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S Y M P H O N Y

THE MAGAZINE OF

THE LEAGUE OF AMERICAN ORCHESTRAS

Great Outdoors The

Where to Find Summer Music

SPRING 2013

Rethinking Diversity y The Rite at 100 y Healing Through Music y What’s Ahead at Conference 2013

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PRELUDE

VO LU M E 6 4 , N U M B E R 2

f an orchestra performs on an unused airstrip, is it still an orchestra? If an orchestra

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composer’s wishes? And if an orchestra plays the finale from Firebird at a shopping

THE MAGAZINE OF THE LEAGUE OF AMERICAN ORCHESTRAS

merely rhetorical, if-a-tree-falls-in-the-forest speculations, but examples of the

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.

SP R IN G 2 0 1 3

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invites everyone in its hometown to sing along with Beethoven 9, is it still serving the mall, is the plangent climax of Stravinsky’s score any less thrilling? These aren’t

unusual, inventive events and projects that orchestras are presenting right now. Brass

players are serenading boaters on lakes in city parks; chamber orchestras are popping up flashmob-style on streets; and, more seriously, orchestral musicians are performing in

healthcare settings, bringing music to those in need. It’s all a means to get the music into people’s lives in unexpected ways, and as seldom before.

In this issue, we look at how orchestras are innovating these days, onstage and

off. Some of the activity is part of staying in step with the zeitgeist, some of it is an

adjustment to shifting audience demographics. And some of it may be a response to ongoing economic upheaval: if financial models that worked for years are no longer

successful, then it may be time to try something else. None of this is to minimize the

supreme artistry of today’s orchestral musicians, which can’t be taken for granted. But as musicians perform in hospitals and other healthcare settings, their very discipline

EDITOR IN CHIEF

Robert Sandla

SENIOR EDITOR

Chester Lane

MANAGING EDITOR

Jennifer Melick

ASSISTANT EDITOR

Ian VanderMeulen

PRODUCTION AND DESIGN MANAGER

Michael Rush

ADVERTISING DIRECTOR

Stephen Alter

ADVERTISING ASSOCIATE

Samara Ungar

PUBLISHER DESIGN/ART DIRECTION

and passion for the music are helping others. Their musical gifts resonate with the

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SPRING 2013

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THE MAGAZINE OF THE LEAGUE OF AMERICAN ORCHESTRAS

2 Prelude by Robert Sandla 4 The Score Orchestra news, moves, and events

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Sounds of Healing Orchestras are partnering with healthcare organizations, linking musicians’ expertise with that of the medical profession. by Chester Lane

Detroit Symphony Orchestra

20 At the League Doug McLennan examines lessons from the League of American Orchestras’ Institutional Vision Program.

Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra

16 Conference Preview The League’s 2013 National Conference, held from June 18 to 20 in St. Louis, will be a true marketplace of ideas.

by Robert Sandla

Bassel Jadaa

10 Critical Questions How should orchestras approach the important issue of diversity?

Jesse Rosen talks with Bo Young Lee, an expert on developing cross-cultural competencies.

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Going Public Citywide arts events are taking music participation to new levels, from Toronto and Berlin to Cincinnati and New York. by Jennifer Melick

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Rite Fever At its Paris premiere, Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring nearly incited a riot.

A century later the piece still fascinates. by Donald Rosenberg

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Summer Festivals 2013 An overview of what’s on this season

KPO Photo

Summer Sessions Education-oriented summer festivals let music students hone their craft—in spectacular settings. by Eileen Reynolds

61 Advertiser Index

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64 Coda The art of listening is vital, says Robert Spano, music director of the Aspen Music Festival and School and Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. about the cover Throughout this issue, text marked like this indicates a link to websites and online resources that can be accessed by visiting SymphonyOnline at symphony.org.

l

Alex Irvin

62 League of American Orchestras Annual Fund

As warm weather arrives, musicians prepare to head outdoors to perform, teach, and learn at festivals around the country. On the cover, members of Tilt Brass perform on the Central Park Lake during Make Music New York 2011.

Cover photo by Darial Sneed

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

Bill Swerbenski

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full health benefits. Management later cancelled concerts at Davis Symphony Hall, as well as the orchestra’s East Coast tour, including appearances at Carnegie Hall and Washington’s Kennedy Center. As of press time, bargaining sessions under federal mediation were ongoing but had yet to produce an agreement.

In the Twin Cities, management and musicians at the Minnesota Orchestra and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra had not come to terms in their respective months-long negotiations, although progress was being made. At press time, the Minnesota Orchestra had cancelled its concerts through April 27 and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra through April 21. In Kentucky, the management of Kentucky’s Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra has reported a number of sticking points in its contract negotiations with musicians. For the most up-to-date information about contract negotiations and other orchestra news, visit The Hub at hub.americanorchestras.org.

To help develop best practices for contract negotiations, the League will host a three-day “Foundations of Collective Bargaining” seminar

by Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service Commissioners, June 16-18. Held in conjunction with the League’s National Conference in St. Louis, the seminar is open to musicians, staff, board members, and others.

Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

Orchestras around the country continue to work with musicians at the bargaining table. On March 5, the Louisville Orchestra concluded a nearly three-year process that began just before the orchestra filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December 2010 and cancelled its entire 2011-12 season. The orchestra announced that musicians have signed a new three-year agreement, taking effect June 1, that freezes musician pay at $925 per week in the first two years with a 3 percent increase in the third year. The 30-week schedule for the new contract is down from 37 weeks in 2010, with the number of musicians down to 55 or 56 from more than 70. In Indiana, the Indianapolis Symphony reached a $5 million fundraising goal that helped kick in a new fiveyear musicians’ contract starting February 3. The 70 musicians, who had been playing under the terms of a temporary contract since October, begin at $53,000 base pay—down 32 percent from the contract that ended in September 2012—rising to $70,000 in the fifth year.

Meanwhile, musicians of the San Francisco Symphony (above) voted March 6 to authorize a strike and walked out March 13, reportedly over disagreements with management on base pay and benefits in a new contract proposal. Average musician compensation in the previous contract was $165,000 with 10 weeks of paid vacation and

Bill Swerbenski

San Francisco Symphony in performance at Davies Symphony Hall under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas

For his first commission as composer-in-residence, Adam Schoenberg’s assignment from the Kansas City Symphony was to write “a 21st century Pictures at an Exhibition.” His answer: Picture Studies, a 26-minute, ten-movement piece premiered by the orchestra in February and inspired by works in Kansas City’s Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Among the images are works by Kurt Baasch, William Blake, Alexander Calder, Vincent Van Gogh (below), Joan Miró, Wassily Kandinsky, and Hiroshi

Sugimoto. Meanwhile, the Boston Symphony Orchestra teamed up with the Copley Society of Art to curate an exhibit of 32 paintings shown throughout Symphony Hall, beginning March 6 and culminating with the orchestra’s April 12 and 13 performances of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Composer Adam Exhibition.

Schoenberg symphony

SPRING 2013

Vanessa Maldonado

Negotiating Table Update

Sonic Pictures

Students on Top

The Los Angeles Philharmonic has promoted CHRIS AYZOUKIAN to vice president, Philharmonic and production. has been appointed executive director of the Boise Philharmonic in Idaho.

SANDRA CULHANE

The Danville (Ill.) Symphony Orchestra has named STACI DISNEY-WALKER executive director.

Culhane

At the St. Louis Symphony, JOHN EASLEY has been appointed vice president for development.

HUNTER EBERLY has been named principal trumpet of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

The Windsor (Ontario) Symphony Orchestra has appointed ROBERT FRANZ music director, effective July 1, 2013. has been appointed president of the Manhattan School of Music in New York City.

Dr. JAMES GANDRE

The Sydney Symphony in Australia has appointed co-concertmaster, effective this May.

ANDREW HAVERON

The San Diego Youth Symphony has partnered with public schools to reintroduce music into the curriculum through its Community Opus Project, shown in action here.

Musical Chairs

Oklahoma’s Lawton Philharmonic Orchestra has named PEGGY HIGHTOWER executive director.

The Bangor Symphony Orchestra in Maine has appointed BRIAN HINRICHS executive director, effective June 1, 2013.

STEVEN JARVI has been named resident conductor of the St. Louis Symphony.

Alan Alabastro

Young musicians in San Diego, Seattle, and Atlanta are reaping the benefits of several important youth orchestra initiatives. In January, San Diego’s Chula Vista Elementary School District reintroduced music into the curriculum, thanks to a partnership between the San Diego Youth Symphony, the school district, and the music cable channel VH1.

School music programs had been eliminated due to budget cuts. Since 2010, SDYS has been working to expand its efforts in the San Diego community, after an in-depth analysis of its mission led to the establishment of the Community Opus Project to further the goal of making music education accessible for all students. The Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestras and Seattle Opera have embarked on a new partnership that brings opera into the curriculum for SYSO musicians. The partnership kicked off in January when SYSO Music Director Stephen Rogers Radcliffe led his orchestra at Benaroya Hall with Seattle Opera Youth Chorus and soloists. In August, the combined forces of both Seattle groups will perform Eric Banks’s new trilogy of operas entitled Our Earth. And in Atlanta, 49 artsoriented teenagers were selected last summer to participate in the new Wells Fargo ArtsVibe Teen Program, in which they meet twice a month with arts administrators from the Alliance Theatre, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, High Museum of Art, and Young Audiences to learn how to program and promote events. In April, students in the ArtsVibe program perform in “Voices & Vibe,” a free festival of music, spoken word, dance, and visual art at the Woodruff Arts Center.

MUSICAL CHAIRS

Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra musicians perform the second in Eric Banks’s new opera trilogy, Heron and the Salmon Girl, at Seattle’s Town Hall, February 2013.

Hinrichs

At the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, CATHERINE KIEKHOFER has been appointed chief financial officer and vice president, finance and administration.

has been elected chair of Chicago’s Grant Park Orchestral Association.

CHARLES M. KIERSCHT

The Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra has appointed JIHYUN KIM director of artistic planning and production. has been named managing director, North America, at IMG Artists.

DAVID LAI

Teens in the new Wells Fargo ArtsVibe program break loose at the High Museum of Art, August 2012.

Kim

The Green Bay (Wis.) Symphony Orchestra has appointed DAN LINSSEN executive director.

California’s Pasadena Symphony Association has appointed DAVID LOCKINGTON music director and NICHOLAS McGEGAN principal guest conductor.

LINDA LUTZ has been named chief financial officer at the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

The Los Angeles Philharmonic has appointed ROBERT deMAINE principal cello, effective May 11, 2013.

Leah and Mark Photography

JENNIFER McLAFFERTY has been named director of development at Houston’s River Oaks Chamber Orchestra.

americanorchestras.org

The Cleveland Orchestra has appointed BRETT MITCHELL assistant conductor, effective September 2013.

has been named president of the Jacksonville (Fla.) Symphony Orchestra, a post he previously held from 1988 to 1996.

DAVID L. PIERSON

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James DePreist 1936-2013

A projection screen at the Charlotte Symphony’s “Pop-Up Opera” concert offered fun facts throughout the performance.

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Briana Duggan/WFAE

Opera Pops Up in Charlotte Remember VH1’s “Pop Up Video” show, in which music videos were shown with little text bubbles giving insider tidbits? In February, the Charlotte Symphony in North Carolina took a page out of VH1’s playbook, using a projection screen to offer similar fun facts during “Pop-Up Opera,” an evening of opera favorites presented as part of its KnightSounds series. The program included music by Verdi, Mascagni, and Wagner performed by the orchestra and Oratorio Singers of Charlotte, along with vocal soloists, while pop-ups about composers’ love affairs, opera mishaps, and factoids on the lives of Charlotte Symphony musicians were shown.

Orozco-Estrada to Helm Houston Symphony

Andrés Orozco-Estrada, a 35-year-old native of Colombia, has been announced as the next music director of the Houston Symphony, where he will occupy the Roy and Lillie Cullen Chair. His five-year contract begins in the 2014-15 season, and he will serve as music director designate in 2013-14. Orozco-Estrada is currently music director of Austria’s Tonkünstler Orchestra and principal conductor of the Basque National Orchestra in San Sebastián, Spain, a position he will relinquish this May. Born in Medellin, Colombia, he began his musical studies in violin and first conducted at age fifteen when invited to lead his youth orchestra. Orozco-Estrada studied conducting at the Vienna Music Academy. Since 2010 he has made his debuts with European orchestras including the Vienna Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, and City of Birmingham Orchestra.

Andrés Orozco-Estrada symphony

SPRING 2013

Julie Soefer

It is consciousness that we must raise; consciousness of the bottom-line indispensability of the dynamic 20th-century American orchestra. Consciousness of the power, the virtuosity, the sublime beauty of the wondrous universe of orchestral sound. … Symphony orchestras are not artistically credible because they have raised millions of dollars. They have raised millions of dollars because they are artistically credible.

And it is the hunger for that artistic credibility that we must elevate to a benign addiction. … We all have much to do to free the potential audiences who are held hostage by apathy—audiences with canteens full of entertainment in a cultural desert. We must stimulate the appetite for music through music. And if we can’t summon passionate commitment, then we need to be elsewhere. ... All I ask is that we raise our gaze from the books long enough to listen to the music of our enterprise. Words cannot capture its meaning, nor money measure its value.

The Juilliard School

J

ames DePreist, one of the first AfricanAmerican conductors to achieve world prominence as an orchestral leader and educator, died February 8 in Scottsdale, Arizona at the age of 76. At the time of his death he was director emeritus of conducting and orchestral studies at The Juilliard School and laureate music director of the Oregon Symphony, James DePreist on the podwhere his distinguished tenure ium at The Juilliard School spanned 1980 to 2003.

Educated in his native Philadelphia at the University of Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia Conservatory, DePreist won first prize in the 1964 Dmitri Mitropoulos International Conducting Competition despite having lost the use of his legs after contracting polio two years before. Leonard Bernstein chose him as the New York Philharmonic’s assistant conductor for 1965-66, and three years later DePreist made his European conducting debut.

Following five years (1971-76) as associate conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra he was named music director of the Orchestre symphonique de Québec, a post he held until 1983.

As a national figure on the American orchestral stage, DePreist was an inspirational keynote speaker at the American Symphony Orchestra League’s 1988 National Conference in Chicago. His address subsequently appeared in the August-September 1998 issue of Symphony Magazine. Here is an excerpt:

Orlando Stories

Bob Turner

The academic benefits of music education have been much discussed, and the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra is exploring that connection through its Symphonic Stories program, which teaches students about science, music, and theater. On February 26, secondgraders at two Orlando schools performed an original theatrical production, based on their classroom studies, for their parents and peers, backed by musicians from the Philharmonic (above). Titled George and the Peanut Butterfly, the play uses student-made puppetry, backdrops, and costumes to tell a story about George Washington Carver. americanorchestras.org

Todd Rosenberg

Iowa’s Dubuque Symphony Orchestra has named DEBRA SANDRY executive director.

has been appointed composer-in-residence for 2013-14 at the Lexington (Ky.) Philharmonic and Lexington Chamber Music Festival.

ADAM SCHOENBERG

Sandry

The Knoxville (Tenn.) Symphony Orchestra has named ALANA DELLATAN SEATON to a part-time post as music therapist for the orchestra’s Music and Wellness program. has been appointed vice president and general manager of the North Carolina Symphony.

MARTIN SHER

Symphony in C (Haddonfield, N.J.) has named development manager.

DENISE COFFEY STUART

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra has appointed vice president and chief financial officer.

JOHN T. VERDON

has been named principal clarinet in the New York Philharmonic, effective September 2013.

STEPHEN WILLIAMSON

The Springfield (Ohio) Symphony Orchestra has appointed ROBYN ZIMMANN executive director, effective June 1, 2013.

Todd Rosenberg

Demarre and Anthony McGill, siblings who got their start as part of the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra, have attained top orchestra positions at the Seattle Symphony and the Metropolitan Opera.

Their achievements were recognized recently in an NBC story that profiled African-Americans making a positive impact in their community. The McGill brothers grew up on Chicago’s South Side, where music programs had been eliminated in the public schools. They first discovered the flute (Demarre) and clarinet (Anthony) at the nonprofit Merit School, which provided afterschool music lessons to the neighborhood’s disadvantaged children. Anthony and Demarre have each won the Avery Fisher Career Grant.

has been appointed executive director of California’s Long Beach Symphony Orchestra.

KELLY RUGGIRELLO

Chris Lee

Demarre McGill, principal flute in the Seattle Symphony, and Anthony McGill, principal clarinet in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, perform with the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Allen Tinkham.

The Meridian (Miss.) Symphony Orchestra has appointed PETER RUBARDT music director.

Williamson

EVGENY ZVONNIKOV has been named associate concertmaster of the Wichita (Kan.) Symphony Orchestra.

Sunshine Flashmobs

Music lovers on the west coast of Florida were treated to flashes of musical sunshine with a couple of impromptu performances courtesy of the Sarasota Orchestra and the Tampabased Florida Orchestra. On January 21, as a lone harpist began to serenade travelers at Sarasota’s Bradenton International Airport, a retro-looking pilot arrived on an escalator nearby, flanked by two flight A cellist from the Florida Orchestra plays for young attendants. The “pilot,” Sarasota Orchestra Pops Conductor Andrew listeners at the International Plaza Mall in Tampa.

Lane, took out a baton and led musicians scattered about the airport in Bizet’s “Danse Bohème,” from Carmen Suite No. 2. (The “flight attendants” were Assistant Concertmaster Jennifer Best Takeda and cellist Isabelle Besançon.) On February 23, the Florida Orchestra performed unannounced for shoppers at the International Plaza and Bay Street in Tampa, including “Hoedown” from Copland’s Rodeo, Sousa’s Stars and Stripes Forever, and the finale from Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite.

Florida Orchestra

Honor Roles

Two prominent orchestra musicians recently announced plans to retire from their respective organizations, Dale Clevenger while stepping up their teaching activity. Glenn Dicterow, the longestserving concertmaster in the New York Philharmonic’s history, will relinquish that post Glenn Dicterow at the end of the 201314 season; beginning this fall he will occupy the Robert Mann Chair in Strings and Chamber Music at the University of California’s Thornton School of Music. Dicterow will also join the string faculty of Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara next summer.

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Dale Clevenger will wind up a 47-year career as principal horn on June 30, 2013. Clevenger is professor of horn at Chicago’s Roosevelt University and was on the adjunct faculty at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music.

This fall he’ll assume a full-time professorship in the school’s brass department.

Musical Chairs

New Profs

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Altre Media

Van Cliburn, H 1934-2013 arvey Lavan “Van” Cliburn, Jr., the tall, wiry pianist from Texas who shot to international stardom by playing Tchaikovsky better than the Russians at the height of the Cold War, died February 27 at his home in Fort Worth at the age of 78. It had been announced in August 2012 that Cliburn had bone cancer. In 1958, the 23-year-old from Juilliard went to Moscow, took First Prize in the Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition, and returned to a ticker-tape parade in New York City.

He was one of the most sought-after soloists during the 1960s and ’70s before retiring to Fort Worth in 1978, appearing in concert only sporadically Top: A young Van Cliburn after 1989. is showered with roses He kept up during a performance a vibrant in Moscow. Above: Van Cliburn bestows artistic life the 2009 Van Cliburn through the Competition Gold Medal Fort Worthupon Japanese pianist based piano Nobuyuki Tsujii. competition that bears his name. Since its inaugural year in 1962, the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition has provided a high-stakes testing ground for the next generation of pianists, attracting prospects from around the world with cash prizes and earlycareer support.

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For its top management post, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra has tapped a New Jersey native with high-level experience at three American orchestras, background as an orchestral clarinetist, and educational credentials in both business and music. Gary Ginstling assumed the post of chief executive officer at the ISO on March 18, taking the reins from Jacqueline Groth, who had served as interim president and CEO since the resignation of Simon Crookall in February 2012. Ginstling goes to Indianapolis after five years as general manager of The Cleveland Orchestra. From 2006 to 2008 he was director of communications and external affairs for the San Francisco Symphony, and began his management

Roger Mastroianni

Ginstling New Chief in Indianapolis

Gary Ginstling

career as executive director of the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra. While in California Ginstling performed with the San Francisco Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and spent twelve seasons as principal clarinet in the New West Symphony. Ginstling is a 2003 alumnus of the League of American Orchestras’ Essentials of Orchestra Management seminar.

Red Hot and Classical

The annual Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute offers a rare chance for jazz composers to explore the sonic world of orchestras. This spring and summer, three orchestras will feature the works of seventeen jazz composers, who will get coaching from mentor composers; rehearse their works with a professional orchestra; hear them at a public reading or performance; and get immediate feedback. On April 23 and 24, the Buffalo Philharmonic will workshop and perform music of Gregg August, Anita Brown, Joel Harrison, Ole Mathisen, and David Wilson. On June 3 and 4, the American Composers Orchestra in New York will feature seven composers at Columbia University’s Miller Theatre, and on September 19 and 20, California’s La Jolla Symphony and Chorus will work with five composers. JCOI is a project of the American Composers Orchestra and the Center for Jazz Studies at Columbia University in collaboration with EarShot, the National Orchestra Composition Discovery Network. EarShot is coordinated by the ACO in collaboration with American Composers Forum, the League of American Orchestras, and New Music USA. Chris Rountree leads an open rehearsal at UCLA for the American Composers Orchestra’s 2012-13 Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute.

American Composers Orchestra

Van Cliburn Foundation Archives

Van Cliburn 1934-2013

symphony

SPRING 2013

How do conductors on the rise gain attention? How do orchestras find gifted conductors? The League of American Orchestras’ Bruno Walter The six conductors participating in the National Conductor Preview offers a League’s Bruno Walter National Conductor showcase of new talent. On March 13, Preview at the Jacksonville Symphony six conductors led Florida’s Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra at this year’s Conductor Preview, before an audience of music-director search committee members, artistic administrators, and artist managers and agents. Each participant had 40 minutes on the podium, allowing industry professionals to check out rehearsal technique and abilities. This year’s Preview conductors were Joshua David Gersen, Keitaro Harada, Gavriel Heine,Vladimir Kulenovic, Sameer Patel, and Benjamin Rous. They were chosen from among more than 90 applicants. Since 1975, the Bruno Walter National Conductor Preview has showcased more than 75 conductors, and more than 50 orchestras have appointed participants to a variety of positions. The Bruno Walter National Conductor Preview is made possible by generous grants from The Bruno Walter Memorial Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Bassel Jadaa

Maestro Showcase

Carnegie Hall, home of the 2013 Spring for Music Festival

S4M Springs Back You know it’s spring in New York when orchestras from North America arrive en masse to perform at Carnegie Hall. For six days, Carnegie will be home to the third annual Spring for Music Festival, which kicks off on May 6 with Marin Alsop leading the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 4 (1947 version), Jennifer Higdon’s Concerto 4-3, and John Adams’s Shaker Loops. New York’s Albany Symphony Orchestra, led by David Alan Miller, will play works by John Harbison, Morton Gould, and George Gershwin. JoAnn Falletta will conduct the Buffalo Philharmonic in a program of Reinhold Glière and Giya Kancheli. americanorchestras.org

Leonard Slatkin will lead the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in two programs: an “Ives immersion” featuring all four symphonies by Charles Ives, and a program of Rachmaninoff, Weill, and Ravel. Headlining the National Symphony Orchestra’s “Tribute to Slava” will be Rodion Shchedrin’s Slava, Slava—A Festival Ringing of Bells, written in tribute to Mstislav Rostropovich, the former NSO music director who died in 2007.

The Spring for Music Festival, launched in 2011, is designed to allow orchestras to experiment with concert programming and open the hall to new audiences through affordable tickets. Spring for Music’s final year will be 2014.

Jeff Goldberg/Esto

Two Hours of Comedy and Music!

Two Mime Superstars Dan Kamin— as The Classical Clown.

Charlie Chaplin— in two film classics.

See for yourself at www.dankamin.com

Dan Kamin

Comecdeyrtos Con (412)563-0468 dan2@dankamin.com

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QUESTIONS

CRITICAL

Understanding Diversity Diversity and inclusion are increasingly vital issues for every orchestra. Yet much remains to be done to achieve true equity. How to get there?

T

he phrase “content is king” is often used in describing effective communication in this digital age. But if we change a single letter of one word, it reads “context is king,” which is just as important. Orchestras often create context for understanding repertoire through their programming choices. But nowhere is context more important than in helping us understand and work with interpersonal and cultural differences.

As orchestras seek new ways to engage with people of increasingly diverse backgrounds, the time is ripe to renew our efforts to diversify our own organizations.

As part of its own renewed commitment, the League worked with Bo Young Lee, Global Diversity and Inclusion Leader at Marsh, Inc., a leading insurance broker and risk adviser, to learn how best practices for increasing diversity in the workplace have evolved in recent years.

Bo, an experienced consultant who has worked with Fortune 500 companies and a singer who has performed with orchestras, has some fascinating insights and knowledge to share. Some of it challenges our longstanding beliefs. But in our globalized world, orchestras cannot afford to disregard what she has to say.

Jesse Rosen: Let’s start with definitions, because there are many different perceptions and understandings about what various words mean. How do you define diversity and inclusion?

Bo Young Lee: Andrés Tapia, a mentor

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Klaus Lucka

by Jesse Rosen

of mine whom I consider to be a thought leader in the field, came up with a definition: diversity is the mix, and inclusion is making that mix work. Diversity can be those traditional things that we think about: gender, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, age. But it can go beyond that. It could be things like personality type: the introverts and extroverts, the direct communicators, the non-direct communicators, the linear thinkers, the circular thinkers. It’s all of that, which we know exists in any group.

Diversity is the mix, and inclusion is making that mix work.

Inclusion, on the other hand, is how we actually make those differences work seamlessly and effectively with each other.

How do you create that environment where all these differences can thrive on an even playing field? Oftentimes, people describe inclusion as an attitude, a commitment. But in fact, inclusion is behavioral. It is what we actively do on a day-to-day basis, interacting with people who are vastly different from us, and what we do to understand how they’re different from us, and what we have to do to adapt to those differences.

Rosen: In the orchestra field, when the diversity conversation arises, it’s often in recognition of an art form that historically has lived more in the Eurocentric arts world, whose audiences and institutions have been more typically white.

Jesse Rosen, President and CEO, League of American Orchestras

Lee: Over the past few years, I have talked to a lot of institutions that probably have been more historically European-American in both the people who participate as well as the people who run the institutions. One of the things that I emphasize is, it’s not just an issue of representation. It’s not that a staff is primarily European-American or that the board is primarily European-American, or that the musicians are primarily EuropeanAmerican. It goes beyond that.

It’s human nature to unconsciously build institutions that reflect who we are.

We build processes within the institutions to reflect and validate the cultural norms that we grew up with. An example is how we collaborate with each other. In an archetypical European-American way, we collaborate somewhat indirectly. Instead of confronting someone, we might say, “Let me get your opinion on this.” In an archetypically African-American culture, you might collaborate in a more direct way. If you don’t agree with someone, you’re more likely to tell them you don’t agree with them, as opposed to saying, “Let’s agree to disagree.”

Now, we make the mistake of assuming that those processes are normative, without realizing that there’s a cultural bias built in that’s invisible to us. When we try to diversify, we think that as long as we get more black people, or more Latinos, or symphony

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more women, or more men, or whatever it is in the diversity that we’re aspiring towards—if we get more of them, we’ll have solved that problem. But what happens— and this is what happened at corporations in the 1980s and ’90s, when there was a huge push to increase representation—is that you spend all this money to bring in people who are very diverse. But because the institution itself still reflects a cultural norm that derives from a more EuropeanAmerican standard, the new people may not understand how to navigate the system, or it feels distant or unfamiliar to them. They never feel fully a part of the institution. And so they leave a couple of years later. I call this the revolving door of diversity. Institutions spend a lot of money trying to identify diverse individuals, but because the underlying systems of the organization don’t change you end up with higher turnover rates.

With orchestras, that issue needs to be addressed. Is it just a matter of exposure to different audiences? There is probably a gap in exposure. Or is it a broader question of looking at how orchestras operate, and asking, “Are there some truths that we need to question? Is there a cultural bias that may make our organization feel not as comfortable and welcoming to people in other cultures?”

Rosen: You’re talking about a key concept: cultural competence. What is it and what role does it play in helping organizations to become more diverse and more effective in their diversity strategies?

Lee: The definition is: Do I have the ability to understand that cultural differences exist? And do I have the ability to perceive and adapt to those differences?

