crosscut author responds

Stephen Beaudoin has written a response to much of the criticism which greeted his initial article on Crosscut. You can find the response here.

His suggestions:

1. Get into the community.
2. Bring in a composer-in-residence.
3. Put the music in context.
4. Bring in hotter artists.
5. Use Thomas Lauderdale in a full and meaningful way.

I agree whole-heartedly with #1. We spend a lot of time justifying our label of Oregon Symphony when in actual fact we’re more the Portland Symphony than ever before. While we cannot replace a system of music in the public schools, we can help to foster music appreciation and early exposure to classical music and instruments in the inner city schools and surrounding suburban school districts. Our audiences and funding sources largely come from the Tri-Met district, so maybe we should tend to our own backyard rather than the back 40 for the time being.

#2 – I just cannot get my mind around why this would be an essential idea to an orchestra’s survival. There are so many good composers out there today – why limit yourself to just one? I don’t think the idea is so much repertoire – we have a music director with a proven interest and knack with contemporary music, especially when you look at his work in Grant Park, where he doesn’t have to worry about funding and ticket sales. The only way I could see this working at all is an idea like they’re doing in Baltimore this season where John Adams and Thomas Adés are being brought in to conduct their music alongside the symphonies of Beethoven on the same concerts. That’s an inspired idea because they are both good conductors and their music is dissimilar to each others and very much at the forefront of what audiences are partial to these days.

UPDATE:

James W. Palermo, Artistic and General Manager of the Grant Park Music Festival, wrote the following clarification regarding my characterization of the GP’s funding situation – I apologize for the error:

“I did want to clarify one point from your recent blog entry. At Grant Park we do have to raise 50% of our annual budget from concert sponsorships, fundraising events, targeted donations and memberships (our closest thing to ticket sales. Members receive a reserved seat in exchange for a donation.)

While the $2 million we receive from the Chicago Park District allows us to present the concerts free of charge, the other $2 million required to fully fund the Festival ($4 million total budget) is raised by me, a staff and a board of directors.”

#3 has merit – I’m not so fond of those cutesy slogans for each concert either. The problem is, it takes a lot more resources to pull off showing context than an outsider would think. Someone has to think up the concept, write the script, put together examples, and make the whole thing work seamlessly without making it seem like a didactic exercise. A lot of concert goers don’t want to be talked to all evening, some love it. We’ve got the Inside the Score series, maybe that could be leveraged to provide a season-wide contextual view of a theme that over arches the entire season’s programming. Something along the lines of “opera in the 20th century” with excerpts from various operas – scenes/arias from Berg’s Wozzeck, Bartòk’s Bluebeard’s Castle, Korngold’s Die Tote Stadt, Schoenberg’s Moses und Aron, Adams’ Nixon in China, and Adés’ Powder Her Face, for example.

#4 is right on, and I think it’s safe to say that that is going to change. We’ve got one of the hottest artists around coming in for our gala next season, which is so exciting, but I can’t reveal who it is or I’ll be hunted down and drawn and quartered by the marketing department.

#5 I totally agree with, but I just don’t think we’ve seen the full extent of the plan, such as it may be, and there may be more to come on that. If it is just a cosmetic fix, I’ll be the most disappointed person in Portland.