Symphony Spring 2022

SPRING 2022

n $6.95

S Y M P H O N Y

Music in Wartime

Orchestras respond to the Russian invasion of Ukraine

SPRING 2022

What’s Ahead at Summer Music Festivals

Catalyst Guide: Orchestras Prioritize Equity

New Homes for Music Education

See you in LA

REGISTER AT: LEAGUECONFERENCE.ORG HOSTED BY:

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH:

THE WESTIN BONAVENTURE HOTEL & SUITES, LOS ANGELES

AMERICANORCHESTRAS.ORG

1

Prelude

T

he images are heartbreaking. An orchestra of Ukrainian musicians performing outdoors in Kyiv’s Maidan Square even as Russia bombed the city. The young musicians of the Afghanistan National Institute of Music fleeing their homes and abandoning their instruments as armed troops of the Taliban swept into Kabul. Classical musicians accompanying a vigil in Richmond, Virginia in memory of a Black musician who was killed while in police custody. A youth orchestra in New Jersey giving a concert to benefit the victims of hate crimes targeting Asian Americans.

Yet these images are also inspiring, because they show immediate musical responses to often unbearable situations. The classical music field is increasingly confronting urgent social issues and performing music as response, resistance, protest, memorial, meditation. As Leonard Bernstein said after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, “This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before.” Playing music does not fix any core crisis, but orchestras are stepping forward as seldom before.

This issue of Symphony charts some of these developments. London Philharmonic Artistic Director Elena Dubinets reports on the vibrant classical music scene in Ukraine. As orchestras strive to become more inclusive, League President and CEO Simon Woods asks whether the concept of a classical “canon”—frozen in time, etched in stone—should be reconsidered. We examine the real-world actions that orchestras are taking toward equity, diversity, and inclusion. And we report on how the new homes for youth orchestras represent not only literal stakes in the ground, but fresh commitments to music education, young musicians, and the future.

symphony T H E M AG A Z I N E O F T H E L E AG U E O F A M E R I C A N O R C H E S T R A S

VOLUME 73, NUMBER 2 / SPRING 2022

symphony® the award-winning quarterly

magazine of the League of American Orchestras, discusses issues critical to the orchestra community and commun­icates to the American public the value and importance of orchestras and the music they perform.

EDITOR IN CHIEF

Robert Sandla

MANAGING EDITOR

Jennifer Melick

PRODUCTION AND DESIGN

Ginger Dolden

ADVERTISING DIRECTOR ADVERTISING ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER PRINTED BY

Stephen Alter Ian Dennis Simon Woods Dartmouth Printing Co. Hanover, NH

symphony® (ISSN 0271-2687) is published

quarterly (January, April, July, October) for $25 per year by the League of American Orchestras, 520 8th Avenue, Suite 2005, 20th Floor, New York, NY 10018-4167. Send address changes to Symphony, 520 8th Avenue, Suite 2005, 20th Floor, New York, NY 10018-4167.

SUBSCRIPTIONS AND PURCHASES

Annual subscription $25.00. To subscribe, call 646-822-4080 or send an e-mail to member@americanorchestras.org. Current issue $6.95. Back issues available to members $6.95/non-members $8.45.

Directory, 75th Anniversary, and other special issues: members $11.00/non-members $13.00 ADDRESS CHANGES

Please send your name and your new and old addresses to Member Services at the New York office (address below), or send an e-mail to member@americanorchestras.org.

EDITORIAL AND ADVERTISING OFFICES

520 8th Avenue, Suite 2005, 20th Floor New York, NY 10018-4167 E-mail (editorial): editor@americanorchestras.org E-mail (advertising): salter@americanorchestras.org Phone (advertising): 646-822-4051 © 2022 League of American Orchestras

symphony® is a registered trademark.

Printed in the U.S.A.

WEBSITE

americanorchestras.org

2

SPRING 2022

T HE MAGAZIN E O F T HE LEAG UE OF A M ERI C A N ORC H E S T R A S

2 Prelude

by Robert Sandla

symphony SPRING 2022

4 The Score

Orchestra news, moves, and events

4

12 Conference Preview

This June, the League’s 77th National Conference will be the first time everyone in the orchestra field gathers in person in three years. What’s in store?

By David Styers

16 Forward Thinking

12

As orchestras strive to be more inclusive and include a wider range of composers, musicians, and audiences, Simon Woods explores why it may be time to drop the notion of a classical music “canon.”

20 Board Room

This tumultuous era presents an opportunity for board chairs to lead their orchestras in rebuilding and renewing their organizations. What do today’s leaders expect as they look forward? By Jasmine Liu

16

24 Listening to Ukraine

Ukraine’s classical composers and musical contributions are far more significant than many people realize, writes Elena Dubinets, and it’s time for that to change.

