another active mentor for the next generation of conductors is Nicole Paiement, Dallas Opera’s principal guest conductor and founder/ artistic director of San Francisco’s Opera Parallèle, who since 2015 has given master classes at the Dallas Opera’s annual Hart Institute for Women Conductors.

“There are a lot of women conductors out there who are going to make a difference,” Paiement points out. In Dallas, Paiement says, “As I work with women conductors, I look at who they are and try to empower who they are.” Sometimes, Paiement says she sees “extremely talented women who might not have the confidence that sometimes a man would

Dallas Symphony Orchestra Assistant Conductor Katharina Wincor leads the orchestra’s 30thanniversary concert at Meyerson Symphony Center, September 4, 2019.

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have, and maybe that’s from their upbringing.” Her advice: “Focus on the score.

If you’re prepared, if you know what you want, there’s a reason why you’re on the podium. It’s because you have something to say with that score. Musicians will re-

Sylvia Elzafon

Mentors, Misconceptions

Ruth Reinhardt, with an active guest conducting career in the U.S. and Europe, got her start with assistant conductor and fellowship positions at multiple U.S. orchestras, often considered stepping stones to a fulltime music directorship.

spect you, because they realize that you’re adding to the process.” For her own part, she says, “I never thought of myself as a woman conductor. I was attracted to conducting because of my deep love of music.

Conducting came to me easily. In basic conducting classes, I was told by faculty, you should pursue this. Even at that age my male professors did not say, ‘Oh well, you’re a woman.’ I think that was a key to my success. I’m always extremely aware of the privilege of being on that podium. I need to have something to say, otherwise there’s no reason why I’m here.”

One persistent problem, like a mosquito that just won’t go away: even in the modern age, there are prominent classical symphony

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Courtesy Hartford Symphony

Hartford Symphony Orchestra Music Director Carolyn Kuan

Jiyang Chen

cause in his posters he looked about seven ments. In December, Simone Young was feet tall. When Yannick Nézet-Séguin gets named chief conductor of Australia’s up on stage with these enormous opera Sydney Symphony Orchestra. The same singers, it’s a comical picture, but it’s not month, Eun Sun Kim was appointed muyour size that determines your strength.” sic director of the San Francisco Opera.

She says in In February, Mélisse Brunet was tapped Pittsburgh back as music director of the Northeastern “In classical music, we don’t in the 1970s, Pennsylvania Philharmonic. In April, the instinctively give a chance “people did not Richmond Symphony selected Italy’s Vafeel obliged to be lentina Peleggi as its next music director, to people who are different, politically corand American conductor Karina Canelnew. But that is beginning to rect. I’ve kept all lakis was announced as the London Philchange,” says artist manager of those articles, harmonia’s next principal guest conductor; those demeanCanellakis was also recently named chief and documentary filmmaker ing, patronizing conductor of the Netherlands PhilharAnastasia Boudanoque. articles. I think monic. This is not a comprehensive list. they will be to do the job of a conductor. Compared of great historical interest at some point The “Mirga Effect” and the “Xian with Americans, Russians tend to speak when people say, ‘Women were always Effect” more bluntly and with less regard for polittreated equally well.’ It ain’t necessarily so.”

There are two music directors—Mirga ical correctness, which makes you wonder This winter and spring brought a flurry Gražinytė-Tyla and Xian Zhang—who how much more prevalent these attitudes of high-profile music director announcefor several years have been attracting the are in more politically correct places, where Susanna Mälkki conducts the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the Ravinia Festival. Mälkki is they might go unspoken. Conductor and principal guest conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and chief conductor of Finland’s composer Victoria Bond, the first woman Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra. to be awarded a doctorate in orchestral conducting from the Juilliard School, in 1977, says the only real female role models when she was doing postgraduate work at Juilliard were Eve Queler and Sarah Caldwell. Bond got her professional conducting start as music director of the Pittsburgh Youth Orchestra in 1977. “I was told over and over when somebody came backstage to shake my hand or congratulate me after a performance, ‘Oh, you’re so small.

We thought you were tall,’ ” Bond recalls.

“On that podium, you look tall no matter what,” Bond says. “Let’s talk about men who are iconic conductors, like Herbert von Karajan, like Leonard Bernstein, like Seiji Ozawa. They’re all short men. I didn’t realize that at first about von Karajan bePatrick Gipson

Dmitry Masleev

musicians who openly question whether women belong on the podium at all. Not that long ago, we read that “musicians react better when they have a man in front of them” (conductor Vasily Petrenko), “the majority of female students would simply not be interested in the career of conductor, which is incompatible with family life and requires a lot of physical effort” (Bruno Mantovani, then director of the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris), and “the essence of the conductor’s profession is strength—the essence of a woman is weakness” (conductor Yuri Temirkanov).

These statements were not made a century ago—they are from 2013.

Temirkanov’s “strength” comment reveals that there are some people who still regard women as being less physically able

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Reno Philharmonic Music Director Laura Jackson

kind of substantial media attention and critical praise that could alter broader perceptions about women on the podium.

Gražinytė-Tyla, a native of Lithuania who held assistant and associate conductor positions at the Los Angeles Philharmonic from 2014 to 2017, has made a rapid artistic rise. In 2016, she was named music director of the U.K.’s City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. These days, people refer to her as just “Mirga,” putting her in the company of podium superstars Bernstein (“Lenny”) and Dudamel (“Gustavo”).

Observers describe “the Mirga effect” for the electricity she brings to performances. The high-energy Zhang, a native of China, also has been rapturously received since being named music director of the

New Jersey Symphony Orchestra At the Aldeburgh Festival in 2017, Mirga Gražinyte-Tyla conducts the U.K.’s City of Birmingham Orchestra, of which she is music director. in 2015, and now Gražinyte-Tyla held assistant and associate conductor positions at the Los people talk about Angeles Philharmonic from 2014 to 2017. “the Xian effect.”

Multifaceted musicians like Canada’s Barbara Hannigan, conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya serves as who maintains active careers as a soprano Chicago Opera Theater’s music director and as a conductor, are creating less tradiand does a lot of guest conducting. In tional podium paths for themselves. May2016 she founded the New York Citybe part of the “effect” of these conductors based Refugee Orchestra Project, whose will be to shape our views of who belongs musicians are instrumentalists and singers on the podium—and what the role of a whose families fled to the United States conductor is in the first place. to escape violence and persecution. Lina Some women are not waiting to get Gonzalez-Granados—who has served as hired for big appointments to make a conducting fellow at the Philadelphia things happen, taking a more entrepreOrchestra and Seattle Symphony and as neurial approach. Russian-American Sir George Solti Conducting Apprentice of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra—in 2014 founded Unitas Ensemble, which focuses on music by Latin American composers.

Jeri Lynne Johnson in 2007 formed the Philadelphiabased Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra, a professional orchestra of diverse musicians with a mission of attracting new audiences to classical music with highquality performances, innovative programming, and partnerships with Philadelphia’s cultural and educational institutions. After the finals of one unsuccessful conducting audition, she told me several years In April 2020, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra posted a video of its virtual performance of The Firebird on its YouTube page, with Music Director JoAnn Falletta (center) leading the ensemble. ago, Johnson was informed

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Fred Stucker

Xian Zhang leads the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, where she was named music director in 2015.

point blank that she “didn’t look like what their audiences expected a conductor to look like.”

One note: the interviews in this article took place before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. It seems likely that during this period, certain trends already underway in the classical field will be accelerated. One of these is the increasing use of tech, without which we would not all be watching “concerts” at all at the moment: Mahler and Copland and Bach and even newly commissioned works, livestreamed and performed from musicians’ homes. This time must be profoundly disorienting for conductors, normally the most visible faces on the orchestra stage, when they cannot perform one of the most important parts of their regular job.

When public concerts resume, will our expectations of who belongs on the podium change, after a period of reliance on video screens and close-up views? Will that throw into clearer focus the gender gap on the podium?

Many people in the classical-music field hope a new wave of female music director appointments will usher in broader changes to bring the male-to-female ratio closer to 50/50.“In classical music, americanorchestras.org

we don’t instinctively give a chance to people who are different, new. But that is beginning to change,” said artist manager and documentary filmmaker Anastasia Boudanoque at the Dallas Symphony’s symposium last fall.

Perhaps things have changed since 2013, when violinist Hilary Hahn said she could “probably count on one hand the number of female conductors I’ve worked with, and that’s over 20 years of performing with orchestras.” This November, Hahn will be one of three women honored at the Dallas Symphony’s second

Women in Classical Music symposium, where composer Katherine Balch and Deborah Borda, president and CEO of the New York Philharmonic, will also receive awards, and session topics will include “Motherhood and Music,” “Music and Wellness,” and “Breaking Barriers.”

As League of American Orchestras President and CEO Jesse Rosen pointed out at the Dallas symposium last November, more women on the podium is not just the right thing to do; it’s the smart thing to do: “Bringing women into leadership roles on podiums, onstage, in the board room, on staff, along with many other underrepresented populations in our country—this needs to be at the center of the work of people in orchestras. We need everybody at that table. We cannot be as good as we can be without women, without African Americans, without every kind of person who lives in this country.

We need them.”

JENNIFER MELICK is managing editor of Symphony.

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New World Symphony

Participants in the National Alliance for Audition Support’s August 2019 Audition Intensive at the New World Center, the New World Symphony’s home in Miami Beach.

On the Right Track In just two years, the National Alliance for Audition Support, which aims to increase the numbers of Black and Latinx musicians at orchestras, is making an impact. Through the initiative, more Black and Latinx musicians are taking more auditions—and winning positions at orchestras nationwide.

