{"id":3035,"date":"2009-09-01T06:00:21","date_gmt":"2009-09-01T13:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/?p=3035"},"modified":"2013-02-07T19:53:59","modified_gmt":"2013-02-08T03:53:59","slug":"more-on-the-pdx-monthly-article","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/09\/01\/more-on-the-pdx-monthly-article\/","title":{"rendered":"more on the pdx monthly article"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few days ago, I was emailed a link to a major feature article<\/a> appearing in the September issue of the major monthly magazine in Portland, the Portland Monthly<\/a>.\u00a0 The subject: Oregon Symphony music director Carlos Kalmar and his leadership of the Oregon Symphony.\u00a0 My initial reaction to the piece was somewhat muted.\u00a0 I’d read a lot of critiques of music directors before, and this one hit all of the familiar tropes.\u00a0 But they started adding up:\u00a0 Conductor as Tyrant. The Unapproachable Conductor.\u00a0 Conductor as magician.\u00a0 Conductor as Enemy of Freedom<\/em>.\u00a0 My reaction to the piece began to strengthen, and not in a good way.\u00a0 But at least he showed candor in admitting his lack of knowledge of classical music.\u00a0 I wish that he’d spent more time talking about how he came to view his symphonic experiences at the end of the article – that would have been a beneficial and fascinating read.\u00a0 That was the road not taken.\u00a0 Instead, he proceeded to quote some sources that were undoubtedly itching to give him some good dirt for his article.\u00a0 Disgruntled former employees are very unlikely to give you the unvarnished truth, free of any bias – which is just as true of those who are currently working in the orchestra – the classical music world is a very small place.\u00a0 One of the truisms about journalism that I’ve encountered again and again is that your story is only as strong as your sources.\u00a0 So knowing who you’re speaking to and what sort of axe they have to grind is just as important as what the source has to say. There were<\/em> some positive quotes from other musicians, but they seemed to be included only to give the impression of a balanced article – because the bulk of the piece seemed to dwell on the negative aspects of Kalmar’s tenure with the orchestra.\u00a0 It’s quite easy to overlook one quote of “I like him a lot” as opposed to several quotes intimating that “He is evil incarnate”.<\/p>\n

As for the personnel changes that took place after Kalmar took over from James DePriest, it always amazes me that it gets such a charged reaction from people when a few musicians get let go (for cause and under the requirements specified in detail in the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) that management has negotiated with the union), when people can scarcely bat an eye when they hear that Kaiser Permanente California is laying off 860 of their<\/em> employees<\/a>.\u00a0 It’s the first item on the job description of the music director to ensure the highest quality artistic standards from their orchestra.\u00a0 Long past are the days when a musician could be fired mid-rehearsal and never be see on stage again.\u00a0 People like to throw around charges of conductors being tyrants, behaving immaturely, and making capricious decisions, but the fact is, the conductor’s powers have been steadily reduced over the last 50 odd years.\u00a0 And what power they do have must conform to some involved legalese in the CBA.\u00a0 I remember in the days when James DePreist was music director, that some of the veteran musicians used to joke about “having lunch with Jimmy”.\u00a0 That meant being invited to lunch with the music director, and being asked to resign one’s position.\u00a0 This happened more than a few times during his tenure, but according to some, much less often that was necessary for major upticks in artistic quality.\u00a0 In any business, people get fired.\u00a0 It’s not always fair, but there is a long and arduous process that must be followed for a musician to be terminated from their position, and, unless the musician chooses to go public (like the front page of the Oregonian<\/em> newspaper), it is often handled behind the scenes with discrestion and a minimum of fuss visible to the public.<\/p>\n

Reacting to the general tone of the article, one of my colleagues said “Aren’t the arts suffering enough? Couldn’t there have been a more positive spin on how the orchestra is doing?”\u00a0 I agree.\u00a0 Though I suppose that the newspaper and magazine industry might be suffering even more than the arts are right now.\u00a0 Negative articles sell lots of newspapers and magazines.\u00a0 But, people also<\/em> love a good story about an underdog that’s making their way through the trials of adversity to success at a new level.\u00a0 That’s precisely what the Oregon Symphony is doing, and has been doing, for the last several years.\u00a0 Some cynical people believe that quality doesn’t matter – though I’m not one of them.\u00a0 No matter where I spend my hard earned dollars on entertainment and edification, I expect the experience I pay for to be of the highest quality – and the artistic level of the OSO has never been higher than it is today.\u00a0 There is one person to credit for that: Carlos Kalmar.\u00a0 Part of that has been re-building the orchestra on the path to his ideal of perfection.\u00a0 And part of that process is either motivating current musicians to do better, or hiring those who are either able or willing or both to help lift the orchestra to that new level.\u00a0 It means making hard decisions, sometimes against popular opinion, and staking your reputation on the results.<\/p>\n

