a glimpse behind the veil at Cleveland Orchestra February 27, 2007
Posted by Charles Noble in : the orchestra world, 2comments
Ellen DePasquale
From today’s Cleveland Plain Dealer:
Ellen dePasquale, one of the Cleveland Orchestra’s most high-profile musicians, has resigned as associate concertmaster, even as the orchestra is preparing to hold an audition that will displace her as second-in-line after concertmaster William Preucil.
Some of you may be wondering “what’s the fuss about?” Basically, there is a change in the basic heirarchy of the first violins of the Cleveland Orchestra. If you’re looking at the orchestra from the audience, the Concertmaster sits just to the left of the podium (conductor), closest to the audience. To the Concertmaster’s left is their stand partner, in this case referred to as the Assistant concertmaster. Directly behind the Concertmaster is the Associate concertmaster. In the case of the Cleveland Orchestra, this is the player who moves up when the concertmaster is absent. Apparently, the outgoing Associate concertmaster, Ms. DePasquale, is leaving under protest because the position of First Associate Concertmaster is being added, and will basically cut in line in the order of succession, becoming “a heartbeat away from being concertmaster”.
This is an interesting situation, because what would normally be an in-house, private affair has become news. It also speaks to what might be internal tensions within the upper ranks of the first violin section of the Cleveland Orchestra. I would suspect that there is some tension between the Concertmaster and one of the other titled players (currently, there are the concertmaster, two assistant concertmasters, and one associate concertmaster). Adding the additional First Associate concertmaster position would displace someone one more level from reaching the first stand of the violin section. This might not seem like much, but it’s much like having a noisy neighbor and building a three foot extension onto your six foot fence to make a point.
There were rumors about this resignation a few weeks ago on the MyAuditions discussion forums, and it will be interesting to see what comes of this publicity. This case of ruffled feathers comes on the heels of an inflammatory article on Cleveland Orchestra Concertmaster William Preucil in the Cleveland’s free weekly paper, the Cleveland Scene. As with most weekly free paper web sites, the action is mostly in the comments.
the future of classical music? February 27, 2007
Posted by Charles Noble in : the orchestra world, add a commentI was surfing various blogs and came across this site. It is a project of the American Youth Symphony’s Plight of American Music Initiative. While it seems largely to be aimed at the efforts of youth orchestras and other youth ensembles, some of the points made could be applicable to major symphonic ensembles. Here is the opening of their mission statement:
As you may know, from jazz to rock and roll to hip hop, mainstream America has always greeted the expressive music of young generations with disdain. In spite of this, history has proven these musics to be a
valid part of American Art.However, for the first time in our history, a generation– from kids to college graduates– is being brought up on a diet of electronic, non-melodious music. Criticism is no longer about the moral or philosophical content of a young generation’s music, but rather the way in which music comes to life — which up until now was by performers playing musical instruments.
This new paradigm could render traditional forms of American music, such as the symphony, opera or even jazz extinct as the current generation reaches maturity and the current supporters have passed on.
And here are the opening paragraphs of their report on the “MTV/hip-hop generation” and symphony orchestras:
The American Youth Symphony issues this report as part of its Plight of American Music Initiative. This Initiative, in part, is an ongoing discussion program─taking place in middle and high schools across the country─addressing the state of instrumental music performance and its appreciation by the MTV / Hip Hop Generation.
We view this report as significant because unlike major studies and data cited herein, it recognizes the new paradigm that exists in our society regarding electronic sound (see definition below), MTV and Hip Hop culture and a reconfiguring of traditional demographic segments.
The effects of this new paradigm are challenging. Previously, the research of musical tastes and behaviors went forward on the premise that people agreed generally with what defined music, i.e. melodies, harmonies and rhythms performed by people on musical and vocal instruments. However, the traditional parameters of what constitutes music and a musical performance have been dramatically expanded by the MTV / Hip Hop culture. Today, the young generation no longer differentiates between the artistry involved in playing a musical instrument, such as a violin, versus the artistry involved in choosing a violin sample and then programming a computer to play it.