While work to address the underrepresentation of musicians of color at orchestras is far from done, the National Alliance for Audition Support is helping to move things forward, with real-world results.

by Janaya Greene 46

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Viola Chan

Bruce Lehman

When Bill Neri began playing the viola Orchestral Partners Audition program poned to 2021 due to the pandemic). at age seven in hopes of being a little bit in 2018, he heard about the newly esDuring his second year with Central more like his older sister, who also played tablished National Alliance for Audition City Opera in 2019, Neri also joined the viola, he didn’t expect the instrument Support and applied to NAAS later that NAAS as a project manager, beginning to put him on a path of performances year. NAAS addresses the longstanding a more purposeful journey in helping to across the world in his adult life, or that underrepresentation of Black and Latinx expand opportunities for underreprethe instrument would introduce sented musicians.

NAAS addresses the longstanding him to the National Alliance for In its second year (2019-20), Audition Support (NAAS), an NAAS has assisted even more underrepresentation of Black and Latinx initiative with a mission of inartists, providing financial and musicians in American orchestras by providing mentorship support to 81 Black creasing the number of Black and financial and mentorship support.

Latinx musicians—a mission that and Latinx musicians as they recould redefine classical music nafine their talent at New World tionwide. musicians in American orchestras by Symphony’s audition intensives; connect A few years later, a middle-schoolproviding financial and mentorship supwith orchestras that are members of the aged Neri and his dad were shocked to port to Black and Latinx musicians. As League of American Orchestras; and relearn that the Sphinx Organization’s Perreported in the League of American Orceive guidance from Sphinx, the organiformance Academy was free, among a sea chestras’ Racial/Ethnic and Gender Diverzation that is coordinating the program’s of classical music summer programs for sity in the Orchestra Field study, the numoverall efforts. kids that cost in the thousands of dolber of African-American musicians in The program’s financial support is key lars. Sphinx’s Performance Academy is American orchestras has hovered around to working towards leveling the playing a chamber-music program that includes 1.8 percent since 2002, and the number field for white, Black, and Latinx musicareer enrichment sessions, masterclasses, of Hispanic and Latinx musicians has cians. White American families have three times as much wealth as Latinx families and four times as much wealth as lowerand middle-class Black families in America.

This financial disparity makes it far more difficult for many Black and Latinx families to afford music instruction, summer programs, instruments, instrument repairs, travel to auditions, and more.

Money is a major barrier to entry among these Priscilla Rinehart, a horn player who Bassoonist Francisco JoubertViolist Bill Neri was awarded participated in a National Alliance Bernard won a position in the support from NAAS in 2018, making communities. For adult for Audition Support intensive in Louisville Orchestra after an audition it possible for him to audition musicians of color, this 2019, recently won a position in funded by the National Alliance for for Denver’s Central City Opera, can translate to diffiFlorida’s Sarasota Orchestra.

Audition Support. with which he performed for two culties affording travel summers. In 2019, Neri joined NAAS to out-of-town audias a project manager. tions, where they bear the burden of housing, food, and travel costs. recitals, and mentorship opportunities only grown to 2.5 percent in 2014 from All professional musicians face these for young string musicians. Like NAAS, 1.8 percent in 2002. costs, but many musicians of color aimthe program is focused on the inclusion Neri was among the first 57 musicians ing for full-time gigs at orchestras have of groups underrepresented in classical awarded support in 2018, with NAAS other, non-classical job obligations that music. Neri, who is Latinx, enjoyed parfunding making it possible for him to can leave little time for preparation. ticipating in the Sphinx Academy, but audition for orchestras like Denver’s To date, NAAS has awarded support to it wasn’t until he was in college that he Central City Opera, with which he per138 musicians, of whom 73 are Black, 61 decided to pursue a solo career as a vioformed for two summers (Central City are Latinx, and four belong to both groups. list. After Neri participated in Sphinx’s Opera’s 2020 summer festival was postOf these 138 participants,19 have won 22 americanorchestras.org

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National Alliance for Audition Support To advance diversity, equity, and inclusion at American orchestras by expanding the numbers of emerging Black and Latinx musicians, in 2018 the League of American Orchestras, Sphinx Organization, and New World Symphony joined forces to launch the National Alliance for Audition Support (NAAS). An unprecedented nationwide initiative, NAAS offers Black and Latinx musicians a customized combination of mentoring, audition preparation, financial support, and audition previews. Now in its second year, NAAS has already made a substantial difference in the lives of hundreds of musicians of color and dozens of U.S. orchestras.

Above and below: A session during a NAAS Audition Intensive at New World Symphony.

• Nineteen musicians have won 22 auditions in orchestras.

• Twelve musicians were placed on substitute lists or won fellowship positions with orchestras.

• Five musicians won one-year contract positions with orchestras.

• Since August 2018, 261 NAAS grants have been awarded to 107 musicians. The grants enable musicians to take part in auditions, pursue substitute or short-term playing opportunities, or repair their instruments.

• In two years, the number of Orchestra Partners providing financial contributions to support the program has nearly doubled, from 41 to 77.

• In 2018-19, 68 musicians participated in five NAAS Audition Intensives for strings, low strings, and winds and brass, hosted by the New World Symphony.

Visit auditionalliance.org for more information.

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New World Symphony

• 138 musicians have received NAAS support since 2018; support includes NAAS grants and/or participation in NAAS Audition Intensives.

auditions in orchestras; 24 have won auditions and or placements at orchestras; five have won one-year contract positions; and twelve were placed on sub lists or won fellowship positions.

According to League of American Orchestras President and CEO Jesse Rosen, before NAAS, fellowships were the primary way that many orchestras tried to increase the number of musicians of color in their rosters. However, as the League documented in its 2016 report, Forty Years of Fellowships: A Study of Orchestras’ Ef-

forts to Include African American and Latino Musicians, these fellowships did not have a significant impact on diversity in the classical world. “On the one hand, musicians who participated in those fellowships had good career-advancing experiences and musical development,” says Rosen, “but it didn’t actually have an impact on the overall representation of African-American musicians. Nothing changed for the most part. Fellows reported having unsatisfying experiences of often being the only African American person in the orchestra, not symphony

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New World Symphony

always being welcomed particularly warmly or supportively.”

The National Alliance for Audition Support is a more coordinated effort among many orchestras in the U.S. At the initiative’s start, 41 League-member orchestras opted to be a part of the program; today an additional 36 League-member orchestras are helping Black and Latinx musicians through NAAS. “In this particular program, our role has been to get our membership to say, ‘Yes, we want to be a part of this, we want to help,’ ” says Rosen.

“There are now 77 orchestras annually making contributions to the NAAS, and it’s their money that’s being pooled and distributed out to musicians. We communicate with the orchestras frequently about progress in the program, how much money is being spent, how many people are auditioning, continuously recruiting more of our members to participate financially in supporting the program.”

NAAS Audition Intensives include sessions with a performance psychologist who is expert at helping musicians prepare for auditions and performances.

Toward Winning Auditions

As project manager for the National Alliance for Audition Support, Neri, now 28, keeps NAAS leaders up to date on prog-

ress and needs within the program, acting as a liaison among the initiative’s moving parts. As a former participant in the program, Neri brings a unique perspective to

The National Alliance for Audition Support had its genesis, in part, in a two-day meeting (below) convened by the League of American Orchestras and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in December of 2015 to address the barriers to diversity in orchestras. The 50 attendees included musicians, administrators, representatives of community music schools, conservatories, and community-engagement experts. Seated left to right (listed with orchestra affiliations at the time): Sandra Bailey, principal bassoon, Chicago Sinfonietta, second bassoon, Arkansas Symphony Orchestra; Adedeji Ogunfolu, associate principal horn, San Antonio Symphony; Alexander Laing, principal clarinet, Phoenix Symphony; and bassoonist Garrett McQueen, second bassoon, Knoxville Symphony Orchestra.

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José Antonio Rivera Marrero

his role. After taking 40 orchestral audition before receiving financial support tions himself, Neri stopped counting how from NAAS. Joubert-Bernard, who is many times he tried out for positions at Afro-Latinx, won a position in the Louorchestras. “For me, auditioning has been a isville Orchestra after a NAAS-funded rollercoaster—it’s been up and down,” says audition, whereas before the grant, he did Neri. “I’ve had the fortune to have successnot see as much success. “There are many ful results with some auditions, being ofauditions in the year and money runs out fered positions, but also not advancing at real quick,” says Joubert-Bernard. “At my auditions. You roll up to an audition after first audition, I went by myself, I paid all spending hours a day for two months practhe expenses, and then I realized I spent ticing and practicing and practicing, and a lot of money and I didn’t even pass you fly all the way across the country, you the first round. This is pretty sad. Then stay in an Airbnb or hotel, you rent a car— I applied for the NAAS grant and they all the really boring stuff that’s not a part awarded me [support]. It was such a relief of your daily routine. You show up to the in terms of the pressure. You have someaudition, you play behind the screen, and one supporting you and you don’t have to they might just stop you after break your bank. Even then, NAAS has awarded support to 138 Black and two excerpts and say, ‘thank my pressure towards myself you.’ After all that work. That’s Latinx musicians, including bassoonist Francisco diminished a little bit. I didn’t an experience that is trying in have to think about, oh my Joubert-Bernard, above. Of these, 19 have won God, if I don’t pass this, it’s itself, but I’ve been down that auditions in orchestras; 24 have won auditions and another hand in my wallet.” road countless times.”

For bassoonist Francisco or placements at orchestras; five have won oneFinancial assistance from Joubert-Bernard, the cost of NAAS helped ease the turbuauditioning was like a cloud year contract positions; and twelve were placed lence of traveling and preparon sub lists or won fellowship positions. over his head for every audiing for auditions for Neri as

NAAS musicians familiarize themselves with concert hall set-ups and mock auditions during NAAS Audition Intensives at New World Center, home of Florida’s New World Symphony.

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well. This is why he’s eager for more musicians to learn about how NAAS can serve as a resource for new and growing artists.