For example, if I’m not exposed to other cultures, I may make the mistake of assuming that my values, my behaviors, and the things that I understand to be true are universal truths. I think that someone in America, someone in Japan, and someone in Germany believes and values the same things. As I get more exposure to other cultures, I start to realize that the things that I hold as being true are the complete opposite, at times, of what other people believe to be true. Once I have that awareamericanorchestras.org

Bo Young Lee will lead the “Developing CrossCultural Competency” session at the League’s National Conference, June 18-20 in St. Louis. (Visit the Conference site for complete information and to register.)

ness, what do I do about it? A good example is emotional expression. In general in Western cultures like the U.S., Canada, and the northwestern European countries, a more neutral expression of emotion is considered socially acceptable. It’s not socially acceptable to start screaming when you get excited, or to start shouting when you get angry. But in Latino and African-American cultures, a much wider range of emotional expression is acceptable. It’s okay to express your excitment or your anger. No one’s going to judge you as being unprofessional or emotionally unstable. Someone who is cross-culturally competent will recognize that, and won’t judge that person from a different culture using their own cultural norms.

Let’s go back to that indirect communicating European-American and that direct communicating African-American.

If we don’t build understanding about our differences we’re more likely to harshly judge those differences. The indirect European-American will judge the direct African-American as aggressive or uncooperative while the African-American may judge her European-American colleague as evasive and untrustworthy.

Rosen: When you talked with our group, you talked about unconscious, conscious, and collective bias. Tell us a bit about what you mean by that.

Lee: I begin by saying that I used the

term “bias” not as a negative term. If you look into the research of cognitive science, you discover that from a neurologic perspective, biases are simply shortcuts— rules that our minds create to help us filter information. It can be something as simple as learning from a very young age that red is bad, red means stop, red means don’t go. When we see red, without even thinking about it, our brain makes us stop.

That’s a cognitive bias. As we get older, we build more biases because our brain becomes more effective and efficient at taking in information, filtering it quickly, and spitting out a behavioral reaction.

The problem is that when we’re confronted with information that conflicts with such strong unconscious biases, our brain might kick that information out even if it’s pertinent. Then we have an inappropriate or incomplete reaction based on the fact that we can’t take in this new information. When it comes to diversity in an organization, if we have a belief about a group of individuals or a type of behavior, and we see it in the group and it conflicts with our current belief, we may just ignore it, or minimize it, or diminish the meaning of that information. We create barriers for those diverse people to become part of our organization.

People describe inclusion as an attitude, a commitment. But inclusion is behavioral—what we actively do on a day-to-day basis, interacting with people who are vastly different from us.

Rosen: In your presentations, you have a wonderful slide that illustrates the different types of unconscious bias in the workplace. Could you speak about that?

Lee: That visual was created, in part, to demonstrate that unconscious biases aren’t necessarily bad. We can have positive biases about individuals that impact the way we treat them. I’ll talk to a few of the things on that slide, for example the working mother. On the negative side, we may have an unconscious bias that the working mother is distracted, not committed to her

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Two slides from a presentation on diversity and inclusion by Bo Young Lee. Left: Definition of cross-cultural competence, adapted from Andres Tapia’s book The Inclusion Paradox. Below: Positive and negative types of workplace bias.

work, has other priorities. If I base decisions on that unconscious bias, I might not give her a promotion. I might not give her access to a new project. I might do things that will have negative implications for that woman. On the positive side, however, I might have an unconscious bias that mothers are incredibly flexible, great at multitasking and prioritizing. If I’m a working mother and I have a working mom on my team, I might have this attitude and I might make this woman my go-to person and give her opportunities.

I’d think, “Look at this great woman, she’s able to do all this stuff,” not realizing that I have contributed to that because I’m giving her opportunities in a favorable way.

I might not be giving them to someone who’s not a working mom.

Rosen: If an organization wants greater diversity in its workforce, in the public that it serves, and also wants to be better at making the mix work, and work effectively, what should it do?

Lee: When it comes to cross-cultural

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competence, none of us is going to be an expert in all cultures. The simplest thing that an individual and an organization can do is always make sure you’re asking these questions: What perspective is not currently sitting at this table that should be here? What perspective am I not taking into account when I’m dealing with this problem or this situation, or I’m designing this new process? Asking that will get you to say, “I’m creating the next version of shampoo, and I have no women on my design team.” This actually happened to one of the leaders at Unilever. She was sitting around a table with a bunch of people talking about women’s shampoo, and she was the only woman. There were eight men sitting at the table. So you have to ask the question, “What perspective is not here?” Look at all the systems, all the elements of culture, all the processes that we hold to be great processes, the absolute truth about how things should get done, and ask the question, “What potential cultural bias, or what culture, is favored or validated by the process that I have created, or the truth that I have always held?”

When it comes to symphonies and orchestras, I would encourage them to ask, “What are the five absolute truths about orchestras that we must hold constant?”

The exercise that I would put any orchestra through is to say, “Assume that those five truths or those ten truths or however many you come up with, assume that every single one of those is invalid. Can you see it from that perspective?” Drilling down to things like the fact that a conductor always stands in the middle, in the front of the orchestra—why is that an absolute truth? How did that come to be?

The fact that the conductor stands right in

the center, raised above everybody else, is a reflection of a very hierarchical culture.

The fact that the first chair sits in a certain spot—that’s a reflection of a culture that respects and likes hierarchy. If you start moving into non-hierarchical cultures, that truth may no longer be valid.

Rosen: Just play that out a bit, the idea of the conductor.

Lee: I would look to the music from other cultures. A lot of indigenous music has been created in circular format. You go back to the way African communities have traditionally played music, and you look at the Latin-American heritage.

There are a lot of traditions that use the circle as a vehicle for creating music. Can that somehow, in some modified format, be introduced? The Latino community, the African-American community—they are much more communitarian cultures. It’s reflected in the way that their traditional music was performed, so no one gets excluded, everybody in the community is involved.

And so if you want to bring in more African-Americans and more Latinos, can you bring them that interaction, that communal nature of it? I don’t want to be stereotypical. But I want to say, “Think about that communal nature. Can we somehow make the music of orchestras more intimate to allow for it to feel like you’re part of a family, we’re in this together?”

Rosen: What are some practices or attributes of organizations that approach this work successfully? And what things are dead ends?

Lee: One of the biggest no-no’s is an over-emphasis on best practices. All too often institutions will say, “What are other organizations doing? Okay, we’ll do that.”

And they take somebody else’s template and implement it for themselves. What happens when you do that is you end up with programs that may or may not fit your specific situation, your specific constituencies. Learning what other organizations do is good, because the methodology by which a company comes up with a practice is the important thing, not the actual practice itself. How did an organization decide to do this campaign, to do this symphony

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Arts advocate, 2030

Vote “Yes� for Music Education

The League knows that orchestras need advocates locally and nationally. Through our Washington D.C. office, we represent orchestras before Congress and the White House, mobilize individuals to raise their voices, and make the case for the unique public value orchestras create in communities nationwide.

When you support the League, you are investing in the future of hundreds of orchestras across the country. And their future advocates.

Make a gift today at americanorchestras.org.

League Resource Center on Diversity and Inclusion Diversity and inclusion are key areas of challenge and opportunity for the orchestra field. They are at the heart of how orchestras will better connect with their communities. But recent research by the Marmillion Company indicates that orchestras are still perceived by critical stakeholders as insufficiently serving the country’s diverse communities.

The League’s new Resource Center on Diversity and Inclusion, made possible by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, is designed to provide League members with a range of free resources that are practical and helpful for those working in orchestras.

Resources are categorized by topic and include • • • • • • •

A “Quick-Start” Section Best Practices in Orchestras and Arts Organizations Best Practices in Other Fields Business Case for Diversity and Inclusion Board Resources Management Resources Readings/Publications/Research

To access the Resource Center, visit the Learning and Leadership area at americanorchestras.org.

kind of outreach program, to do this type of recruiting effort? That’s what you want to know, not what the program itself is.

Organizations that have done a really good job have made significant shifts to find strong partners in the community to engage with, and establish long-term relationships with. This applies to corporations as well as nonprofit and arts organizations. Corporations have partnered with, for example, The Urban League, with Women in Engineering, with the National Black MBA Association. Corporations recognize that they are not always the experts, and that they need to have a partner who can help guide them. The same thing with arts organizations. You shouldn’t think of yourself as being on this journey alone. There should be a lot more collaboration than currently exists.

Another caveat is that when you reach out to community-based organizations that are more diverse, that represent the audience that you want to reach out to, they can sniff out a fake from a mile away.

They can sense if an organization is not being authentic. And they will refuse to cooperate if they don’t get a sense that there’s an authentic interest in having a long-term relationship.

Rosen: Orchestras, I think for the most part, are extremely cognizant of the

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general lack of diversity, or at least racial and ethnic diversity, in the workforce— among musicians as well as staff. Are there any lessons from other sectors that have tackled some of these longstanding and seemingly intractable problems around greater diversity in the workforce?

Lee: Whenever I think about orchestras and the League and your mission, I keep thinking about the sports world and sports institutions. A while back, I was talking with the head of diversity for the U.S. Tennis Association. I see parallels between what orchestras are going through and what tennis is going through. Both are very rules-based institutions; there are norms of what you do as an attendee at an event; it takes years and years for someone to become trained and become a performer. The USTA has really turned a corner and it’s doing a great job of saying “We’re recognizing that it’s not just about doing one-off events with a public school in an urban area, and then assuming that we’ve done our outreach and we’ve done something good. It’s for us to say, ‘What do we have to change about tennis to appeal to a diverse audience? How do we train? How do we address the way we train young children so that it reflects norms within the Latino and African-American community versus how we have traditionally

approached training and participation?’ ” They’re asking the same question that orchestras are. “What are some fundamental truths that we might have to question in order to bring ourselves to that culture, versus assuming diverse individuals and groups are going to become more like us?” We see this same shift in mentality in the broader U.S. culture.

Back in the 1960s and ’70s the mantra was assimilation; immigrants and diverse people were encouraged to become more like the majority population. We know that didn’t really create the kind of diverse, inclusive society we aspired to. We’re now seeing the social dialogue shifting to one of cross-cultural engagement. We want each unique culture to thrive and flourish while simultaneously building bridges that encourage more interaction and engagement across groups. Ultimately, the organizations and instiutions that get it right create a new, unique, hybrid culture with elements from both old and new.

If the USTA represents an organization that is trying to get it right, then golf is the opposite. We have seen the sport of golf resisting calls for change for decades.

Just look at how long it took Augusta to admit their first female member. Golf courses around the United States and the world are closing because they don’t have enough participation and new players are not emerging.

Rosen: Bo, is there anything that we haven’t touched on?

Lee: The one message that I would leave is this: lean into the discomfort of the diversity conversation. So many times, when I start having this conversation with organizations, regardless of how much I say the differences matter and we need to focus on them, someone will say, “I feel like I’m being stereotypical or prejudicial by emphasizing the differences.” I say, lean into that. It’s okay to feel that way.

Recognize that it’s going to happen. Don’t shy away from the conversation because you feel like you’re being somehow politically incorrect. Lean into the discomfort of this conversation, because it will bring up the crucial insight necessary to bridge the gap. symphony

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Executive director, 2047

The League knows that great leaders are the key to success. Through our leadership programs, we prepare executive directors of today and tomorrow to lead with vision, creativity, and purpose.

When you support the League, you are investing in the future of hundreds of orchestras across the country. And their future executive directors.

Make a gift today at americanorchestras.org.

CONFERENCE

PREVIEW

Meet Me in St. Louis The League’s 2013 National Conference—June 18-20 in St. Louis—is a true marketplace of ideas, the place to get a matchless perspective on orchestras while harvesting successful tactics and strategies.

by Robert Sandla

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Dilip Vishwanat

W

e’re logged on, linked up, plugged in. We post, we tweet, we blog. There’s a lot that’s great about cyberspace, but what sometimes goes missing is the human touch—the realtime, non-digital connection that can happen only in person. In an art form that’s spread out across the country and embraces a vast range of orchestras, the League of American Orchestras’ National Conference offers an unparalleled opportunity to connect with colleagues, explore the latest thinking and research about orchestras directly with the people doing the work, and brainstorm collectively about opportunities and difficulties. It’s a marketplace of ideas made real. And there’s nothing more inspiring than gathering with board members, musicians, staff, and volunteers to share successes, challenges, and passion for music.

This year’s National Conference takes place June 18-20 in St. Louis, Missouri, with the St. Louis Symphony as host. The Conference will be preceded by two days of Orchestra Leadership Academy seminars on June 16-18; these are intensive courses that offer in-depth looks at compelling topics. What’s on the agenda for Conference 2013? “Our frame is ‘Imagining 2023,’ ” says Polly Kahn, the League’s vice president for Learning and Leadership Development. “After the last couple of years that have been so focused on the tough messages that needed to be

Powell Hall, home of the St. Louis Symphony. Several concerts and events will be held there during the League’s 2013 National Conference this June.

brought forward, this year we’re seizing a different kind of momentum. The turbulence that orchestras continue to experience is, in fact, giving energy to the experimentation that is driving our field forward. We’re observing more experimentation and innovation than most of us can remember. And this activity cuts across all dimensions, whether it’s artistic innovation, business functions and leadership, or community connectivity. So when St. Louis Symphony Music Director David Robertson talks about new music, he will talk about it through the lens of 2023.

We will consider what leadership needs will be, through a window of 2023. Not everything will relate to that, of course.

But we’ll reflect and celebrate the energy

that comes from a long-term future vision that is not only about dealing with today’s challenges—but about dealing with today’s challenges while keeping the future firmly in mind.”

The keynote speaker for the June 18 Opening Session of the Conference is Elizabeth Merritt, founding director of the Center for the Future of Museums, an arm of the American Alliance of Museums, a professional association not unlike the League. Her theme: “Imagining 2023.” If museums and orchestras seem far apart, consider the parallels: many see orchestras as stoic keepers of the canon, where one listens to established masterworks much as one views the great paintings on a museum wall. Merritt’s symphony

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Board chair, 2059

The League knows that an orchestra is only as strong as its board.

Through our leadership programs, we teach board members how to make their orchestras successful, resilient, and forward-thinking.

When you support the League, you are investing in the future of hundreds of orchestras across the country. And their future board chairs.

Make a gift today at americanorchestras.org.

americanorchestras.org

17

Some Conference sessions examine the philosophical implications of emerging situations, while others offer hands-on strategies and tactics that can be adapted for use.

Dilip Vishwanat

sics of Collective Bargaining” seminar is keenly relevant. “We are thrilled to be partnering with the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, a major federal agency, for this,” says Kahn. “They are designing the ‘Basics of Collective Bargaining’ course for us, and it is open to management, musicians, board members, and more. All are welcome.” The “Building Community through Music” session on June 19 will explore the new ways that artists, supporters, and citizens at large are seeking to build community, break down cross-cultural barriers, and learn through participation. The “Mergers and Creative Alliances” session, also on June 19, asks if new models can expand nonprofits’

David Robertson will conduct the St. Louis Symphony and St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra during the League’s 2013 National Conference. He will also lead a master class with four emerging conductors.

Dilip Vishwanat

organization looks at how museums, sometimes viewed as immune to change, can transcend traditional boundaries to serve society in new ways—exactly what more and more orchestras are doing. The closing session will ask delegates to share their thoughts in an interactive forum on what forms the future might take, and will offer them plenty of ideas to take back to their home orchestras.

The Conference isn’t just about gazing into the future. There’s a determined focus on the here and now, revolving around the new thinking about long-term fiscal management; developing new and younger audiences; meeting the mandate for relevance and community engagement;

View from the stage of Powell Hall, setting for multiple events during the League’s 2013 National Conference this June.

and expanding the creative palette. Some events examine the philosophical implications of emerging situations, while others offer hands-on strategies and tactics that can be adapted for use.

With labor negotiations at orchestras continuing to make news, the Orchestra Leadership Academy’s three-day “Ba-

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creative power and community footprint—while saving back-office expenses.

Two sessions will look at trends in digital media and showcase ways to master webcasting, streaming, social media, podcasts, crowdsourcing, and more.

Diversity and inclusion are major focuses for orchestras, and Bo Young

Lee, an expert in diversity, will discuss that and related topics in her “Developing Cross-Cultural Competency” session, which shows how to communicate across multiple communities with sensitivity and awareness. (Lee is interviewed by League President and CEO Jesse Rosen on page 10 of this issue of Symphony.) Orchestras are finding myriad new ways to increase access to music in a range of healthcare settings, and the “Health and Wellness Programs: Learning from the Getty Orchestras” session shines a spotlight on orchestras that have been awarded the League’s Education and Community Investment Grants for their outstanding work. (Orchestras’ work in health and wellness is covered by Chester Lane on page 24 of this issue.)

In the “Building a Culture of Collaboration” session, the St. Louis Symphony will reveal how it bounced back from a tenuous situation a few years ago to a position of strength by getting members of the orchestra, staff, and trustees to work together. “The St. Louis Symphony is delighted to welcome the League of American Orchestras Conference to St. Louis for the first time in nearly 50 years,” says St. Louis Symphony President and CEO Fred Bronstein. “We host this conference at a time when St. Louis is on the move, and the St. Louis Symphony itself continues with much positive momentum as characterized by its recent return to national and international touring, broad programming, significant growth in audiences and support, regular radio and television broadcasts, symphony

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be performing with the phenomenal bass-baritone Eric Owens, who will be showcasing some of his versatility as well, singing Mozart and Wagner. I doubt that it is possible for the St. Louis Symphony to show all it does during the course of the Conference, but one vital part of what we do will stand out especially: the education and community programs that we provide free of charge. The Symphony’s dedication to bringing musical experiences to schools, churches, synagogues, community centers, and hospitals is one of the things that attracted me to St. Louis. And in the last few years, these programs have only gotten better. They are central to what we are about.”

And it’s fair to expect the unexpected at this year’s Conference. The “Check This Out” sessions are fast-paced, TED talk-style presentations in which orchestra staffers report on the new activities they are undertaking in audience development, community and education, and artistic initiatives. These are the people at the front lines, sharing what works, what’s exciting, what’s having the most impact at their orchestras. Orchestras are doing flash mobs and pop-up concerts nowadays, in which they bring the music to the community or even ask the community to participate by playing instruments, singing along, and otherwise pitching in. Conference delegates should be prepared to take part in “Recess” events: music-making and community-building sessions that are highly participatory, fun, and serve as examples of what just about any orchestra can do.

If you can’t make it to St. Louis this June, here’s the good news: the League puts material from key Conference sessions online, often within hours of the session. Think of it as the virtual marketplace of ideas.

and a strong musician and management partnership that has yielded long-term labor stability. We are anxious to share the orchestra and the city of which we are so proud, as we look forward with our colleagues over the next decade and imagine the future together.”

The St. Louis Symphony won’t be featured just on the business side. Delegates can look forward to lots of music. David Robertson will lead the St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra at the opening session on June 18. That night, Robertson and the St. Louis Symphony will perform a wide swath of repertoire at Powell Hall.

“The St. Louis Symphony, indeed the city of St. Louis, is thrilled to be hosting the League Conference this summer,” says Robertson. “The program we’ve selected for our concert, which I will be conducting, displays the stylistic versatility of this orchestra, bringing together works

by Mozart, Wagner, Sibelius, and John Adams—including his Doctor Atomic Symphony. We’re also very excited to Festive pre-concert scene at St. Louis Symphony’s Powell Hall

Sarah Carmody

ROBERT SANDLA is editor in chief of Symphony.

americanorchestras.org

Visit the League’s Conference site for complete information and to register. http://www.americanorchestras.org/ conference2013/

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LEAGUE

AT THE

Learning Curve Taking lessons from the Institutional Vision Program, the League continues to look for new ways to help orchestras help themselves.

By Doug McLennan

L

ast fall’s orchestra season got off to a particularly dramatic and rocky start, with strikes, lockouts, shutdowns, and dire warnings of more hardships ahead. Broad changes in the ways Americans are consuming culture have upended business models that support pretty much all of our cultural industries, from pop music to movies to TV to journalism to books. There’s no reason to expect that orchestras are immune, and there is, moreover, no sign that this disruptive change will resolve itself any time soon. Even for orchestras unaffected by market disruption, there is little question that the ways orchestras do business in the future will have to change.

Over the course of many decades, repeated alarms about the impending death of the American orchestra have proven not just premature, but just plain wrong.

Orchestras have been amazingly adaptable, not only surviving, but even thriving by many measures. We may, however, be at an inflection point. The business as we have known it is fundamentally changing in response to larger forces.

Change takes leadership, but the question is what kind of leadership.

Leadership when things are constantly changing is different than it is when the model is stable, and if change is the new normal, how do you build institutions and leaders who not only cope with change but learn to thrive on it?

You have to rethink the ways the field learns and shares what it knows, accord-

20

ing to Jesse Rosen, president and CEO of the League of American Orchestras.

“People have to learn how to talk to one another differently,” he says. “Orchestras have to learn how to learn differently from one another, and, because everything is connected, learn from what is happening outside the orchestra world.”

The Institutional Vision Program went beyond the nuts-and-bolts approach of training individuals. Instead it brought board members, administrators, and musicians together to better define orchestras’ missions and strategies.

The League itself might be the poster child for what a formidable feat this is to pull off. For several years the organization has been addressing not only how the orchestra business is changing and understanding the challenges, but also figuring out how its members might better interact and learn from one another. Communitysourced learning and system-based thinking is powering innovation and unlocking new potential across many fields. The networked world brought about by the digital revolution has changed the way information is shared, relationships are forged, learning takes place, and business is conducted. How does a membership organization trying to think strategically across sometimes fractious constituen-

cies—divided by wide disparities in geography, culture, market, and budget size—rethink the way it thinks?

The League’s recently concluded Institutional Vision Program gives a clue.

Throughout its history, the League has invested heavily in training, from the Orchestra Management Fellowship Program to the Essentials of Orchestra Management seminars to countless leadership and development sessions and conferences.

Institutional Vision, which started out modestly in 2000 as a workshop primarily for executive directors, quickly evolved to taking a broader systemic approach to leadership: understand the constituencies that determine the success of an orchestra—its board, managers, musicians, and community—and focus them around the forging of a common vision. Through this you get an orchestra built to lead.

Maybe not such a radical idea. Successful companies in the for-profit world have operated this way for years. But how it is accomplished has changed. Whereas vision in companies—and in orchestras— has traditionally been defined by leaders at the top, a new generation of technology and social networking companies has demonstrated that a more broad-based strategic approach, with vertical as well as horizontal institutional buy-in, can be more effective. The Institutional Vision experiment illustrates the challenges of trying to work this way.

It was an idea that went beyond the nuts-and-bolts approach of training individuals to get better at performing their roles. Instead it brought board members, administrators, and musicians together to attempt to better define the orchestras’ missions and come up with strategies to serve those missions.

Orchestras were chosen competitively, with each orchestra proposing a project symphony

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americanorchestras.org

Irene Petree

and a goal it wanted to work on. Key to the project’s design was integrating the thinking of a board member, musician or music director, and executive director, in the belief that establishing a common set of values across the organization would set a foundation for success. Each year’s Institutional Vision class met for five days of intensive seminars exploring management theory, governance, case studies, and workshops in defining themselves and to work with a core faculty of three: Tom Morris, a former executive director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Cleveland Orchestra, current artistic director of California’s Ojai Music Festival, and lead faculty member for the IV program; Lowell Noteboom, a lawyer, former board president of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and current chair of the League of American Orchestras; and David Nygren, a leading governance consultant and chair of BoardSource, which works to build nonprofit boards and encourage board service.

A total of 34 orchestras were admitted to the program, and each was assigned a faculty mentor who traveled to the orchestra’s home city to work with it over the course of three years. The three-year follow-up was born out of the realization that institutional change is a process that takes time, not merely the product of acquiring the information on which to act.

Orchestras came from a broad swath of the industry—from small orchestras with budgets of only a few hundred thousand dollars to orchestras in the $10-millionplus category.

Participants weren’t chosen for their likelihood of success; many came with significant challenges, some even operating in crisis mode. The point, says Polly Kahn, the League’s vice president of learning and leadership development, wasn’t just to take good organizations and make them better. “We wanted to broaden perspective and bring more expansive thinking to the field, inviting folks who were deeply invested in their orchestras to imagine a big and aspirational future, rather than just a functional tomorrow.”

That was probably the biggest challenge,

Staff members of the Adrian Symphony Orchestra meet with Institutional Vision mentor Lowell Noteboom.

says Morris. “What we found was that more often than not, orchestras came into the program preoccupied with short-term thinking about money and survival rather than focusing on values,” he says. “It was way too easy for them to get distracted by immediate problems and not pay attention to their bigger mission. Sometimes they weren’t even clear about what that mission was.” And it wasn’t just orchestras

If change is the new normal, how do you build institutions and leaders who not only cope with change but learn to thrive on it?

in trouble that suffered from too much focus on day-to-day thinking. Even those orchestras that were doing well often had difficulty thinking in broader strategic ways or being clear about what they wanted to accomplish. “It was surprising,” says Morris, “how many orchestras came in thinking their issue was one thing but discovered that it was something entirely different. I think it’s because orchestra leaders often don’t dig deep enough to formulate strategic solutions when they’re used to reacting tactically.”

The elusiveness of even Kahn’s “functional tomorrow” makes it difficult to focus on thinking in larger terms. “We

learned many lessons from this program,” she says. “First, it was interesting how many issues boiled down to the centrality of governance”—the work of a nonprofit board of trustees in overseeing the shortand long-term health of an intuition.

Developing a vision for the institution is crucial, but who’s making decisions and taking responsibility? “Second, we saw how important it is to address leadership from many points of view. How do you find common ground and get everyone moving toward it?”

Third, Kahn says, is the importance of having the discipline to stay focused on the long game and not get too distracted by crises of the moment. And, she says, it’s essential to “face brutal truths early and not kick the can down the road.” Focusing on just what’s in front of you rather than fixing the bigger picture offers plenty of incentive to put off dealing with hard decisions, thereby turning them into bigger problems later.

“What it kept coming down to, over and over again,” says Noteboom, “is governance. So often it’s been a failure of those in charge to recognize problems early enough. And having recognized the hard brutal facts, having the courage to confront them and act.”

For Morris, these issues center on having a clear mission in the first place. “You

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have to frame the future and your compelling vision for it before you go out and raise the funds.” Fair enough. So why is it so difficult?

Even its staunchest proponents admit that the Institutional Vision program had a mixed success. Morris reckons that the program scored major success with “maybe two or three” orchestras and had some significant impact on another ten.

Why so few?

Nygren thinks the issue was mainly “whether the orchestra teams could come together on a unified vision.”

Then, if they did that, “were they able to effectively convey it to the rest of the organization?” Another critical factor, he says, “was continuity of leadership.”

Departure of a key leader often undid progress. Perhaps the biggest hurdle was internalizing a vision so that it becomes part of the culture of the organization.

Culture is difficult to change. But just as difficult, evidently, is rebuilding it strong enough to imprint itself on everyone in the organization to the point of surviving turnover of key staff. The fact that success seems so fragile, depending so heavily on the right individuals being in the right jobs, would seem to belie the premise of the program’s systemic vision approach. Indeed, looking at successful orchestras around the country, one might conclude that a common characteristic of success is the need for a “super-leader” who performs at an extraordinary level.

Has the business become so difficult that the only way it can work is having an extraordinary, over-performing chief executive? Does that mean that merely competent leaders are a ticket to failure?

Noteboom rejects that premise. “The danger of a super-leader is that everyone defers to him or her. And that can be trouble,” he says. Current thinking on leadership models is moving away from the super-leader notion toward one that stresses teamwork and less hierarchical decision-making. Organizations are much stronger in the long term when leadership is shared; success takes buy-in from a community.

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Case Studies: Michigan, California, Florida

Three years ago, when I first wrote in Symphony about the Institutional Vision program, I attended a five-day seminar in a suburb outside Chicago, and profiled three of the participating orchestras. Of the three, the tiny Adrian Symphony seemed to have gotten everything right.

Orchestras in the Institutional Vision Program came from a broad swath of the industry— from small orchestras with budgets of only a few hundred thousand dollars to orchestras in the $10-million-plus category.

In an economically depressed Michigan town, the orchestra had articulated a compelling vision, connected deeply with its community, and reinvented itself in that community’s image.

But when Executive Director Susan Hoffman moved to a new job at the Cleveland Orchestra, a series of board leaders cycled in and out and the orchestra’s fortunes went into a deep stall. Music Director John Thomas Dodson says things got off track and the orchestra lost its focus for a while. It didn’t help that unemployment in tiny Adrian, located deep in the Rust Belt, had soared to 15 percent. “But I’m absolutely convinced,” says Dodson, “that had we not done the work of defining our goals and thinking more strategically, we wouldn’t be around now.”

