The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) has recently named those orchestras and organizations which were selected to be honored for “Adventurous Programming” during the 2006-2007 season. I also have a connection to a couple of those groups honored, which I’ll talk about after the jump.Here are the awards and those to whom they were awarded (and here’s a link to the entire press release):
John S. Edwards Award for Strongest Commitment to New American Music
Atlanta Symphony OrchestraMorton Gould Award for Innovative Programming
Chicago Symphony OrchestraLeonard Bernstein Award for Educational Programming
Minnesota OrchestraAwards for Programming of Contemporary Music
Orchestras with Annual Operating Expenses more than $14.1 Million
First Place: Los Angeles Philharmonic
Second Place: The Cleveland Orchestra
Third Place: San Francisco SymphonyOrchestras with Annual Operating Expenses $5.7 – $14.1 Million
First Place: New World Symphony
Second Place: Nashville Symphony
Third Place: Colorado Symphony OrchestraOrchestras with Annual Operating Expenses $1.8 – $5.7 Million
First Place: Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra
Second Place: Hartford Symphony Orchestra
Third Place: New Mexico SymphonyOrchestras with Annual Operating Expenses $470,000 – $1.8 Million
First Place: Boston Modern Orchestra Project
Second Place: Berkley Symphony Orchestra
Third Place: South Dakota Symphony OrchestraOrchestras with Annual Operating Expenses $470,000 or less
First Place: Northwest Symphony Orchestra
Second Place: Orchestra 2001
Third Place: Laredo Philharmonic OrchestraCollegiate Orchestras
First Place: Portland State University Symphony Orchestra
Second Place: Peabody Symphony and Concert Orchestra
Third Place: Stanford Symphony OrchestraYouth Orchestras
First Place: Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra
Second Place: Etowah Youth Orchestras
Third Place: Vermont Youth OrchestraFestival Orchestras
First Place: Cabrillo Music Festival
Second Place: The Aspen Music Festival and School
My connection goes to the Collegiate Orchestras and Youth Orchestras categories. Portland State University is the local music school of note in Portland, and their new conductor Ken Seldon is doing a great job there so far. This award is a sign that things are changing for the better at PSU. I hope that the university powers that be will continue to give the orchestral program the funding it needs to grow and prosper. Peabody Conservatory is where I did one of my graduate degrees, and their conductor of the upper orchestra, Hajime Teri Murai, has always had a strong commitment to make sure that students at Peabody are exposed to cutting edge music and the best recent contemporary music by leading composers. I’m glad to see that the work he began shortly before I arrived at Peabody is still continuing and flourishing. Finally, there is the Vermont Youth Orchestra. Its music director, Troy Peters, was in my youth orchestra in Tacoma, Washington when I was growing up, and he was the best man at my wedding. He’s a great musician, composer, conductor, and educator, and he’s doing an amazing job with the program in Vermont.
So, why should you care about any of these awards? Because these places you see honored above are places where boundaries are being pushed, new repertoire is being actively explored, and audiences are being successfully challenged AND entertained. Most of the orchestras and festivals you see listed are also doing pretty well financially (with Cleveland a notable exception this year) and they seem to have found a mix of the familiar and the new which appeals to a broad cross-section of their desired audiences. They also all have focused, as part of their mission, on making sure that they are curating concerts which contain both the old AND the new, rather than just concentrating on the old masters.
The point is, these orchestras have taken chances over the years to arrive at the honored places which they now occupy. Being bold and adventurous results in some setbacks, but overall you end up with more than you started with. Being conservative and “safe” results in some initial gains, but in the end you have consolidated a shrinking toehold with no new insights or strategies.
I feel that the Oregon Symphony, for all of the public griping by some critics about the makeup of our programming “too much that’s unfamiliar, audiences are confused” and similar malarky, needs to focus on making itself a force for positive change in the arts community in Portland and in Oregon. I’ve heard a lot about what we can’t do – reasoned, reasonable explanations of why certain things are undesirable, too risky, or too strange to do here in Portland. I would argue that Portland is a city – of all cities – which would embrace a unique approach to an established art form. I hear way too little about what we can or could be doing – all I hear is what worked for us in the past, and what other orchestras in other cities might be doing that might work here.
The Oregon Symphony stands at a crossroads – we can choose to be either an innovative force for change which also honors and treasures the great works of our past, or we can stay moribund and rudderless, waiting for forces either internal or external to come and make decisions for our future which might be drastic and with far-reaching consequences. We can start with simple gestures such as changing the standard orchestral dress code for the players for certain concerts, or choosing soloists and guest conductors who are challenging the status quo of classical music. We can start, before all of that, by saying that we are unique, vital, valuable, and constantly striving to find that which is interesting and invigorating in our art form.