“I’ll get applications and I see a lot of the same names throughout the year because one musician might have an opportunity in February, have the audition in March, and need an extra instrument repair in June. I see them all along the way and how their career is developing,” says Neri. “What excites me is to see a new name, someone I don’t recognize. I see their applications, their resumés, and I’m like, ‘I can’t believe I don’t know this person.’ It’s exciting to see that there are so many musicians. We assume that we know them all because the community is so small. It’s really exciting to know there are so many more musicians out there.”

Beyond the fiscal support, JoubertBernard sees NAAS’s grant-funded auditions as much-needed emotional backing. “It’s like an almost emotional kind of support you get, too,” says the bassoonist.

“You have this organization that is actually believing in you to get a job. They trust that you’re going to do your best to get the job that you want. And by doing so, you’re actually diversifying scenes in classical orchestras. When I went to the final auditions, I’m like, NAAS, Sphinx, they funded this. I told myself to make them proud—like your parents, if they paid for your college. I better make them proud because they paid the expenses. I had that feeling when I went to the final auditions in Louisville.”

Gaining Confidence, with Audition Feedback

Given the high numbers of veteran and emerging musicians seeking opportunities in American orchestras, receiving feedback is one of the most challenging aspects of a classical musician’s career. At auditions, feedback is not given. The first round of an audition could be five minutes or less and, as noted by Neri, the financial investment can at times seem not worth an uncertain outcome. NAAS is helping musicians master these auditions, performance-wise and mentally, with mock auditions hosted

National Alliance for Audition Support orchestra partners for the 2019-20 season: Albany Symphony Orchestra American Symphony Orchestra Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra Arkansas Symphony Orchestra Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Berkeley Symphony Orchestra Billings Symphony Orchestra & Chorale Boston Philharmonic Orchestra California Symphony Canton Symphony Orchestra The Chamber Orchestra at St. Matthew’s Chicago Sinfonietta Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra The Cleveland Orchestra Columbus Symphony Orchestra Dallas Symphony Orchestra Erie Philharmonic Orchestra Greenwich Village Orchestra Hartford Symphony Orchestra Idaho State-Civic Symphony Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra Jacksonville Symphony Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra Kansas City Symphony The Knights Knox-Galesburg Symphony Knoxville Symphony Orchestra Las Vegas Philharmonic Lexington Symphony Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra Los Angeles Philharmonic Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra Louisville Orchestra Madison Symphony Orchestra Maui Pops Orchestra Memphis Symphony Orchestra Midland Symphony Orchestra Minnesota Orchestra Mobile Symphony Orchestra

by New World Symphony as part of New World’s audition intensives.

Priscilla Rinehart, a horn player who participated in a NAAS audition intensive in 2019, was lucky enough to have a private teacher at a young age. She joined her middle school’s band program, and after

Montclair Orchestra Nashville Symphony National Arts Centre Orchestra National Orchestral Institute and Festival National Symphony Orchestra New Bedford Symphony Orchestra New Haven Symphony Orchestra New Jersey Symphony Orchestra New York Philharmonic North Carolina Symphony Omaha Symphony Orchestra of St. Luke’s Oregon Symphony Pacific Symphony The Philadelphia Orchestra The Phoenix Symphony Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Portland Symphony Orchestra ProMusica Chamber Orchestra Reno Philharmonic Orchestra Richmond Symphony Rochester Symphony Orchestra & Chorale Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra San Diego Symphony San Francisco Symphony The Santa Fe Symphony Orchestra & Chorus Seattle Symphony Spartanburg Philharmonic Orchestra St. Louis Symphony Orchestra Symphony NH Symphony of Northwest Arkansas Vermont Symphony Orchestra Virginia Symphony Orchestra West Michigan Symphony West Valley Symphony Association Williamsburg Symphony Orchestra Yakima Symphony Orchestra

telling her mother she wanted to continue learning the French horn, they found a teacher who lived fifteen minutes away, and charged an affordable rate for her family.

New World Symphony President and CEO Howard Herring says musicians believing they can win is the first step, with

The National Alliance for Audition Support is made up of The Sphinx Organization, the lead program and fiscal administrator; the New World Symphony, America’s Orchestral Academy; and the League of American Orchestras, representing 700 orchestras. NAAS is supported by a four-year grant of $1.8 million from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation as well as contributions from orchestras across the U.S. The Alliance is also grateful to the American Federation of Musicians, the International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians, and the Regional Orchestra Players Association for their participation and support. americanorchestras.org

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psychologist at NAAS, Noa Kageyama, who is an expert at getting musicians ready for the last week, the last day, the last hour, the last ten minutes of an audition, because you have to prepare yourself to have the best performance possible.” A 2020 survey shows that of 34 respondents, 44.1 percent felt Kageyama’s Optimal Per-

Priscilla Rinehart performs at a Pulse Concert with the New World Symphony during her fellowship as a musician there.

formance Training sessions were extremely helpful and 32.4 percent found the training helpful.

This year’s three-day audition intensives were originally scheduled to take place at New World Center in Miami Beach beginning May 5 but had to be rescheduled in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

As the realities of the devastating toll COVID-19 around the world became clear,

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impacting low-income Black and Latinx communities the most in America, the intensives were moved entirely online. Technology already in place at the New World Center made the facility ready to adapt to a fully online process. “COVID-19 has redefined our society,” says Herring. “This time, we’re going to have 50 to 60 participants

Rui Dias Aidos/New World Symphony

or without the support of a mentor. He’s encouraged by the personal growth of NAAS musicians since year one, citing a transformation in their attitudes. “Gaining confidence is harder to measure or understand, but if you spend a week with these musicians, you know it’s happening,” says Herring. “They gain camaraderie; some of the musicians have known each other for years and some just met, but they fuel each other’s aspirations, and not so many people see that. You can hear it in their conversations; you can hear it in their tone of voice.

They lead with far more confidence than they did in the beginning.”

As a participant in NAAS, Rinehart echoes these sentiments. For her, gaining a network of fellow Black and Latinx musicians is invaluable. Witnessing the talents of her peers helped her fully recognize her own strengths as a horn player. “The experience of the audition intensive was a turning point in my belief in myself, both with an external validation from the faculty but also internally, showing myself I really can achieve what I’m setting out to do,” says Rinehart. “I had some success in the months leading up to the audition intensive, which helps, and I think it all just lined up really well that I was feeling very ready or close to very ready.” Rinehart recently won a position in Florida’s Sarasota Orchestra.

At New World Symphony’s audition intensives, sixteen to eighteen NAAS musicians participate in individual lessons and masterclasses from coaches of color in preparation for mock auditions where they can receive feedback. “There are ways to think about yourself. There is psychological preparation that you can follow,” explains Herring. “We have a performance

in the audition intensives, and we’re going to work on and off through May, June, and July. We wonder if it’ll have an even greater impact because we won’t be in a hurry. The coaches will be able to be more expansive, there will be more time for questions and answers. It’s going to be a very different experience, and perhaps even more powerful.”

Leveling the Playing Field

Like Jesse Rosen and Bill Neri, Howard Herring wants to see the number of NAAS musicians increase, especially given the encouraging amount of auditions that participants are winning. After one year of NAAS, there was a 70 percent increase in the number of NAAS-funded auditions taken by participants. In 2019, musicians took 259 auditions, a 114 percent increase from the previous year, totaling 380 auditions taken by musicians in 2018 and 2019. NAAS musicians are now averaging three auditions each, with some even taking seven auditions.

Having felt the impact of NAAS’s supsymphony

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port, Rinehart and Joubert-Bernard have similar hopes for the classical music field: evolution. As orchestras gradually grow more inclusive, the two expressed hopes that the field evolves in its presentation— and evolves in a way that brings more communities in instead of keeping communities out.

At this writing, the future of largegathering events is uncertain. COVID-19 is an unprecedented global pandemic, and the League of American Orchestras, Sphinx, and New World Symphony are halting in-person gatherings until public health officials make it clear that large-

NAAS started with 41 orchestras that were members of the League of American Orchestras taking part. Today, 77 League-member orchestras are helping Black and Latinx musicians through NAAS. scale events are safe again. In the meantime, Neri hopes that NAAS participants continue to work on their craft as best as they can from home, and continue asking for support when they need it. “I don’t want musicians to lose their ambition because of what’s going on today,” he says.

“We have an opportunity for musicians to explore aspects of their instruments that they couldn’t have before; they couldn’t access that part of their mind with other real-life stresses that were going on. I wonder if musicians can seek opportunities to play for teachers or coaches and mentors that they otherwise couldn’t.

We have interim grants; they may not be playing in large groups or for a large audience, but a lot of our musicians are performing through streaming on YouTube or for Instagram or Facebook.”

Though auditions have been postponed and mock auditions have been reimagined online, musicians in the program continue to receive financial support during the pandemic. The digital audition intensives will be a first for NAAS administrators and for many of the musicians involved.

The outcome of the digitally focused process may be unknown, but one thing’s for sure: the National Alliance for Audition americanorchestras.org

Support’s goal has not changed. With more Black and Latinx musicians earning positions in orchestras across the country, NAAS is on track to make more orchestras reflect the communities they play in.

“The biggest orchestras are all in urban settings,” says Neri. “I don’t think the makeup of orchestras often reflect what is in their communities. I really think that bridging that gap and leveling the playing field to allow musicians of color to have ac-

cess to orchestras and to the audition process is one step in the right direction.”

JANAYA GREENE is a Chicago-based writer covering film, literature, music, and the African diaspora. She finds overlooked stories that are of interest to millennials and marginalized communities, and amplifies them through reporting, writing, visual storytelling, and social media strategies. Janaya is a freelance writer and social media coordinator at the Chicago Reader.

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How do you plan an orchestra season during a global pandemic, when planning is impossible?