It is in this context that this report concludes that the culture, financial position and presentation of the major
symphony orchestras in the United States, with regard to classical music, are detrimental to the task of impacting the MTV / Hip Hop Generation. We do conclude however, that the role of the youth and community orchestras is vital but needs retooling in order to increase the MTV / Hip Hop generation’s familiarity with instrumental music performance.
The basic thrust of the report is that the age group of non-classical music lovers between 12 - 34 years old is being totally overlooked by all traditional music institutions, and that there are specific strategies which might help to woo this important and under-served generation. Here are some of their recommendations:
Proponants of traditional music forms must:
1) . . . be willing to abandon the failed marketing strategies of large symphony orchestras who may have different social and musical priorites and who possess complex financial stuctures.
2) Recognize that youth orchestras do not have to change their mission of providing an enlightening experience to youth by teaching them classical music. However, they must also institute an equal mission of making the experience for young listeners interesting and comfortable.
3) Understand that commercial marketing is the new world order in garnering widespread musical allegiances among youth and that fostering a long-term welfare culture of survival by grants, donations and tuition makes you less creative, savvy and resourceful in the commercial marketplace.
4) Recognize that your greatest financial comodity is the orchestra itself.
angela’s memorial February 25, 2007
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The memorial service for Angela Svendsen took place today. Angela was killed two weeks ago tonight along with Kjersten Oquist in a tragic auto accident on I-5. It was a good service. It had what any real examination of a person’s life has: tears, laughter, celebration, mourning. Unlike Kjersten’s service, I had a role to play in this one. I was part of a string quartet (with violinists Ron Blessinger and Gretchen Tucker, and cellist Heather Blackburn) which was asked to perform the Barber Adagio (from his String Quartet, op. 11). It was a tough thing to do, but I think it illustrates what we as professional musicians are called upon to do every day.
All of us in the quartet were emotionally invested in the occasion: we all knew Angela to one degree or another, and losing a member of the musical community is always tough. The room was quite cold, and there was no time to warm up to any significant degree, and the performance was scheduled for quite late in the service. Plus, we were sitting in the audience, absorbing all that was going on, and the emotions that were filling the space. In addition, the Barber is not an easy piece to pull off in ideal circumstances - it is slow (often a harder tempo to settle than fast), and is in a key signature of five flats, which is an intonation minefield with stringed instruments (no open strings, which makes the instrument less resonant). Add to all of this that the piece has potent emotional associations from famous funerals and motion pictures. In spite of all this, we expected (and were expected) to give a clean, musical performance of the piece. Which we did.
I don’t remember much from the actual performance, just a lot of pure concentration, and it seemed to only last a couple of seconds. But we pulled it off, and this is what we’re expected to do at every performance, whether we’re sick, tired, had a big fight at home, ran over a cat, or whatever else bad can happen to someone in the course of ordinary life. If we have a bad day, it’s usually in front of several hundred or several thousand paying audience members, and it’s frowned upon, especially if we’re freelance musicians - who audition for their jobs every time they go to a rehearsal or performance.
In the end, it reaffirmed what music can do for us. It expresses that which has no words, deep feelings that we dare not let out in other ways, and is taken into everyone’s hearts in their own way, serving them as they need it best. It’s why I became a musician, and it was a timely reminder of why what I and my colleagues do matters so much. There was a moving set of remarks by Angela’s father late in the service, in which he made reference to a world which is tearing itself apart. This is just the sort of world which desperately needs the arts, for the arts are the soul that gives the world a conscience. Whatever your religious or spiritual inclinations, I think we can all agree on this.
On the back of the program leaflet was the following quote from Marianne Williamson. I found it deeply affecting, and thought that you might, too:
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, “Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?” Actually, who are you not to? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
yawns in Philly? February 23, 2007
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From today’s Philadelphia Inquirer:
In a surprise move made without the knowledge or approval of its full musician membership, the Philadelphia Orchestra has appointed Charles Dutoit chief conductor and artistic adviser.
Dutoit, 70, a longtime and frequent guest conductor here who oversees the orchestra’s summer series in Saratoga, N.Y., will assume his new titles for the 2008-09 season after Christoph Eschenbach steps down. He has a contract through 2011-12, leading up to eight weeks of subscription concerts each season plus more in Saratoga and on tour.