By all reasonable measures, Adrian should not be able to afford an orchestra.

But it defies the odds, Dodson believes, because its values come from those of the community: “They’ve told us what they want.” To get there, the orchestra had to rethink itself. It went out into the community, performing not just in the concert hall, but in other spaces. It started programs to make attending the orchestra more of a social experience, began engaging with the community to better respond to the music it wanted to hear, all

the while articulating everything it did in terms of values and experiences you can’t get anywhere else.

If there’s a star of Institutional Vision, it’s the San Diego Youth Symphony, which also entered the program in 2009.

The orchestra had been doing well. So well, in fact, that it was looking for ways to expand. One thought was to get a new home and rebrand itself as a conservatory.

Executive Director Dalouge Smith says that the orchestra knew it was ready for a bigger challenge, but “our idea was an inwardly, selfishly focused question. We asked what kind of growth we wanted.

What we really needed to ask was what did the community want from us. It was the essential question, and it changed our whole organization.”

Instead of constructing a new building, the orchestra began partnering with the community and local schools, offering music programs where music instruction had been cut. The trial project was so successful that the orchestra went from serving 250 to 600 students, and the city’s school district asked the orchestra to expand the program. In 2010, SDYS adopted the long-term goal of “Making Music Education Affordable and Accessible for All Students,” using its resources to help build support for returning school-day music to the public schools. This winter, SDYS’ school partner, the Chula Vista Elementary School District, announced it will begin returning full-time music teachers to all 44 of its schools beginning in 2013-14.

It makes for a rare win-win situation—a win for the community, and a win for the orchestra as the catalyst in bringing music to San Diego school kids.

The orchestra also made a strategic partnership. The University of California San Diego Neurosciences Institute signed up to work with the orchestra’s students as part of a project to study the effects of music and learning music on the brain.

The notion of a neuroscience research center working with a youth orchestra is a new one, and it shows the recent thinking that partnerships between orchestras and healthcare might yield major benefits. symphony

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“Things moved very fast for us once we figured out what we wanted to be,” says Smith. “We wrote a five-year strategic plan, and I’ve got to be honest—we didn’t really look at it that much after we wrote it. But when I did go back to it again, I realized we’d accomplished everything in the five-year plan in two years.” The orchestra’s biggest challenge now is how to handle growth as it went from a $750,000 annual budget to a $1.1 million budget in a single year. Last fall year the organization won the prestigious Prudential Award, which carried a prize of $25,000, from the BoardSource Board Leadership Forum for outstanding governance and leadership in advancing a strategic vision.

The third orchestra I covered in that 2009 Symphony article was the Florida Orchestra in Tampa/St. Petersburg. This orchestra was, to be kind, skating on the edge of viability. It had ongoing money issues, operating in the black for only a single year since 1984 and racking up a big accumulated deficit. Slashing budget, staff, concerts and musicians, the orchestra came into the IV program looking for

“We saw how important it is to address leadership from many points of view,” says Polly Kahn, the League’s vice president for Learning and Leadership Development.

“How do you find common ground and get everyone moving toward it?” focus. It came up with a vision, but, says Executive Director Michael Pastreich, given the challenges, the organization wasn’t ready to implement it. “It almost tore us apart,” he recalls. “We weren’t ready for it.”

Instead, the orchestra came up with a different plan, cutting more musicians and concerts, refocusing its programming, entering into a partnership with a local sports team, and even, in a time when orchestral recordings rarely make money and the funding to make them americanorchestras.org

In all, 34 orchestras in a broad range of sizes, budgets, and locations went through the League’s Institutional Vision Program: the Adrian Symphony, Albany Symphony, Altoona Symphony, Annapolis Symphony, Boise Philharmonic, Chicago Youth Symphony, Des Moines Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Eugene Symphony, Florida Orchestra, Fort Wayne Philharmonic, Fox Valley Symphony, Houston Symphony, Illinois Symphony, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Louisville Orchestra, New Haven Symphony, Norwalk Symphony, Orlando Philharmonic, Orlando Symphony, Pacific Symphony, Paducah Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Rhode Island Philharmonic, San Antonio Symphony, San Diego Youth Symphony, South Carolina Philharmonic, Spokane Symphony, Syracuse Symphony, Tucson Symphony, Vermont Symphony, Virginia Symphony, Waterbury Symphony, and the Youth Orchestras of San Antonio.

has dried up, making a recording of music

by Delius. In the process, the orchestra balanced its budget, eliminated much of its accumulated deficit, and grew new audiences.

“We did it quietly,” says Pastreich. “But we essentially reinvented what we do.

We’re one orchestra that has actually done better during the financial downturn while others have struggled.” Though Pastreich says Institutional Vision didn’t ultimately play a role in his orchestra’s turnaround, as he describes the process of reinvention it’s clear that his focus on the bigger strategic picture is exactly the kind of thinking the program encouraged.

Looking Ahead

So why end Institutional Vision now?

“I’m not sure this is the most effective way to make a big impact on the field,” says Morris. The problem, as he sees it, is the difficulty of changing the way orchestras think about how to be successful and spreading that learning to the rest of the field. “I’m not sure that you can do that one orchestra at a time,” he says.

Exactly the problem the League has been grappling with.

“No one has yet figured out the perfect intervention strategy,” says Rosen.

“Institutional Vision was very resourceintensive. But it was one piece in a bigger whole. One program informs the next, and I see all these things as layering on one another.”

To that way of thinking, Institutional Vision can be viewed as part of an evolving continuum of programs at the League. “We are constantly shaping and

reshaping programs to bring forward new learning and to be responsive to the urgent needs of the field,” says Kahn.

“Whether in Orchestra Leadership Academy seminars, longer-term programs like Institutional Vision, programs like the Critical Issues Work Group, the SMART financial analysis work, or the content at our National Conference, we place a value on learning from every experience in order to provide help to our orchestras in real time. Institutional Vision, so ably led by Tom, Lowell, and David, was an incredibly important program, not only for the 34 orchestras that participated directly, but for the field as a whole. The learning we gained from that informed the next body of work we produce.”

“It’s difficult to draw lines from one program to the next,” Rosen says. “But if we’re encouraging the field to change and adapt, we have to be willing to keep changing and adapting what we do ourselves.”

Doug McLennan is editor of ArtsJournal.com, a lecturer and consultant on digital culture, director of the Center for Arts, Media & Audience at the University of Southern California, and author of the blog Diacritical at ArtsJournal.

Institutional Vision was made possible by generous gifts and grants from Daniel R. Lewis, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The Hearst Foundation, Inc., and the National Endowment for the Arts.

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Laura Duda, a board-certified music therapist at Children’s Hospital of Michigan (left), works with two patients and their parents in a session attended

by Detroit Symphony Orchestra violist Shanda Lowery-Sachs (second from left) and cellist Peter McCaffrey (second from right). At far right is Kareem George, the DSO’s managing director of community programs.

Sound S

by Chester Lane

hannon Orme is the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s bass clarinetist, and also a member of its clarinet section.

It’s the smaller, more portable B-flat clarinet that she brings to music therapy sessions at Children’s Hospital of Michigan, in the Detroit Medical Center. Orme finds these visits to be an especially rewarding part of her work at the DSO. “The kids are there for very serious reasons,” she says. “A lot of them come into these sessions shy or unhappy, kind of slumped over. They’re very tired, probably,

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from their medical treatments. Typically I just play music that would be fun for them. It could be familiar or unfamiliar, happy, sad, loud, soft, fast, slow. As soon as they hear the music they perk up a little bit and get this curious eye. After about fifteen minutes the kids might want to hold an instrument. The hospital’s music therapist has a huge range of instruments—tube shakers, maracas—that they can actually touch. She’s guiding the session and I play along. Basically she says, ‘Whatever you want to play is going to be unique and amazing and interesting for them.’ And she’s right. I come away

feeling better about myself when I do this type of work, because I know the kids are getting a lot out of it. I’m lessening the blow of having to be in the hospital.”

This work by the Detroit Symphony and its musicians is just one example of a movement that is exploding across the orchestra field, as orchestras of all sizes are finding fresh ways to connect with their communities by bringing together music and healthcare. This development was recently given a boost by the League of American Orchestras with its new Getty Education and Community Investment Grants, designed to help orchestras respond to community symphony

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Detroit Symphony Orchestra Gloria Mou

nds

Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Principal Cellist Anne Martindale Williams performs for patients at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. At left is Chelsea Chason, a student interning at the hospital in preparation for board certification as a music therapist.

of Healing

needs through educational, health and wellness, social service, and neighborhood residency programs. “Much of the innovative work orchestras are doing in communities is being developed in partnership with other nonprofit service organizations, including hospitals,” says League President and CEO Jesse Rosen. “We are grateful to the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation, a longtime orchestra supporter, for recognizing and encouraging this exciting new activity.”

In November, the League announced that 22 orchestras were to receive the first round of Getty Education and Community Investment Grants as part of the three-year, americanorchestras.org

Committed to health and wellness in their communities, orchestras are sending musicians to such places as cancer centers, ICUs, rehab facilities, and hospital lobbies. Partnerships with healthcare experts give musicians the skills they need.

$1.5 million re-granting program. Of the 22 grants, nine were designated for health and wellness programs, including the one at the Detroit Symphony, which partners with Children’s Hospital of Michigan and the Henry Ford Health System (see sidebar for a complete list). An independent panel selected Getty grantees from a broad range of orchestras, all of which had partnerships with community health institutions and were looking to forge additional partnerships or expand existing ones.

Orchestra-sponsored health and wellness activities like those supported by the Getty grants have become increasingly common

in recent years. In part, this may be in response to the results of an avalanche of recent research by scientists demonstrating the impact of music on the brain. Researchers are exploring a range of topics in musical science; institutes for the study of music and neuroscience are being founded; and advances in functional-imaging technology even make it possible to see our brains at work when exposed to different kinds of music. (Symphony reported on scientific research examining music and the brain, and some of the ways that orchestras are supporting it, in the July-August 2010 and the Summer 2011 issues.)

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An infant in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of the University of Tennessee Medical Center fixes her gaze on Knoxville Symphony Orchestra violinist Sean Claire, turning her head to the right for the first time following major surgery.

One of the first classical music organizations to support healthcare as a core part of its mission is Boston’s Longwood Symphony Orchestra, founded in 1982 as an all-volunteer ensemble consisting largely of doctors, medical students, and others in the healthcare field. At professional orchestras, utilizing the talents of musicians in ways that promote health and wellness in the populations they serve is increasingly recognized as a vital part of the organization’s community mission. Those musicians are taking advantage of further training to do this work well, with professional development, orientation, and other informative sessions offered by medical experts.

Orchestras, in partnering with healthcare organizations, provide essential support for the musicians by linking their expertise with that of doctors, nurses, music therapists, and hospital staff. And new initiatives continue to crop up: in the past few months alone the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra launched a Music and Wellness program in partnership with hospitals in the Mercy Health system; and the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra started its Music Heals program, in which the ASO will partner with local organizations such as healthcare facilities and schools for children with learning disabilities.

A growing number of orchestra musicians are electing to participate in such activities, serving their communities while also—as Shannon Orme and many others attest— enriching their experience as creative artists.

But this work has significance that goes far beyond providing individual satisfaction for musicians. What’s key is that it provides a service to people who are genuinely in need.

Building on recent studies, orchestras and their healthcare partners will continue to as-

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Ramesh Santanam

Knoxville Symphony Orchestra

Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra

Dr. Leonard M. Randolph Jr., chief medical officer of Mercy Health and a board member of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, leads a Q&A about the orchestra at Mercy Health Anderson Hospital last December during the kickoff of the orchestra’s Music and Wellness partnership program. A CSO brass trio performed holiday music for hospital staff, patients, and the public.

Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra violist Penny Brill interacts with a patient at St. Anna Children’s Hospital in Vienna during the PSO’s European tour last fall.

sess the effectiveness of these programs as they evolve and mature. Here are some early reports from the field.

Music for the Soul

Sylvia Samis has played violin in the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra for the past 39 years. Fifteen years ago, on her own initiative, she began visiting the city’s Jewish Hospital each fall during the high holidays to play Max Bruch’s version of the traditional prayer Kol Nidrei, his work for cello and orchestra on Hebrew themes as transcribed for solo violin. Samis has visited all parts of the hospital, and it’s been “an amazing experience for me. I feel that I always walk away with more than I’ve been able to give.

Some of the patients’ reactions have been really incredible. I recently played for a stroke victim who had not spoken for a very long time. When he heard Kol Nidrei this person started to cry and finally spoke his first word. I think music has a significant impact on healing the spirit and the soul.”

Now that Jewish Hospital is part of the Mercy Health system, Samis’s work there will continue under the aegis of the Cin-

cinnati Symphony. Last September, her Yom Kippur visit helped launch the orchestra’s Music and Wellness partnership with Mercy Health. Also in September, CSO cellist Alan Rafferty and Mercy Health physician Dr. Craig Willis presented a career workshop at Music Hall, the orchestra’s home venue, for young musicians and their parents that focused on techniques for avoiding performance-related injuries. For the official Music and Wellness kickoff, at Mercy Health’s Anderson Hospital on December 6, a CSO brass trio played a free concert of holiday music that was open to the public as well as patients and staff; the three brass players served as ambassadors for the orchestra, which was the subject of an audience Q&A led by Dr. Leonard M. Randolph Jr., Mercy Health’s chief medical officer and a member of the CSO board.

Like Samis, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra violist Penny Brill initially had a personal reason for exploring the healing power of music. In 1999, nearly two decades after she had joined the PSO, Brill was diagnosed with breast cancer. “For three months I went through a number of procedures,” she says.

“I decided to experiment with music to see if it would help. It did, in a number of ways.”

To prepare for the reconstructive surgery she eventually needed, Brill had a music therapist do a session using a technique called guided imagery. “It was enormously helpful to me in imagining the surgery and the recovery.” Helpful in the post-operative phase was the Indian-inspired Shakti Yoga music of Russill Paul. “It helped me in getting my circulation back, and in reducing the amount of pain medication I needed. It made a big difference in how quickly I recovered.”

At the time Brill was first diagnosed with symphony

SPRING 2013

gram has produced a HeartStrings Toolkit cancer there were no music therapists on as an aid to other orchestras hoping to create staff at the University of Pittsburgh Meditheir own health and wellness programs.) cal Center. In 2000, she and the orchestra began advocating for music therapists in hospitals. Children’s Hospital was the first Human Communication of UPMC’s facilities to hire such specialAnother Getty grant recipient, the Knoxists, and Brill says that it’s grown since then. ville Symphony Orchestra in Tennessee, Music therapists are a key component of the owes its Music and Wellness program to PSO’s Music and Wellness program, which Music Director Lucas Richman. During Brill says now has the active participation his time as assistant and then resident conof about 30 PSO musicians—not just at ductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony, RichChildren’s Hospital but at UPMC Shadyman had been inspired by that orchestra’s side, at the veterans’ hospital in Pittsburgh, Music and Wellness program, and he reat a school for persons with permanent dissolved to establish something similar in abilities, and at the local Gilda’s Club cancer Knoxville soon after arriving there in 2003. support center.

One of the steps he took was to invite “We send musicians out as individuals or Penny Brill to coach musicians from his in groups,” says Suzanne Perrino, the PSO’s new orchestra in some of the techniques vice president of education and strategic imshe had learned in Pittsburgh. plementation. “They participate in our serThe Knoxville Symphony program startvice-exchange program: for eight individual ed out with string quartet performances in services they get an additional week of vathe lobbies and waiting areas of that city’s cation,” she explains, referring to the musiUniversity of Tennessee Medical Center, cians’ contract with the orchestra. Brill has says violinist Sean Claire. “But there was done presentations with music therapists in one extra violinist who wasn’t needed in the numerous places in addition to her frequent quartet, and I wanted an opportunity to do participation in the Music and Wellness one-on-one work with patients.” Claire has program’s chamber music activities. These worked in various patient areas of the hospihave not been limited to the Pittsburgh area. tal as a strolling solo musician, as have other Last fall during the orchestra’s European members of the KSO’s nineteen-member tour, Brill and PSO cellist Adam Liu played string core. for patients at St. Anna Children’s Hospital Claire had long been interested in muin Vienna. As of mid-February the orchessic’s power to heal and promote well-being. tra was hoping for a return visit During his teenage years, as In partnering to that hospital this year during an incessantly practicing violin with healthcare its late-summer European tour. student, he once brought his organizations, “Penny is an expert in doing instrument to a chiropractor orchestras are hospital visits in different group appointment and was playing linking their settings,” says PSO Director outside the building, but within musicians’ of Education and Community earshot of the patient ahead of expertise Programs Gloria Mou. Based him. “After a little while the with that of largely on Brill’s experience, doctor came out and told me, doctors, music Mou and Jessica Ryan, the or‘The patient I just saw had an therapists, and chestra’s manager of education energy blockage, and I couldn’t hospital staff. and community programs, have get it to go away until you startcreated a handbook of “dos and don’ts” for ed playing.’ ” musicians who are interested in similar visClaire has similar stories to tell about its. And with help from its Getty grant, the UT Medical Center, where his work has PSO will soon launch a Music and Wellness included visits to the Neonatal Intensive website that incorporates the handbook— Care Unit. Playing for an infant who was along with significant input from medical recovering from major intestinal surgery professionals and administrators—and will and had to remain in a sitting position, he serve as a field-wide resource for orchestras “happened to move to her right side, and sponsoring programs in the health and wellshe followed me with her gaze. It was the ness area. (Wisconsin’s Madison Symphony first time she had ever turned her head to Orchestra has taken a similarly collegial apthe right. The [physical] therapists had proach: its Getty-funded HeartStrings probeen trying to get her to do that for weeks. americanorchestras.org

Music & Health: The Getty Commitment

I

n November 2012 the League of American Orchestras announced the first round of Getty Education and Community Investment Grants in support of innovative educational programs and community partnerships at orchestras.

The 2012-13 season grants were part of a three-year, $1.5 million re-granting program from the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation. Of the 22 grantees, nine are being funded for programs in the area of health and wellness: Detroit Symphony Orchestra, MI Hartford Symphony Orchestra, CT Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, TN Madison Symphony Orchestra, WI New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, NJ Phoenix Symphony, AZ Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, PA Portland Symphony Orchestra, ME St. Louis Symphony, MO A session entitled “Health and Wellness Programs: Learning from the Getty Orchestras” is scheduled for June 20 at the League’s National Conference in St. Louis.

“There was another instance that brought home for me the vibrational impact of music on a psyche that’s upset,” Claire continues. “An infant born to a drug-addicted mother—three months old, maybe five months—was constantly fussing and crying; the nurses were never able to get through and communicate with him. As I played for him he calmed down and was quiet. The piece ended, and he started getting squirmy and fussy. I started something else and he calmed down again. You could see the layers of cloudiness falling from his eyes as he found the source of the sound and focused on it. At the end the nurse asked him if he liked it, and he actually responded. It was the first time he had ever responded to a human communication.”

Eunsoon Corliss, the KSO’s assistant principal violist, has played in the quartet concerts at UT Medical Center, but she also strolls with her instrument in the patient areas, playing such things as Stephen Foster melodies and sometimes giving bedside performances. “One patient opened his door

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St. Louis Symphony

and asked me to come in,” she recalls, “so I played for him. He was humming along and really appreciated it. It was very rewarding.”

KSO Executive Director Rachel Ford says the orchestra serves more than 6,000 patients, staff, and visitors each year through its Music and Wellness program, which partners with UT Medical Center, the Cancer Support Community of East Tennessee, and healthcare facilities run by Covenant Health and Humana. Ford is now investing in specialized education for her musicians and staff. Over the next three seasons she plans to have Claire, Corliss, and violinist Sara Matayoshi participate in the national Music for Healing and Transition Program—a nonprofit concern with educational centers and healthcare partners across the U.S.—with the goal of becoming Certified Music Practitioners. This summer Jennifer Barnett, the KSO’s director of education and community partnerships, will attend the annual Arts in Healthcare Summer Intensive at the University of Florida. And the Getty grant has allowed Ford to hire a parttime board-certified music therapist. Alana Dellatan Seaton, who began her duties in

St. Louis Symphony musicians Asako Kuboki (violin) and Catherine Lehr (assistant principal cello) play for patients in the infusion room of St. Louis University Cancer Center.

performing. If a musician is uncomfortable in the Infusion Center, I give them the option of performing in the lobby for the patients’ family members or friends.

“I’m a musician myself,” says Weaver, “so I can anticipate what their needs might be, what obstacles they might run into. I encourage them to think about music they like to relax to. Chances are if they like it, the Personal Rewards patients will respond in the same way. MusiSt. Louis Symphony musicians who take cians bring anything from Bach to jazz. One part in the orchestra’s SymphonyCares proof the perks of playing in our environment is gram perform at St. Louis University Canit gives the musicians a lot of creative freecer Center through a contractual service-exdom. Some of them really enjoy that, bechange arrangement similar to Pittsburgh’s. cause they get to experiment with styles they “This year I’ve had so many musicians wantwould not typically get to play.” ing to participate that we’re looking for othSt. Louis Symphony cellist Bjorn Raner places to visit,” says Maureen Byrne, the heim says he has “played in hospital or nursorchestra’s community programs manager. ing home environments a lot” The orchestra’s Getty grant is “We’re bringing throughout his career, “but this helping it bring the Symphonya small amount was the most amped-up mediCares program to an additional of peace to cal experience I’ve ever had. facility, Siteman Cancer Center their otherwise My colleague Anne Fagerburg at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, and crazy and hectic and I have gone into the Infuto accommodate the greater experience,” sion Center to play cello duos, number of interested musicians. says cellist and we were both worried At SLU Cancer Center, muBjorn Ranheim. about what we would see. The sicians come to perform once music therapist and some hospital represena month in groups of two. Crystal Weaver, tatives came to Powell Symphony Hall and the center’s music therapist, orients them to gave us a heads-up, prepared us for whatever the facility and provides them with HIPAA could happen. It was actually much more intraining—guidance in compliance with the nocuous than what we’d been mentally prepatient confidentiality and privacy rules mandated by the Health Insurance Portabilpared for.” ity and Accountability Act of 1996. “I basiRather than choosing music that parcally lead them through the entire process,” ticular patients would likely be interested Weaver says. “They perform in the Infusion in, Ranheim says, “We tailored it to the enCenter, a large room with reclining chairs vironment. The therapist encouraged us to where patients come for chemotherapy find pieces with a happy medium in terms treatments. I stay with the musicians the of tempo, volume, and feel. We were told entire time in case they or the patients have that the best type of music had a beat somequestions or need help with anything. Some thing close to the human heart rate, 60 or musicians just want to play, others like one70 beats a minute.” Pieces that worked well, on-one conversations after they’ve finished he says, included cello duos by Reinhold

mid-February, will work with KSO musicians in the Music and Wellness program, create assessment tools to measure their results in such areas as pain management and stress reduction, and establish therapy programs for cancer patients and clients at the partner institutions.

9/4/05, 12:21 PM

symphony

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Glière, Fauré’s Sicilienne, and “The Swan” from Saint-Saëns’s Carnival of the Animals.

“These lofty cello pieces were really effective, I think. Some patients said they’d actually changed their appointments to a date when they knew we would be performing. We’re bringing a small amount of peace to their otherwise crazy and hectic experience.”

Lynn Hannings, a longtime bass player in Maine’s Portland Symphony Orchestra, says that her orchestra’s Getty-funded partnership with New England Rehabilitation Hospital of Portland (NERHP) had its roots in an earlier, informal relationship with Maine Medical Center’s Barbara Bush Center for Children. “Our musicians would go in, usually at Christmastime, to cheer people up. So we already had a presence in area hospitals because of these volunteers.” Hannings’s involvement in the new NERHP partnership, she says, “has a more therapeutic and scientific bent, because of my own experience.”

In her other career as a bow-maker, Hannings had become interested in stressrelated injuries caused by repetitive motions.

“So I went back to school and got a degree from the University of New England, working closely with Dr. Judith Kimball, head of the Occupational Therapy Department,” she says. “When I came up with the idea of wanting to give back to the medical workers in our community, I immediately thought of her.” She and Dr. Kimball developed a program to help hospital workers through the use of live music, deep-breathing techniques, and exercises using the stretchy tubes known as therabands. “There was a very good response to this, and that’s what encouraged us to go for the Getty grant.”

The stated goal of Portland’s Music and Wellness program is to “improve the healing process and reduce stress levels of hospital patients, employees, and visiting families.” It includes both in-hospital ensemble performances and a stress-reduction program for hospital employees that combines live classical music with physical exercise.

“At New England Rehabilitation Hospital of Portland, the patients are there for a fair amount of time,” says PSO Executive Director Lisa Dixon. “That allows us to build a relationship. They don’t have a traditional auditorium for performance, but that’s not where we’re headed with this program. We perform in public areas of the hospital. We want the music to be part of americanorchestras.org

daily life for both the patients and the staff.”

And the therapeutic value of that music is something Hannings believes in fervently, both as a performer and a therapist. “The overtones of live music—the part that’s above our ears’ ability to hear physiologically—can do a lot for our brains and bodies.”

Recent hospital performances, she says, have been by the orchestra’s harpist, Jara Goodrich. “Harps are just alive with overtones.

You could feel the energy in the room as she

performed. It was remarkable to see these people checking their watches and shoveling down their lunches, and all of a sudden their eyes were closing and their shoulders were dropping—those signs of relaxation as they got into the moment. This is what live music can be in our lives. It’s more than just buying a ticket and sitting in an auditorium. It really can move us to a better place.”

CHESTER LANE is senior editor of Symphony.

AROUND THE WORLD ON 88 KEYS

Kole takes the audience around the world to many cities and countries that heʼs performed in and tells them interesting stories as he performs the music of that area…

NEW ORLEANS AND ALL THE JAZZ

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Ronnie Kole does more than play…Heʼll tell you of many of the legends and play many compositions influenced by the Jazz of New Orleans

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California Department of Transportation

Going

Public

by Jennifer Melick

From crowdsourced and outdoor symphonies in Toronto, San Francisco, and Berlin to citywide celebrations in Cincinnati and New York, largescale music events are bringing together orchestral musicians and the public as never before.

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T

o paraphrase a well-known expression, sometimes it takes a city to make a symphony. “An orchestra is at the heart of each city,” says composer Tod Machover, who has written a fulllength work for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, using input from the Toronto community as musical material. For Machover, the logic of a collaboration between a whole city and an orchestra is self-evident. “An orchestra is not just a major cultural institution, it’s a magnet, it’s a place where all this expertise exists, it’s a place that can convene people, and it’s a place that can make a big sound. You can make a sound that’s worthy of a whole city, and inviting people to participate is great.”

For Toronto Symphony Music Director Peter Oundjian, Machover’s crowdsourced symphony was a way to capitalize

Daniel Clark

For Lisa Bielawa’s Airfield Broadcasts at Berlin’s Tempelhof Park (below) and San Francisco’s Crissy Field (opposite), 600 musicians will perform without music stands, conductors, or amplification.

on the city’s vibrancy: “Toronto is a vast expanding city and continues to be extremely multicultural—five Chinatowns, a huge Greektown, whatever ethnicity you name, we have it in abundance. There’s a boom going on culturally in Toronto. So we are trying to energize it and ride on it at the same time.”

Toronto is not the only place where such citywide events are happening during the 2012-13 season. There’s the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s “One City, One Symphony,” based on the concept of the national “One City, One Book” community-reading program, which blanketed the city of Cincinnati with Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony for a month last fall.

Then there’s Make Music New York, held every June 21 and wrapping in more than 1,000 free performances by amateur and professional musicians throughout New York City. Similar events are being held on the same June date in more than a dozen North American cities this year. And

there’s composer Lisa Bielawa’s Airfield Broadcasts, a massive “spatialized symphony” that will have its world premiere in May at Berlin’s Tempelhof Park; it gets its U.S. premiere in October at San Francisco’s Crissy Field, a former Air Coast Defense Station near the Golden Gate Bridge.

When a broad swath of the public comes together physically to participate in an arts event in today’s virtual, digital world, that in itself is a remarkable achievement. When the arts event is the catalyst for a longer-term connection between people and cities, that is perhaps the more significant achievement. But what is behind the surge in these community-wide music events? There is no one answer, of course, but some overarching themes seem to point to needs not currently being met in city life. These projects are big, and they are inclusive, bringing

large numbers of people together to participate actively in a music event. They welcome amateurs, with some events opening up the compositional process and others the performance experience. Many of them are outdoors. And they are fun: one of the best outcomes is that they can remind people of all the cool music stuff happening in their hometown.

