more ink on the OSO

Stephen Marc Beaudoin just wrote a piece for Crosscut which is entitled “Can Anyone Fix the Oregon Symphony?“.  Squarely in his sights is the newly-formed collaboration with Pink Martini front man Thomas Lauderdale.  Clearly, Beaudoin does not know of Lauderdale’s training as a classical pianist, for he seems to find Lauderdale lacking in his knowledge of classical music and for some reason, as a person who wouldn’t deign to stay for the entire length of a concert that he just introduced.

Thomas Lauderdale skipped onto the Schnitzer Concert Hall stage to thunderous applause. It was opening night of the Oregon Symphony‘s new season. Lauderdale – Portland band Pink Martini‘s sassy spike-haired leader – trotted out, flashed a big grin, and gushed breathlessly about the Symphony’s season ahead.

The audience roared its approval. Lauderdale disappeared into the wings. Conductor Carlos Kalmar took the podium.

But as I listened to the symphony play a respectable if safe season-opening concert, I wondered what Lauderdale’s enthusiastic endorsement of the symphony really meant. Why was this Portland pop star, the city’s current cultural ambassador to the world, being pimped as a spokesman for our increasingly conservative and debt-saddled flagship orchestra?

Aside from that, Beaudoin has reiterated points presented here and elsewhere about the current viability (or near lack thereof) of the Oregon Symphony.  We know that James DePreist was/is a titanic figure of Falstaffianly-proportioned charisma.  We know that Carlos is not.  We also know that the Oregon Symphony has missed the mark in producing programming that is fresh and exciting to a whole range of concert goers (see my post of a few days ago):

We’re damned if we do and damned if we don’t in some quarters. First we play too much “new” music, then we don’t play enough. But maybe we don’t play enough of the right “new” music (I put the quotes because my view of new music is music written in the last decade, not pieces written only since 1930). We can be responsible while also being provocative – instead of commissioning Kevin Walczyk’s Corps of Discovery Symphony for the anniversary of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, why not commission a piece from a native American composer, or at least seek a piece written from a sympathetic point of view to native Americans? Imagine the conversations that could be stimulated by such a commission! It’s just one example, but thinking big idea-wise rather than just small budget-wise can create “buzz” and excitement – that something is cooking over at the Oregon Symphony – rather than business as usual playing dead white European music in the same tired format.

The problem with armchair quarterbacking, however, is that you only see the public side of the story.  When you’re bringing an institution of the size and stature of the OSO back from the brink, there are system-wide changes, some subtle, some not, that must be made.  Most everyone (myself included) is focusing on what goes on front-of-house.  I would argue that what goes on in the back office is equally important.  And changes are happening, I just can’t say what they are – yet.  I think that the way the symphony presents itself to the community will change drastically, but over time, not overnight.

I for one applaud the decision to embrace Thomas Lauderdale’s collaboration with the symphony: the OSO gave him (via Norman Leyden) his big break with orchestras (including a Rhapsody in Blue performance on Norman’s Sunday afternoon concerts), and he’s giving back to the institution that made some of Pink’s biggest high-profile (Boston Pops, Hollywood Bowl) concerts possible.  Thomas has always been keenly interested in the OSO – in what was being played, how the orchestra sounded, and the health of the orchestra.  He’s finally being given a hand in helping us out, and not a moment too soon.  I don’t think that it’s a move made out of desperation, but rather a long-overdue but welcome partnership that should have been undertaken years ago.