Dutoit will not have the title of music director, and as interim leader will have many but not all of of the same responsibilities as music director for four years as the orchestra searches for an eighth music director. The decision to engage the Swiss-born conductor was announced to the musicians of the orchestra by president James Undercofler backstage after last night’s concert.
Not that he’s necessarily a bad choice, but the first sentence of the article (included in the excerpt above) is troubling: without the knowledge or approval of its full musician membership. I’m assuming, at the very least, and that key word is “full”, and that there was musician input from members of the search committee or orchestra committee on this decision. What it does show is that, with the New York Philharmonic and Chicago Symphony also looking for their next music directors, the competition is going to be stiff for the few qualified candidates out there (assuming that they’re even interested in a U.S. position), and it is going to take a few years. Chicago took a similar move with Boulez and Haintink having substantial recurring roles with the orchestra as they conduct their search, and in New York, Maazel is the obvious place-holder music director.
practicing, why bother? February 20, 2007
Posted by Charles Noble in : the orchestra world, 3commentsToday I went to the home of a wonderful local pianist who is accompanying a student of mine for the district solo contest. The pianist is a veteran of the concert stage and has played just about everything written for violin, viola and cello (with piano) over the years. The student was on his maiden voyage of the Hindemith Op. 11 no. 4 Sonata (a masterpiece for the viola, or any instrument, for that matter). I may be wrong, but I think that there are few pieces for viola and piano that represent such a daunting challenge to both players as this sonata. Hindemith sees fit to change meters, but not tell the player when he’s done so. It takes some getting used to, when you’re reading through the piece for the first time with the piano present. The first movement is a study in rubato and intricacy, with much interplay between the two parts (three, if you count the left-hand of the piano independently). My student did a great job for his first try. There are so many traps, and you’re worried about sounding good with a new and unfamiliar accompanist, and your teacher is there listening for anything untoward.
It’s hard for non-musicians to know how difficult it is to play something with someone else for the first time after weeks and months of working your own part alone. There is so much distraction in the piano part! The left hand proves a welcome support, but then it gets yanked out from under you when you need it most. Places where you are landing on the first beat of the bar, the piano gets there first, and makes you doubt your timing. It’s quite an adventure. This doesn’t even take into account intonation - nothing to give you a raging case of humility like a first run-through with the piano
It’s a similar situation with the orchestra, either in works prepared ad-nauseum for auditions or for new, technically challenging works that we’ve never seen before. There is that time spent in the practice studio, working certain passages over and over again, looking for a solution to that knotty place between beat three and beat four, which the fingers and brain try to run like a class V rapids, only to be forced to portage past again and again. You try to hear the parts you’re playing with, and there is a good deal of listening to recordings with the music for a completely unfamiliar work, but sooner or later, it all falls away and you hear everything that’s wrong with what you’re doing. It’s an insular, neurotic place to live. So, when you get to the first rehearsal, you’ve hopefully learned all the nasty bits and you’re raring to go. You get through the easy parts and then the roar of the impending rapids signals the entrance from hell - suddenly you’re in, and it doesn’t feel like you’ve ever seen this blasted passage in your life! How could this be? Your mind flails, searching for anything that might help, and you’re dimly aware of what you’re stand partner is doing, or the person behind you, but it doesn’t sound exactly like what you worked on at home. To make matters worse, the cellos are doing something really strange that doesn’t match up at all with what you’re doing, and the conductor from the side looks like he’s doing Noh theater. These moments are what make the practice necessary: because when you’ve developed the short-term and long-term memory (of fingers and brain, respectively), your fingers remember where they’re supposed to go, and the brain knows what’s coming up next at a near-subconscious level, and you get through the passage pretty well. Maybe not perfectly, but you squeek through and the next time it gets better and better.