For Bielawa, who is “people-sourcing” the roughly 600 musicians who will participate in Airfield Broadcasts, her project addresses important issues of our time.

“I love music. I love cities,” says Bielawa.

“There is something about urban life, and what it is that people in cities need from their artistic citizens—us individual creative people—and their artistic communities. What is the relationship today between those three things? That’s the triangle that has gotten broken. It needs to be examined.”

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ABOVE: Composer Tod Machover leads a workshop in summer 2012 with students in Toronto as part of his open compositional process for A Toronto Symphony: Concerto for Composer and City. The Toronto Symphony Orchestra gave the world premiere on March 9, 2013. RIGHT: Screenshot of “City Soaring,” a music app created for A Toronto Symphony, allowing users to edit the piece’s “City Soaring” melody.

Since beginning work on A Toronto Symphony: A Concerto for Composer and City about a year ago, Tod Machover “has almost moved to Toronto!” says TSO Music Director Peter Oundjian. The piece—not only a portrait of Toronto but also cocreated by citizens of Toronto—was commissioned by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Oundjian for the TSO’s annual New Creations Festival, held March 2013.

“I was looking for something I could do on the scale of not 10, 20, 30, 40 people, but 100, 1,000, 10,000 people or more,” says Machover. Oundjian remembers the whimsical, quizzical expression on Machover’s face when he asked, “How about a ‘Toronto symphony’? It was so obviously an ideal title for a portrait of Toronto.

The collaborative A lot of ideas are very obprocess of vious. So there we are! On helping compose a path to do something A Toronto nobody has ever attemptSymphony will ed before.” make people Machover’s crowdwho hear the sourced symphony has work “feel a heavy tech element, connected to which you’d expect from a piece that’s an MIT-based composer been created who invented the Hyaround them perscore music-notation and inspired by system and has written an them,” says opera, Death and the PowTSO Music ers, featuring a robotic Director Peter stage that comes alive. For Oundjian. this piece, Torontonians recorded sounds from

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places like the beach on Lake Ontario, a certain crossing downtown, and the subway; they then uploaded these sounds via YouTube, SoundCloud, Facebook, and email.

But the collaborative process went well beyond that, following Machover’s discovery that virtual interactions were only reaching people who were “already in the Toronto Symphony or in the loop somehow.” He was much more successful after he decided “to build these communities through actually meeting people.”

Beginning last summer, Machover worked with young musicians in the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra, who listened to some of those uploaded Toronto sounds and analyzed them. “Then together, we took all these sounds, and made them into a little acoustic piece,” says Machover.

Machover also sent the composition’s main chord progression to musicians of the Toronto Symphony, asking them to write material riffing on that progression or suggesting different sonorities to go with the chords. “A lot of orchestra musicians sent things back to me,” says Machover. “I

made variations, and then we got together for a live session onstage of a five-minute piece made up of my music and theirs. We took an hour to rehearse and performed it in public. That’s actually the opening section of the piece.” In August, Machover even contacted about 40 indie-rock bands in town for a festival, asking them if they would be willing to make a five-second sound bite—or a one-second bite—to play during the festival. About 35 of them agreed to do it, he says.

During the fall and early winter, Machover solicited more feedback, facilitated by a new digital app created by Machover’s team at the MIT Media Lab, where he is on the faculty. The app allowed would-be composers to go to the TSO website and manipulate things like rhythm, melody, repetition, and sonorities, then submit their versions to Machover for him to consider including in the final musical work. Hundreds of Toronto schoolchildren also created original music compositions about Toronto, working under the guidance of their music teachers at school. Parts of these contributions were incorporated into the final version, which includes a “wild and jazzy” movement called “Toronto Dances,” and “City Soaring,” evoking a vision of floating over the city of Toronto. The TSO premiered symphony

SPRING 2013

Photos at top of page courtesy of Toronto Symphony Orchestra

Sian Richards

Crowdsourcing in Toronto

A Toronto Symphony at Roy Thomson Hall on March 9, complete with a synchronized live light show at the city’s CN Tower, also shown on screens in the hall. Machover is already working on his next orchestra collaboration, Edinburgh: Festival City, which will be performed at this summer’s Edinburgh International Festival in Scotland.

Community Connectedness in Cincinnati

“In the ‘One City, One Book’ program, you’ve got a public library in a city that encourages everyone to read the same book, and then everyone has a shared experience and there’s a public dialogue about that particular work,” says Chris Pinelo, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s vice president of communications. “The idea for ‘One City, One Symphony’ was, we could do this with music as well.” Leading up to its performances of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, the CSO hosted listening parties to discuss Beethoven 9 everywhere from coffee shops and places of worship to schools and community centers. Each listening party was led by a CSO musician, staffer, or conductor, and two of the sessions were hosted by children of Holocaust survivors, delving into connections between Beethoven and Schoenberg, whose A Survivor from Warsaw was performed on the same CSO concert program with Beethoven 9. Five full broadcasts of different recordings of Beethoven 9 aired on local radio station WGUC. A specially created promotional YouTube video featured a broad crosssection of Cincinnatians performing the “Ode to Joy” and aired multiple times on public TV station WCET. The CSO’s concerts themselves were streamed live to eleven retirement communities, as well as to a giant LED screen in Cincinnati’s Fountain Square, the Batesville Public Library in Indiana, and Newport on the Levee, an entertainment and shopping complex on the Ohio River in Kentucky. Later, the CSO posted the concert at its website, where it can be downloaded for free.

Louis Langrée and the CSO together came up with the “One City, One Symphony” idea soon after Langrée was announced as the CSO’s music director in April 2012. “Louis articulated a clear vision that he wanted to bring the community together through music,” says Pinelo, americanorchestras.org

and they landed on Beethoven’s Ninth as a natural vehicle for a new citywide project.

It is undeniably fun to watch the renditions of “Ode to Joy” sung and played by Cincinnatians in that YouTube video—

CSO to share the music it already performs, but with a much broader impact.

“The very core of this is having people from throughout the region take a much deeper dive into a piece of music,” says the

The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s “One City, One Symphony” project turned out to be successful beyond expectations. “We were doing TV news stories, radio interviews,” says Chris Pinelo, the CSO’s vice president of communications. schoolchildren just learning to play string instruments, a warm-up phrase tossed off backstage by Joshua Bell, pro baseball players from the Cincinnati Reds singing the tune in the dugout.

“One City, One Symphony” turned out to be successful beyond expectations.

“There was a lot of excitement, a lot of buzz,” says Pinelo. “We were doing TV news stories, radio interviews.” At Music Hall, total attendance was 8,278, with three concerts rather than the originally planned two; an additional 510 listeners heard the November 17 concert via live feeds at Fountain Square, Newport on the Levee, Batesville Public Library, nursing homes, and hospitals. At a final post-concert “One City Celebration” at the concert hall, 3,000 people showed up.

Beyond numbers, the “One City, One Symphony” project was a way for the

CSO’s Chris Pinelo. “One of the crowning achievements of this was partnering with a hospital system where we could have the live concert feed going into hospital rooms to people who otherwise had no chance of being able to come to the concert, but were able to have the shared experience as well. We’re really proud of that.”

“People-sourcing” in Berlin and San Francisco

The world premiere of Lisa Bielawa’s outdoor Airfield Broadcasts takes place in May at the former Tempelhof Airfield, site of the famous Berlin Airlift and now Berlin’s largest public park. Bielawa’s piece is not a collaborative composition, unlike Machover’s crowdsourced symphony for Toronto. But it has been an intensive collaboration on other levels: rather than working with a single ensemble, she is assembling, on her own, the 600 mostly amateur musicians who will perform the work. For its U.S. premiere in San Francisco in October, there will be a different set of 600 musicians. It gets performed three times in each city.

Below: Sold-out crowd at Music Hall for a performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, November 2012. Left: Sign for a listening party hosted by CSO Assistant Conductor William White at a coffee shop in the College Hill neighborhood of Cincinnati.

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“This is a project that is so big that it’s a lifestyle—a three- or four-year chapter Aaron of my life,” says Bielawa.

Friedman, the “It’s not like I knew it was founder of going to be this big. I had Make Music this idea. I talked to a few New York, says people about it, and every he loves “the door I went to opened, idea of musical starting with the Berlin serendipity Parks Department two and discovery. years ago.” She decided to At concerts in write the piece soon after the nineteenth Tempelhof opened as a century, they public park. “A friend took would be me there one day, and it selling hot was like, ‘bam!’ These fordogs, and mer military and industrial there might sites are the last truly enorbe Chinese mous urban public areas dancing dogs that are entering into city as an opening life.” It’s not the first siteact, then a specific work for Bielawa, Beethoven whose 35-minute chamconcerto.” ber piece Chance Encounter had its premiere in Seward Park in lower Manhattan in 2007. For this latest piece, Bielawa first wrote Tempelhof Etude, which served as a prototype and was first performed in New York’s Central Park in July 2011 by the chamber ensemble The Knights. The eventual composition will be as much a piece of giant choreography as it is a musical composition.

In the final hourlong work, roughly

Getting Audiences Involved

I

n 2011, Alan S. Brown and Rebecca Ratzkin published “Making Sense of Audience Engagement,” a critical assessment drawn from studies of dance, theater, and classical music audiences. Their findings reveal four underlying dimensions of engagement and six broad audience types— readers, critical reviewers, casual talkers, technology-based processors, insight seekers, and active learners— useful for arts groups to consider when formulating audience engagement efforts. To read the complete study, visit http://www.wolfbrown.com/ images/articles/Making_Sense_of_ Audience_Engagement.pdf.

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twelve to fifteen groups of musicians, with about 50 people in each group, will gradually walk from the center of the field to the perimeter—performing without music stands, conductors, or amplification. A small contingent of professional musicians, maybe 50 out of the total 600 musicians, will be embedded within each subgroup. The audience will stand or move about as they wish.

Bielawa says the musical material that musicians need to have with them on the field can “fit on a couple of sheets of paper and be stuck in a pocket—a cheat sheet. Each group has a series of musical phrases and instructions—when to do what with what musical phrases. ‘Play this when you hear this. When you hear this from that group, stop and walk over there.’ The complexity of the whole thing is considerable.”

Bielawa, whose hometown is San Francisco, has hired a host of people to help put the project together, including Marc Kasky, whose title is director of civic engagement for the San Francisco performances. “He sees in this project a possible template for cities to find ways to use music and artmaking to interpret and celebrate urban sites that were formerly military, formerly industrial,” says Bielawa. She also hired a community-music recruiter to “peoplesource” musicians for the Berlin performances. These include community bands that play traditional German music, something with almost no counterpart in the U.S. “Every sort of department store, the U-Bahn, the transit authority, the police force—these places have their own orchestras and bands!” she says. Other musicians are being recruited from the Neukölln Musikschule as well as the JFK American High School, where children of U.S. soldiers went to school during the Airlift. In San Francisco, performing groups will include the San Francisco Girls Chorus (Bielawa is an alum, and was recently named artistic director), the Contemporary Music Players, two Chinese-instrument ensembles, musicians from San Francisco’s Public School of the Arts and Oakland’s School of the Arts, the New Century Chamber Orchestra, and the Golden Gate Philharmonic, a citywide youth orchestra.

The project represents a big time investment for Bielawa, and a huge monetary one as well. She received a start-up grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation as well as money from the city of Berlin;

another source of funds was the crowdfunding site USA Projects. There are seven fundraisers working on the project. The total cost? “To have the biggest impact on both cities and communities would take around $650,000,” says Bielawa. “But it’s possible to do this project incredibly scrappy, too.”

She says she will be satisfied as long as the Airfield Broadcasts are “joyful and enthusiastic happenings.” What has motivated her to devote several years to such a risky project?

“I love the concert hall,” says Bielawa, “but I am a little claustrophobic, I need a little air right now. That’s nothing against the concert hall. That’s something I need, too. All of us will go back to the concert hall the next month, and we’ll love that too.”

Sumer Is Icumen In

On the summer solstice every June for the past six years, when New Yorkers head outdoors they might come across performances by a string quartet, choirs, or massed groupings of guitars, trombones, or clarinets.

Elsewhere, they might encounter musicians performing on subway cars or on boats in the lake in Central Park. Aaron Friedman, the founder of Make Music New York, says he loves “the idea of musical serendipity and discovery, where everyone is coming out to play in different places, and you can wander around. People are not sitting still, and they don’t have tickets. It’s a much rowdier situation, more like concerts in the nineteenth century, where they would be selling hot dogs, and there might be Chinese dancing dogs as an opening act, then a Beethoven concerto, and you repeat the second movement as an encore because it went over so well—engaging in a much more open, informal, spontaneous way.”

For Make Music New York, musicians are not paid, but some professional musicians participate for free or find local sponsors to support their events.

MMNY started with 560 events in New York City in 2007, and at 1,100 events it is roughly twice that size now. It has proved so popular that in 2011 a similar one-day event, Make Music Winter, was added on December 21, the shortest day of the year. The latter event features participatory musical parades, such as a recent one with bells that participants could ring, based on colors of flags being displayed at the front of the parade. Every participant got a different-colored bell, and if the red flag went symphony

SPRING 2013

Darial Sneed

Jennifer Undercofler leads the teen new-music ensemble Face the Music in a free outdoor performance on 67th Street in Manhattan, during the annual Make Music New York festival.

up and your bell was red, you started ringing, producing different chords. There was a medieval pilgrimage through Central Park, a boombox parade, a “Bach on the G train” subway line performance, and an iPhone event on the High Line, the public park constructed on a former elevated freight rail line in the Chelsea district.

Friedman relishes the excitement of a festival that “brings with it people who are just awakening their musical capabilities for the first time.” But he warns that participation isn’t something that just happens.

He likens the process of putting together a participatory music festival to “organizing a political protest or organizing an election, where there’s everything leading up to a single day, and everyone has to come out and do something, and remind them to do it, get out the vote, all those things.”

The MMNY concept has been expanding rapidly. Among the North American cities planning events for this year’s summer solstice are Chicago, Pasadena, South Pasadena, Los Angeles, Vancouver, Boston, Madison (Wisconsin), Philadelphia, New Orleans, San Francisco, Portland (Oregon), Seattle, Miami, Aspen, Denver, Kalamazoo, Palo Alto, and Indianola (Missouri).

All those events are organized at the local level, with the National Music Day Foundation working behind the scenes to help organize them. “It has been gratifying to see how little we need to make the case for a national day of music,” says NMDF Executive Director Kate Wilkinson. “I think people understand it instinctively. People can see musicians not as these demi-gods able to make music with their violin, but americanorchestras.org

as somebody who lives in your community and is a part of the community.”

Philadelphia is one of the cities holding an all-day event this June 21, and the Philadelphia Orchestra is firmly behind the idea. “Mozart still resonates in a rustedout industrial complex, just as Cage can be magical against the click of billiards in a pool hall,” says Matthew Loden, the orchestra’s executive vice president for institutional advancement. “National Music Day will bring many unexpected moments of delight to strangers around the country, and music is the vehicle that will allow us to be a part of something uniquely communal.” At press time, it had not been decided whether musicians from the Philadelphia Orchestra would participate, but they have performed before in such public settings as Philadelphia’s Reading Terminal Market and the Market Street transit station, as well as schools and hospitals all over the world.

Lasting Connections

With its “One City, One Symphony” Beethoven 9 project, part of the Cincinnati Symphony’s goal was to reinvigorate civic pride. “It’s pretty remarkable that a city the size of Cincinnati has an orchestra of this stature,” says the CSO’s Pinelo.

“While Cincinnatians recognize the orchestra is special, not all of them come regularly—or at all. It’s like, ‘I’m proud that I have a great orchestra in my city, but I don’t always come out and hear them.’

And I think this project was a reminder that, ‘Yeah, I really enjoy this.’ ” This November, “One City, One Symphony” will return with a new theme: “fate and re-

demption” in Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 and Mozart’s cantata Davide penitente, based on the Psalms of David.

Participating in making music, even if only for one day of the year, is an experience that is “a lot of fun and I would say transformative,” says the National Music Day Foundation’s Wilkinson. “When you break down that barrier between the musicians and the audience, that’s really powerful—both musicians and audiences get a lot out of that community relationship.

Classical musicians also really respond to this idea of passing it on—passing on that passion, that skill, both with students but also with young kids and audiences. This is an achievable skill that they can be passionate about and love as well.”

Peter Oundjian believes his orchestra will see positive changes in the concert hall as a result of commissioning Tod Machover’s A Toronto Symphony. The open process of helping compose a new orchestral work makes people who hear it “feel connected to a piece that’s been created around them and inspired by them,” says Oundjian. “It has to give them a slightly different sense of what it is to have created a piece—whether it’s Beethoven or Sibelius or Mahler.” Machover asks, “Why shouldn’t cities have a portrait? And maybe not even just one portrait. A city is a complex enough place that it could very easily have something sonic that is made by and for the place. And maybe you’d do it every year.”

JENNIFER MELICK is managing editor of Symphony.

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Rite Fever

by Donald Rosenberg

KPO Photo

T

The Rite of Spring nearly incited a riot at its by orchestras all over.

he distinguished bearded gentleman was not having a good month at Paris’s new Théâtre des Champs-Elysées. In mid-May 1913, Claude Debussy sat in the audience for the premiere of his newest score, Jeux, as choreographed by Vaslav Nijinsky for Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. The music and the scenario—about an erotically charged game of tennis between two women and a man—made little impression on the public. Exactly two weeks later, on May 29, Debussy occupied a box in the same theater for the debut of another Nijinsky/Ballets Russes ballet, Le Sacre du printemps, which incited a packed house of high society and bohemians to exceptionally unruly and cacophonous behavior. At one point, Debussy turned to his companion, the arts patron Misia Sert. “It is horrible,” he whispered. “I can hear nothing.”

What a difference a century can make. If Debussy were around today, he’d have no trouble hearing Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. The centenary of the iconic score that stretched the boundaries of modernism amid an openingnight ruckus has inspired a cascade of performances and related events during the 2012-13 season. A chronology on the website of Boosey & Hawkes, one of Stravinsky’s publishers, lists more than 270 performances around the world by orchestras (professional, college, youth), dance companies (some using Jonathan McPhee’s sanctioned 1988 orchestral reduction), and duo-pianists (in Stravinsky’s four-hand version, which the composer had played privately with Debussy before the premiere).

Along with performances of music that largely was obscured by hisses, pro-and-con comments, and fisticuffs on that clam-

KPO Photo

The string quartet Brooklyn Rider, singer-songwriter Shara Worden (in checkered shirt), and Dance Heginbotham perform a new work inspired by the Rite of Spring during “The Rite of Spring at 100,” Carolina Performing Arts’ season-long exploration of The Rite of Spring. Below: Emil Kang, organizer of “The Rite of Spring at 100.”

premiere in 1913. At 100, the score is being tackled anew Does it still have the power to shock? orous 1913 evening, Stravinsky’s explosive paean to pagan Russian rituals and the sacrifice of a virgin has given rise this year to a spate of creativity and symposia. The global champion in this regard is The Rite of Spring at 100 at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. The season-long celebration, presented by Carolina Performing Arts, includes scholarly conferences in Chapel Hill and at Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Conservatory, and the world and U.S. premieres of eleven commissioned instrumental and dance works by major composers and choreographers featuring noted artists, ensembles, and dance companies.

The Carolina menu includes one traditional glimpse into the lore of the Rite— dance historian Millicent Hodson’s 1987 reconstruction of the original 1913 production for Joffrey Ballet. Carolina’s emphasis on the new has yielded a dancetheater piece by Bill T. Jones and Anne Bogart; a Marc-André Dalbavie work for mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená and pianist Yefim Bronfman; music by Colin Jacobsen, Shara Worden, John Zorn, and Gabriel Kahane for the string quartet Brooklyn Rider; a score for the International Contemporary Ensemble

by Tyshawn Sorey, a jazz composer and

multi-instrumentalist; and a collaboration between choreographer Medhi Walerski and composer Joby Talbot for Netherlands Dance Theater. Emil J. Kang is executive director for the arts at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and organizer of The Rite of Spring at 100; he is also a former Fellow in the League of American Orchestras’ Orchestra Management Fellowship Program. Kang says his diverse programs focus on the impact and inspiration of the seminal score. “What we didn’t want to do was just rehash the work,” says Kang. “I wanted artists to look at Rite of Spring as a metaphor.”

Rite fever doesn’t end with live events.

Listeners who enjoy comparing Sacres can bask in Decca’s 100th Anniversary Collector’s Edition of four discs containing all 38 recordings of the work on the Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, and Philips labels made from 1946 to 2010. Two recent films available on DVD, Riot at the Rite (2005) and Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky (2009), present outlandish, if entertain-

ing, depictions of the work’s premiere.

Perhaps the most unforgettable Sacre rendition of them all is Walt Disney’s 1940 animated Fantasia, with its striking, often frightening sequences that use portions of the score to depict the creation of the world and the evolution and extinction of dinosaurs. And then there’s the irreverent record label Blue Music Group, which has gone satirical by commissioning what it fantasizes to be an authentic replica “of the 1913 eggs used in the premiere performance” that will be “available in Paris during the 2013 centennial celebration, aimed at arts-hungry Parisians.”

All these activities signal an abiding hunger to hail the work and reconsider the mystique that continues to surround Stravinsky’s singular achievement. “No doubt it will be understood one day that I sprang a surprise on Paris, and Paris was disconcerted,” the composer told a reporter a few days after the premiere. “But it will soon forget its bad temper.” How prescient Stravinsky was.

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Whence the Scandal?

Bad tempers are regularly aroused in the arts and pop culture. Rap singers utter lyrics that often shock. Visual and performance art deemed by some to be offensive or obscene—such as works by Robert Mapplethorpe, Karen Finley, and Chris Ofili— prompt jaws to drop and protests to ensue.

But little in the realms of music or dance today comes close to duplicating the commotion at the 1913 premiere of the StravinskyNijinsky brainstorm. What would it take today for that to happen? “Probably performing in the nude, or screaming racist slogans. Not much else,” says Richard Taruskin, a renowned authority on Stravinsky, in an email. “Shock, or at least attempted shock, has become boring (or at best amusing) and artists have only themselves to blame.”

Although Stravinsky’s score rarely fails to send a jolt of electricity through interpreters or listeners, the purported shock value of Sacre continues to be debated. Since most people at the premiere could “hear nothing” during long stretches of the 33-minute ballet as audience noise overpowered the orchestra (and poor Nijinky, standing on a chair backstage, shouting counts to the dancers), the music often was unable to exert its intended jarring effect. The high opening solo could be heard, but many listeners—even seasoned musicians— were hard-pressed to tell if it was being played on bassoon, saxophone, or English horn. (The best line on the subject, better in English than French, has been attributed Headline from The New York to Camille SaintTimes, June 7, 1913, reporting Saëns, despite the on the near-riot at the Paris fact that he wasn’t world premiere of Stravinsky’s there: “If that is a The Rite of Spring. bassoon, then I am a baboon!”) A year later, the music was hailed after its first concert performance in Paris led by the original conductor, Pierre Monteux, with Stravinsky carried out of the theater on the shoulders of advocates. Taruskin and others agree that the turbulence at the

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Sacre premiere had little to do with the score. Nijinsky’s antiSketch of Igor balletic choreography, with its Stravinsky by starkly angular gestures and Pablo Picasso, earth-bound stomping, and 1920.

Nicholas Roerich’s body-covering peasant costumes caused most of the hubbub.

The artist most closely associated with Sacre for generations has been Pierre Boulez, who first became acquainted with the score at the Paris Conservatoire playing the four-hand piano version and studying the music in Olivier Messiaen’s analysis class. Recently I spoke with Boulez from his home in BadenBaden, Germany. “It was the first time in our Western civilization that Anxiety and Triumph rhythm played such an important part,” Those novelties—nearly 450 meter changBoulez says. “My impression was that it es, asymmetrical rhythms and polyrhythms, was a wild piece. Nothing could be wilder. I myriad tempo changes, distinctive melodic was very enthusiastic.” Boulez would go on cells, unexpected accents, tricky instrumento write a controversial analysis of the piece tal balances, sheer sonic savagery—long in 1951 and make three acclaimed recordhave kept conductors, players, and dancers ings. The first, a live 1963 performance, was on their respective toes, though many orwith the Orchestre National de l’O.R.T.F., chestras today are capable of conquering resident orchestra at (nice coincidence) the Sacre in one rehearsal. Still, many musicians Théatre des Champs-Elysées. He recorded carry memories of the daunting challenge studio versions with the Cleveland Orchesof first tackling the piece. Carolina’s Kang tra in 1969 and 1991. will never forget his experience playing the Sacre matters beyond rhythm have had a piece as a violinist in the Nassau County All County Orchestra in New York. “I relasting impact on Stanislav Skrowaczewski, member the rhythms as being impossible who recorded the piece with the Minneto play and having completely been scared apolis Symphony Orchestra (now the Minto death about making a wrong entrance,” nesota Orchestra) in 1977 while serving as he says. “To this day, I know it’s everyone’s its music director. “I see Rite of Spring from biggest fear.” a really metaphysical side,” he says. “It is an The anxiety began before the 1913 preextremely profound piece and a great work, miere, for which Monteux had seventeen orbecause of the deep music that really reachchestra rehearsals. “The musicians thought es some ecstatic state of being. As a boy, I it absolutely crazy, but as they were well wasn’t allowed in the mountains of Poland. paid, their discipline was not too bad,” the The local place was inhabited by this sort conductor wrote years later. “When at last I of tribe. They had in the summer in the full put the whole thing together, it seemed chamoon absolutely incredible rites at night otic but Stravinsky was behind me pointing that I saw from far away. I don’t think they out little phrases he wished heard.” were drinking. But because of the rites, they It would take decades for musicians were in another state of mind. It was danto begin assimilating the complexities gerous, because they could kill you in this of Sacre. “I had heard it for the first time state of mind. They were in a sort of ecstasy live [in Paris] with Charles Munch with that we sometimes get through music. The the Société des Concerts du Conservabeginning of the second part [of Sacre] altoire,” says Boulez. “It was not ideal at all. ways gives me a shiver. So I look at this score As much as he could be caring with other from this point of view. This work has more pieces, he was not sure of himself [in Sacre]. meaning than just the technical novelties.” symphony

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It was not part of his tradition. The same with Furtwängler.” Both conductors “were absolutely very tired at the end,” he chuckles. But the music no longer crosses eyes as it once did, for a reason Boulez points out.

“I think it’s part of the educational process. In good music schools, that’s part of the repertoire. Really the writing in Rite of Spring is not difficult. The rhythmic structure is very obvious. If you adapt yourself to that, you have no problem. Schoenberg is much more difficult.”

Even so, Sacre proved an uphill battle for orchestras well after 1913. “The early recordings convey shock and terror, more recent ones the elation of an athletic challenge successfully met,” says Taruskin. The struggles are apparent on the work’s first three recordings, which are absorbing in aura if not security. Monteux beat everyone out of the starting gate in January 1929 at Paris’s Salle Pleyel with the Grand Orchestre Symphonique, a pickup group that can be heard coming to grand grief in the metrical intricacies of the Sacrificial Dance (seven meter changes alone in the first quick nine bars). Four months later in the same hall, Stravinsky fared little better with the Walther Straram Concerts Orchestra, another freelance ensemble.

Musicians’ slowly increasing ease with Stravinsky’s demands can be discerned as the decades go by. Monteux went on to make four more record“It was the ings, including a superb first time in 1951 account with the our Western Boston Symphony Orcivilization chestra. Stravinsky rethat rhythm entered the studio in played such 1960 (in Brooklyn) to an important record another Sacre with part,” says the Columbia Symphony Pierre Boulez, Orchestra, a freelance enwhose three semble that gives a peracclaimed formance of vivid atmorecordings sphere and virtuosic flair. include studio Later recordings are even versions with more elegant and spotthe Cleveland on, though sometimes at Orchestra in the expense of the score’s 1969 and 1991. primitive wallop.

Bassoon High

The primitivism is introduced in the famous opening bassoon solo— based on a Lithuanian americanorchestras.org

folk tune—that has intrigued and dared players since the premiere. (The inaugural bassoonist is believed to have been Abdon Laus, who immigrated to the U.S. in 1918 to become principal bassoon of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and remained a member until his death in 1945.) Quick on the heels of the bassoon, which hovers in the stratosphere, come horn, various clarinets, and English horn, whose roles Stravinsky described a year before the first performance: “The orchestral introduction is a swarm of spring pipes.”