By having more than one script.

As government agencies revise pandemic projections and health authorities issue new safety guidance, fixed plans are out, and flexible plans that outline multiple scenarios offering ways to move forward are in.

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Jeff Goldberg

Flex Seasons

Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium, seen from the Perelman Stage. In late June, Carnegie Hall announced that it would not reopen in fall 2020 due to the pandemic.

by Heidi Waleson

I

n late February 2020, American performing arts organizations were in the final months of their 2019-20 seasons, working on plans for future seasons and, in many cases, gearing up for fundraising galas. Then, in mid-March, the sudden total shutdown in response to the COVID-19 pandemic upended everything, with performances cancelled, no ticket revenue, administrators working from home, and artists thrown out of work.

Any hopes that this would be a shortterm emergency were quickly dashed as the virus raged on; temporary stay-athome orders and prohibitions on large gatherings were extended for weeks, and then months. What began as a few postponed concerts gave way to the cancellation of the remainders of seasons and

tours. Next came the cascade of summer cancellations; by mid-May, much of the U.S. summer festival scene was off. In the performing arts world as in so many other arenas, the extent of the catastrophe was unprecedented. A study from Southern Methodist University’s DataArts and the management consulting firm TRG, released in May, calculated that the average U.S. arts and culture nonprofit faces a 26 percent deficit as a result of the pandemic, and estimated the total loss in the sector at $6.8 billion.

Three months after the initial shutdown, with no clear end in sight, arts administrators have shifted their focus from managing the immediate emergency to considering how to move forward. Future planning in an environment where symphony

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the picture shifts almost daily represents a strategic challenge that few, if any, managers have had to confront before. Information about the virus and how it spreads is constantly evolving. With no consistent federal direction, health guidelines vary from state to state and from city to city, with some areas lifting lockdowns and some not. The consequences of loosening movement and gathering restrictions, in the absence of a vaccine or a cure, are also unknown: will areas that had controlled their infection and death rates see a second wave? Most critically, if restrictions ease—and arts performances are, in any case, relegated to later reopening phases—will artists, production support personnel, and audiences feel that it is safe to come together, even masked and socially distanced, when there is still a risk of illness?

In a webinar for the League of American Orchestras’ National Conference in May, Susan Nelson, executive vice president of the nonprofit management consulting and research firm TDC, spelled

“Social distancing for the audience—in David Geffen Hall, we could get 380 to 390 people into a 2,700-seat hall— is not economically viable or emotionally viable,” says New York Philharmonic President and CEO Deborah Borda. out the three-dimensional chess nature of scenario planning for an uncertain future. Of the three phases of the crisis— Emergency, Recovery, and Rebuild/Reposition—Emergency has now passed.

Orchestras tackled their sudden loss of revenue through furloughs of staff and musicians and pay cuts; federal Payment Protection Program loans; and donations of the value of unused tickets helped many to stabilize their finances. The PPP funds currently last only through June 30, however, and orchestras and others are now into the Recovery phase, the time before full return, as well as planning for Rebuild/Reposition, the actual full return.

The process, Nelson says, will be longer and slower than anyone initially anticipatamericanorchestras.org

Press releases and news stories from this spring document the continuing stream of orchestra and festival cancellations and postponements caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

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Decision-making in each phase

Budgetary and operational implications

Develop / update scenarios

Identify budgetary, cash flow, and capital implications

Make choices

Programming

Evaluate the current context

Audience demand

Public health

Emergency response

5/6/2020

TDC / League of American Orchestras

Emergency response Digital programming

Recovery Alternative programming

Earned revenue • Pricing models and monetization strategies • Number of offerings • Competitive market for digital offerings Contributed revenue • How much is programmatically driven?

Earned revenue • Pricing models and monetization strategies • Number of offerings • Competitive market for similar offerings Contributed revenue • How much is programmatically driven?

Expense • Incremental costs of digital programming

Incremental costs associated with artist, audience, and staff safety

Incremental costs associated with artist, audience, and staff safety

Cost of continued necessary safety measures

Potential response to digital programming

Potential response to alternative programming

Potential long-term audience response

Revenue and expense implications of digital programming

Revenue and expense implications of potential alternative programming

Business model implications of long-term programming changes

How skinny can you get while ensuring safety and delivering programming?

How skinny can you get while ensuring safety and delivering programming?

5/6/2020

Programmatic revenue and expense

Rebuilding/ repositioning

Recovery

TDC / League of American Orchestras

What would it mean to reimagine?  What could it look like?

Rebuilding/repositioning Lasting program shifts

     

Earned revenue • Potential structural shift (new program types, pricing, etc.)

• Shifts in the competitive market Contributed revenue • Impact of program change on donor behavior Expense Expense • Cost of signaling a safe • Cost of ongoing need to environment for audience ensure audience safety members • Potential shift to • Incremental costs of programmatic cost programming structure

Building relevance to broader, more diverse audiences Creating stronger connections with communities Evaluating common practices that are frustrating and barely sufficient Developing more equitable relationships with artists and creatives Forging new kinds of partnerships and collaborations Reflecting on the long-term role of digital

 What would you need to know?     

How would you need to change your organizational culture or structure?

How would you differentiate yourself in the market?

How would you monetize?

Where would you need to invest?

How much more change capital would you need?

Do the costs merit the benefits?

TDC

5/6/2020

TDC / League of American Orchestras

5/6/2020

TDC / League of American Orchestras

On May 6, the League of American Orchestras’ online National Conference presented Scenario Planning in the Time of COVID-19, in which Susan Nelson, executive vice president of TDC, and Bailey Hoar, project manager of TDC, examined the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the performing arts and discussed how arts organizations must respond to the pandemic’s immediate challenges even while planning ahead. Slides from their presentation offer approaches to understanding scenario planning and suggest ways to support long-term recovery and repositioning.

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New York Philharmonic President and CEO Deborah Borda is working on four or five different scenarios, as the orchestra navigates how to proceed during the pandemic. In June, the orchestra announced that it was cancelling its fall 2020 season and hoped to resume performances in January 2021.

Dario Acosta

ed. Multiple scenarios, with different timelines, in which each organization’s mission, public health considerations, audience demand, and programming are considered, must all be budgeted, evaluated, and updated according to changing circumstances and information. Perhaps the most important element to consider, Nelson says, is cash: “You have to think ahead to what you will need in the next phase.” Burning through reserves in the short term, and spending on interim performance solutions, be they digital or modified live events, which have low or nonexistent revenue streams, may leave an organization ill-equipped to fully reopen when it is safe to do so. Interviewed in mid-May, Nelson said that the tenor of her conversations with arts organizations had changed.

“Four weeks ago, most insisted that it was

imperative to come back no matter what,” she recalls. “In the last two weeks, people have started having real conversations about the costs of coming back in a partial way and asking what they are actually trying to accomplish in doing that. These

are complex questions—about the role of art in the recovery, the organization’s role in the community, brand awareness, habit.

But unless you have the dollars to do that, it may be better to hibernate.”

The situation has also forced arts organizations to stare down worst-case scenarios, which, Nelson said, is not how they typically proceed. “We are used to the optimal case, to ‘we can make this happen,’ ” she says. Now, she says, board and staff need to embrace what they are worried about together. “There needs to be shared risk at leadership level. It’s also important to share the risks with the people who are investing with you—your institutional funders and major donors. The moment calls for transparency. We’re not alone in this. Many other sectors, like retail and restaurants, can’t forecast their way out.” symphony

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Gary Barragan

Courtesy Chicago Sinfonietta

americanorchestras.org

Gregory L. Moore

Chris Lee

“In the absence of any coherent national policy about testing, the availability of rapid tests, or any program for contact tracing in the U.S., we can’t put our orchestra back onstage for the proximity in which they sit,” she says. “Also, social distancing for the audience—in David Geffen Hall, we could get 380 to 390 people into a 2,700seat hall—is not economically viable or emotionally viable. Would you want to sit in this cavernous hall, without people around you, listening to a reduced ensemClive Gillinson, executive and artistic director ble? You would also have to test the entire of Carnegie Hall, says the organization is house staff—the ushers, the back-of-house planning for multiple scenarios for 2021, including opening in winter, spring, or fall. people. You couldn’t have printed programs; you would have to control ingress Views from New York, Chicago, and egress. Look at major league sports.

Orlando, Houston, L.A. They have huge staffs and billions of dolDeborah Borda, president and CEO of lars. They could play for no audience, since the New York Philharmonic, has taken a most of their revenue is from media—and practical approach. Alarmed at the news they can’t figure it out.” The Philharmonic of the virus’s spread, she and other major prepared four or five different scenarios for New York City arts presenters agreed to return, but on June 10 the orchestra anclose their theaters on Thursday, March 12, nounced that it was cancelling its fall 2020 hours before New York Governor Andrew season and hoped to resume performances Cuomo instituted a ban on large gatherin January 2021. (The Metropolitan Opera ings. With an estimated loss of $10 milannounced similar cancellations and postlion for the fiscal year, the Philharmonic ponements the same week as the Philharstaff has taken pay cuts and, as the closures monic.) Borda’s worst-case scenario is the continue through the summer, orchestra loss of two seasons. musicians are receiving a decreasing perClive Gillinson, executive and artistic centage of their base salary. The New York director of Carnegie Hall, sees three key elements when planning in uncertain times.

“You get every single piece of information you can—you talk to peer organizations and try to work together,” he says. “Second, you plan for multiple scenarios. We have budget and operational plans for starting on October 7, as well as for JanuAbove left: Jim Hirsch, who stepped down as Chicago Sinfonietta’s CEO in June. Above right: Blake-Anthony Johnson, who became the ary 1, April 1, or not Chicago Sinfonietta’s CEO this spring, worked with Hirsch to plan at all this season. None three different scenarios for the 2020-21 season. The orchestra’s of those things will be postponed annual gala from this season may become a virtual gala dictated by us, but by this fall. the Governor and the health authorities. The Philharmonic’s current musicians’ contract third piece is timing. Some organizations expires on September 20, and negotiations think that they will need to cancel through about future compensation are ongoing.

