Working with the Columbus Symphony this week. They’ve recently recovered from a near-death experience (the orchestra was dark for 6 months) where all sorts of bad things happened. Despite this, the orchestra is playing very well. They are a great group of musicians.
There are challenges ahead here, and everywhere for orchestras “in this economy” (that dreaded and ubiquitous phrase). I tend to look at the situation very objectively. It’s easy to point fingers, and play the blame game, but it’s not particularly productive, I think. The objective problem is this: orchestras are non-profits, they need more donors and more earned income (audiences). We need to get more people excited about orchestral music. How?
Well I always put my self in the shoes of one of these “new people.” Why aren’t they coming? Do they hate music? I don’t know anyone who hates music, actually. We all know why “new people” don’t come to the symphony. “It’s stuffy, elitist, snobby, boring, not fun, and they don’t play the music I like.” That’s what they say, but of course most of them haven’t been to a single concert.
It’s the image.
Why don’t orchestras work on their image more? It’s the key. We’re doing all the right stuff. We play a variety of music in my orchestra, from Bach to Radiohead. No one can say we don’t have at least one concert that offers “music they like.” We add untold depth and riches to our community through our educational programs, and by playing the worlds most beautiful music at the highest level.
But not enough people know that.
Image. Image. Image.
Let’s start with the word “symphony.” If you are not a symphony patron, does that word have a positive, negative, or neutral connotation? I think for many it’s a negative, because of its stuffy, snobby vibe. But there’s another romantic side to the word that I notice in contemporary culture. (Justin Timberlake, for instance, in his song “My Love” — “if I wrote you a syyyymmmphony.”) Can we turn the image of the symphony to the romantic thing Justin croons about in his song? We need to start at the very beginning with the word — symphony — that defines us. With imagination, we can make the word what we want it to be.
Here’s a great example of how musicians are much more open-minded than audiences or critics expect them to be. During a snowstorm last week I had some time to watch a 3-hour documentary on Kraftwerk and German electronica. For those of you who don’t know Kraftwerk, you should. Here’s what they look like …
… and that’s more or less what their music sounds like.
Anyway they were saying how much they dug the music of James Brown because of the “pictographical rhythm” of his music. Yes! They’re absolutely right! In songs like “Get It Together” or “Let Yourself Go” you can really see the rhythm. That’s also true for the Rite of Spring and a lot of Stravinsky as well. Anyway — “pictographical rhythm” — what a great description. Music fits together an cool and unexpected ways.
The YouTube Symphony is up and running. I think this is super-cool, and this is only the beginning. They started big, and they started right. Read the ARTICLE.
It’s Sunday afternoon, and I’m decompressing. It was a busy week.
We had TIME FOR THREE here this week, who played in our Intersections series. They got a good REVIEW in our local paper, The Record. The end of the review is really funny to me though. The reviewer comments that the orchestra didn’t have enough to do during the concert:
“Perhaps this show belonged with the symphony’s Pops series (where I would probably go see Tf3 again for all the froth and fun). While applauding Outwater’s efforts to challenge the boundaries of symphonic music in this series, I vote for more intersection and less wallpaper.”
Now I happen to agree strongly with the reviewer that the orchestra didn’t do enough. It’s a problem with Time for Three … they don’t have enough charts yet. They’re working on it. Even so, I couldn’t resist bringing them to KW asap., despite the fact that the orchestra would be sitting most of the time. In an ideal situation, the orchestra should have had more to do. No doubt.
But what’s funny to me is that he’s suggesting what does and doesn’t belong in the INTERSECTIONS series, a format I INVENTED only four concerts ago! That’s kind of cool — it must mean that the four shows that we’ve done already have a common vibe …
The real intention is that INTERSECTIONS is a completely flexible format, and that includes some concerts where the orchestra plays a lot (like the electronica show earlier this year) and sometimes not so much. It’s about whatever is new, interesting. In the case of Time for Three, the music they play is an intersection: it’s impossible to categorize as bluegrass, classical, country, hip-hop, etc. That’s why I think they belong in this series.