Bassoonists will tell you they spend sleepless nights before rehearsals and performances pondering the shape and sound of the solo. Veteran New York freelancer Loren Glickman played first bassoon on the composer’s 1960 recording, in addition to hiring all of the musicians. “When we rehearsed it, [Stravinsky] stopped me and said, ‘No, please no romanticism,’ so I cut it back the next time,” Glickman says. “And he stopped me and said, ‘Play it as I wrote, no crescendo, no decrescendo. Play straight and every beat exactly as I wrote it.’ I did it as he asked. So it’s absolutely straight. Fifty years

“Orchestras are so obsessed that it’s about being perfectly together and in tune and pristine.

We’ve come to the point with Rite of Spring that it’s almost hard to get those original impulses,” says Christopher Wilkins, music director of the Akron Symphony.

later, every bassoon player listens to that and says, ‘How boring!’ ” For New York Philharmonic Principal Bassoon Judith LeClair, the solo’s challenge isn’t technical.

“It’s setting up a mood,” she says. “In the pit, you didn’t know which instrument was playing. For me, the whole piece starts with the sound that the bassoon sets up. It’s not to sound virtuosic. It’s ethereal and mystical. It’s got to be very calm. The challenge is how you want to approach it. Even though it’s a solo, you have to be accurate with the rhythm.”

David McGill, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s principal bassoon, has recorded the solo twice—in Cleveland under Boulez and in Chicago under Daniel Barenboim.

He notes that Stravinsky indicated dynam-

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San Francisco Symphony

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and youngsters from opening throughout northeast bassoon solo’s Ohio, supported by a challenge, $75,000 grant from according the Knight Founda- to New York tion. GroundWorks’s Philharmonic artistic director, David Principal Shimotakahara, audi- Bassoon tioned more than 100 Judith LeClair, young dancers and is to “set up chose two dozen to a mood. The join his five-member whole piece contemporary-dance starts with ensemble and four ex- that sound. It’s tra professionals in the ethereal and massed sequences. For mystical.” his first encounter with Rite, he’s not sticking to the original scenario. “I just couldn’t get ahold of this harvest ritual idea with the sacrificial maiden,” says Shimotakahara. “I see her more as an exceptional person in relation to the group. She self-selects herself rather than being chosen. She emerges.”

The performance will include video that melds the dance at the front of the stage with projected images on an enormous screen of the orchestra behind the dancers. Christopher Wilkins, the Akron Symphony’s music director, envisions the performance as recreating the excitement of the ballet’s early performances—without necessarily provoking a riot. “Orchestras are so obsessed that it’s about being perfectly together and in tune and pristine, and a lot of conductors and critics agree we’ve come to the point with Rite of Spring that it’s almost hard to get those original impulses,” he says.

“I think that’s something an orchestra has to bring to it. But you also lose a lot when you don’t have the dance, because that relationship between the music and the movement is so built into the thing, and the dance is frightening, and that’s good. It should be.”

Chris Lee

ic markings for the other wind instruments in the introduction but not at the start for the exposed soloist. “So you think the bassoon should be louder than the [second] horn, which is an accompanying line,” says McGill. “Bassoonists through the ages have decided you have to come in from nothing, and you cannot break that tradition now.

So that first note requires a lot of thought, and bassoonists agonize over it. You spend two weeks before the concert making a reed to get that effect.”

“I hear some For McGill, getting the contemporary solo right doesn’t mean it renditions should sound raw. “You’re by players I not a Lithuanian folk singer greatly admire, or someone actually sitting but the vibrato in a forest playing a bamboo is so even and flute in the distance. You’re beautifully playing for an audience that rendered it is sophisticated and expects a comes out certain standard. You evoke a like what you primitive quality.” would do San Francisco Symphony when singing Principal Bassoon Stephen Puccini. I try Paulson first played the to do more solo in 1971 as principal of sparing things the Pittsburgh Symphony with the Orchestra under William vibrato, maybe Steinberg, who “had trelike a Baroque mendous difficulty with the or jazz player,” mixed meters.” Years later, says Stephen Paulson recorded the piece Paulson, in San Francisco under Miprincipal chael Tilson Thomas, whose bassoon, San fascinating historical traversFrancisco al of the Rite is documented Symphony on a new Keeping Score DVD. Paulson, like McGill, believes the opening solo should be played expressively.

“Let’s discount the fact that one is supposed to be struggling with the instrument

Todd Rosenberg

Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Principal Bassoon Carl Nitchie, describes Rite of Spring’s famous bassoon solo as “naked and potentially treacherous.”

JD Scott

The famous and it comes out edgy,” says Paulson, who has also conducted Sacre as music director of Symphony Parnassus, based in the San Francisco Bay area. “You want to play it the best you possibly can on the bassoon. I hear some contemporary renditions by players I admire greatly and I like their performances a lot, but the vibrato to me is so even and beautifully rendered it comes out like what you would do when singing Puccini. I still try to make it a really beautiful thing but do more sparing things with the vibrato, maybe like a Baroque or jazz player.”

Even after performing Sacre for four decades, Carl Nitchie, the Atlanta Symphony’s principal bassoon, still finds the opening solo terrifying.

“I joke to my colleagues about The Rite of Spring that it has a bass drum accompaniment in that opening solo—my heartbeat going thump thump—it’s so Chicago Symphony naked and poten- Orchestra Principal tially treacherous,” Bassoon David McGill he says. “Basically, says the solo shouldn’t the beginning of “sound raw,” but “evoke a primitive the solo is in the quality.” middle of this long thing that’s been going on forever. I like to sneak into the attack of it as much as my reed will allow me. In terms of tone color, I like to think of it as an alto flute solo. It helps me get a darker color.”

Rite in Motion

According to the Boosey & Hawkes list, more Sacres during this centenary season are collaborations between orchestras and dance companies than concert performances. The dance settings include Pina Bausch’s acclaimed 1975 production for her Tanztheater Wuppertal; Jacopo Godani’s Les Ballets Russes—Reloaded: Sacre at the Semperoper in Dresden; Glen Tetley’s version (performed both by the Colorado and Stuttgart ballets); and RIOT offspring, part of the series of “Rite of Spring” commissions dubbed “A String of Rites” at the U.K.’s Sadler’s Wells Theatre.

One collaboration, in April, will team the Akron Symphony Orchestra with Cleveland’s GroundWorks DanceTheater

DONALD ROSENBERG writes about music and dance for The Plain Dealer in Cleveland. He is author of The Cleveland Orchestra Story: “Second to None” and president of the Music Critics Association of North America. In his previous life as a French horn player, he performed The Rite of Spring twice.

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Summer

by Eileen Reynolds

Sessions Education-oriented summer music festivals give young musicians ample opportunity for learning, performance, and networking— in breathtaking surroundings.

Summer music festivals are an opportunity for students to explore unusual musical endeavors. Here, Colorado College Summer Music Festival students Paul Blackstone and Avery Pettigrew play horn alpine horns in the mountains near Colorado Springs.

A

lan Fletcher, president and CEO of the Aspen Music Festival and School, concludes his opening remarks to students each summer with a thought from Harvard University literature professor Helen Vendler: “In every artist’s life, there is a first moment where they breathe the air of their future life.”

For young musicians attending Aspen and other summer music festivals, that first breath can come in many forms. It

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might be a first chance to play a particular work with an orchestra, or an opportunity to study with a particular teacher—or for pre-college students, simply a first experience devoting whole days and weeks to making music.

Often held in pristine natural settings— from the Berkshire Hills to the midwestern farmlands and the Rocky Mountains—music festivals offer a period of retreat in which young musicians can hone their craft. For advanced students already studying in conservatories or graduate schools—or even graduates taking profes-

sional auditions—eight weeks at a summer music festival can signal a welcome change of pace, and an avenue through which to explore aspects of musicianship beyond simply playing well, like collaborating in a chamber ensemble or leading an orchestra section. Many summer festivals have begun to offer courses on speaking to audiences, seminars on avoiding injuries, and even yoga and psychology sessions to address physical and mental well-being.

Festivals differ in size, educational philosophy, and form: at one you might perform in a college concert hall, at another symphony

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ASPEN MUSIC FESTIVAL AND SCHOOL ASPEN, CO

Alex Irvin

“What’s fascinating is how quickly talented people learn both from their teachers and from the environment,” says David Halen, artist-faculty concertmaster at Aspen Music Festival and School. He is describing the extraordinary growth that’s possible for the 640 young musicians who participate in the festival each summer.

With advanced students and faculty coming from all over the world, Halen says, “A lot of the learning happens through natural osmosis. When you have time for as many as three or four performances in a day, it gives someone an opportunity to hear so much good music in a short amount of time that they end up learning

immersive training. Since its inception in 1980, the program has graduated 175 fellows; many of them hold leadership positions in America’s orchestras.

In addition to rubbing elbows with their accomplished peers, Aspen music students, who average 23 in age, have the opportunity to play side-by-side with their instructors in many of the festival’s orchestra concerts. Halen, himself an Aspen alum who went on to become concertmaster of the St. Louis Symphony, says that being able to closely observe a veteran musician in a rehearsal or concert setting is an invaluable experience for an aspiring professional. “A young person learns through demonstration. There are things you can’t put into words, and it’s so much more efficient to see in action what a professional does.”

Michael Thornton

Aspen Music Festival cello faculty member Michael Mermagen, right, offers pointers to a student before an orchestra performance.

in an open-air tent or restored barn. But they share a few things in common. Days are generally jam-packed, with rehearsals, classes, and practice sessions beginning early in the morning and stretching into the evening hours. And, perhaps most important, festivals tend to bring together elite faculty and students from all over the country and even the world, giving students the life-changing opportunity to meet and make music with top-notch musicians with whom they might never have come in contact otherwise.

Here are brief snapshots of six. americanorchestras.org

as much in eight weeks as they might learn in an entire year somewhere else.”

Onstage performers aren’t the only ones who learn at Aspen. The League of American Orchestras’ long-running Orchestra Management Fellowship Program places emerging orchestra executives there every summer. OMFP participants start their year-long fellowship with a two-month residency at Aspen, where they experience firsthand all aspects of what it takes to produce and run a major music festival.

The fellows then work with a variety of orchestras across the country as part of their

“Every student should be on stage” as much as possible, says Aspen President and CEO Alan Fletcher. Students of orchestral instruments perform in eight orchestra concerts over the course of eight weeks, and Fletcher says that the experience of tackling so many great works in such a short amount of time is often enough to catapult a student directly from conservatory or graduate school into a prestigious professional position. “It’s a seamless transition from playing the very first Mahler 1 of your life to becoming concertmaster.”

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That’s not to say that the festival is run as a grueling orchestral boot camp. “We want this to be a very positive experience for the students,” Fletcher asserts. “All our faculty and our guest conductors understand that the idea is to be encouraging, and to nurture these future performers.”

Though the performance schedule is demanding, all students are required to take Monday off, allowing them to go hiking, biking, and rafting in the mountain skiing community’s summer season.

“The air is special here,” Fletcher says.

“There is something sort of enchanted about it.”

Birch Creek Music Performance Center Egg Harbor, WI For teenage students in the orchestral program at the Birch Creek Music Performance Center in Egg Harbor, Wisconsin, the summer Symphony Academy Session offers a glimpse of what it’s like to be a professional musician—albeit in an unusually bucolic setting. “We have a 40-acre campus that’s basically out in no-man’sland,” says Marketing Director Cathy Knipfer. “It’s beautiful—pastoral, even.”

Concerts take place in the 500-seat Dutton Concert Barn, where musicians aged fourteen to nineteen play side-by-side with their instructors in six performances of four complete orchestral programs over the course of two weeks.

“They get a lot of repertoire thrown at them,” says Birch Creek Executive Director Alan Kopischke, who envisions the festival as a “pre-professional training ground” for dedicated students considering careers in music. In addition to two to four hours of orchestral rehearsal each day,

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chamber music practice, courses in theory and technique, and optional private lessons, orchestral students meet with faculty in daily sectional rehearsals to learn strategies for working up difficult passages in time for each rapidly approaching concert.

For many, this is a first chance to experience the rigors of a professional performance schedule. And with a student-toteacher ratio of about 1.8:1, students are supported through interaction with faculty mentors both in the classroom and on stage.

A majority of Birch Creek musicians are drawn from top high school music programs and youth orchestras in Wisconsin and the nearby states of Illinois, Minnesota, and Iowa, though some have come from as far away as Costa Rica. And they’ve gone on to earn degrees from Juilliard, perform with the U.S. Navy Band, and form their own professional chamber ensembles. “They have used their training and the networking here, those lifelong relationships they established with fellow students and their teachers, and have really leveraged all that into wonderful careers in music,” Kopischke says.

Four years ago, Knipfer developed a survey to gather feedback from Birch Creek students as they completed the program, and since then, she’s been struck by a number of comments praising the sense of community it has provided for young musicians in search of like-minded peers.

“They’re not only thrilled by the musical experience they get here, but also with the personal growth that they achieve through the nurturing and supportive environment of people who love music as much as they do,” she says.

Colorado College Summer Music Festival Colorado Springs, CO For three weeks each summer, part of the Colorado College campus in Colorado Springs is taken over by 49 advanced orchestral students (aged sixteen and up) and some two dozen faculty members who gather for a three-week music festival at the foot of Pike’s Peak. “It’s a great situation for us,” says Music Director Susan Grace. “The faculty live on campus, the students live on campus, and everybody eats on campus, so there’s great camaraderie.”

The college has hosted the festival for 29 years, since it was founded by John Giordano, then music director of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. The partnership has survived even the toughest financial times. When the recession in 2008 brought belt-tightening at the college, Grace had to step up her fundraising efforts for the festival, which had recently begun offering full-tuition scholarships to all accepted students. But even with the recession, Grace says, the college was “still willing to let us be on campus, give us all the facilities, and publicize the festival. We have access to the PR department and the publications office. The college even does all my payroll.”

When students arrive on the campus for the summer, Grace sees her goal as working with the faculty “to do as much as possible for them.” Amid private lessons and daily chamber music and orchestra rehearsals, that can sometimes mean focusing on issues that may not have been addressed in a student’s studies elsewhere. “It can be a life-changing experience,” Grace says. “We’ve had a couple of really major young musicians come in who were about ready to quit, because things weren’t going well, and the faculty here were able to give them special attention—and they’ve now gone on to principal positions with major orchestras.”

In order to maintain that nurturing environment, Grace has made adjustments to the program over the years. When an annual concerto competition became contentious and divisive, the festival put an end to it. Now students can choose to audition for an opportunity to perform a movement of a concerto with the festival orchestra in a public masterclass setting;

Colorado College Summer Music Festival clarinet student Emmanuel Toledo in a coaching session with faculty member Jon Manasse

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up to eight students are selected. Each student works through the piece one time with orchestra before doing a complete run-through in front of an audience. “It’s a great opportunity both for the orchestra to practice sight-reading, and for the students, many of whom have never had a chance to perform [as a soloist] with an orchestra,” Grace says.

MUSIC ACADEMY OF THE WEST SUMMER SCHOOL AND FESTIVAL SANTA BARBARA, CA The organizers of Music Academy of the West’s eight-week summer school and festival aren’t content just to train the next generation of great classical musicians.

They also aim to cultivate what President Scott Reed calls “a discerning and adventurous audience” through a variety of programs that encourage meaningful interaction between festival musicians and members of the surrounding Santa Barbara community.

One way that this commitment to audience manifests itself is through an innovative new program called Compeer that pairs young musicians with the Academy donors who sponsor their fellowships— full tuition, housing, and meals for each of the 139 instrumentalists and vocalists accepted to the Academy each summer. The Compeer Program matches each fellow to a philanthropic “compeer” who agrees to attend each fellow’s master classes and performances. Fellows, who come from dozens of far-flung states and countries americanorchestras.org

and average 22 in age, welcome the sight of a familiar face in the audience, Reed says. “They look out and see someone who is there for them. It really impacts the way they perform.” At the same time, compeers have the opportunity to show off Santa Barbara and to chat with fellows about music, practicing, auditions, and all that it takes to be an aspiring classical musician. The result is an extraordinarily supportive and informed community: “They know about music, they know what they’re listening for, they know the nuances, but they also know the person behind the music—that’s the core of the culture we’ve created here,” Reed says.

Another program, called MERIT (Music Education Reinforces Intellect and Talent), pairs Academy fellows with eleven- to seventeen-year-old area musicians who take private lessons from them and shadow them each day for two weeks, attending their rehearsals and lessons with Academy faculty. Both the MERIT and the Compeer programs are part of a broader goal to equip Academy fellows with vital communication skills that will allow them to connect with audiences and students later in their careers. “So many of our fellows are already associated with top four-year universities and conservatories,” Reed says. “What we provide them during the summer needs to be an opportunity to gain additional tools that will prepare them for a professional career.”

To that end, all fellows participate in a program called Live Well, Perform Well,

David Bazemore

NATIONAL ARTS CENTRE SUMMER MUSIC INSTITUTE OTTAWA, ON When they arrive at the University of Ottawa for the Young Artists Program at the National Arts Centre’s Summer Music Institute, some students may already be quite familiar with National Arts Centre Orchestra Music Director Pinchas Zukerman—even if they’ve never met him in person. That’s because Zukerman is a champion of what NACO calls “telementoring,” or virtual teaching via high-definition video conferencing. In addition to his appointments at NACO and the Manhattan School of Music, Zukerman is able, through technology, to give masterclasses Violinist and National Arts Centre Orchestra Music Director Pinchas Zukerman, right, works with a student in a masterclass at the NAC’s Summer Music Institute in Ottawa.

Michel Dozois

The Music Academy of the West Festival Orchestra performs under the direction of Yan Pascal Tortelier.

which operates on the premise that physical and mental well-being are essential to success onstage. Fellows are offered courses on dealing with performance anxiety and repetitive strain injuries, as well as core strength, jogging, and yoga classes.

“It’s not something we often focus on as musicians,” says Patrick Posey, vice president for artistic planning and educational programs, “but musicians are small-muscle athletes, and we need to take care of our bodies.” The Academy even hires a nutritionist to advise the catering staff on meal preparation. In addition to providing rigorous musical training and opportunities to learn from world-class guest artists like Midori, Jeremy Denk, and the Takács Quartet, Reed says he also feels a responsibility to promote the West Coast values of healthy living. “The Santa Barbara lifestyle—focusing on health—is important for us to instill.”

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and hear auditions from students all over the world—in real time.

“This technology has enabled smaller centers of expertise, like Pinchas’s program, to extend and expand their reach before, during, and after the summer session,” says National Arts Centre New Media Producer Maurizio Ortolani. The 70 string and wind students in NACO’s Young Artists Program are in Ottawa for just three weeks each summer, but their training with Zukerman, the program’s artistic director, can extend far beyond the summer session with video conferencing.

NACO also makes a concerted effort to cultivate relationships with alumni of the summer institute, following their careers and often inviting these emerging artists to play with the orchestra on regular concert series or as part of the orchestra’s educational tours.

This summer, three students who auditioned via video conference from Beijing will come to Ottawa to participate in the Young Artists Program, as part of an exchange in preparation for NACO’s tour of China in October. “It’s been fun over the years to stick pins in a world map,” says Christy Harris, manager of the Summer Music Institute, which began in 1999.

Since then, she notes, some students have come from as far away as Indonesia and Iceland. About 50 percent are from Canada, with another large percentage coming from the United States. For pianists and string players, the Young Artists Program offers two divisions, one for pre-college students as young as 12, and another for senior participants who range in age from about 18 to 26. Days are split between private instruction and chamber music rehearsal, which forms the core of the program.

“Once technique is figured out, the next thing a young classical musician needs to learn is how to communicate, and the best way to learn to communicate is to work in a small ensemble,” Harris says. Also accepted each summer are five advanced, youngadult wind students who study one-on-one with the principal wind players of NACO, and also play together as a woodwind quintet coached by NACO principals.

Individual attention for each student is the hallmark of NACO’s approach to the summer festival, and they even have a psychologist, Renee Epstein, on hand to give group sessions as well as speak privately

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with the students about performance anxiety and other stresses that could get in the way of their future careers. “I think the stigma of going to see a shrink is gone,” Harris says. “Students line up outside Renee’s door to get an appointment.”

at its summer home in the Berkshires. All bassists and some additional string players are given opportunities to play with the BSO on one of its regular weekend summer concerts, and wind players are invited to sit in and listen to BSO orchestra reMiguel Harth-Bedoya leads the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra in Ozawa Hall.

TANGLEWOOD MUSIC CENTER LENOX, MA “It’s kind of the granddaddy of summer music programs for aspiring professional musicians,” says Tanglewood Music Center Director Ellen Highstein. In some ways, Highstein says, not much has changed since its founding in 1940 by Boston Symphony Orchestra Music Director Serge Koussevitzky. The average age of the advanced young musicians accepted as fellows at Tanglewood has hovered consistently at around 24, and TMC continues to champion contemporary music as a major part of its orchestral and chamber music curriculum—a tradition that began when Aaron Copland was appointed its first president. An annual highlight of the summer is the two-week Festival of New Music, devoted entirely to contemporary music within the broader eight-week session. “It’s all new music all the time,” says Highstein, and everyone participates. This year’s festival will conclude with the U.S. premiere of British composer George Benjamin’s newest opera, Written on Skin.

The TMC’s association with the Boston Symphony Orchestra means that in addition to working with guest artists and faculty drawn from throughout the world, fellows at Tanglewood have access to BSO musicians while the orchestra is in residence

hearsals from within their respective sections. For approximately ten days at the start of the eight-week festival, before orchestral rehearsals begin, representatives of each section of the BSO meet with festival musicians to rehearse in choirs, honing technique and focusing on how to listen within a section. “It’s a way for students to get to know each other—to develop a way of listening to each other, a feeling for the different personalities, and a sense of who your colleagues are,” Highstein says. One summer the BSO horn section teamed up with the festival horn section for a few sessions focusing on the lyrical aspects of brass playing; they played Brahms vocal works and even called in Tanglewood vocalists for advice on phrasing.

“It’s almost a symbiotic dynamic,” BSO Managing Director Mark Volpe says of the relationship between the two groups. Tanglewood fellows have an opportunity to see the inner workings of a major orchestra, Volpe says, while at the same time BSO musicians are “inspired by the next generation.”

EILEEN REYNOLDS has written about the arts for The Forward, The Believer, Los Angeles Review of Books, Symphony, and newyorker.com.

Her work has also been featured on NPR’s All Things Considered.

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SUM M E R

FESTIVALS

Patrcik Pyszka

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Jay Pritzker Pavilion, home of the Grant Park Music Festival in Chicago

AL A S KA

Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival Fairbanks, AK July 14 to 28 In the Land of the Midnight Sun, a unique and multi-disciplinary study-performance festival that offers workshops and performances with inspiring guest artists.

Artistic Direction: Robert Franz Festival Conductor: Robert Franz Festival Artists: Charly Akert, Shara Long, cello; Jeff Anderle, Jun Watabe, clarinet; Dorli McWayne, flute; Marcia Dickstein, harp; Kolio Plachkov, horn; Marc Fink, oboe; Brad Dutz, percussion; Greg Harper, trombone; Jen Drake, Maureen Heflinger, Thom McLean, viola; Angela Fricilone, Lisa Ibias, Andrew Sords, Andie Springer, violin Featured Groups: FSAF Jazz Band, FSAF Jazz Combo, FSAF Woodwind Quintet, Redshift Orchestra Affiliation: Festival Chamber Orchestra For Information: Terese Kaptur, director P.O. Box 82510 Fairbanks, AK 99708 907 474 8869 festival@alaska.net

Sitka Summer Music Festival Sitka, AK June 7 to July 6 World-class chamber music set in Sitka, Alaska, in the heart of the beautiful Tongass rainforest.

Artistic Direction: Zuill Bailey Festival Artists: Zuill Bailey, Melissa Kraut, cello; David Leisner, guitar; Natasha Paremski, Navah Perlman, piano; Philippe Quint, Chee Yun, violin Featured Groups: Rubens String Quartet For Information: Kayla Boettcher, executive director P.O. Box 3333 Sitka, AK 99835 907 747 6774 877 900 1158 (fax) director@sitkamusicfestival.org sitkamusicfestival.org

A RKA N SAS

Artosphere Festival Fayetteville, AR May 3 to June 28 Artosphere is a performing/visual arts festival that connects arts, nature & sustainability. The Artosphere Festival Orchestra features musicians from all over the world performing Beethoven, Mozart, Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky and

chamber music by the Dover Quartet.

Artistic Direction: Corrado Rovaris Festival Conductor: Corrado Rovaris Festival Artists: Camden Shaw, cello; Andrew Tyson, piano; Bryan Lee, Joel Link, violin Featured Groups: Artosphere Festival Orchestra, Dover Quartet For Information: Jason Howell Smith, general manager, Artosphere Festival Orchestra P.O. Box 3547 Fayetteville, AR 72702 479 571 2731 info@artospherefestival.org artospherefestival.org

CALIFOR N IA

2013 Music Academy of the West Summer School and Festival Santa Barbara, CA June 17 to August 10 Founded in 1947, the Music Academy of the West is among the nation’s preeminent summer schools and festivals for gifted young classical musicians. Located in beautiful Santa Barbara, California.

Artistic Direction: Patrick Posey Festival Conductors: James Gaffigan, Bernard

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FESTIVALS

2013

Labadie, Nicholas McGegan, Tito Muñoz, Matthias Pintscher, Larry Rachleff, Leonard Slatkin Festival Artists: Jeremy Denk, piano; Cynthia Phelps, viola; Glenn Dicterow, Midori, violin Featured Group: Takács Quartet For Information: Tim Dougherty, communications manager 805 969 4726 admissions@musicacademy.org musicacademy.org

Artistic Direction: Scott Yoo Festival Conductor: Scott Yoo Festival Artists: Jeff Garza, horn; John Novacek, piano; Patrick Zimmerli, saxophone/composer; Juan Miguel Hernandez, viola Featured Groups: Duo Baldo, String Theory For Information: Bettina Swigger, executive director P.O. Box 311 San Luis Obispo, CA 93406 805 781 3009 805 781 3011 (fax) bettina@festivalmozaic.com festivalmozaic.com

Tim Norris

Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music Santa Cruz, CA July 28 to August 11 Marin Alsop leads the award-winning Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, joined each summer by renowned composers and artists to present

A full “house” at Ojai Music Festival’s Libbey Bowl

multiple world premieres and invigorating orchestral programs, all in a spectacular coastal town.

Artistic Direction: Marin Alsop Festival Conductor: Marin Alsop Festival Artists: Johannes Moser, cello; Emil Jonason, clarinet; Adam Walker, flute; and works

by Derek Bermel, Enrico Chapela, Anna Clyne, Brett Dean, Sean Friar, Philip Glass, Magnus Lindberg, Thomas Newman, Andrew Norman, Kevin Puts, Christopher Rouse, Greg Smith, and George Walker.

Featured Groups: Kronos Quartet For Information: Ellen M. Primack, executive director 831 426 6966 831 426 6968 (fax) info@cabrillomusic.org cabrillomusic.org Festival Mozaic San Luis Obispo, CA July 16 to 28 For more than 40 years, Festival Mozaic has presented dynamic, international artists in intimate chamber music performances and orchestral concerts. Festival events take place in diverse, spectacular venues on California’s picturesque Central Coast.

Hollywood Bowl Los Angeles, CA June 22 to September 15 One of the largest natural amphitheaters in the world, with a seating capacity of nearly 18,000, the Hollywood Bowl has been the summer home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic since its official opening in 1922.