This is why, if you live next to, with, upstairs, or downstairs from a musician, you hear them practicing the same damn passages over and over again. They’re not doing it to torture you, in fact it probably hurts them more than it hurts you, they’re burning the passage into their brain like a chip-burner puts information on a ROM chip - permanently there to be retrieved at any time in the near or distant future.
kjersten’s memorial February 17, 2007
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This afternoon the first of two memorials to be held for Kjersten Oquist and Angela Svendsen was held. It was a remarkable event. There must have been at least 250 people in attendance at the Portland Golf Club in SW Portland. What a testament to the impact that Kjersten had on her family, colleagues, students, and friends. There were a number of very moving and insightful remembrances given by friends, family and colleagues. All pointed to Kjersten’s intense desire to be better and her amazing capacity for selflessness. Her desire to improve herself served as an inspiration for those around her. Her selflessness helped those around her to be more aware of the needs of others. That is a life lived well. In spite of its brevity.
The initial shock of Monday morning, which became anguish, pain, anger, doubt, confusion, hate, guilt, and resignation, has through the process of sharing my grief with others today, become something approaching hope. I wish I had known Kjersten better. I wish I had been a better colleague, acquaintance, friend, musician when I saw her both at the OSO and OBT. Today, I found out a lot that I didn’t know about her - her gardening, her deep love of books and reading, her incredible fight to become a mother, and her obvious love for her son and husband. I also learned that Portland, and Oregon in general, has a wonderful community of musicians of all types. We share a love of our craft and a love of sharing that craft with others. Some of us make a living from playing in one ensemble, while others work at several ensembles to cobble together a living. Some of us teach just a few students, where some of us teach dozens every week. In the end, we’re all the same, and we all care for each other. The outpouring of support, and the hugs shared with people I hadn’t seen for years, meant so much to me and everyone who was there today. It brought me comfort, and hope. I know that Kjersten would be proud.
angela’s obituary February 17, 2007
Posted by Charles Noble in : Uncategorized, add a commentHere is the obituary from The Columbian:
SVENDSEN, ANGELA JOYCE
Angela Joyce Svendsen, 31, passed away February 11, 2007. She was born January 28, 1976 in Bellevue, WA, to Gordon and Kathy Schuster. Angela was an extremely devoted wife, daughter, sister, and friend. As a violin teacher, Angela loved her students and drew limitless pride at watching them grow into accomplished musicians and people. She also enjoyed her time in the Eugene Symphony and the Oregon Ballet Theatre Orchestra. She is deeply loved and admired and will be truly missed by all who knew her. She is survived by her husband, Erik, and her three cherished puppies - Johan, Dante, and Ren. Other family members include brothers, Bryan and Joshua and sister, Rebecca; brothers-in-law, Carl, Christopher, and Aaron; Sister-in-law, Brandis and nephew, Nick; father and mother, Gordon and Kathy; fathers-in-law, Bill and Scott, and mothers-in-law, Teri and Sue.
A Celebration of Life will be held February 25, 2007, 1:00pm, at Vancouver School of Arts and Academics in Vancouver, WA. Anyone who feels moved to do so, please bring your violin and accompany us in the playing of “Twinkle”.
Donations may be made to: “Angela Svendsen Memorial Scholarship Fund” at Riverview Community Bank.
Published in the Columbian on 02/15/2007
mourning through music February 17, 2007
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On Thursday evening, the Eugene Symphony went ahead with their scheduled concert featuring flutist James Galway. They also found some very touching and meaningful ways to express their grief and honor Kjersten and Angela, their two colleagues who were killed last Sunday night in a wrong-way accident. You can read three accounts of the concert here:
with culture, responsibility February 14, 2007
Posted by Charles Noble in : the orchestra world, 1 comment so farI’ve been doing a lot of thinking these past three days. Thinking of how the pointless, needless deaths of two colleagues might have prevented. It’s a difficult process, coming to grips with the inexplicable - it makes one realize the value of a strong religious faith, and the comfort which that can bring. I, however, see no plan, no way that the violent, random extinguishing of these two vibrant spirits can possibly result in the betterment of others. Perhaps, with time, there might be something positive to come out of this tragic event, but I cannot imagine it would be any recompense to Kjersten’s and Angela’s parents, spouses, children, friends, colleagues, or patrons.