December relatively soon. Our view is difBorda’s view of the near future, particuferent, because there are things we won’t larly in New York City, the epicenter of the know until they happen: a vaccine, medipandemic in the U.S., is bluntly realistic. cines, things that could mitigate the situ-

Charles Dickerson III, executive director and conductor of Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles.

ation, could be available in three months or six months. I think our audiences would be upset were we to cancel [prematurely].

Speed has no value.”

Though Gillinson was initially waiting until late summer to make a decision about

“We are a community used to being under-resourced and used to making the best cherry pie out of the worst cherries,” says Charles Dickerson III, executive director and conductor of Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles. the fall 2020 season, in late June Carnegie Hall announced that it would not reopen this fall, due to the coronavirus pandemic, and was instead hoping for a January 2021 start. The Carnegie Hall staff continues to stay in regular contact with all the scheduled artists and ensembles to ascertain whether financial or other circumstances would prevent their travel to New York.

For the 2021-22 season, which had been “virtually settled,” Carnegie Hall is now looking at paring down its concerts, as well as activities by the Weill Music Institute, its educational and social-impact arm.

Across the board, Gillinson says, “We have to reduce the budget for that year, and possibly even the year after. We can’t be optimistic about any of the revenue sources.”

Some orchestras are making plans for partial reopenings. The Chicago Sinfoniet-

57

ta has rescheduled its spring gala, a major revenue source, to this fall, though outgoing CEO Jim Hirsch thinks it is unlikely to take place as a live event and may instead be a virtual gala. Sinfonietta staff is working on three financial scenarios for the 2020-21 season: one as originally planned, with the 65-member orchestra, beginning in October; a second, with a 40–45-musician ensemble playing in a different, less expensive venue, for a socially distanced Paul Helfrich, executive director of Florida’s Orlando Philharmonic.

With no concerts, Helfrich organized staff into five task teams: venue and safety; patron relations and communication; digital content and streaming; education and community engagement; and programs and content. Board members, musicians, and some supporters have joined the teams.

audience, with some livestreamed or prerecorded digital content. The most likely scenario, Hirsch believes, is the third: a much smaller chamber ensemble doing a mix of live and virtual events. For the next fiscal year, Hirsch is doing the orchestra’s first-ever zero-based budget—projecting expenses based on the income that it can reasonably expect—which will likely be a

58

decrease of close to 50 percent of the organization’s typical budget of about $2.3 million. “It’s a good approach, but we will have to build in a lot of ability to pivot,” he points out. Hirsch is retiring from the orchestra at the end of June; his successor, Blake-Anthony Johnson, who has been collaborating on the plans, will be tasked with the next phases.

Florida’s Orlando Philharmonic also had a leadership transition: Paul Helfrich, the executive director, started in February, and has been forging his new partnership with the orchestra’s music director, Eric Jacobsen, who is quarantining in New York City, by phone and Zoom. The orchestra, which usually has an annual budget of $5 million, furloughed half its staff at the end of March, but when it received PPP funds in April, it brought everyone back.

With no concerts, Helfrich engaged the entire staff by breaking them into five task teams: venue and safety; patron relations and communication; digital content and streaming; education and community engagement; and programs and content.

Board members, musicians, and some supporters have also joined the teams. “We’ve used it as a way to be very representative,” Helfrich says. The education committee, for example, is rethinking how the orchestra’s large in-school education programs might proceed. The patron relations committee created an audience survey to “test the waters” with questions about patron

Alecia Lawyer, founder and artistic director of River Oaks Chamber Orchestra, says her ensemble plans to open in September in person or virtually, or using a combination of the two.

Lynn Lane

Chris Lee

Music Director Jaap van Zweden and the New York Philharmonic at David Geffen Hall. The orchestra last performed there in early March, before New York City’s pandemic lockdown.

comfort with returning to live performances and what alternative programming might interest them. The survey went out in May and will be repeated in July. “This is a fluid situation, changing on a daily basis,” Helfrich says. “We have to have all these different scenarios. If anyone tells you with certainty where we’ll be in midAugust—we don’t know.”

Chicago Sinfonietta has also made some operational changes. The staff meets together on Zoom three days a week, and the board chair is invited to sit in. “That has helped create an open line of communication,” Hirsch says. The Sinfonietta has also hired a new employee to work on state-of-the-art video content. “Our online presence will have to be more robust, even after reopening,” Hirsch says.

Digital to the Fore

The digital space, once a peripheral area for orchestras, has now become central.

However, no individual performing arts organization has yet figured out how to significantly monetize it, and with free, high-quality musical and educational content now flooding the web, it seems difficult to envision using it as a revenue stream that could replace that of live performance. Both the New York Philharmonic and Carnegie Hall have rolled out substantial free digital programs, using archival performances as well as new content. The New York Philharmonic’s Borda says, “If we started to charge, that would limit the interactions people have with us.

It’s important work for reasons of relevancy, education, and connection. But not for meaningful revenue.”

As to the possibility of using the internet for live performance, there have been hundreds, if not thousands, of at-home Zoom presentations, ranging from solo violinists symphony

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says ROCO plans to open in September, in whatever way the situation dictates. If not all of the 40 musicians can participate in person—in addition to any socialdistancing rules, half of them live outside of Houston—she will add more Zoom content from individual musicians to the experience. “We are used to pivoting,” she says. Since only 9 percent of the orchestra’s $1.2 million budget comes from ticket sales—the group has a donation-centered, relationship-based model—she is less concerned with the loss of earned revenue,

Music Director Eric Jacobsen and the Orlando Philharmonic in performance. Jacobsen sees the current moment as an artistic challenge.

in their bedrooms to the Metropolitan Opera’s orchestra and chorus performing Verdi’s “Va, pensiero.” However, signal latency on the Zoom platform makes it impossible for musicians in different spaces to rehearse and perform together in the normal way.

For “Va, pensiero,” each musician in the Met performance recorded his or her own track, following a video of Yannick NézetSéguin’s conducting and a piano line. Other musical organizations use click tracks to get everyone in sync online. (Launched this spring, the League of American Orchestras’ symphonyspot.org site is a centralized directory of hundreds of online performances, educational resources, and other

offerings from orchestras, conservatories, festivals, and musicians.)

The River Oaks Chamber Orchestra in Houston, founded by Alecia Lawyer, its artistic director, already has fifteen years’ worth of digital content and began streaming video five years ago on multiple platforms—it claims a Facebook viewership of 6,500. “It’s completely feasible and fine for us to livestream to an empty hall,” says Lawyer, a self-described tech fan and the daughter of two video-game enthusiasts.

“To me, it opens up massive possibilities of intimacy online. I’m looking forward to how this moment crafts the next wave of engagement in the arts.” Lawyer

Indiana’s Carmel Symphony and Music Director Janna Hymes at their regular performance venue, the Center for Performing Arts Palladium. americanorchestras.org

Janna Hymes, music director of Indiana’s Carmel Symphony, is considering options for this fall that include performing in small groups, creating digital performances, partnering with restaurants to offer home concerts with takeout meals, and streaming content to retirement residences and hospitals

should ROCO have to operate primarily in the digital space for a while. “I think the future of orchestras could be that everyone has their own path and we come together sometimes,” she asserts. “It might be the next wonderful way to operate, with individual musical personalities being valued instead of just the podium.”

Eric Jacobsen, music director of the Orlando Philharmonic and co-artistic director of the Brooklyn chamber collective The Knights, also sees the current moment as an artistic challenge. Holed up with his family and his violinist brother Colin’s family in their Brooklyn house, he recently recorded the Bach Double Violin Concerto with Colin and a small ensemble of fellow musicians—Gil Shaham, Adele Anthony, Tessa Lark, Chris Thile, and Michael Thurber—by sharing tracks back and forth. The finished product was posted online. “What we can do now is create great things,” Jacobsen says. “We need to put out the quality, make the investment, dig deep, and create things that will have a lasting impression.” With the Orlando Philharmonic, he hopes to use cancelled concert services to make a studio recording of the Jeremy Kittel Fiddle Concerto that the or-

59

Music Director Charles Dickerson III and Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles.

chestra premiered in January. The plan is to do three live broadcasts in late August and make the recording from that. Jacobsen is optimistic but realistic: “If it doesn’t happen then, it will happen some other time.”

For some orchestra leaders, digital performance is a way to keep musicians working (and paid) and to maintain contact with their own audience rather than trying to capture some unspecified larger one. Janna

Hymes, music director and artistic director of the Carmel Symphony in Indiana, asked her players to record short videos of themselves playing and talking, and put them on the orchestra’s website to stay connected with audiences. Hymes also created a series of half-hour online concerts, using clips from recorded concerts, with musicians and guests, like the town’s mayor, talking between the pieces, and streamed them

for six weeks on Saturday evenings at the regular 7:30 concert time. “We got 1,200 hits on the first one,” she says. “Instead of laying low, we wanted to have a presence in the community. If you disappear and come back after six months, maybe people will feel that they didn’t need you.”

With the Carmel Symphony’s planned opening in the fall appearing unlikely, Hymes is thinking about options for live performance—in very small groups, if necessary. A larger orchestra performance might be created digitally, using click tracks and space at local TV stations where sections could rehearse together, and where professional video-recording equipment is available. As for monetizing digital content, she’s thinking about partnering with restaurants to offer a home concert along with takeout dinner and wine. Or performing without an audience and livestreaming the concert; the orchestra is also considering streaming content to retirement homes and hospitals. “It’s exciting to think that we can be creative and innovative while we wait for the next several months, maybe

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symphony

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even years, to be back at full capacity in the hall,” says Hymes. “The worst-case scenario is that we hold onto all the money in the bank, sit tight, and don’t pay anybody. Our board is not in favor of that.”