In the end, the author does reluctantly concede that the Oregon Symphony is a fine ensemble, and that Kalmar is most likely a very good conductor.\u00a0 He talks very briefly about the power of live symphonic music, and how it affected him.\u00a0 But it’s almost like a few teaspoons of sugar added on top of the piece to try and keep us from recognizing the bitter aftertaste of what has come before.<\/p>\n

By the way, I was the musician at the party who knocked over the wine glass.\u00a0 My bad!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few days ago, I was emailed a link to a major feature article appearing in the September issue of the major monthly magazine in Portland, the Portland Monthly.\u00a0 The subject: Oregon Symphony music director Carlos Kalmar and his leadership of the Oregon Symphony.\u00a0 My initial reaction to the piece was somewhat muted.\u00a0 I’d read […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[148,186,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appreciations","category-labor-issues","category-the-orchestra-world"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-MX","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":279,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/04\/16\/adam-flatt-to-newport-symphony\/","url_meta":{"origin":3035,"position":0},"title":"adam flatt to newport symphony","author":"Charles Noble","date":"April 16, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Click for photo: Adam Flatt It's always gratifying to hear of a great musician and person who manages to succeed in this tough business. I just learned that my old buddy Adam Flatt (who was a conducting apprentice here in Portland just after I arrived) has been appointed as the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3125,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/09\/14\/further-reaction-to-portland-monthly-article\/","url_meta":{"origin":3035,"position":1},"title":"further reaction to portland monthly article","author":"Charles Noble","date":"September 14, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"You've got to give Bill Donohue credit - he got a lot of people's attention with his article on the Oregon Symphony and its music director Carlos Kalmar in the September issue.\u00a0 It's gotten to the point where other media outlets are starting to examine some of the issues that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13009,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2013\/10\/18\/portland-indies-oregon-symphony\/","url_meta":{"origin":3035,"position":2},"title":"Portland indies @ Oregon Symphony","author":"Charles Noble","date":"October 18, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The band Black Prairie setting up and talking with conductor Jeff Tyzik at this morning's rehearsal. The show is Saturday night, and tickets are available online at www.orsymphony.org or at the door the night of the show. Concert is at 7:30 pm.","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7510,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2012\/04\/17\/two-mini-bombshells\/","url_meta":{"origin":3035,"position":3},"title":"two mini bombshells","author":"Charles Noble","date":"April 17, 2012","format":"aside","excerpt":"Just learned of these two news items in the local Portland classical scene via the always excellent Oregon ArtsWatch: Huw Edwards, conductor of the Portland Columbia Symphony for the past 12 seasons, will resign his position effective the end of this season. Huw has been a nearly constant presence in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":549,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/11\/25\/kogan-stepping-up-in-utah\/","url_meta":{"origin":3035,"position":4},"title":"kogan stepping up in utah?","author":"Charles Noble","date":"November 25, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I just ran across this story from the Salt Lake Tribune about the possible succession of Keith Lockhart as music director of the Utah Symphony by their former principal conductor Pavel Kogan. Kogan was also a candidate for music director here in Oregon, but Carlos Kalmar was chosen instead.","rel":"","context":"In "music"","block_context":{"text":"music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7528,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2012\/04\/24\/oregon-symphony-broadcast-schedule-announced\/","url_meta":{"origin":3035,"position":5},"title":"oregon symphony broadcast schedule announced","author":"Charles Noble","date":"April 24, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Finally! The Oregon Symphony is back on the airwaves, and not only our local FM station (89.9 FM Allclassical.org), but streamed around the world and available for two weeks after the broadcast date as an archived stream. Kahane Plays Mozart Carlos Kalmar, conductor Jeffrey Kahane, piano Vaughan Williams: Symphony No.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "radio"","block_context":{"text":"radio","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/radio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3035\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}