As I have pondered more the nature of the freelance lifestyle - the endless driving, rehearsing, fast-food dining, weekends lost on the highway, evenings lost on the highway, and long days spent in a haze of tiredness doing the “day job” - I wonder about the nature of culture in America, and how it has created an entire class of migrant freelance musicians. Before the dawn of the 20th century, most of America’s population was rural, while most American culture or fine art was urban. As the Industrial Revolution took full sway, the population began to pour into the urban centers, further enriching the arts. After the World Wars, the power and wealth of America as the dominant superpower poured wealth into many of the smaller cities and towns.
These newly-enriched population centers sought to emulate their more well-established and wealthy cities, and arts lovers founded museums, theater companies and orchestras. As travel became more accessible through the automobile, musicians who were largely trained in the largest urban centers found these new sources of income were available to them, but at the cost of travel. As these smaller communities grew, they wished to have ensembles which could keep the best musicians in town, which in turn would ensure more artistic stability and a general enrichment of the local arts scene through resident musicians.
By the 1960’s, many smaller communities (including Portland) had resident orchestras which played fairly extensive seasons, though not necessarily enough to ensure a living wage. At this time even the major orchestras such as those in Boston, New York, Cleveland, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles (the “big 5″) were not playing full 52 week seasons and their members often played recording gigs or taught lessons to supplement their incomes. Somewhere along the line, however, the decline of the power of the music director and the rise of the power of the musicians’ union led to dramatic increases in pay for the largest orchestras in the wealthiest communities. Members of these orchestras were now able to play only the work required by their orchestra in order to make a living wage.
Meanwhile, the smaller orchestras and their supporters saw this development and wished that their circumstances could match those of their larger counterparts. Boards and donors worked to make this possible, as the musicians pushed ever harder for wages that would reflect their years of education and hard work as well as their ever-increasing level of artistic prowess. Somewhere along the line, however, both parts of the organism which is the symphony orchestra lost sight of what their communities could afford. Short-term gains were pursued at the cost of long-term sustainability. By the 1990’s, many orchestras in large metropolitan areas were going out of business (Vancouver, B.C., San Diego, San Antonio, Florida Philharmonic, etc.). These areas did not lack for local wealth - in fact they were rife with it. These organizations ceased to make effective cases for their own survival. They over-extended themselves because they did not plan for success, they simply demanded it to appear out of thin air with Enron-style accounting sleight of hand.
Meanwhile, the previous successes and ballooning budgets of these orchestras attracted more musicians to come to the growing regions of the country. The largest ensembles could not employ the vast majority of these new musicians, and so many of the resulting “edge cities” of these metro areas began their own orchestras. Why? Because they wanted their own pet cultural project to rival their big brother or sister cities. Musicians began commuting from the larger cities to the smaller ones, often distances of over 100 miles or more. Rather than funding the larger, well-established ensembles, these regional semi-professional gigs took resources and talent away from the cities.
Back in the cities, the available competing destinations for philanthropic entities grew considerably, diluting the amount of money any one ensemble could raise. Salaries leveled off, then dropped, as these ensembles were unable to meet their fund-raising goals. As a result, the ballet and opera companies were unable to support full-time ensembles. These musicians were forced to travel ever further out into the region to continue to make a living wage, commuting two hours each way on top of playing in several local ensembles and teaching as many as 40 students a week - all at the same time. The commuter-freelance musician had arrived.
What would make this cycle end? It’s hard to say, but better planning by boards and musicians about how to grow an organization would certainly help. Recognition by the public that the arts deserve robust support, not just from individuals but also through government subsidy, would also help. If the smaller ensembles were able to get enough support to pay close to a living wage, it could cut down on the amount of commuting that many freelance musicians must do in order to survive. In the end, if we want the perks of a cultured society, we must take on the responsibility to ensure that those who provide the culture are afforded a decent, living wage.
heartfelt eulogy February 13, 2007
Posted by Charles Noble in : Uncategorized, 1 comment so farClick here for a beautifully written account of who Kjersten and Angela were and why what they were doing was important. Written by OSO Principal percussionist and OBT Music Director Niel DePonte.