Artistic Direction: Gustavo Dudamel Festival Conductors: David Afkham, Leon Botstein, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Lionel Bringuier, Mary Mitchell Campbell, George Daugherty, Gustavo Dudamel, Jakub Hrusa, James Gaffigan, Sarah Hicks, Miguel HarthBedoya, Bernard Labadie, Bob Moody, David Newman, Michael Tilson Thomas, Bramwell Tovey, Thomas Wilkins, John Williams Festival Artists: Steve Martin, banjo; Ildebrando D’Arcangelo, bass; Yo-Yo Ma, Johannes Moser, cello; Edgar Meyer, double bass; George Benson, Buddy Guy, guitar; Chris Thile, mandolin; Michelle DeYoung, mezzo-soprano; Dr. John, Hélène Grimaud, Herbie Hancock, Lang Lang, Katia Labèque, Marielle Labèque, Paul Lewis, Sérgio Mendes, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Simon Trpceski, piano; Dave Koz, Wayne Shorter, saxophone; Julianna Di Giacomo, Liudmyla Monastyrska, soprano; Vittorio Grigolo, Jorge de León, tenor; Roy Ayers, vibraphone; Ray Chen,

Hilary Hahn, Gil Shaham, Itzhak Perlman, violin; Tony Bennett, Kristin Chenoweth, Natalie Cole, Josh Groban, Damian Marley, Madeleine Peyroux, Dianne Reeves, Queen Latifah, vocalists Featured Groups: ACS, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Blue Devils Drum Corps, Blue Man Group, DeVotchKa, Diavolo, Earth, Wind & Fire, Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell, Funky Meters, Goat Rodeo, Herb & Lani, Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, Joe Lovano and Dave Douglas Quintet, Los Angeles Master Chorale, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, M83, Pacific Crest, Pink Martini, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Santa Clara Vanguard, She & Him, The Sun Ra Arkestra, U.S. Air Force Band of the Golden West, Waterloo Orchestra Affiliation: Los Angeles Philharmonic For Information: Gail Samuel, chief operating officer 151 South Grand Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90012 hollywoodbowl.com Music@Menlo Atherton, CA July 18 to August 10 Founded by David Finckel and Wu Han, Music@ Menlo is the San Francisco Bay Area’s premier chamber music festival. Now in its eleventh season, Music@Menlo is renowned for engaging, thematic programming performed by a roster of world-class artists.

Artistic Direction: David Finckel and Wu Han Festival Artists: Charles Chandler, Scott Pingel, bass; Marc Goldberg, bassoon; Dmitri Atapine, Carter Brey, Colin Carr, David Finckel, Laurence Lesser, cello; Alan Kay, clarinet; Tara Helen O’Connor, flute; Bridget Kibbey, harp; Nicole Cash, Kevin Rivard, horn; James Austin Smith, oboe; Christopher Froh, Ayano Kataoka, Ian Rosenbaum, percussion; Gloria Chien, Derek Han, Jeffrey Kahane, Gilbert Kalish, Hyeyeon Park, Gilles Vonsattel, Wu Han, piano; David Washburn, trumpet; Sunmi Chang, Mark Holloway, Paul Neubauer, Richard O’Neill, Arnaud Sussmann, viola; Benjamin Beilman, Sunmi Chang, Jorja Fleezanis, Soovin Kim, Kristin Lee, Sean Lee, Arnaud Sussmann, Ian Swensen, Joseph Swensen, violin Featured Groups: Danish String Quartet, Orion String Quartet For Information: Edward P. Sweeney, executive director 650 330 2030 650 330 2016 (fax) info@musicatmenlo.org musicatmenlo.org Ojai Music Festival Ojai, CA June 6 to 9 The 67th Festival celebrates the musical interests and artistic collaborations of Music Director Mark Morris. With an extensive series of concerts and events, the Festival marks a convergence of exceptional artists, adventurous repertoire, curious audiences, and the idyllic setting of Ojai.

Artistic Direction: Thomas W. Morris Festival Conductors: Joshua Gersen, Mark Morris

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symphony SPECIAL ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT TO SYMPHONY

SPRING 2013

S UMMER Festival Artists: Douglas Williams, baritone; Wolfram Koessel, cello; Julia Van Eyck, mezzosoprano; Yegor Shevtsov, piano; Colin Fowler, piano/organ; Yulia Van Doren, soprano; Michi Wiancko, violin Featured Groups: American String Quartet, Gamelan Sari Raras, Mark Morris Dance Group, MMDG Music Ensemble, red fish blue fish,The Bad Plus For Information: Abhijit Sengupta, executive director P.O. Box 185 Ojai, CA 93024 805 646 2094 info@ojaifestival.org ojaifestival.org Pacific Symphony Summer Festival 2013 Irvine, CA July 4 to August 31 A summer tradition of five concerts under the stars: July 4 Extravaganza-Music of Neil Diamond; Classical Favorites; Roll Over Beethoven; Pixar in Concert and Tchaikovsky Spectacular.

Festival Conductors: Carl St.Clair, music director; Richard Kaufman, principal pops conductor; Sarah Hicks, Pixar in Concert Conductor Festival Artist: 2013 Van Cilburn International Piano Competition Medalist Featured Groups: J.T. & California Dreamin’, Super Diamond Orchestra Affiliation: Pacific Symphony For Information: Brian Smith, director of ticketing and customer service 3631 South Harbor Boulevard, Suite 100 Santa Ana, CA 92704 714 755 5799 info@pacificsymphony.org PacificSymphony.org Summer & the Symphony at the San Francisco Symphony San Francisco, CA June 9 to August 2 Summer at Davies Symphony Hall features the San Francisco Symphony and top performers including Johnny Mathis, Jessye Norman, and Rufus Wainwright, plus The Matrix, Disney in Concert, Video Games Live™ and more!

Festival Conductors: Teddy Abrams, Don Davis, Emmanuel Frattiani, Sarah Hicks, John Scott Lavender, Edwin Outwater Festival Artists: Michael Sumuel, bass-baritone; Cameron Carpenter, organ; Benjamin Grosvenor, Valentina Lisitsa, Mark Markham, piano; Measha Brueggergosman, Jessye Norman soprano; Johnny Mathis, vocalist; Warren Haynes, vocalist/guitar; Rufus Wainwright, vocalist/piano/guitar Orchestra Affiliation: San Francisco Symphony For Information: San Francisco Symphony Box Office Davies Symphony Hall 201 Van Ness Avenue San Francisco, CA 94102 415 864 6000 sfsymphony.org/summer

americanorchestras.org

FESTIVALS

2013

C O L OR ADO

Aspen Music Festival and School Aspen, CO June 27 to August 18 The United States’ premier classical music festival, presenting more than 300 musical events during its eight-week summer season in Aspen.

The institution draws top classical musicians from around the world for an unparalleled combination of performances and music education.

Artistic Direction: Robert Spano, music director Festival Conductors: Robert Spano, Christian Arming, Mei-Ann Chen, Federico Cortese, James Gaffigan, Jane Glover, Miguel HarthBedoya, Jeffrey Kahane, Christopher James Lees, George Manahan, Nicholas McGegan, Ludovic Morlot, Tomás Netopil, Larry Rachleff, David Robertson, Leonard Slatkin, Michael Stern, Joshua Weilerstein, Hugh Wolff Festival Artists: Eric Owens, bass-baritone; David Finckel, Narek Hakhnazaryan, Alisa Weilerstein, cello; Edgar Meyer, double bass; Sharon Isbin, guitar; Joyce DiDonato, mezzo-soprano; Inon Barnatan, Jonathan Biss, Yefim Bronfman, Lise de la Salle, Jeremy Denk, Misha Dichter, Cipa Dichter, Simone Dinnerstein, Vladimir Feltsman, Kirill Gerstein, Andreas Haefliger, Jeffrey Kahane, Anne-Marie McDermott, John O’Conor, Garrick Ohlsson, Orli Shaham, Joyce Yang, Wu Han, piano; Heidi Melton, Susanna Phillips, soprano; Anthony Griffey, tenor; Sarah Chang, Daniel Hope, Stefan Jackiw, Leila Josefowicz, Robert McDuffie, Nadja SalernoSonnenberg, Gil Shaham, violin; Tift Merritt Featured Groups: American Brass Quintet, American String Quartet, Emerson String Quartet, Jupiter String Quartet, Takács Quartet For Information: Laura Smith, director of marketing and public relations 225 Music School Road Aspen, CO 81611 970 925 3254 970 920 1643 (fax) festival@aspenmusic.org aspenmusicfestival.com Bravo! Vail Vail, CO June 28 to August 3 Bravo! Vail, Colorado’s premier international six-week summer music festival, brings worldrenowned musicians to venues throughout Vail, draws guests from around the world, and is the only festival in North America to host three of the world’s finest orchestras in a single season.

Festival Conductors: Bob Berndardt, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Alan Gilbert, Giancarlo Guerrero, Cristian Macelaru, Yannick NézetSéguin, Ted Sperling, Bramwell Tovey, Jeff Tyzik, Jaap van Zweden Featured Artists: Matthias Goerne, baritone; John Relyea, bass; Carter Brey, Alisa Weilerstein, cello; Karen Cargill, mezzo-soprano; Alessio Bax, Alexander Brown, Jan Lisiecki, Anne-Marie

McDermott, Pedja Muzijevic, Garrick Ohlsson, Stephen Prutsman, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Joyce Yang, piano; Paquito D’Rivera, saxophone; Angela Meade, Susanna Phillips, soprano; John Mac Master, tenor; Wycliffe Gordon, trombone; Byron Stripling, trumpet; Paul Neubauer, viola; Glenn Dicterow, Alexander Kerr, Nadja SalernoSonnenberg, Gil Shaham, violin Featured Groups: Calder Quartet, Cantus Vocal Ensemble, Colorado Symphony Orchestra Chorus, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Jasper String Quartet, National Repertory Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, The Philadelphia Orchestra, Women of the Evans Choir For Information: Meredith Richards, director of marketing and public relations 2271 North Frontage Road West, Suite C Vail, CO 81657 970 827 4308 bravo@vailmusicfestival.org vailmusic.org Colorado College Summer Music Festival Colorado Springs, CO June 3 to 23 International faculty and advanced student musicians participate in small chamber ensembles, orchestra, master classes, concerto readings, and private lessons. Concert series include four festival orchestra concerts and numerous small ensemble performances.

Artistic Direction: Susan Grace Festival Conductor: Scott Yoo Festival Artists: Michael Kroth, bassoon; Bion Tsang, David Ying, cello; Bil Jackson, Jon Manasse, clarinet; Susan Cahill, double bass; Elizabeth Mann, Susan Rotholz, flute; Stewart Rose, Michael Thornton, horn; Robert Walters, oboe/english horn; Anne Epperson, Jon Nakamatsu, John Novacek, William Wolfram, piano; John Kinzie, timpani/percussion; John Rojak, trombone/tuba; Kevin Cobb, Jack Sutte, trumpet; Toby Appel, Phillip Ying, viola; Virginia Barron, viola/associate director; Mark Fewer, Erin Keefe, Steven Moeckel, Stephen Rose, violin; Scott Yoo, violin/conductor For Information: Bonnie Clark, administrative assistant 14 East Cache La Poudre Street Colorado Springs, CO 80903 719 389 6552 719 389 6955 (fax) festival@coloradocollege.edu artsfestival.coloradocollege.edu/musicfestival Colorado Music Festival Boulder, CO June 29 to August 9 Six-week summer festival featuring professional orchestra and world-music concerts at historic Chautauqua Auditorium, with well-known guest artists and Michael Christie, music director.

Artistic Direction: Michael Christie Festival Conductors: Michael Christie, Courtney Lewis Festival Artists: Johannes Moser, cello; Alexa Still, flute; Behzod Abduraimov, Olga Kern, piano; Lara St. John, violin

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Festivals

2013

Featured Groups: Brazilian Guitar Quartet, Chris Brubeck’s Triple Play, Elephant Revival, Time for Three For Information: Catherine Underhill, executive director 900 Baseline Road, #100 Boulder, CO 80302 303 449 1397 numedahl@comusic.org comusic.org

Spera, guitar; 2013 Cliburn Gold Medalist TBA, Christopher O’Riley, Menahem Pressler, piano; Daniel Bernard Roumain, violin Featured Group: Sybarite5 For Information: Kay Clagett, executive director 970 879 5056 970 879 7460 (fax) strings@stringsmusicfestival.com stringsmusicfestival.com

National Repertory Orchestra Breckenridge, CO June 15 to August 3 The National Repertory Orchestra performs two full orchestra concerts each week in beautiful Breckenridge, Colorado. This summer’s festival presents 89 talented young musicians from top music schools around the country.

Artistic Direction: Carl Topilow Festival Conductors: Mei-Ann Chen, Carl St.Clair, Carl Topilow For Information: Douglas Adams, CEO 111 South Main Street, Unit C7 Breckenridge, CO 80424 970 453 5825 970 453 5833 julie@nromusic.com nromusic.com

C O NNECTICU T

Talcott Mountain Music Festival Simsbury, CT June 28 to July 26 The Hartford Symphony Orchestra plays the Sounds of Summer at the 19th Annual Talcott Mountain Music Festival. Pack a picnic and join the HSO under the stars in picturesque Simsbury, Connecticut.

Artistic Direction: Carolyn Kuan, music director Orchestra Affiliation: Hartford Symphony Orchestra For Information: 100 Pearl Street, Second Floor East Tower Hartford, CT 06103 860 244 2999 860 246 5430 (fax) info@hartfordsymphony.org hartfordsymphony.org

Annamaria Finzel/Finzel Fotos

F L O RI DA

Woodstock Opera House in Illinois, home of the Woodstock Mozart Festival

Strings Music Festival Steamboat Springs, CO June 28 to August 18 Strings Music Festival showcases more than 60 performances in the summer featuring orchestra, chamber, soloists, world, blues, and jazz music along with a Youth and Family series and free concerts at the Botanic Park.

Artistic Direction: Andrés Cárdenes, Monique Mead Festival Conductor: Andrés Cárdenes Festival Artists: Matt Haimovitz, cello; Nicolo

Sarasota Music Festival Sarasota, FL June 3 to 22 The Sarasota Music Festival features 15 concerts of chamber and symphonic music. Attracting 60 students each year from the best conservatories in the world to study with our renowned faculty.

Artistic Direction: Robert Levin Festival Conductors: Nicholas McGegan, Larry Rachleff Featured Artists: Charles Neidich, clarinet; Carol Wincenc, flute; Robert Levin, John Perry, piano; Robert Vernon, Barbara Westphal, viola; Pamela Frank, Kim Kashkashian, Ani Kavafian, Alex Kerr, Joseph Silverstein, violin Orchestra Affiliation: Sarasota Orchestra For Information: RoseAnne McCabe, administrative director 709 North Tamiami Trail Sarasota, FL 34236 941 487 2730 941 953 3059 (fax) RMccabe@SarasotaOrchestra.org SarasotaMusicFestival.org Summerfest Fort Lauderdale, FL July 6 to August 8 Annual festival hosting I Musici Estensi, an internationally acclaimed chamber orchestra, joined by musicians of the Symphony of the Americas in concerts, masterclasses and CD

recordings. Festival begins in Estensi’s home city, Milano, and continues for performances throughout South Florida and Central America.

Artistic Direction: James Brooks-Bruzzese Festival Conductor: James Brooks-Bruzzese Featured Groups: I Musici Estensi For Information: Renee LaBonte, VP executive director 2425 East Commercial Boulevard, #405 Fort Lauderdale, FL 33308 symphonyoftheamericas.org

IDAH O

Sun Valley Summer Symphony Sun Valley, ID July 28 to August 20 Free-admission orchestra and chamber music concerts at the Sun Valley Pavilion.

Artistic Direction: Alasdair Neale, music director Festival Conductors: Alasdair Neale, conductor; Teddy Abrams, assistant conductor; Michael Krajewski, pops conductor Festival Artists: Amos Yang, cello; Orli Shaham, Orion Weiss, Joyce Yang, piano; Debbie Gravitte, soprano; Midori, violin Featured Group: Time for Three For Information: Jennifer Teisinger, executive director P.O. Box 1914 Sun Valley, ID 83353 208 622 5607 208 622 5607 (fax) info@svsummersymphony.org svsummersymphony.org

ILLIN OIS

Grant Park Music Festival Chicago, IL June 12 to August 17 The Grant Park Music Festival is the nation’s only free, outdoor, urban classical music series.

Each summer, the festival presents free classical music at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park.

Artistic Direction: Carlos Kalmar, music director Festival Conductors: Christopher Bell, Thierry Fischer, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Carlos Kalmar, Hannu Lintu, Jeff Tyzik, Eugene Tzigane Festival Artists: William Michals, baritone; Alan Held, bass; Walter Haman, cello; Martin Frost, clarinet; Mary Stolper, flute; Wei-Yang Andy Lin, erhu; Jamie Barton, mezzo-soprano; Alessio Bax, Kirill Gerstein, Valentina Lisitsa, piano; Yang Wei, pipa; James Carter, saxophones; Rebecca Luker, Meng Meng, Erin Wall, Xiaduo Chen, soprano; Doug LaBrecque, tenor; Karen Gomyo, Stefan Jackiw, violin; Jeremy Ovenden, tenor; Yang Yi, zheng Featured Groups: Chicago Children’s Chorus, Artists from the Lyric Opera’s Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center, Pink Martini Orchestra Affiliation: Grant Park Orchestra For Information: Jill Hurwitz, director of marketing and media relations 312 742 7638 312 742 7662 (fax) info@grantparkmusicfestival.com grantparkmusicfestival.com

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symphony Special Advertising Supplement to Symphony

spring 2013

S UMMER Maud Powell Music Festival Peru, IL June 22 to August 15 The Maud Powell Music Festival brings top-quality performances and educational opportunities to the Midwest. Special events include a children’s musical and a four state recital tour by festival staff.

Artistic Direction: Kevin McMahon Festival Conductors: Michael Alexander, David Leibowitz, Kevin McMahon, Chris Sheppard, Shawn Weber McMahon Festival Artists: Richard Beyers, bells; Michael Allen, Bennett Randman, cello; Kevin McMahon, composer/violin; Li Shan Hung, Mary Schallhorn, piano; Loren McMahon, Carol Shamory, soprano; William Farlow, stage director; Shawn Weber McMahon, stage director/soprano; Larry Glenn, stage director/tenor; Allison Fleck, Katie Roy, viola; Robert McNally, violin Featured Groups: Marquette County Chamber Chorale, Marquette Male Chorus, Maud Powell Children’s Chorus, Maud Powell Quartet, Maud Powell Trio For Information: Kevin R. McMahon, artistic director P.O. Box 501 Peru, IL 61354 mpmf@hughes.net powellfest.com Woodstock Mozart Festival Woodstock, IL July 27 to August 11 Imaginative programming and inspired performances at the charming and intimate 1880s Woodstock Opera House, an environment reminiscent of Mozart’s day just 60 miles from Chicago.

Artistic Direction: Anita Whalen Festival Conductors: Donato Cabrera, Igor Gruppman Festival Artists: Nazar Dzhuryn, cello; Vassily Primakov, piano; Daniel Gauthier, saxophone; Vesna Gruppman, viola; Igor Gruppman, violin For Information: Anita Whalen, artistic and general director P.O. Box 734 Woodstock, IL 60098 630 983 7072 630 717 7782 (fax) mozartfest@aol.com mozartfest.org Ravinia Festival Highland Park, IL June 6 to September 15 Ravinia Festival presents more than 130 events from June to September, including performances of Verdi’s Aida and Britten’s The Burning Fiery Furnace, and is the summer home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Artistic Direction: Welz Kauffman, James Conlon Festival Conductors: James Conlon, Matthew Culloton, Grant Gershon, Jane Glover, Daniel Harding, Jeff Lindberg, Tito Muñoz, Itzhak Perlman, Alexander Platt, Carlos Miguel Prieto, Christoph von Dohnányi, Ludwig Wicki Festival Artists: Phillip Addis, Matthias Goerne, americanorchestras.org

FESTIVALS

2013

Nathaniel Olson, baritone; James Creswell, Edgar Meyer, Morris Robinson, bass; Mark Delavan, Alan Dunbar, Yohan Yi, bassbaritone; Frans Helmerson, Yo-Yo Ma, Narek Hakhnazaryan, Amit Peled, John Sharp, Alisa Weilerstein, cello; Anat Cohen, Larry Combs, Eric Schneider, clarinet; Daniel Bubeck, Brian Cummings, Nathan Medley, countertenor; Stuart Duncan, fiddle; Robert Michaels, guitar; Chris Thile, mandolin; Michelle DeYoung, Tamara Mumford, Kelley O’Connor, mezzo-soprano; Emanuel Ax, Anthony de Mare, Jeremy Denk, Cipa Dichter, Misha Dichter, Aaron Diehl, Vladimir Feltsman, Katherine Jacobson Fleisher, Leon Fleisher, David Fung, Itamar Golan, Alon Goldstein, Adam Golka, Ricky Ian Gordon, Benjamin Grosvenor, Lang Lang, Paul Lewis, Kuok-Wai Lio, Gabriela Montero, Jorge Federico Osorio, Peter Serkin, Bryan Wallick, piano; Nicole Cabell, Oksana Dyka, Latonia Moore, Patricia Racette, soprano; Roberto Alagna, Alex Mansoori, Nicholas Phan, Russell Thomas, tenor; Atar Arad, Paul Biss, Ayane Kozasa, viola; Rachel Barton Pine, Sarah Chang, James Ehnes, Miriam Fried, Johnny Gandelsman, Daniel Hope, Mihaela Martin, Fumiaki Miura, Itzhak Perlman, Gil Shaham, Maxim Vengerov, violin; Cyrille Aimee, Sylvia McNair, Aoife O’Donovan, voice Featured Groups: The 5 Browns, artists from Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute, Chicago Children’s Choir, Chicago Chorale, Chicago Jazz Orchestra, Chicago Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Chorus, Concert Dance, Inc., Emerson String Quartet, Ensemble Dal Niente, Juilliard String Quartet, KahaneSwensenBrey, The Knights, Lakeside Singers, Lincoln Trio, Linden String Quartet, Los Angeles Master Chorale, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Music of the Baroque Orchestra and Chorus, Orchestra at Temple Square, Pilobolus, The Singers, Takács Quartet, Zukerman Chamber Players Orchestra Affiliation: Chicago Symphony Orchestra For Information: Ravinia Festival Box Office 418 Sheridan Road Highland Park, IL 60035 847 266 5100 847 266 0641 (fax) tickets@ravinia.org ravinia.org

Summer Home of Utah Symphony | Utah opera

celebrating 10 yearS of mUSic in the moUntainS

JUne 29 – aUg 10 park city, Utah

INDIAN A

Marsh Symphony on the Prairie Fishers, IN June 21 to September 1 The Indianapolis Symphony presents the 32nd annual Marsh Symphony on the Prairie, an outdoor summer concert series of classical, pops, jazz, rock ‘n’ roll and patriotic favorites over eleven weekends.

Festival Conductors: Jack Everly, principal pops conductor; David Glover, assistant conductor; Brent Havens, Marcelo Lehninger, Alfred Savia,

PurcHaSe your ticketS now: deervalleymUSicfeStival.org

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S UMMER guest conductors Festival Artists: Mark Ortwein, bassoon; Braham Denbar, percussion; Brody Dolyniuk, voice Featured Groups: Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Classical Mystery Tour, The Contours, Indy Jazz Fest, River City Brass Band Orchestra Affiliation: Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra For Information: Jessica DiSanto, director of communications 13400 North Allisonville Road Fishers, IN 46038 317 262 1100 iso@indianapolissymphony.org indianapolissymphony.org South Shore Summer Music Festival Munster, IN July 20 to August 3 Join the Northwest Indiana Symphony Orchestra for the 7th annual South Shore Summer Music Festival, offering free concerts in towns across Lake and Porter counties, and performing a mix of patriotic, classical, and contemporary music perfect for the whole family.

Artistic Direction: Kirk Muspratt Festival Conductor: Kirk Muspratt Orchestra Affiliation: Northwest Indiana Symphony Orchestra For Information: Tammie Miller, marketing coordinator 1040 Ridge Road Munster, IN 46321 219 836 0525 tammie@nisorchestra.org nisorchestra.org

2013

music director, Festival Opera Theatre Festival Artists: Jimmy Mazzy, banjo; Andrew Gray, Keith Harris, Michael Ventura, bass; John Clark, clarinet; Allison Kiger, flute; Frank Jacobson, harpsichord; Fenlon Lamb, mezzosoprano/stage director; Jamie Van Eyck, mezzosoprano; Gerard Reuter, oboe; Greory Landes, percussion; Antonio Galera-LÓpez, Christopher Johnson, Garah Landes, Joseph Li, piano; Janninah Burnett, Angela Mannino, Susan Nicel, Danielle Pastin, soprano; Julius Ahn, tenor; Jeffrey Ellenberger, Francis Fortier, violin Featured Groups: Ardelia Trio, Bar Harbor Festival String Orchestra, Brass Venture, Festival Opera Theatre, Synchronicity, Wolverine Jazz Band For Information: Deborah Swanger Fortier Before June 17: 741 West End Avenue, Suite 4-B New York, NY 10025-6002 212 222 1026 212 222 3269 (fax) After June 17: The Rodick Building 59 Cottage Street Bar Harbor, ME 04609-1800 207 288 5744 207 288 5886 (fax) info@barharbormusicfestival.org barharbormusicfestival.org

M A SS ACH U SETTS

Landmarks Festival at the Shell Boston, MA July 10 to August 28 The Landmarks Orchestra offers free summer concerts at the DCR Hatch Shell, beginning at 7pm, in July and August.

Festival Conductor: Christopher Wilkins, music director Featured Groups: Boston Children’s Chorus, Boston Lyric Opera, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, Conservatory Lab Charter School, Longwood Symphony Orchestra Orchestra Affiliation: Boston Landmarks Orchestra For Information: 617 987 2000 info@landmarksorchestra.org landmarksorchestra.org See our ad below

M A IN E

Bar Harbor Music Festival Bar Harbor, ME June 30 to July 28 Hailed as “one of New England’s great music festivals,” now in its 47th season in a spectacular setting, highlights will include Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro and the 30th Annual “New Composers” Concert, “Rhythm and Ritual,” featuring world premières by Edmund Cionek and Garah Landes.

Artistic Direction: Francis Fortier Festival Conductors: Francis Fortier, conductor, Bar Harbor Festival String Orchestra; Joseph Li,

Great Music for Free July 10 — August 28 www.LandmarksOrchestra.org

FESTIVALS

Tanglewood Lenox, MA June 21 to September 1 Tanglewood, the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, offers music lovers a spectacular variety of musical guests and programs that spotlight the festival’s rich tradition of presenting summertime concerts at their best since 1937.

Festival Conductors: George Benjamin, Stéphane Denève, Charles Dutoit, Christoph Eschenbach, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Bernard Haitink, Daniel Harding, Andy Icochea, Vladimir Jurowski, Lothar Koenigs, Marcelo Lehninger,

Keith Lockhart, Andris Nelsons, David Newman, John Oliver, Kazushi Ono, Andris Poga, Ryan Turner, Christoph von Dohnányi, Thomas Wilkins, John Williams, Christian Zacharias, Pinchas Zukerman Festival Artists: David Kravitz, James Maddalena, Dana Whiteside, baritone; Bryn Terfel, baritone/ bass-baritone; David Cushing, Ferruccio Furlanetto, Donald Wilkinson, bass; John Relyea, bass-baritone; Amanda Forsyth, Lynn Harrell, Yo-Yo Ma, cello; Elizabeth Rowe, flute; Lioba Braun, Katherine Growdon, Tamara Mumford, Krista River, Lynn Torgove, Anne Sofie von Otter, mezzo-soprano; John Ferrillo, oboe; Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Emanuel Ax, Yefim Bronfman, Christoph Eschenbach, Leon Fleisher, Natalia Katyukova, Lang Lang, Paul Lewis, Garrick Ohlsson, Menahem Pressler, Peter Serkin, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Daniil Trifonov, Christian Zacharias, piano; Katarina Dalayman, Devon Guthrie, Kristine Opolais, Christine Schäfer, Camilla Tilling, Amber Wagner, Erin Wall, soprano; Charles Blandy, Gordon Gietz, Joseph Kaiser, Dmytro Popov, Alex Richardson, tenor; Thomas Rolfs, trumpet; Pinchas Zukerman, viola/violin; Joshua Bell, Isabelle Faust, Malcolm Lowe, Gil Shaham, violin Featured Groups: Borodin String Quartet, Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, Boston Pops Orchestra, Boston Symphony Chamber Players, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Emerson String Quartet, Goat Rodeo, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Mark Morris Dance Group, Michael Feinstein and Friends, Monty Alexander Trio, Orchestra and Chorus of Emmanuel Music, PALS Children’s Chorus, Radio Music Society, Tanglewood Festival Chorus, Tanglewood Music Center Conducting Fellows, Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra Popular Artists: Jackson Browne, Melissa Etheridge, Vince Gill, Warren Haynes, Garrison Keillor, Audra McDonald, Esperanza Spalding, The Steve Miller Band, Sara Watkins Orchestra Affiliation: Boston Symphony Orchestra For Information: Boston Symphony Orchestra 297 West Street Lenox, MA 01240 617 266 1492 617 638 9288 (fax) customerservice@bso.org tanglewood.org

MIN N ESOTA

Minnesota Beethoven Festival Winona, MN July 4 to 23 The seventh annual Minnesota Beethoven Festival, held in the beautiful bluff country of Winona, includes nine different concerts showcasing orchestral, choral, and chamber music, performed by some of the great artists of our time.