For Charles Dickerson III, executive director and conductor of Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles (ICYOLA), technology has been helpful in keeping his 100-plus young players engaged: teachers who normally lead sectional rehearsals before the group’s Sunday evening fullorchestra rehearsals have been doing them online. Though timely and well intentioned, the approach revealed the digital divide: not all of the musicians have online access. However, a grant awarded in May is being used to purchase iPads and internet capability for ICYOLA musicians who need that. Due to the pandemic shutdown, ICYOLA lost its season-finale concert (its only concert that isn’t free) and with it, about $75,000 of its $350,000 budget. In addition, the orchestra is 70 percent African American and 20 percent Latinx, and “COVID-19 has hit communities of color more impactfully than others,” Dickerson says. “Our contributors have the kinds of jobs that were immediately cut. I am fearful that the reduction of contributions from our supporters will continue for a few years, even when the pandemic is over.

But we are a community used to being under-resourced and used to making the best cherry pie out of the worst cherries.”

If there is a silver lining to the situation, it may be that total upheaval offers time and opportunity for orchestras to rethink some structures and programs, and to consider how well they serve their missions.

For example, Susan Nelson says that one of her orchestra clients is looking at its substantial education program. “They are saying, ‘If we can’t do it in the fall in the usual way, is that such a bad thing? These are some very traditional programs. Let’s start from scratch, respond to current practices, and talk with teachers about what they would really like us to do.’ The team is very excited about this.” Nelson also thinks that this is the moment for the entire nonprofit sector to tackle its severe undercapitalization. With revenue sources suddenly stripped away, she says, the lack of working capital to make change is painfully evident: “We have to talk to donors about how to infuse real new capital into the system.” americanorchestras.org

Predicting the full scope of the new normal is impossible, but organizations need to imagine what it could be, and plan for it.

Michael Kaiser, chairman of the DeVos Institute of Arts Management at the University of Maryland, thinks it is important for organizations to stay focused on the future, and to communicate that to their audiences and their donors. “Embrace donors. Have town halls, tell them what you are doing,

and the exciting plans that you are making for the future,” he told MusicalAmerica.com.

“We should be planning exciting things for the return, so that people are motivated to stay with us—and write a check.”

HEIDI WALESON is opera critic of the Wall Street Journal and author of Mad Scenes and Exit Arias: The Death of the New York City Opera and the Future of Opera in America.

Real change means getting at what’s below the surface.

“The results have been inspirational and we will be forever grateful for their partnership and support.”

Anne Parsons, President and Executive Director Detroit Symphony Orchestra

Partners in Performance, Inc.

Building resilient, adaptive, human-centered organizations www.partnersinperformance.us

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Museum of History & Industry, Seattle

The front page of the October 5, 1918 Seattle Daily Times captures the impact of the epidemic on a country still reeling from World War 1.

To slow the spread of the 1918-20 epidemic, theaters, concert halls, schools, and other gathering places in Seattle were shut down by the mayor.

Pandemic in Perspective Social distancing. Masks vs. no masks.

Business interests vs. scientific guidance. Just over a century ago, the global pandemic caused by what was called the Spanish influenza had drastic impacts on America’s orchestras. How did orchestras back then cope? Is the past prologue?

by Brian Wise

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I

t ravaged civilization for nearly three years and left at least 50 million people worldwide dead, including about 675,000 in the United States. Yet as the influenza pandemic of 1918-20 swept through the world, American orchestras coped with its effects to varying degrees.

During this period, the Cleveland Orchestra was born, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra built a new hall in just five months, and other ensembles faced upended schedules with a remarkable sense of optimism. But there were cautionary tales too, including the deaths of three violinists in hard-hit Philadelphia, a chasymphony

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Musical America clipping courtesy of the Philadelphia Orchestra

pandemics in modern history, arriving in three waves. It struck not only the most vulnerable but also people in the prime of their lives, among them the violinist Jascha Heifetz and composers Béla Bartók, Igor Stravinsky, and Sergei Rachmaninoff, all

gatherings were finally banned on October 3, the public health system was already overwhelmed.

Among the reported fatalities were three musicians with the Philadelphia Orchestra.

“All three played second violin, and all were

When public gatherings were banned in Philadelphia on October 3, 1918, the public health system was already overwhelmed.

The pandemic forced the Philadelphia Orchestra to postpone concerts in 1918 due to health concerns, as documented in Musical America in October 1918.

otic tour by a visiting French orchestra, and a sense of collective amnesia once the pandemic had subsided. Together these events offer a historical view as orchestras seek paths out of the 2020 coronavirus.

First detected in March 1918, the socalled Spanish flu was one of the worst

of whom survived. (I detail some of these cases concerning composers in a June 2020 BBC Music Magazine article.) Business pressures sometimes clashed with scientific guidance.

Philadelphia, the hardest-hit city in the United States, with 20,000 fatalities, reported its first cases of the flu in September 1918. But authorities did not want to impede daily life, and allowed a Liberty Loans parade to proceed on September 28, an event that drew over 200,000 spectators— and left thousands infected. When public

young and promising musicians,” stated the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin on October 24, 1918. Two of the musicians were 20-year-old Harry Silberman and 21-yearold Benjamin Winterstein. A third, David Savidowsky, 17, may have been a substitute player or an extra.

Meanwhile, private gatherings in Philadelphia were not banned, enabling the 100-member orchestra to continue to rehearse out of the public eye. One music critic suggested that the extra rehearsal time gave the orchestra an edge in the

Merrill David photo courtesy of Cleveland Orchestra Archives

The Cleveland Orchestra, seen here in its earliest existing photo, taken in 1919, made its debut on December 11, 1918, after a citywide ban on public performances due to the pandemic was lifted.

americanorchestras.org

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the Evening Bulletin on October 24 that “there is no doubt that everything will be satisfactorily arranged as soon as a specific opening date is announced.” Judson rescheduled the cancelled October concerts for the following April, in order to maintain a 28-week season. Yet even then

protested the closures,” noted the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “Musicians and entertainers claimed the quarantine threatened their careers.” But Health Commissioner Max C. Starkloff held firm concerning shutdowns and St. Louis saw 3,000 deaths in a population of 687,000,

The Cleveland Orchestra

Social distancing was key to stemming the flu’s spread in 1918, yet workplace rules were inconsistent.

A clipping in The Plain Dealer on September 13, 1918 announced the formation of Cleveland’s new orchestra, but an October ban on public performances due to the flu pandemic complicated plans. The Cleveland Orchestra made its debut on December 11, 1918, after the ban was lifted.

difficult modern works championed by Music Director Leopold Stokowski. Despite concerns about lost ticket revenue, orchestra manager Arthur Judson assured

the orchestra was not completely in the clear: Stokowski had briefly contracted the “influenza blight,” according to an April 1919 Musical America report. “For weeks the conductor has been struggling against the inevitable,” the article stated, adding that the conductor, then in his thirties, left town under doctor’s orders.

In contrast to Philadelphia, authorities in St. Louis moved quickly and aggressively to close theaters, schools, saloons, and other gathering spots, and the city fared relatively well. “Theater owners, as some of the largest taxpayers at the time,

the lowest among the country’s ten largest cities.

Initially, audiences in St. Louis were slow to return to theaters after quarantines were lifted. But when a lavish Christmas pageant was held in late December 1918, the St. Louis Symphony and two choruses were among 600 performers to take part.

Soldiers from nearby barracks were invited, though “influenza’s efforts to thwart Kris Kringle will result in children under twelve years old being barred from the masque” due to their vulnerability to the flu, as the Post-Dispatch reported.

The Philadelphia Orchestra

In March of 1917, before the onset of the pandemic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, led by Leopold Stokowski, gave a performance of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with enormous musical forces, including the Philadelphia Orchestra Choruses.

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Kaufmann & Fabry photo courtesy of Rosenthal Archives/Chicago Symphony Orchestra

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, October 1919. In October 1918, Chicago authorities closed all theaters and movies houses due to the epidemic, forcing the CSO to call off two weeks of concerts. That October, the orchestra’s visit to Cleveland was cancelled when Cleveland prohibited public gatherings.

Wide World Photos/The Cleveland Orchestra Archives

Matzene Chicago photo courtesy of Rosenthal Archives/Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Masked Audiences in San Francisco

Cleveland Orchestra Conductor Nikolai Sokoloff admires the orchestra’s first commercial recording, in 1924. The Cleveland Orchestra had been founded just a few years before. americanorchestras.org

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s popular music director, the German-born Frederick Stock, was absent from the podium in the fall of 1918, as he worked to finish his U.S. citizenship application. After World War 1 ended, Stock was granted full U.S. citizenship and resumed his position as music director in February 1919.

In San Francisco, public gatherings were banned on October 24, 1918, but the real centerpiece of the city’s battle against the pandemic was the face mask. An ordinance made masks mandatory in public and compliance was equated with wartime patriotism. Musical America described a band concert in Golden Gate Park where “a masked audience of several thousand enjoyed a program which had evidently been arranged to cheer the gloomy listeners.” The magazine published a photo of piano virtuoso Leopold Godowsky out for a walk and sporting a facial covering.

San Francisco Symphony Music Director Alfred Hertz struck an upbeat tone despite the loss of nearly five weeks of concerts. “There is no cause for gloomy prognostications about the symphony season,” he assured the San Francisco Exam-

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Detroit Symphony Orchestra Archives

Despite the pandemic and World War I, construction of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s new, 2,000-seat Orchestra Hall began on June 1, 1919.

Photo from late summer or early fall of 1919.

