I like the “if I ran the world” game, it has wiled away many an hour with friends as we ponder what we’d do if we had lots of money and\/or power to change the way the world works. What follows are what I would do if I had a budget of, say, $1 billion and lots of political connections (which the $1B would surely secure for me!).<\/p>\n
Here is what I would do if I were a billionaire, had $1 billion in a foundation to give away (in addition to the principal), in the Portland classical music scene: I’d…<\/p>\n
1. Hold an international design competition, select a winner, and build the resulting purpose-built symphonic concert hall of 1,800 seats with an integral purpose-built chamber music hall seating 800. Then give the hall to the Oregon Symphony with an endowment to cover expenses of maintaining the hall. I’d have the hall sited next to the OHSU building at the bottom of the tram line, where the shipyard currently resides. It would be part of a mixed-use development with restaurants, shops, a park and housing for low, middle and upper income levels.<\/p>\n
2. Set up and endow a foundation whose sole purpose would be to allow the various arts organizations in town to collaborate without regards to fighting over who is going to pay for the project. Can you imagine the possible outcomes? I can: Whitebird Dance doing newly commissioned dances with world renowned composers, choreographers and with Oregon Symphony musicians playing the chamber works to accompany the dancers.
\nOr truly collaborative festivals celebrating a single composer, or seminal year in music history, or a nationalist stream of thought. These festivals would involve such parties as Portland Center Stage, professors from Reed College, cutting edge local film directors and cinematographers, dancers, composers, playwrights, dramatists, authors, poets, spoken word artists, performance artists, etc. Portland would become a place like the Aldeburgh Festival was while Benjamin Britten was the director – a place that would become an international locus for thinking about music in new ways, and in context with all of its companion fine arts.<\/p>\n
3. Give money in the tens of millions of dollars each year, and challenge the leading families of Portland and the region to step up and match with the contributions as best they can – adventurous, far-reaching gifts that demonstrate a clear passion and enduring love of the arts on a level unprecedented in Oregon.<\/p>\n
It’s a short list, I know, and it is SO pie-in-the-sky, but Paul Allen could do it. It would be like me writing a check for $5000, which would be a hardship in the short term, but I could survive the expenditure. So could he, and if there aren’t any other people who care, (Phil Knight could also do it with a mere flick of the pen) the leading foundations and philanthropists could stop Balkanizing the arts funding landscape of Portland and set up a communal fund that would make such collaboration and capital expense a real possibility in the near or middle term.<\/p>\n
Just something to think about.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I like the “if I ran the world” game, it has wiled away many an hour with friends as we ponder what we’d do if we had lots of money and\/or power to change the way the world works. 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Slowly, we'll all come down from the tremendous high that resulted from our triumphant debut in the epicenter\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":513,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/11\/03\/how-not-to-fix-the-oregon-symphony\/","url_meta":{"origin":408,"position":2},"title":"how not to fix the Oregon Symphony","author":"Charles Noble","date":"November 3, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Over the last two years, the coverage of the the Oregon Symphony in the local press has become more sporadic, and when it does happen, much more pessimistic, and maybe a little bit cynical. First, an outline of what constitutes the press in Portland, Oregon, for those of you who\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "appreciation"","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":599,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/12\/18\/oso-posts-improved-numbers\/","url_meta":{"origin":408,"position":3},"title":"OSO posts improved numbers","author":"Charles Noble","date":"December 18, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I just received a press release from the Oregon Symphony outlining improved ticket sales (up only slightly from last year, but with six fewer concerts (36 vs. 39) presented it represents greater attendance per concert). Read the complete release below. (PORTLAND, Ore.) \u00e2\u20ac\u201c The Oregon Symphony closed out the first\u2026","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":4298,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/03\/31\/nw-horn-orchestra-this-saturday\/","url_meta":{"origin":408,"position":4},"title":"nw horn orchestra this saturday","author":"Charles Noble","date":"March 31, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's what came into my inbox today: French Horn Enthusiasts; Our Fourth annual show. Don\u2019t miss it! The Northwest Horn Orchestra rides again On Saturday, April 3rd at 8:00, The Northwest Horn Orchestra will perform at The Old Church, 1422\u00a0 SW 11th, in downtown Portland. Maestro Dave Bryan and eighteen\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":7547,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2012\/04\/27\/outside-in\/","url_meta":{"origin":408,"position":5},"title":"outside in","author":"Charles Noble","date":"April 27, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"This past Thursday night, the Oregon Symphony was broadcast as part of a new series of local and web-streamed broadcasts on our local public classical music station, allclassical.org. In the past we'd had a series of broadcasts on the local NPR station, which were then shifted over to the home\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "appreciation"","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408","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=408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}