Artistic Direction: Ned Kirk Festival Conductors: Vladislav Lavrik, Dale Warland Festival Artists: Sharon Isbin, guitar; Misha Dichter, Garrick Ohlsson, piano Featured Groups: American String Quartet, Ariel Quartet, Empire Brass, Minnesota Beethoven

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symphony SPECIAL ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT TO SYMPHONY

SPRING 2013

S UMMER Festival Chorale, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Russian National Orchestra, Shanghai Quartet For Information: Caroline Kirk, marketing and public relations director P.O. Box 1143 Winona, MN 55987 507 474 9055 info@mnbeethovenfestival.org mnbeethovenfestival.org

M I S S IS S IPP I

FestivalSouth Hattiesburg, MS June 8 to 22 Mississippi’s only multi-week, multi-genre arts festival, offering free and ticketed music, dance, art, and theater events for two weeks in June.

Featuring the Blues Brotherhood Band,Tony Award-winning musical Hairspray, and Aria, an original musical cirque performance.

Artistic Direction: Dr. Jay Dean For Information: Mike Lopinto, PR/marketing coordinator festivalsouth.org

FESTIVALS

2013

Robinson, Peter Stumpf, Ronald Thomas, Peter Wiley, cello; Todd Levy, Carol McGonnell, Patrick Messina, clarinet; Kurt Mustain, english horn; Tara Helen O’Connor, Joshua Smith, Marie Tachouet, flute; Richard Savino, guitar; Shai Wosner, harmonium; Kathleen McIntosh, harpsichord; Julie Landsman, Garbrielle Finck, horn; Robert Ingliss, oboe; David Tolen, percussion; Victor Santiago Asuncion, Inon

Annandale-on-Hudson, NY July 6 to August 18 Presenting the Bard Music Festival, featuring music by Igor Stravinsky, Sergey Taneyev’s opera Oresteia, the world premiere adaptation of The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, and A Rite by Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company and SITI Company.

Artistic Direction: Leon Botstein Festival Conductor: Leon Botstein Festival Artists: John Relyea, bass-baritone; Thaddeus Strassberger, director, opera; János Szász, director, theater; Melis Jaatinen, Rebecca

Festival Amadeus 2013 Whitefish, MT August 4 to 10 Currently in its sixth season featuring chamber and orchestra concerts, Festival Amadeus presents acclaimed soloists in a stunning setting near Glacier National Park in Whitefish, Montana.

Artistic Direction: John Zoltek, music director Festival Conductor: John Zoltek Festival Artists: Ann Francis Bayless, cello; Catalin Rotaru, double bass; Andrew Staupe, piano; Brant Bayless, Bradley Ottesen, viola; Rebecca McFaul, Simone Porter, Robert Waters, violin Featured Groups: Festival Amadeus Orchestra, Fry Street Quartet Orchestra Affiliation: Glacier Symphony and Chorale For Information: Alan Satterlee, executive director P.O. Box 2491 Kalispell, MT 59903 406 257 3241 406 257 5507 (fax) info@gscmusic.org gscmusic.org

N E W M EX IC O

Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival Santa Fe, NM July 14 to August 19 Now in its 41st season, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, nestled in the breathtaking Sangre de Cristo Mountains, presents a summer season filled with world-renowned artists performing compelling programs of chamber masterworks.

Artistic Direction: Marc Neikrug Festival Conductors: Lawrence Foster, Joshua Habermann Festival Artists: Matthew Worth, baritone; Kristen Bruya, Mark Tatum, bass; Stefanie Przybylska, Theodore Soluri, bassoon; Nicholas Canellakis, Felix Fan, Joseph Johnson, Eric Kim, Keith americanorchestras.org

Ravinia Festival

M ONTA NA

James Conlon leads the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the Ravinia Festival

Barnatan, Jeremy Denk, Soyeon Kate Lee, Anne-Marie McDermott, Garrick Ohlsson, Shai Wosner, Haochen Zhang, piano; Joshua Smith, piccolo; Christine Brandes, Lucy Shelton, soprano; Choong-Jin Chang, Lily Francis, Kimberly Fredenburgh, Soovin Kim, Scott Lee, Teng Li, Max Mandel, Cynthia Phelps, Daniel Phillips, Carla Maria Rodrigues, Steven Tenenbom, viola; Benjamin Beilman, Kathleen Brauer, Harvey de Souza, Lily Francis, Jennifer Gilbert, Daniel Hope, L.P. How, Ida Kavafian, Benny Kim, Jessica Lee, William Preucil, violin Featured Ensembles: Orion String Quartet, Shanghai Quartet, Miami String Quartet, Johannes String Quartet, FLUX Quartet, Santa Fe Desert Chorale, Tiempo Libre For Information: Steven Ovitsky, executive director P.O. Box 2227 Santa Fe, NM 87504 505 983 2075 (office) 888 221 9836 or 505 982 1890 (tickets) sovitsky@sfcmf.org SantaFeChamberMusic.com

NE W YOR K

Bard SummerScape and Bard Music Festival

Ringle, mezzo-soprano; Piers Lane, Anna Polonsky, Peter Serkin, Orion Weiss, piano; Harumi Rhodes, violin; others TBA Featured Groups: Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company, Dover Quartet, SITI Company Orchestra Affiliation: American Symphony Orchestra For Information: P.O. Box 5000 Annandale-on-Hudson, NY 12504 845 758 7900 fishercenter@bard.edu fishercenter.bard.edu Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival New York, NY July 24 to August 18 Celebrating its 30th anniversary, the festival presents distinctive programs that highlight chamber music masterworks, exciting new works, festival commissions, and self-published recordings. Concerts take place in the intimate Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church.

Artistic Direction: Marya Martin Festival Artists: Jeffrey Beecher, Donald Palma, bass; Edward Arron, Nicholas Canellakis, Colin Carr, Clive Greensmith, Michael Nicolas, Peter

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S UMMER Stumpf, cello; Jose Franch-Ballester, Romie de Guise-Langlois, clarinet; Jason Vieaux, guitar; Kenneth Weiss, harpsichord; Stewart Rose, horn; Sasha Cooke, mezzo-soprano; John Snow, oboe; Ayano Kataoka, percussion; Alessio Bax, Wendy Chen, Pedja Muzijevic, Jeewon Park, Gilles Vonsattel, Pablo Ziegler, piano; Ettore Causa, Choong-Jin Chang, Beth Guterman Chu, Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, Jonathan Vinocour, viola; Jennifer Frautschi, Frank Huang, Stefan Jackiw, Ani Kavafian, Hye-Jin Kim, Nelson Lee, Amy Schwartz Moretti, Harumi Rhodes, Elena Urioste, Tien-Hsin Cindy Wu, violin Featured Groups: Brooklyn Rider, Stephane Wrembel Quintet For Information: Derek Delaney, executive director 850 Seventh Avenue, Suite 700 New York, NY 10019 212 741 9073 212 741 9403 (fax) info@bcmf.org bcmf.org Bronx Arts Ensemble SummerMusic Bronx, NY July 4 to August 11 Ten free Sunday concerts in Van Cortlandt Park and Fordham University Artistic Direction: William Scribner Festival Artists: William Scribner, bassoon; Bruce Wang, cello; Mitchell Kriegler, clarinet; Theresa Norris, flute; Sharon Moe, horn; Marsha Heller, oboe; Veronica Salas, Sally Shumway, viola; Jorge Avila, Francisca Mendoza, violin For Information: William Scribner, executive and artistic director P.O. Box 580-179 Bronx, NY 10458 718 601 7399 718 549 4008 (fax) events@bronxartsensemble.org bronxartsensemble.org Chautauqua Institution Chautauqua, NY June 22 to August 25 Founded in 1874 as a lifelong learning center for the arts, education, religion, and recreation, Chautauqua Institution presents symphony, opera, dance, theater, chamber music, folk, rock, jazz,

FESTIVALS

2013

Avery Fisher Hall 10 Lincoln Center Plaza New York, NY 10023 nyphil.org

country, the visual arts, continuing education classes, and lectures.

Artistic Direction: Marty W. Merkley Festival Conductors: Stuart Chafetz, Grant Cooper, James Meena, Timothy Muffitt, Steven Osgood, Christopher Seaman, Uriel Segal Festival Artists: Lawrence Mitchell-Matthews, baritone; Jolyon Pegis, cello; Richard Sherman, flute; Alexander Gavrylyuk, Alexander von Oeyen, Roberto Plano, piano; Karen Gomyo, Augustin Hadelich, Tasmin Little, Brian Reagin, violin Featured Groups: Amphion Quartet, Chautauqua Chamber Winds, Chautauqua Dance, Chautauqua Opera, Chautauqua String Quartet, Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, Chautauqua Theater Company, Krakauer Acoustic Klezmer Quartet, Manhattan Piano Trio, Music School Festival Orchestra, North Carolina Dance Theatre, Pacifica Quartet, Sonic Escape, Susquehanna Chorale, The 5 Browns, Third Coast Percussion, Visual Arts at Chautauqua Institution, WindSync Orchestra Affiliation: Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra For Information: Marty W. Merkley, vice president and director of programming P.O. Box 28 Chautauqua, NY 14722 716 357 6217 716 357 9014 (fax) mmerkley@ciweb.org ciweb.org

Luzerne Chamber Music Festival at Luzerne Music Center Lake Luzerne, NY June 29 to August 19 For 33 years on the campus of Luzerne Music Center, the Luzerne Chamber Music Festival has been offering concerts in an intimate 250-seat acoustically superior venue featuring members of the Philadelphia Orchestra and the New York City Ballet Orchestra, resident faculty, and other well known performing groups.

Artistic Direction: Elizabeth Pitcairn, violin Festival Artists: Audrey Williams, bass; Abraham Feder, Yeonjin Kim, cello; Toby Blumenthal, Cynthia Elise Tobey, Aniko Szokody, piano; Nathan Frantz, viola; Rebecca Ansel, Danielle Belen, Philip Brezina, Michael Emery, Eliezer Gutman, Cheryl Kim, violin Featured Guests: Arturo Delmoni, concertmaster of the NYC Ballet Orchestra; Michelle Kim, assistant concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic; Philadelphia Orchestra members Ricardo Morales, clarinet; Kerri Ryan, viola; Amy Oshiro Morales, violin Featured Groups: Miró Quartet, Time for Three, Triple Play with Chris Brubeck, Festival Woodwind Quintet, Luzerne Festival Brass Quintet For Information: William Schulman, camp director P.O. Box 39 Lake Luzerne, NY 12846 518 696 2771 info@luzernemusic.org luzernemusic.org

2013 Concerts in the Parks New York, NY July 10 to 16 New York Philharmonic Concerts in the Parks returns for its 48th season with five free outdoor concerts conducted by Alan Gilbert: Central Park (July 13 & 15), Prospect Park (July 10), Cunningham Park (July 11), Van Cortlandt Park (July 16), and New York Philharmonic Brass at College of Staten Island (July 14).

Conductor: Alan Gilbert Festival Artist: Carter Brey, cello For information:

Mostly Mozart Festival New York, NY July 27 to August 24 Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival—now in its 47th season—is a New York institution and features concerts by the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra led by Music Director Louis Langrée.

Artistic Direction: Jane S. Moss Festival Conductors: David Afkham, Laurence Cummings, Iván Fischer, Louis Langrée, Andrew Manze, Gianandrea Noseda, Jérémie Rhorer Festival Artists: Robert Lloyd, bass; Kyle Ketelson, Hanno Müller-Brachmann, bass-baritone; Truls Mørk, cello; Alice Coote, Daniela Barcellona, Renata Pokupic, Anna Stéphany, mezzo-soprano; Emanuel Ax, Paul Lewis, Francesco Piemontesi, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, piano; Miah Persson, Maria Agresta, soprano; Gregory Kunde, tenor; Joshua Bell, Isabelle Faust, Vadim Repin, violin Featured Groups: Budapest Festival Orchestra, Emerson String Quartet, International Contemporary Ensemble, Leipzig String Quartet, Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment Orchestra Affiliation: Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra For Information: 70 Lincoln Center Plaza Peter Aaron/Esto

The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y., which plays host to Bard SummerScape and Bard Music Festival.

symphony

SPRING 2013

S UMMER

FESTIVALS

2013

New York, NY 10023 212 721 6500 mostlymozart.org The Philadelphia Orchestra Concert Series at Saratoga Performing Arts Center Saratoga Springs, NY August 7 to 24 The Philadelphia Orchestra performs three weeks of concerts in upstate New York, featuring renowned conductors and guest artists.

Festival Conductors: Stéphane Denève, Giancarlo Guerrero, Keith Lockhart, Cristian Macelaru, Gianandrea Noseda, Steven Reineke, Bramwell Tovey Orchestra Affiliation: The Philadelphia Orchestra For Information: One South Broad Street Philadelphia, PA 19107 518 584 9330 518 584 0809 (fax) spac.org Summertime Classics New York, NY July 3 to 7 New York Philharmonic presents 10th season of Summertime Classics with two themed programs: “Star-Spangled Celebration” with the United States Coast Guard Band and “The Planets,” which will include works inspired by space and travel.

Conductor: Bramwell Tovey Festival Artists: Joseph Alessi, trombone Featured Group: United States Coast Guard Band For information: Avery Fisher Hall 10 Lincoln Center Plaza New York, NY 10023 pr@nyphil.org nyphil.org

N O RTH C A R OL INA

Brevard Music Center Brevard, NC June 21 to August 4 Brevard is one of America’s premier summer training programs for exceptional young musicians. Students participate in orchestral studies, piano, opera, composition, and voice, alongside world-renowned guest artists and faculty.

Artistic Direction: Keith Lockhart Festival Conductors:, Matthias Bamert, JoAnn Falletta, Kenneth Lam, Grant Llewellyn, Keith Lockhart, Jeff Tyzik, Kraig Alan Williams Festival Artists: Johannes Moser, cello; Celil Refik Kaya, classical guitar; Jeff Nelsen, French horn; Norman Krieger, Jean Louis Steuerman, Conrad Tao, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Ilya Yakushev, JiYong, piano; Neal Berntsen, trumpet; Charles Villarrubia, tuba; Joshua Bell, Bella Hristova, violin Featured Group: The Capital Quartet For Information: Jason Posnok, artistic administrator 349 Andante Lane / P.O. Box 312 Brevard, NC 28712

828 862 2100 828 884 2036 (fax) admissions@brevardmusic.org brevardmusic.org Summerfest at Cary’s Booth Amphitheatre Cary, NC May 25 to July 6 Join the North Carolina Symphony for outdoor summer concerts that feature celebrated guest artists and talent from close to home. Since its debut in 1984, this engaging series has been an annual tradition.

Artistic Direction: William Henry Curry Festival Conductors: William Henry Curry, Martin Herman, Grant Llewellyn Featured Groups: Broadway Blockbusters, Classical Mystery Tour, Concert Singers of Cary Orchestra Affiliation: North Carolina Symphony For Information: Joe Newberry, director of communications, North Carolina Symphony 3700 Glenwood Avenue Raleigh, NC 27612 919 462 2052 jnewberry@ncsymphony.org ncsymphony.org

Lancaster Festival Lancaster, OH July 18 to 27 This season marks the 26th year for the Lancaster Festival Orchestra and Maestro Gary Sheldon.

Both indoor and outdoor venues are used in this beautiful central Ohio community.

Artistic Direction: Gary Sheldon Festival Conductor: Gary Sheldon Festival Artists: John Sant’Ambrogio, cello; Judith Lynn Stillman, piano; Dmitri Pogorelov, Stephanie Sant’Ambrogio, violin Featured Group: Veronika String Quartet Orchestra Affiliation: Lancaster Festival Orchestra For Information: Lou Ross, executive director P.O. Box 1452 Lancaster, OH 43130 740 653 8700 740 687 1980 (fax) lanfest@lanfest.org lancasterfestival.org

O HIO

Cincinnati May Festival: America’s Premier Choral Festival Cincinnati, OH May 10 to 18 The 2013 season showcases the May Festival Chorus, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and world-renowned guest artists in a variety of performances of great choral repertoire including works by Britten, Byrd, Debussy, Gjeilo, Gorécki, Lauridsen, MacMillan, Mozart, Pärt, Ravel, Stravinsky, Verdi, Wagner, Weelkes, Zemlinsky Artistic Direction: James Conlon Festival Conductors: James Bagwell, director, May Festival Youth Chorus; James Conlon, music director; Robyn Lana, artistic director, Cincinnati Children’s Choir; Robert Porco, director of Choruses, Cincinnati May Festival Festival Artists: Phillip Addis, Donnie Ray Albert, Richard Bernstein, Alan Held, bass; Daniela Mack, Ronnita Nicole Miller, mezzo-soprano; Christine Brewer, Janai Brugger, Christine Goerke, soprano; Ben Bliss, Rodrick Dixon, Alek Shrader, tenor Featured Groups: Cincinnati Children’s Choir, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, May Festival Chorus, May Festival Youth Chorus Orchestra Affiliation: Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra For Information: Lauren Hess, marketing and communications manager 1241 Elm Street Cincinnati, OH 45202 513 744 3250 513 744 3535 (fax) lhess@mayfestival.com

Young musicians at Brevard Music Center enjoy the pastoral surroundings.

OR EGON

Britt Classical Festival Jacksonville, OR August 2 to 18 Extraordinary music under the stars in scenic southern Oregon! Moonlit evenings, intimate amphitheater, historical setting, hillside seating beneath ponderosa pines, professional 90-member symphony, world-class artists—the incomparable Britt experience.

Festival Conductors: Teddy Abrams, Mei-Ann Chen, David Danzmayr Festival Artists: Guest artists TBA For Information: Angela Warren, administrator 216 West Main Street / P.O. Box 1124 Medford, OR 97501 brittfest.org Chamber Music Northwest Portland, OR June 24 to July 28 Each summer CMNW connects the world’s

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americanorchestras.org

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s umm er most distinguished classical artists with Portland audiences for five weeks of performances that explore chamber music in all its shapes and sizes.

Artistic Direction: David Shifrin Festival Artists: Carter Brey, David Finckel, Fred Sherry, cello; David Shifrin, clarinet; Liang Wang, oboe; Alessio Bax, Wu Han, Jeffrey Kahane, piano; Ben Beilman, Martin Beaver, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Philip Setzer, Joseph Swensen, violin Featured Groups: Darrell Grant Ensemble, Dover Quartet, Imani Winds, KahaneSwensenBrey, Miró Quartet, Orion Quartet For Information: Elizabeth Harcombe, interim executive director 522 SW Fifth Avenue, Suite 920 Portland, OR 97204 503 223 3202 503 294 1690 (fax) cmnw.org Oregon Bach Festival Eugene, OR June 24 to July 14 In his final year as artistic director, Bach master Helmuth Rilling leads three weeks of choral masterworks, chamber music, and social events, in Eugene, Portland, and four other cities. “Virtually without equal” –Los Angeles Times Artistic Direction: Helmuth Rilling Festival Conductors: Matthew Halls, artistic director designate; Anton Armstrong, Jeffrey Kahane Festival Artists: Tyler Duncan, bass; Paul Jacobs, organ; Jeffrey Kahane, piano; Tamara Wilson,

Festivals

2013

soprano; Nicholas Phan, tenor; Midori, violin Featured Groups: Bach’s Circle, Hohenstaufen Quartet, Portland Baroque Orchestra, Ya-Fei Chuang-Robert Levin piano duo For Information: George Evano, director of communications 550 East 50th Avenue Eugene, OR 97405 800 457 1486 bachfest@uoregon.edu oregonbachfestival.com Siletz Bay Music Festival Gleneden Beach, OR June 12 to 23 Siletz Bay Music Festival brings the highest level of music performances and education to the central Oregon coast. Under the direction of Yaki Bergman, performers gather from all over the U.S. every June for two weeks.

Artistic Direction: Yaki Bergman Festival Conductor: Yaki Bergman Festival Artists: Jack Koncel, bass; Katherine Schultz, cello; Edmund Stone, narrator; Brett EE Paschal, percussion; Lorna Griffitt, Dick Hyman, Gerald Robbins, Mei-Ting Sun, piano; Nicole Greenidge Joseph, soprano; Carl Moe, tenor; Ronald Aaron, Miriam E. Ward, viola; Haroutune Bedelian, Lindsay Deutsch, Karen Hilley, Tatiana Kolchanova, violin For Information: Sue Parks-Hilden, executive director P.O. Box 753 Gleneden Beach, OR 97388 541 992 1131 info@siletzbaymusic.org siletzbaymusic.org Sunriver Music Festival Sunriver, OR August 4 to 21 Sunriver Music Festival Orchestra performs in Central Oregon at the historic Great Hall in Sunriver and at Tower Theatre in Bend. Concerts include four classical concerts, a pops program, and a solo piano recital by the 2013 Van Cliburn Gold Medalist.

Artistic Direction: George Hanson Festival Conductor: George Hanson Festival Artists: 2013 Van Cliburn Gold Medalist For Information: Pamela Beezley, executive director P.O. Box 4308 Sunriver, OR 97707 541 593 9310 541 593 6959 (fax) tickets@sunrivermusic.org sunrivermusic.org

P E NNSYLVAN IA

The Mann Philadelphia, PA June 24 to August 3 The Mann Center for the Performing Arts, a Philadelphia tradition and a summer home to The

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Philadelphia Orchestra, continues an ongoing residency with Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.

Presenting exciting classical music and the next generation of orchestral pops.

Featured Groups: The Philadelphia Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra For Information: Foster Cronin, associate producer/marketing manager 123 South Broad Street Philadelphia, PA 19109 fcronin@manncenter.org manncenter.org

TEXAS

Concerts in the Garden Fort Worth, TX June 7 to July 6 The Fort Worth Botanic Garden will come alive for another summer of entertainment, fine dining and musical nights under the stars, when the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra presents its 23rd annual Concerts in the Garden Summer Music Festival.

Artistic Direction: Andrés Franco Orchestra Affiliation: Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra For Information: Lindsay Landgraf, press and publications manager 330 East 4th Street, Suite 200 Fort Worth, TX 76102 817 665 6000 817 665 6600 (fax) fwsymphony.org From Russia with Love Fort Worth, TX August 23 to 25 Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra’s 2013-14 festival brings Tchaikovsky’s greatest symphonies and Rachmaninoff ’s epic piano concertos to life like never before, featuring three finalists of the 14th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. So exactly who will take the stage?

You’ll have to wait until August to find out!

Festival Conductor: Miguel Harth-Bedoya Orchestra Affiliation: Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra For Information: Lindsay Landgraf, press and publications manager 525 Commerce Street Fort Worth, TX 76102 fwsymphony.org Immanuel & Helen Olshan Texas Music Festival Houston, TX June 4 to 29 Intensive orchestral institute for musicians aged 18-30. Four programs with internationally recognized conductors and soloists. Private lessons, mock auditions, master classes, chamber music, and professional development.

International faculty, with principal players from the Houston Symphony.

Festival Conductors: Carl St.Clair, Horst Foerster, Franz Anton Krager, Rossen Milanov Festival Artists: Richard Beene, bassoon; Brinton Smith, cello; Randall Griffin, Michael Webster,

symphony Special Advertising Supplement to Symphony

spring 2013

S UMMER clarinet; Eric Larson, Dennis Whittaker, double bass; Leone Buyse, flute; Ted Atkatz, Matthew Strauss, percussion; Janice Chandler Eteme, soprano; Wayne Brooks, Ivo-Jan van der Werff, viola; Andrzej Grabiec, Lucie Robert, Kirsten Yon, Zuo Jun, violin Featured Groups: Texas Music Festival Orchestra For Information: Alan Austin, general and artistic director 120 School of Music Building Houston, TX 77204-4017 713 743 3167 713 743 3166 (fax) tmf@uh.edu tmf.uh.edu Round Top Festival Institute Round Top, TX June 2 to July 14 A professional summer institute for orchestra, chamber music, and solo performance in Southeast Texas.

Artistic Direction: James Dick, founder and artistic director Festival Conductors: Christoph Campestrini, Emilio Colon, Heiichiro Ohyama, Edwin Outwater, Perry So, Michael Stern, Pascal Verrot Festival Artists: Brett Shurtliffe, James VanDemark, bass; Benjamin Kamins, Kristin Wolfe Jensen, bassoon; Stephen Balderston, Emilio Colon, cello; Kenneth Grant, Hakan Rosengren, clarinet; Gretchen Pusch, Ransom Wilson, Carol Wincenc, flute; Paula Page, harp; Michelle Baker, Karl Kramer Johansen, Eric Reed, horn; Pedro Diaz, Erin Hannigan, Rebecca Henderson, oboe; Thomas Burritt, Tony Edwards, percussion; Eteri Andjaparidze, Brian Connelly, James Dick, John Owings piano; John Kitzman, Brent Phillips, Lee Rogers, trombone; Tom Booth, Ray Riccomini, Marie Speziale, trumpet; Justin Benavidez, tuba; Nancy Buck, Brett Deubner, viola; Gregory Fulkerson, Erica Kiesewetter, Espen Lilleslatten, Curtis Macomber, Stephan Milenkovich, Jonathan Swartz, violin For Information: Alain G. Declert, program director P.O. Box 89 Round Top, TX 78954 979 249 3129 979 249 5078 (fax) info@festivalhill.org festivalhill.org/summerinstitute See our ad facing page

FESTIVALS

2013

info@usuo.org deervalleymusicfestival.org See our ad page 54

VE RMON T

TD Bank Summer Festival Tour Burlington, VT June 27 to July 7 Bring a picnic and celebrate summer with Vermont’s finest musicians in eight spectacular

locations throughout the Green Mountain State.

For dessert...the ever popular 1812 Overture and spectacular fireworks under the stars!

Artistic Direction: Jaime Laredo Festival Conductor: Anthony Princiotti Orchestra Affiliation: Vermont Symphony Orchestra For Information: Amy Caldwell, marketing director vso.org Marlboro Music Festival Marlboro, VT July 13 to August 11

20 TH ANNIVERSARY SE ASON

JULY 5 – 21, 2013 Artistic Director Michael Palmer

and the Festival Orchestra and Chorus

GUEST ARTISTS JULY 5

JULY 9

JULY 9

JULY 13

Joshua Roman cello

Ray Chen violin

JULY 17

JULY 21

JULY 21

JULY 21

Pepe Romero guitar

Frederica von Stade mezzo-soprano

Heidi Grant Murphy soprano

Katie Van Kooten soprano

Joseph Robinson Garrick Ohlsson oboe guitar

U TA H

Deer Valley Music Festival Park City, UT June 29 to August 10 The Deer Valley Music Festival, summer home of the Utah Symphony and Utah Opera, is celebrating its tenth season of pops, classical, opera, and chamber music at Deer Valley Resort and other Park City venues.

Festival Conductors: Keith Lockhart, Jerry Steichen, Vladimir Kulenovic, Michael Krajewski Orchestra Affiliation: Utah Symphony | Utah Opera For Information: Carey Cusimano, VP of development 801 533 6683 americanorchestras.org

www.bellinghamfestival.org (360) 201– 6621 facebook.com/bellingham.festival

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2013

Master musicians and exceptional young artists collaborate in five exciting weekends of concerts in beautiful southern Vermont.

Artistic Direction: Mitsuko Uchida and Richard Goode For Information: Michael Herring, festival coordinator Box K Marlboro, VT 05344 802 254 2394 802 254 4307 info@marlboromusic.org marlboromusic.org See our ad below

V I R GINIA

Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival Harrisonburg, VA June 9 to 16 Orchestral, choral, and chamber music. Events include three ticketed and eight free concerts, ient: Marlboro Leipzig Service,Music Baroque performance workshop, d: andSymphony Road ScholarMagazine and youth2013 programs. Works by ze: x 4.875”h J. S.2.25”w Bach, Verdi, Britten, and more. Vocal and esign by: the-m.com instrumental soloists.