Manning Brothers Historic Photographic Collection

Five months after construction began, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s new concert hall was ready to open. Exterior shot of Orchestra Hall taken in May 1920.

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iner. “This epidemic is a terrible calamity, and the prompt action of the authorities in forbidding public gatherings was the best thing that could be done to mitigate its severity. But there seems every reason to believe that the ban, which bears par-

americanorchestras.org

ticular weight upon musicians, will mean the speedy suppression of the disease.”

After multiple delays, Hertz opened the orchestra season at the Curran Theater on November 29, 1918. Concerts continued into the New Year, when the virus flared up again in the city. “The return of the influenza made the size of the audience particularly remarkable,” Musical America wrote of a January 12 concert. “Many persons wore masks, but even this did not put a damper on the enthusiasm.”

The Cleveland Orchestra Archives

Courtesy of San Francisco Symphony

Courtesy of San Francisco Symphony

The San Francisco Symphony cancelled nearly five weeks of concerts due to a ban on public gatherings in 1918. In photo: Music Director Alfred Hertz and the San Francisco Symphony, 1922-23.

The San Francisco Symphony’s concert on December 8, 1918 was billed as a “Victory Concert.”

World War 1 had ended just a month before.

Adella Prentiss Hughes, founder of The Cleveland Orchestra. Plans for the new orchestra met delays due to the 1918 pandemic.

In the Midwest, a Show-Must-GoOn Spirit

In Cleveland, public gatherings were banned on October 14, 1918, thwarting an appearance by the Chicago Symphony

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Orchestra later that month. The ban also complicated plans that had been stirring to give Cleveland its own hometown orchestra. Adella Prentiss Hughes, head of the Musical Arts Association, and conductor

how arts organizations were “relegated to the limbo of unessential industries” and predicted (incorrectly, it appears) that “when the season finally does get underway, it will be a sadly dislocated affair.”

“This epidemic is a terrible calamity, and the prompt action of the authorities in forbidding public gatherings was the best thing that could be done to mitigate its severity,” said San Francisco Symphony Music Director Alfred Hertz in 1918.

Nikolai Sokoloff were masterminds of the effort, spending the fall recruiting musicians and exploring venues such as high schools and even factories. By early November Clevelanders were growing frustrated with the city’s lockdown. A Cleveland Plain Dealer music critic bemoaned

The ban on public gatherings was lifted on November 10 and tickets immediately went on sale for the Cleveland Orchestra’s inaugural concert. After ten rehearsals, the 54-member orchestra was born with a performance on December 11 at the Grays Armory. The program was repeated

the following week. Cleveland Orchestra Archivist Andria Hoy believes that the dearth of culture during the citywide closures helped stoke the public’s favorable response to the city’s new orchestra.

A show-must-go-on spirit also drove the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, which in May 1918 tapped Russian pianist Ossip Gabrilowitsch as its next music director. Gabrilowitsch had signed a one-year contract on the condition that the orchestra build a world-class concert hall.

Meanwhile, the flu slipped into Detroit from the U.S. Naval Training Station at River Rouge and public gathering spots were shuttered by mid-October. Despite the pandemic and backdrop of World War I, plans for the 2,000-seat Orchestra Hall forged ahead. Construction began on June 1, 1919 and the hall was largely complete four months and 23 days later.

But the Orchestra Hall story had a tragic coda. Horace Dodge, vice president of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra board, who donated $100,000 towards the hall’s construction, contracted influenza during the third wave of the epidemic. He died from complications including pneumonia in December 1920. DSO musicians—who had serenaded at his daughter’s wedding reception that June—now performed at his funeral.

Courtesy of St. Louis Symphony Orchestra

No Social Distancing

Planning was difficult during the pandemic, and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra responded with flexibility and regular updates in the local press and its program books.

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Social distancing was key to stemming the virus’s spread in 1918, yet workplace rules were inconsistent. The Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, as the Minnesota Orchestra was then known, continued to rehearse throughout late 1918, even as the city of Minneapolis banned public gatherings for six weeks. On November 10, while the ban was still in effect, the local health board allowed the orchestra, led by Emil Oberhoffer, to give a free concert for U.S. military soldiers and sailors. A week later, the ban was lifted and the season-opening concert, featuring violinist Mischa Elman, proceeded.

In Cincinnati, the health department denied requests by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra to allow it to continue rehearsing during the city-wide ban on gatherings. The orchestra pleaded that it would take additional precautions, such as barring musicians whose family members had contracted the flu. But the health symphony

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halls darkened and the orchestra’s tour was thrown into disarray, the musicians waited out the flu bans in the recording studio, cutting albums of Bizet, Saint-Saëns, and Delibes for Columbia Records.

New York City did not impose any significant theater closures during the fall of 1918, in part because a pronounced wave of infections that spring had afforded a significant natural immune protection, says John Barry, author of The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History. “It was almost unique in that regard,” he writes in an e-mail. The New York American newspaper reported in October 1918 that “the specter of the Hispanic malady [sic] has had little effect

Courtesy of St. Louis Symphony Orchestra

authorities held firm, and eventually the orchestra moved its rehearsals to the village of St. Bernard where a ban was not in effect.

In Chicago, the influenza epidemic first appeared at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station on September 8, 1918. As it spread through the population, the city’s health commissioner ordered all theaters and movie houses closed on October 14, prompting the Chicago Symphony Orchestra to call off two weeks of concerts.

When theaters were allowed to reopen, it was on the condition that they close promptly by 10 p.m., “and with threat of pains and penalties for the patron who should cough or sneeze without smother-

The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra’s 1918-19 season didn’t start until November, when the influenza quarantine was mostly over. Nevertheless, the orchestra postponed the season by a week, as reported in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on November 3, 1918.

ing the explosion in a handkerchief,” according to Musical America. Attendance dipped after the hiatus, but this was due to several contributing factors, says Frank Villella, director of the CSO’s Rosenthal Archives. The orchestra’s popular music director, the German-born Frederick Stock, was absent from the podium that fall, as he worked to finish an incomplete citizenship application. And with the signing of the Armistice that ended World War I on November 11, patrons may have been exhausted following what was called “the war to end all wars.”

Unexpected Effects

If there was one ensemble that earns points for tenacity during the Spanish flu pandemic, it may be the orchestra of the Paris Conservatory, which arrived in New York on October 12, 1918 for a 60-city U.S. tour, under the baton of André Messager. The orchestra played two concerts at the Metropolitan Opera House before the flu claimed the life of a musician, violinist Eduardo Fernandez, whose body had to be transported back to Paris. As concert americanorchestras.org

on concert givers, though the dread of contagion is keeping many music lovers at home or out of doors.” The New York Philharmonic gave a full slate of concerts at Carnegie Hall that season.

The classical music field of 1918-19 tended to put a brave face on the pandemic, and it’s unclear whether any orchestras suffered lasting setbacks from the flu’s second wave (the third wave in 1919 appears have been far less consequential). Creative responses were few.

Darius Milhaud’s Sonata for Flute, Oboe, Clarinet and Piano includes a dirge for the victims of the epidemic. Songs like “Spanish Flu Blues” and “Oh, You Flu!” took a lighter approach. There were no grand requiems or symphonic laments for the victims despite the fact that, globally, some 50 million people died in the pandemic—ten million more than had perished in World War I. “The last traces of the Spanish Influenza epidemic are percolating through the musical news of the country,” reported Musical America on November 30, 1918.

“In its actual effect this plague … has

been more damaging so far as the patronage of music is concerned, than war and burdensome taxes.” Yet flanked by advertisements for diva recitals and player pianos, the article sounded a hopeful note.

“There seems to be a disposition in every quarter to secure, as nearly as possible, a full quota of musical entertainment.”

As we face the 2020 pandemic, the lessons from a century ago are stark. The premature lifting of restrictions on gatherings led to further outbreaks of the flu in 1918 and 1919. Misinformation and a frequent disregard for science thrived in the predigital age just as it does now on social media. Today’s orchestral field, meanwhile, is far more complex, with fraught implications for scheduling, musicians’ contracts, media agreements, fundraising, and more.

But the public’s need for orchestral music remains—whether it means beaming performances into hospital rooms or delivering smaller, remote concerts to audiences isolated at home. It’s the art form’s greater healing role that may point to new paths forward.

BRIAN WISE writes about music for outlets including BBC Music Magazine, MusicalAmerica. com and Strings. He is also the producer of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s national radio broadcasts.

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LEAGUE OF AMERICAN ORCHESTRAS With the support of our valued donors, the League continues to have a positive impact on the future of orchestras in America by helping to develop the next generation of leaders, generating and disseminating critical knowledge and information, and advocating for the unique role of the orchestral experience in American life before an ever-widening group of stakeholders.