At any rate, this particular critical response shows the human need to categorize art, which is not what art is about, ultimately. But that tension has been around since the beginning of criticism.
There were some extra events around this concert, including an apres-concert gathering at the Jane Bond in Waterloo. Good turnout of musicians, staff, and audience. And we had a party at my place earlier in the week to attract new folks to the KWS. It was a younger crowd, and they got to hear Time for Three up close. Here’s a video of them playing for the party. It was their first time as a group in Canada, but they chose the right music to impress the Canadians! Soon they’ll figure out it’s not “Tom Horton’s” and then they’ll really be in business.
I had a great time with the Riverside County Philharmonic this weekend. Probably one of the best kept secrets in the LA area: a young, talented orchestra that loves to play, and plays WELL! I’d go back anytime. The main portion of the concert was Shostakovich 10. Many of the musicians literally had to drive through the LA fires to get to the concert, which of course fit the mood of the symphony. One of the musicians captured it on cellphone and put the video on YouTube with the terrifying 2nd movement of Shostakovich 10 in the background. These guys didn’t just play the symphony, they kind of LIVED it.
I spent (US) election night in Canada, basically by myself with a glass of wine (well, more than one). The next day I found myself being congratulated by various Canadians, not only because the guy they wanted won, but because our country had taken an enormous step into the future. It made me think a lot of America’s audacity, which can be both bad (last 8 years) and good (the election). I wonder what our future holds?
In town that week was Richard Stolzman, who played a tribute to Benny Goodman. Richard is what some of my musical friends and I would call a “spaceman.” An intrepid musical traveler who (successfully) explores the outer limits of musical phrases and colors and sound. What comes out of his horn sounds like nothing else on earth, and that’s a good thing. It was really really inspiring to work with him. His music-making immediately imprinted on my soul. What more could one ask from an artist?
Headed back to SF for two days of good food (Shanghai Dumpling King, SPQR, Suppenküche) and a short protest against the gay marriage ban (aka prop 8). Again, the Canadians reaction to that was interesting. It was basically, “What’s up with that?!” In Canada they’ve figured out that you can be “traditional,” deeply religious, and conservative AND not imprint your religious/cultural beliefs on others. Everyone gets along just fine. I think Prop. 8 is just a temporary setback.
Now I’m staying in Pasadena and got to see the Huntington Estate, which has the most beautiful and poetic gardens. It was a clear day, and the light was so beautiful, a sprinkler could be poetic.
And they had a cactus garden …
And a Japanese Garden …
These are all in the same place. Another one of those LA fantasies that really exist. It was a bit like a movie studio, because you could see where the fantasy gardens ended, and the desert climate and urban reality began. It added a whole layer of melancholy to the place, which made it even more beautiful.
It was a great concert for a great cause: Paul Newman’s PAINTED TURTLE camp. Lord, there we lots of actors there, reading Hemingway while the SFS and I played Copland in the background. It was interesting seeing the different approaches to acting that these guys had. Some were totally prepared and intense about their scenes (Bruce Willis was amazing); some were wingin’ it (no comment). The kind of variation possible in how an actor work is huge. It’s much different for a classical musician. We have to play all the notes live, and get them RIGHT. That being said, the amount of charisma onstage was outrageous. That’s something classical music needs more of.
Since the actors were reading, it was all about the voice. It’s amazing how iconic these voices are. Jack Nicholson really talks like that! It’s wild. He shook my hand and said “congratulations,” and it took him twice as long to say that as most normal folks. And to hear Danny DeVito say “mashed potatoes” was hilarious! I mean, who says those words better? I thought Anette Benning had an extraordinary voice as well.
A personal highlight was meeting Edward James Olmos, who did an amazing job and clearly has a big, generous heart. He’s one of my favorite actors and is amazing in Battlestar Galactica (which I love love love*). At the end of the show he was pumping his fist in the air and yelling “yeah! thank you! thank you!” It would also be cool if we did that at the end of classical shows.
*for BSG fans: he told me “the end will be very satisfying — it will feel like the journey is really over.”