Direction: Kenneth J. Nafziger twork contact:Artistic mingfang@the-m.com 347.853.8669 Festival Conductor: Kenneth J. Nafziger Festival Artists: Grant Youngblood, baritone; Paige Riggs, cello; Mary Kay Adams, Carol Warner, flute; David Wick, horn; Heidi Kurtz, mezzo-soprano; Sandra Gerster Lisicky, Kevin Piccini, oboe; Marvin Mills, organ; Naoko Takao, piano; Veronica Chapman-Smith, soprano; Kenneth Gayle, tenor; Joan Griffing, violin RICHARD GOODE & MITSUKO UCHIDA Artistic Directors

MARLBORO MUSIC

“… a heady mix of adrenaline, youthful enthusiasm and world-class technique” — Washington Post Marlboro, Vermont – 63rd Season

CHAMBER MUSIC July 13 – August 11, 2013

Master musicians and exceptional young artists collaborate in five exciting weekends of concerts in beautiful southern Vermont Tickets available at

215-569-4690 www.marlboromusic.org Steinway & Sons | Sony Classical | Bridge Records | Marlboro Recording Society | ArkivMusic

Featured Groups: SVBF Chamber Players, SVBF Chorus, SVBF Orchestra, Virginia Baroque Performance Academy Faculty Orchestra Affiliation: Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival Orchestra For Information: Mary Kay Adams, executive director 1200 Park Road Harrisonburg, VA 22802 540 432 4367 540 432 4622 (fax) bach@emu.edu www.emu.edu/bach Virginia Arts Festival Norfolk, VA March 17 to June 2 Enjoy incredible artists, commissioned works, extraordinary collaborations, and unforgettable performances from Williamsburg to Norfolk to Virginia Beach. Programs include Bach’s B-Minor Mass, Music of the Eagles: A Rock Symphony, and full ballet productions of Coppelia and Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring.

Festival Conductors: JoAnn Falletta, Masaaki Suzuki Festival Artists: Andrew York, guitar, Audra McDonald, violin; Tierney Sutton, voice Featured Groups: Birmingham Royal Ballet, Indigo Girls, JoAnn Falletta and Friends, Juilliard415, Miami String Quartet, Richmond Ballet, Turtle Island Quartet, Virginia Symphony Orchestra, Yale Baroque Ensemble, Yale Schola For Information: Cynthia Carter West, marketing and public relations director P.O. Box 3595 Norfolk, VA 23514 vafest.org Virginia’s Blue Ridge Music Festival— Classical Music in the Mountains Floyd, VA May 30 to June 9 Four full symphony orchestra concerts, chamber music ensembles, Performance Academy for rising musicians ages 18-30, Shostakovich and Beethoven 5th symphonies, Elgar’s Enigma variations, Midkiff Mandolin Concerto, Baroque Classics, Concerto Night featuring Academy Fellows.

Artistic Direction: David Stewart Wiley Festival Conductor: David Stewart Wiley Festival Artists: Jeff Midkiff, mandolin and composer; David Park, Akemi Takayama, violin For Information: Jennifer Brooke, executive director 220 Parkway Lane South, Suite 3 Floyd, VA 24091 540 267 4221 vbrmusicfestival@gmail.com virginiasblueridgemusicfestival.org

WA SH IN GTON

Bellingham Festival of Music Bellingham, WA July 5 to July 21

The Bellingham Festival of Music is one of America’s premier virtuoso orchestra festivals. Its members hold artistically prestigious positions elsewhere, many of them principal players in major North American orchestras.

Artistic Direction: Michael Palmer Festival Conductor: Michael Palmer Festival Artists: Joshua Roman, cello; Joseph Robinson, oboe; Garrick Ohlsson, piano; Heidi Grant-Murphy, Katie Van Kooten, Frederica von Stade, soprano; Ray Chen, violin For Information: Lindsey Vereen, vice chair, board of directors P.O. Box 818 Bellingham, WA 98227 360 201 6621 bellinghamfestival.org See our ad page 59 Marrowstone Music Festival Bellingham, WA July 21 to August 3 Marrowstone is the premier orchestral training program of the Pacific Northwest, featuring internationally acclaimed faculty and guest artists from the world’s most distinguished orchestras, conservatories, and schools of music.

Artistic Direction: Stephen Rogers Radcliffe, music director Festival Conductors: Dale Clevenger, Ryan Dudenbostel, Stephen Rogers Radcliffe Orchestra Affiliation: Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra For Information: Jessie Polin, Marrowstone coordinator 11065 5th Avenue NE Seattle, WA 98125 206 362 2300 marrowstone.org Seattle Chamber Music Festival Seattle, WA June 29 to July 29 Now in its 32nd season, this four-week festival features 13 concerts and more than 40 internationally acclaimed musicians in chambermusic masterpieces and works from the solo repertoire.

Artistic Direction: James Ehnes Festival Artists: Edward Arron, Robert deMaine, Amit Peled, cello; Andrew Armstrong, Adam Neiman, Anton Nel, Anna Polonsky, piano; Richard O’Neill, Cynthia Phelps, viola; James Ehnes, Augustin Hadelich, Stefan Jackiw, Amy Schwartz Moretti, violin For Information: Seneca Garber, Director of Marketing 206 283 8710 206 283 8826 (fax) info@seattlechambermusic.org seattlechambermusic.org

WISCON SIN

Birch Creek Music Performance Center Egg Harbor, WI June 24 to July 6 Students are mentored by esteemed faculty during the day and perform with faculty in the

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symphony SPECIAL ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT TO SYMPHONY

SPRING 2013

S UMMER 80-member Birch Creek Symphony Orchestra at night, in six public concerts.

Artistic Direction: Ricardo Castaneda Festival Conductor: Brian Groner Festival Artists: Ricardo Castaneda, oboe; Jodie DeSalvo, piano; Robert Hanford, violin Featured Group: Birch Creek Symphony Orchestra Orchestra Affiliation: Birch Creek Symphony Orchestra For Information: Alan Kopischke, executive director 920 868 3763 920 868 1643 (fax) alan@birchcreek.org birchcreek.org Peninsula Music Festival Ephraim, WI August 6 to August 24 Professional symphony orchestra presents nine concerts in three weeks at the Door Community Auditorium, Fish Creek, located on the beautiful Door Peninsula of Wisconsin. Concerts are indoors, air-conditioned, with reserved seats.

Festival Conductors: Dan Black, Yuchi Chou, assistant conductors; JoAnn Falletta, guest conductor; Judith Jackson, chorus director; Chris Ramaekers, assistant conductor; David Wroe, guest conductor; Victor Yampolsky, music director/conductor Festival Artists: Christopher Grunty, baritone; Denise Djokic, cello; Janine Hawley, Tracy Watson, mezzo-soprano; Eric Olson, oboe; Inna Faliks, Stewart Goodyear, piano; Ron Bohmer, singer; Kimberly McCord, soprano; Grant Knox, tenor; Terry Everson, trumpet; Caroline Goulding, Ilya Kaler, Igor Yusefovich, violin Featured Groups: Dudley Birder Chorale, Peninsula Music Festival Chorus For Information: Sharon Grutzmacher, executive director P.O. Box 340 Ephraim, WI 54211 920 854 4060 920 854 1950 (fax) musicfestival@musicfestival.com musicfestival.com

W Y OM IN G

Grand Teton Music Festival Jackson Hole, WY July 4 to August 17 This summer festival is one of the world’s most renowned classical music gatherings, featuring an all-star orchestra of musicians from more than 50 major symphony and opera orchestras.

Music Direction: Donald Runnicles Festival Artists: Raymond Aceto, bass; Alicia Weilerstein, cello; Pablo Sáinz Villegas, guitar; Yefim Bronfman, piano; Eric Margiore, tenor; James Ehnes, violin Featured Groups: San Francisco Festival Chorale with Chorus Director Ian Robertson and guest conductors Matthias Pintscher, Ludovic Morlot and Miguel Harth-Bedoya.

For information: Steve Friedlander, managing director of artistic operations Walk Festival Hall, Teton Village, WY americanorchestras.org

FESTIVALS

2013

307-733-3050 (Office) 307-733-1128 (Tickets) gtmf.org

INDEX

ADVERTISER

Bellingham Festival of Music ............... 59 Boston University ................................... 2 Charlie Chaplin.....................................c2

INTE R N ATION AL

CHL Artists, Inc. ..................................c4

C A NADA

Ron Davis, piano .................................. 41

National Arts Centre Summer Music Institute Ottawa, Ontario June 6 to 29 Pinchas Zukerman leads an internationally renowned faculty for 70 highly talented students for private studies and chamber music coaching for three weeks in Ottawa.

Artistic Direction: Pinchas Zukerman Festival Artists: Joel Quarrington, bass; Christopher Millard, bassoon; Hans Jorgen Jensen, cello; Steven Dann, Yosuke Kawasaki, Nicholas Mann, chamber music; Kimball Sykes, clarinet; Joanna G’froerer, flute; Lawrence Vine, horn; Charles (Chip) Hamann, oboe; Yoheved (Veda) Kaplinsky, guest piano faculty; Tatiana Goncharova, piano; Jean Desmarais, resident pianist; Grigory Kalinovsky, Patinka Kopec, Pinchas Zukerman, viola/violin; Benita Valente, voice. Pre-College: Carole Sirois, cello; Adrian Anantawan, mentor; Bryan Wagorn, mentor/ resident pianist; Dr. Renee Epstein, psychologist; Tali Kravitz, viola; Elaine Klimasko, violin Orchestra Affiliation: National Arts Centre Orchestra For Information: Christy Harris, manager 613 947 7000 x 568 613 943 1400 (fax) christy.harris@nac-cna.ca nac-cna.ca/en/training/summermusicinstitute/ youngartists

ITA LY

Rome Chamber Music Festival Rome, Italy June 9 to 13 The Rome Chamber Music Festival features performances at Rome’s Palazzo Barberini led by Artistic Director Robert McDuffie and spotlighting renowned and young artists.

Artistic Direction: Robert McDuffie Festival Artists: Julie Albers, Gary Hoffman, cello; Andrea Lucchesini, Elena Matteucci, Elizabeth Pridgen, piano; Steve Moretti, percussion; Lawrence Dutton, Luca Sanzò, viola; Robert McDuffie, Amy Schwartz Moretti, violin Featured Group: Cortona Trio For Information: Therese Heyn, administrative director 250 Park Avenue, 7th Floor New York, NY 10177 917.821.1231 info@romechamberfestival.org romechamberfestival.org

Dan Kamin Comedy Concertos ............. 9 Ronnie Kole ......................................... 29 Landmarks Festival at the Shell ........... 54 League of American Orchestras ..... 13, 15, 17, 32-33 Listen Magazine ................................... 43 Marlboro Music ................................... 60 OnStage Productions ............................c3 Round Top Festival Institute ................ 58 Phillip Truckenbrod Concert Artists .... 19 Utah Symphony | Utah Opera ............. 53 Word Pros, Inc...................................... 28 Yamaha Corporation of America ........... 1 Correction: The following are updates and corrections to the Member Directory in the Winter 2013 issue of Symphony.

Boston Symphony Orchestra B-Mr. Edmund Kelly V-Mr. Charles W. Jack, Boston Symphony Association of Volunteers F-617 638 9367 Holland Symphony Orchestra P.O. Box 2685 Holland, MI 49422-2685 McLean Orchestra E-Mr. John Huling M-Ms. Miriam Burns B-Ms. Aileen A. Pisciotta, Esq. P.O. Box 760 McLean, VA 22101-0760 T-703 893 8646 F-703 893 8654 Sarasota Orchestra B-Mrs. Anne Folsom Smith V-Mrs. Mary Boose, Manatee Symphony Association V-Mrs. Anne Scott, Sarasota Orchestra Association T-941-953-4252

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LEAGUE OF AMERICAN ORCHESTRAS Annual support from individuals, corporations, and foundations helps to sustain the League of American Orchestras and its programs and services. The League of American Orchestras gratefully acknowledges the generosity of the following donors who contributed gifts of $600 and above as of February 20, 2013. To learn more about supporting the League, please visit us at americanorchestras.org, call 212 262 5161, or write us at Annual Fund, League of American Orchestras, 33 West 60th Street, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10023.

NATIONAL LEADERSHIP $150,000 and above

Bruce & Martha Clinton, on behalf of The Clinton Family Fund, Chicago, IL Julie F. & Peter D. Cummings, Palm Beach Gardens, FL The Richard & Helen DeVos Foundation, Grand Rapids, MI Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation, San Francisco, CA The Kresge Foundation, Troy, MI The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, New York, NY MetLife Foundation, New York, NY National Endowment for the Arts, Washington, DC Cynthia M. Sargent, Northbrook, IL

$50,000 – $149,999

Dr. & Mrs. Malcolm Brown, Winston-Salem, NC Mr. Richard W. Colburn, Northbrook, IL Marjorie S. Fisher Fund of the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan, Detroit, MI The Hearst Foundation, Inc., New York, NY Shirley Bush Helzberg, Kansas City, MO Anonymous (1)

NATIONAL COUNCIL $25,000 – $49,999

Melanie C. Clarke, Princeton, NJ The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, New York, NY Sakurako & William Fisher, San Francisco, CA John and Marcia Goldman, Atherton, CA Catherine & Peter Moye, Spokane, WA

$10,000 – $24,999

Mr. David Bohnett, Beverly Hills, CA Trish Bryan, Cincinnati, OH † Richard & Kay Fredericks Cisek, North Oaks, MN Cornell Family Foundation, New York, NY The Fatta Foundation, Lake View, NY The CHG Charitable Trust as recommended by Carole Haas Gravagno, Philadelphia, PA Mrs. Martha R. Ingram, Nashville, TN JPMorgan Chase, Chicago, IL Mark Jung, Menlo Park, CA Camille & Dennis LaBarre, Cleveland Heights, OH Jan & Daniel R. Lewis, Coral Gables, FL Jim & Kay Mabie, Northfield, IL James S. Marcus, New York, NY Shirley D. McCrary, Mooresville, AL

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New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York, NY Steven C. Parrish, Westport, CT Mary Carr Patton, Orange Park, FL Mrs. Patricia A. Richards, Salt Lake City, UT Mr. David Rockefeller, New York, NY Drs. John & Helen Schaefer, Tucson, AZ † Connie Steensma & Rick Prins, New York, NY † Richard B. Worley, Conshohocken, PA The Simon Yates & Kevin Roon Foundation, New York, NY †

$5,000 – $9,999

Burton Alter, Woodbridge, CT Harold M. Brierley, Plano, TX Mr. & Mrs. William G. Brown, Hobe Sound, FL John & Janet Canning, Westport, CT Nicky B. Carpenter, Wayzata, MN † Kevin V. Duncan, Denver, CO Beverlynn Elliott, Pittsburgh, PA Francis Goelet Charitable Lead Trusts, New York, NY Irving Harris Foundation, Chicago, IL Jim Hasler, Oakland, CO John E. Hayes, Highlands Ranch, CO The Hyde and Watson Foundation, Warren, NJ Stephen H. Judson, New York, NY Lori Julian, Oak Brook, IL Wendy & Asher Kelman, Beverly Hills, CA Jerome H. Kern, Castle Rock, CO The Lerner Foundation, Highland Heights, OH Peter B. Lewis, Coconut Grove, FL New York State Council on the Arts, New York, NY Lowell & Sonja Noteboom, Minnetonka, MN Charles & Barbara Olton, New York, NY † John & Farah Palmer, Tucson, AZ Peter Pastreich, Sausalito,CA *† Robert A. Peiser, Houston, TX Pryor Cashman LLP, New York, NY A.J.C. Smith, New York, NY Texas Commission on the Arts, Austin, TX Robert B. Tudor, III, Houston, TX The J. Stephen Turner Foundation, Nashville, TN Penelope Van Horn, Chicago, IL † Adair & Dick White, Atlanta, GA Ann Marie & John B. White Jr., Decatur, GA

NATIONAL FRIENDS OF THE LEAGUE Benefactor ($2,500 – $4,999)

Alberta Arthurs, New York, NY Richard J. Bogomolny, Gates Mills, OH Bruce Coppock, Mendota Heights, MN

The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, New Haven, CT Mrs. Anthony Evnin, Greenwich, CT Aaron A. Flagg & Cristina Stanescu Flagg, Easton, CT Mr. James M. Franklin, Inverness, IL Ed Gardner, Rye, NY Edward B. Gill, San Diego, CA Marian A. Godfrey, Richmond, MA Cannon Y. Harvey, Denver, CO Jeanne & Gary Herberger, Paradise Valley, AZ A.J. Huss, Jr., Saint Paul, MN James D. Ireland III, Cleveland, OH Catherine and John Koten, Hinsdale, IL Joseph H. Kluger, Gladwyne, PA Mr. & Mrs. Wilfred J. Larson, Naples, FL † Ned O. Lemkemeier, Saint Louis, MO Hugh W. Long, New Orleans, LA Mr. & Mrs. Phillip N. Lyons, Newport Beach, CA Jesse Rosen, New York, NY Seymour Rosen, Valhalla, NY † The Alfred and Jane Ross Foundation, New York, NY Rae Wade Trimmier, Mountain Brook, AL Alan D. Valentine, Nashville, TN Mr. & Mrs. Albert K. Webster, New York, NY

Sustainer ($1,000 – $2,499)

Douglas W. Adams, Breckenridge, CO Elaine Amacker Bridges, San Angelo, TX Brent & Jan Assink, San Francisco, CA William P. Blair, III, Canton, OH *† Deborah Borda, Los Angeles, CA Fred & Liz Bronstein, St. Louis, MO • Michelle Miller Burns & Gary W. Burns, Chicago, IL • Charles W. Cagle, Franklin, TN Catherine M. Cahill, Philadelphia, PA • Dr. Roland M. Carter, Chattanooga, TN The Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation, Chicago, IL Mrs. Judy Christl, Bonita Springs, FL NancyBell Coe, Santa Barbara, CA Robert Conrad, Cleveland, OH Margarita & John Contreni, Brookston, IN Trayton M. Davis, Montclair, NJ Gloria dePasquale, Narberth, PA Emma E. Dunch & Elizabeth W. Scott, New York, NY • Aaron Dworkin, Detroit, MI Mr. D.M. Edwards, Tyler, TX John Farrer, Bakersfield, CA Scott Faulkner & Andrea Lenz, Reno, NV † Susan Feder & Todd Gordon, Irvington, NY Michele & John Forsyte, Santa Ana, CA • David V. Foster, New York, NY

symphony

SPRING 2013

Clive Gillinson, New York, NY † Joseph B. Glossberg & Madeleine Condit Glossberg, Chicago, IL Jay Golan, New York, NY Michael S. Gordon, Newport Beach, CA Dietrich M. Gross, Wilmette, IL Mark & Christina Hanson, Milwaukee, WI • Daniel & Barbara Hart, Buffalo, NY • Jennifer Higdon & Cheryl Lawson, Philadelphia, PA Dr. & Mrs. Claire Fox Hillard, Albany, GA Mr. Michael J. Horvitz, New York, NY Russell Jones, Jersey City, NJ Laura Hyde, Tyler, TX Paul R. Judy, Naples, FL The Jurenko Foundation, Huntsville, AL Ms. Polly Kahn, New York, NY The Joseph & Nancy F. Keithley Foundation, Shaker Heights, OH Theresa Khawly, New York, NY R. Lawrence Kirkegaard, Chicago, IL Mr. Robert Kohl, Chicago, IL Judith Kurnick, Penn Valley, PA Robert & Emily Levine, Glendale, WI Christopher & Margo Light, Kalamazoo, MI *† Stephen Lisner, New York, NY Alex Machaskee, Cleveland, OH Virginia C. Mars, McLean, VA Steve & Lou Mason, Dayton, OH † Mattlin Foundation, Columbus, OH Alan McIntyre, Darien, CT Paul Meecham, Baltimore, MD Zarin Mehta, New York, NY LaDonna Meinders, Oklahoma City, OK David Alan Miller, Albany, NY Steven Monder, Cincinnati, OH † Michael Morgan, Oakland, CA Diane & Robert Moss, Key Biscayne, FL Mrs. Patricia Moye, Evans, GA Robert & Judi Newman, Englewood, CO James B. Nicholson, Detroit, MI James W. Palermo, Chicago, IL • Anne H. Parsons, Detroit, MI • Mrs. Alfred M. Rankin, Gates Mills, OH Mr. & Mrs. Alfred M. Rankin, Jr., Mayfield Heights, OH Peggy and Al Richardson, Erie, PA Melody Sawyer Richardson, Cincinnati, OH Susan L. Robinson, Sarasota, FL Robert & Barbara Rosoff, Queensbury, NY Don Roth, Davis, CA *† Deborah F. Rutter, Chicago, IL † Roger Saydack & Elaine Bernat, Eugene, OR † Fred & Gloria Sewell, Minneapolis, MN Mr. Richard P. Simmons, Sewickley, PA Tom and Dee Stegman, Cincinnati, OH David Tierno, Princeton, NJ Marylou L. Turner, Kansas City, MO americanorchestras.org

Matthew VanBesien & Rosie Jowitt, New York, NY • Allison Vulgamore, Philadelphia, PA • Tina Ward, Saint Louis, MO • Dr. Charles H. Webb, Bloomington, IN Franz Welser-Möst, Cleveland, OH Linda Weisbruch, Charlotte, NC

Patron ($600 – $999)

Akustiks, LLC, Norwalk, CT Ayden Adler, Miami, FL Lois H. Allen, Columbus, OH Gene and Mary Arner, Boise, ID Dr. Richard and Janet Barb, Indianapolis, IN Frances & Stephen Belcher, Severn, MD • Mr. Robert A. Birman, Prospect, KY David Bornemann, Scottsdale. AZ Wayne S. Brown and Brenda E Kee, Washington, D.C. Mr. Frank Byrne, Kansas City, MO Katherine Carleton, Toronto, ON, Canada Ms. Katy Clark, New York, NY • Mr. & Mrs. John Fazli, Indianapolis, IN Blair Fleishmann, Cinicinnati, OH Ryan Fleur & Laura Banchero, Memphis, TN †• Mrs. William A. Friedlander, Cincinnati, OH Karen Gahl-Mills & Laurence Mills-Gahl, Cleveland Heights, OH Mr. Kareem A. George, Franklin, MI • Gary Ginstling and Marta Lederer, Shaker Heights, OH Maryellen H. Gleason, Shorewood, WI Ken Goode, Cincinnati, OH Mr. André Gremillet, Melbourne, Australia Howard Herring, Miami Beach, FL Marilyn P. and Joseph W. Hirschhorn Fund of The Greater Cincinnati Foundation, Cincinnati, OH Lauri & Paul Hogle, Detroit, MI Holly H. Hudak, Chicago, IL Mrs. Rhonda P. Hunsinger, Lexington, SC Ms. Helena Jackson, Duluth, MN James M. Johnson, New York, NY Peter T. Kjome, Grand Rapids, MI JoAnne A. Krause, Brookfield, WI Andrea Laguni, Los Angeles, CA Carolyn & Wayne Landsverk, Portland, OR David Loebel, Lebanon, NH Dr. Gordon and Carole Mallett, Zionsville, IN Evans J. Mirageas, Minnetrista, MN J.L. Nave, III & Paul Cook, Fort Wayne, IN • Dr. Stanley E. Romanstein, Atlanta, GA William A. Ryberg, Kingston, WA Jo Ellen Saylor, Edina, MN Mr. Louis Scaglione, Philadelphia, PA Jim and Grace Seitz, Naples, FL Ms. Rita Shapiro, Washington, DC Richard L. Sias, Oklahoma City, OK

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.

W. Curtis Livingston, co-chair, Nantucket, MA Nina C. Masek, co-chair, Sonoita, AZ Janet F. & Dr. Richard E. Barb Family Foundation, Indianapolis, IN Wayne S. Brown & Brenda E. Kee, Washington, DC John & Janet Canning, Westport, CT Richard & Kay Fredericks Cisek, North Oaks, MN Martha and Herman Copen Fund, Mt. Carmel, CT Myra Janco Daniels, Naples, FL Samuel C. Dixon, Morrow, GA Henry & Frances Fogel, Chicago, IL Susan Harris, Ph.D., Ann Arbor, MI Steve & Lou Mason, Dayton, OH Shirley D. McCrary, Mooresville, AL Lowell & Sonja Noteboom, Minnetonka, MN Charles & Barbara Olton, New York, NY Peter Pastreich, San Francisco, CA Rodger E. Pitcairn, Rockville, MD Robert & Barbara Rosoff, Glens Falls, NY Robert J. Wagner, Maplewood, NJ Tina Ward, Saint Louis, MO Mr. & Mrs. Albert K. Webster, New York, NY Anonymous (1) David Snead, New York, NY Mr. Ari Solotoff, Portland, ME • Barbara J. Soroca, Stamford, CT Melia & Michael Tourangeau, Salt Lake City, UT Jeff & Melissa Tsai, Geneva, IL • Dr. Jane Van Dyk, Billings, MT Gus Vratsinas, Little Rock, AR Robert J. Wagner, Boonton, NJ Edward Walker, Oklahoma City, OK Melody L. Welsh-Buchholz, Crestwood, KY Melinda Whiting & John Burrows, Riverton, NJ Peter Stafford Wilson, Westerville, OH Mr. Paul R. Winberg, Chicago, IL Dr. Lisa Wong and Mr. Lynn Chang, Newton, MA Rebecca & David Worters, Raleigh, NC Edward C. Yim, New York, NY • * Charter Member † Directors Council (former League Board) • Orchestra Management Fellowship Program Alumni + Includes Corporate Matching Gift ‡ In-Kind Donation

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CODA

The Art of Listening Last summer, conductor Robert Spano became music director of the Aspen Music Festival and School— fundamentally an educational institution. That’s in addition to his work as music director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. What does it take to connect the concert hall and the conservatory?

T

o join the Aspen Music Festival and School and its many communities at this particular time is an honor and a great challenge. At the heart of the Festival is the School, and in our work today as musicians, education is of paramount importance. For all of us who love the rich tradition of what we colloquially call classical music, we currently face seismic shifts in how we fund, present, promote, nurture, and sustain this precious art.

The concert experience as we know it has flourished for a mere few hundred years, and for it to continue to thrive will require us to be creatively adaptive in transformational ways. But let’s remember that “tradition” and “traitor” have the same Latin root. Therein lies a warning: while undergoing necessary transformation, let us not betray the essence of our tradition.

At the core of our tradition is active listening. Active listening is the magical thread that binds composer, performer, and audience. Our capacity to pay attention to sound as it unveils its meaning through time is a precious art, one distinguished from other, no less “musical” experiences such as trance-inducing chant, elevator music, or disco.

The expression “pay attention” is the key. Appreciation of a Mahler symphony requires an investment on the part of the listener—an active engagement, an extension outside of oneself. Attentive listening is a payment that reaps rich rewards.

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Robert Spano works with Lee Mills, a student at Aspen’s American Academy of Conducting.

Aspen Music Festival and School Music Director Robert Spano conducts his first concert as music director-designate at the opening Aspen Festival Orchestra performance in July 2011.

Spano and Yoheved Kaplinsky (left) study a score with 2012 American Academy of Conducting student Gevorg Gharabekyan.

All photos this page: Alex Ivin

The art of listening is the core of the tradition we must pass on to the next generation. The ramifications of cultivating that human capacity could have far-reaching positive impact in many arenas—social, political, religious.

At the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra we continually face the challenges of revitalizing and connecting great music to a great city. The brilliant musicians onstage and many wise colleagues with whom I’ve shared my twelve years there have taught me much of what I want to bring to Aspen. The extraordinary faculty at Aspen brings tremendous wealth of experience and expertise as well as a desire to pass it on. Aspen provides a unique, intensive, and potentially transformative experience for its students.

From within the woodwind section, Spano observes a student conductor at the American Academy of Conducting.

In turn, if we as teachers and mentors listen attentively to our students, we may find their perspective informs us as we face the challenges of perpetuating our great tradition. Aspen is the ideal laboratory for finding our path to the future.

The Aspen Music Festival and School brings more than 600 students together every summer to study privately with eminent pedagogues and perform in the festival with professional classical artists.

symphony

SPRING 2013

SUMMER FESTIVAL JUNE 17 – AUGUST 10, 2013

EIGHT WEEKS OF MARVELOUS MUSIC IN SANTA BARBARA Orchestra

MOSHER GUEST ARTISTS

Masterclasses

Vladimir Chernov baritone Brooklyn Rider string quartet Jeremy Denk piano Midori violin

Opera

GUEST CONDUCTORS

Chamber Music

Guest Artist Recitals

James Gaffigan Bernard Labadie Nicholas McGegan Tito Muñoz Matthias Pintscher Larry Rachleff Leonard Slatkin

VISITING ARTISTS FESTIVAL BROCHURE AND TICKETS

805.969.8787 musicacademy.org Music Academy of the West, 1070 Fairway Road, Santa Barbara, CA

Glenn Dicterow violin Cynthia Phelps viola Joshua Roman cello Takács Quartet and many more stellar artists

Festival Corporate Sponsor