We gratefully acknowledge the generosity of the following donors who contributed gifts of $600 and above in the last year, as of May 13, 2020. For more information regarding a gift to the League, please visit us at americanorchestras.org/donate, call 212.262.5161, or write us at Annual Fund, League of American Orchestras, 520 8th Avenue, Suite 2005, 20th Floor, New York, NY 10018. $150,000 and above

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William & Solange Brown Trish Bryan ✧ The Aaron Copland Fund for Music Kathleen Kane Eberhardt & Jerrold Eberhardt Drs. Aaron & Christina Stanescu Flagg Marian A. Godfrey John and Marcia Goldman Foundation The CHG Charitable Trust as recommended by Carole Haas Gravagno ✧ Jim Hasler Dr. Hugh W. Long Jim & Kay Mabie † Alan & Maria McIntyre † Peter & Catherine Moye Marilyn Carlson Nelson Lowell & Sonja Noteboom

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PLAYING OUR PART: THE CAMPAIGN FOR THE LEAGUE OF AMERICAN ORCHESTRAS

Playing our Part is a campaign to support a major $2 million infrastructure investment in our service to America’s orchestras, including a new headquarters, modern website, increased digital learning capacity, and an improved information technology ecosystem. We gratefully acknowledge the generosity of the following donors who have made commitments to support this work: Burton Alter Alberta Arthurs Marie-Hélène Bernard • Michelle Miller Burns Janet Cabot Heather Clarke Melanie Clarke Bruce & Martha Clinton, on behalf of The Clinton Family Fund ✧ Gloria dePasquale Daniel & David Els-Piercey Phillip Wm. Fisher Support Foundation David J.L. Fisk Drs. Aaron & Christina Stanescu Flagg Ray Fowler Vanessa Gardner, in honor of Group 5-6 members GE Foundation Marian A. Godfrey The Hagerman Family Charitable Fund, Douglas & Jane Hagerman Daniel & Barbara Hart • Jim Hasler Patricia G. Howard James M. Johnson Mark Jung Charitable Gift Fund Cindy & Randy Kidwell Bob & Charlotte Lewis Dr. Hugh W. Long William M. Lyons John & Regina Mangum Alan Mason Barbara McCelvey

Anthony McGill David Alan Miller Mr. & Mrs. Alfred P. Moore Peter & Catherine Moye Kim Noltemy Lowell & Sonja Noteboom Steve and Diane Parrish Foundation Mary Carr Patton Karen & Tom Philion Raymond & Tresa Radermacher Patricia A. Richards & William K. Nichols Jesse Rosen Barbara & Robert Rosoff ✧ Mr. & Mrs. David Roth Sakana Foundation Sargent Family Foundation, Cynthia Sargent ✧ Michael J. Schmitz Andrew Sewell Helen P. Shaffer Laurie & Nathan Skjerseth Richard K. Smucker Irene Sohm Ms. Trine Sorensen & Mr. Michael Jacobson Ruth Sovronsky Isaac Thompson & Tonya Vachirasomboon Alan D. Valentine Penny & John Van Horn Robert Wagner Kelly Waltrip Terry Ann White Sheila J. Williams Lindsey Wood

Mark and Nancy Peacock Charitable Fund Jesse Rosen Drs. Helen S. & John P. Schaefer † Helen P. Shaffer Irene Sohm Geraldine B. Warner Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation

Kjristine Lund Anthony McGill New York State Council on the Arts The Brian Ratner Foundation Phoebe & Bobby Tudor Alan D. Valentine

$5,000–$9,999

Jennifer Barlament & Kenneth Potsic • Marie-Hélène Bernard • Ann & Stan Borowiec Barbara Bozzuto Michelle Miller Burns NancyBell Coe, in honor of Jesse Rosen Martha and Herman Copen Fund of The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven

Burton Alter Alberta Arthurs Benevity Gloria dePasquale Marisa Eisemann The Hyde and Watson Foundation Jerome Foundation Robert Kohl & Clark Pellett

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Lester Abberger & Dr. Amanda Stringer † Stephen H. Alter, in honor of Jesse Rosen Megen Balda David R. Bornemann, Vice Chair, Phoenix Symphony Drs. Misook Yun & James William Boyd • Doris & Michael Bronson John Burrows & Melinda Whiting Burrows, in honor of Jesse Rosen Don & Judy Christl † Heather Clarke Scott Faulkner & Andrea Lenz † Jack M. Firestone Ryan Fleur & Laura Banchero †• Vanessa Gardner, in honor of Group 5-6 members

HELEN M. THOMPSON HERITAGE SOCIETY

The League of American Orchestras graciously recognizes those who have remembered the League in their estate plans as members of the Helen M. Thompson Heritage Society.

Janet F. and Dr. Richard E. Barb Family Foundation Wayne S. Brown & Brenda E. Kee † John & Janet Canning † Richard & Kay Fredericks Cisek ✧ Martha and Herman Copen Fund of the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven Myra Janco Daniels Samuel C. Dixon • Henry & Frances Fogel ✧ Susan Harris, Ph.D. Louise W. Kahn Endowment Fund of The Dallas Foundation The Curtis and Pamela Livingston 2000 Charitable Remainder Unitrust Steve & Lou Mason † Lowell & Sonja Noteboom Charles & Barbara Olton † Peter Pastreich † Walter P. Pettipas Revocable Trust Rodger E. Pitcairn Patricia A. Richards & William K. Nichols Robert & Barbara Rosoff ✧ Robert J. Wagner Tina Ward • † Mr. & Mrs. Albert K.✧ & Sally Webster Robert Wood Revocable Trust Anonymous (1) Bob Garthwait, Jr. GE Foundation Michael Gehret Mr. Andrew Giacobone Mary L. Gray Benjamin Hoyer H.T. and Laura Hyde Charitable Fund at East Texas Communities Foundation † Sally & William Johnson Russell Jones & Aaron Gillies Emma Murley Kail • Sarah E. Kelly Anna Kuwabara & Craig Edwards • Robert Levine David Loebel Jennifer Mondie Becky Odland † Mr. Donald F. Roth † Joan Squires • Edith & Thomas Van Huss Charlie Wade Linda Weisbruch † † Directors Council (former League Board) ✧ Emeritus Board • Orchestra Management Fellowship Program Alumni + Includes Corporate Matching Gift * Deceased

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CODA

Even as COVID-19 continues to present unprecedented challenges to orchestras, this is also a critical time to think deeply about the future of classical music. How might we rethink concert formats, pacing, expectations, and reimagine the orchestral experience for the “new normal”? Conductor Tania Miller offers her perspective from the podium.

A

lthough we don’t want to admit it, before COVID-19 changed our lives, classical music was ever-so-slowly receding into the din of modern-day culture. However, by searching and exploring, many committed orchestras found imaginative ways to slow the erosion and worked tirelessly to successfully build community and buzz around their endeavors.

And now here we are, in the quietness of the eye of the storm of COVID-19, with concerts cancelled and events postponed. There’s much to say about the hardship of the moment; perhaps Stravinsky’s Firebird is our symbol as we try to imagine the future. We know from music that darkness can sometimes create the greatest creativity and ultimately the most profound light. Maybe this is our chance, amid the stillness, to reset and to reflect on where we were going, and where we might change course for the future, post pandemic.

During this time, inspired online content has kept us connected to classical music when we needed it most. We have learned how much we need each other, to be close to each other. We have learned to differentiate between what it feels like to be physically close to someone vs. virtually close. Will we ever go back to packed concert halls? Surely yes, but when and how are still unknown.

In recent years, we have spent much time curating innovative music experiences for our audiences. Perhaps we hadn’t fully valued the importance of physically

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sharing those moments—the magic that music weaves by connecting an entire audience together (while, paradoxically, creating something meaningful for each of us individually). Concerts are also social events, a chance to get out and see people (when have we craved that more than now?), yet concerts have become long, formal, full-evening events with little time for discussion and social interaction.

Now is the time to think creatively about new performance models to add into our seasons. In one possibility, the familiar classical concert could open and close the evening, and a social activity could be expanded in the middle. Imagine starting

Perhaps Stravinsky’s Firebird is our symbol as we try to imagine the future. with a half-hour concerto, opening up into a new social experience—walking around an art installation with wine glass in hand, or experiencing, while standing, an edgy modern commission with a small ensemble in a different room—and then finishing with a sit-down experience of an extraordinary symphonic work.

We feel music in our bodies, responding to its tensions, climaxes, energy, and emotion. Our distracted and impatient audiences need to have an opportunity to interact and react physically to the music. Perhaps shorter modular concerts, and expansions into new kinds of pre-concert and post-concert artistic experiences, can provide some of this. As

Todd Rosenberg

Curating a Classical-Music Reset, After the Pandemic

we deal with social distancing, perhaps a concert-hall facility can accommodate several experiences simultaneously, with audiences moving and rotating through these experiences. If Tania Miller we want people to leave the safety and ease of their homes in this new future, the chance to connect with others will be a powerful motivation: emotionally through the music as well as physically.

The deep connection of modern society to classical music has eroded in part because people, young included, don’t know classical music as a friend, up close, in their homes. As we wait for our full seasons to return, we have a chance to focus on the big picture of enriching our communities’ connection to music. We can engage our musicians in creative initiatives around education and the building of deep relationships. We can engage philanthropists and governments to support meaningful projects to get us through to the next normal, among them chamber concerts, interactions with children, enriching engagements close to the music on every level, and collaborations with other arts organizations.

This is not the time for us to throw up our hands in despair. This is—if we can just sustain ourselves—a chance to reset.

Orchestras can continue to show everyone that music has never been more needed, more vibrant, and more relevant to the core of humanity. We have an opportunity, as orchestras, to create a new era for the future of classical music.

TANIA MILLER was music director of Canada’s Victoria Symphony from 2003 to 2017, gaining acclaim for her innovations and commitment to the orchestra and community. She conducts orchestras throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe.

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SUMMER 2020

Your Legacy Matters Share the magic of orchestras with future generations

Planned Giving enables individuals like you, who care deeply about the League of American Orchestras’ mission of advancing the orchestral experience for all, to support the League’s work beyond your lifetime.

To learn more about the League’s planned giving opportunities, please visit americanorchestras.org/donate/plannedgiving.

CONTACT SANDRA DOAN, DIRECTOR OF ARTISTIC PLANNING SDOAN@CLIBURN.ORG I +1.817.738.6536 520 8th Avenue, Suite 2005, 20th Floor, New York NY 10018-4167

THE WORLD IS LISTENING

SIXTEENTH VA N C L I B U R N I NT E R NATI O N A L PIANO COMPETITION MAY 27–JUNE 12, 2021 FORT WORTH, TEXAS USA

BOOK THE 2021 WINNERS I ATTEND THE COMPETITION I GROUP TICKET PACKAGES

CONTACT SANDRA DOAN I SDOAN @ CLIBURN.ORG I 817.738.6536