32

28 Catalyzing Progress

The League’s new Catalyst Guide, Promising Practices: Actions Orchestras Can Take to Make Progress Toward Equity, provides concrete advice and real-world examples from orchestras that are working to expand equity, diversity, and inclusion. By Theodore Wiprud

The Los Angeles Philharmonic’s new YOLA headquarters in Inglewood represents a commitment to free music-making for young people in an underserved neighborhood. It arrives as music education is becoming increasingly important for youth orchestras and communities. By Jim Farber

RR Jones

32 Home, Sweet Home

38

38 Festivals on the Move

Summer music festivals continue to adapt and change as they implement fresh approaches to concerts. by Steven Brown

44 Summer Music Festivals 2022

A classical guide to what’s on at music festivals—in person and virtually—this summer.

58 Cementing Flexibility

Will the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s new collective-bargaining agreement, with more flexible work rules, usher in permanent changes in how orchestras and musicians work together? By Jeremy Reynolds

61 Advertiser Index 62 League of American Orchestras Annual Fund 64 Coda

Countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo is broadening the definition of the classical singer to include impresario, activist, connector.

Text marked like this indicates a link to websites and online resources.

AMERICANORCHESTRAS.ORG

64 ABOUT THE COVER On March 12, the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra in New York presented a benefit concert to provide humanitarian aid to people in Ukraine. Led by Music Director Andreas Delfs, the concert featured music by Ukrainian composers. In photo: musicians of the Rochester Philharmonic attached ribbons in the colors of the Ukrainian flag to their instruments in a show of solidarity. Photo credit: Tyler Cervini. For more on how orchestras are responding to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, see page 4.

3

The Score NEWS, MOVES, AND EVENTS IN THE ORC HES TRA INDUS TRY

UKRAINE RESPONSE

Tyler Cervini

On February 24, Russia invaded Ukraine. Orchestras all over the world responded to the crisis rapidly, and showed their support for Ukraine by performing the Ukrainian National Anthem, adding compositions by Ukrainian composers, lighting their concert halls in the blue and yellow colors of the Ukraine flag, and hosting concerts to raise money for humanitarian assistance to Ukrainian citizens and refugees. Heart-rending images of music-making flooded the internet: cellist Denys Karachevtsev playing Bach in the bombed-out city of Kharkiv; the Kyiv-Classic Symphony Orchestra performing in a frigid Maidan Square in Kyiv. The war also had an immediate impact on concert programs in Europe and the U.S. Yannick Nézet-Séguin and David Robertson stepped in to conduct Vienna Philharmonic concerts at Carnegie Hall in New York and at Artis—Naples in Florida, after Russian conductor Valery Gergiev was removed from that tour. Gergiev has long publicly supported Russian President Vladimir Putin, including during the country’s military incursions in eastern Ukraine and Syria. Gergiev’s contract as principal conductor at the Munich Philharmonic was terminated, and other orchestras also severed ties with the conductor. Anna Rakitina, assistant conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, stepped in to conduct two New York Philharmonic concerts originally scheduled to be led by Russian conductor Tugan Sokhiev, who resigned his positions as music director of the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow and France’s Orchestre National du Capitole in Toulouse, rather than publicly clarify his position on the war.

Margaret Wroblewski/Kennedy Center

Severance Hall Cleveland Roger Mastroianni

Musicians from the Rochester Philharmonic perform at the orchestra’s March 12 concert raising funds for humanitarian assistance to Ukraine.

The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. (left), and the Cleveland Orchestra’s Severance Hall (right) were among the performing arts venues lit in blue and yellow, the colors of the Ukrainian flag.

4

Ukrainian conductor Oksana Lyniv, music director of Italy’s Teatro Comunale di Bologna, leads a recent concert wearing a sash in the colors of the Ukrainian flag. Lyniv has been active in efforts to raise funds to help Ukrainians, including evacuating musicians from the Youth Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, which she founded in 2016.

SPRING 2022

In the wake of the Russian invasion, on March 6 the League of American Orchestras issued a statement in support of Ukraine. The statement, posted at https://americanorchestras.org/solidaritywith-ukraine/, is being regularly updated with links to examples of American orchestras that are supporting Ukraine, which at press time included 28 ensembles. The statement appears below: Dear Colleagues, The Russian invasion of Ukraine is a betrayal of humanity. In the face of this attack on an independent nation, with innocent citizens being killed, maimed, or forced to flee their homes, we may feel powerless as arts organizations to make a difference. Nonetheless, this past week the classical music world has moved swiftly to respond to unfolding events and many American orchestras have expressed their solidarity with the people of Ukraine in powerful ways.

Music at its very core stands for humanity, peace, freedom of expression, and for coming together above personal difference. As a sector we will continue to use our voice and our art to stand up for dignity and safety in the face of oppression.

The League of American Orchestras has brought together on this page some examples of how orchestras are supporting Ukraine in this tragic moment.

Sharing artistry and using the power of music to support peace and understanding are ways orchestras can help now and in the weeks ahead. One resource orchestras might find helpful is the Ukrainian Scores project, which provides musical scores by Ukrainian composers. We invite orchestras to highlight their artistic responses by sending an email to advocacy@ americanorchestras.org with a link to your orchestra’s action.

The U.S. Department of State is highlighting a gofundme campaign for a Ukrainian Humanitarian Fund as one centralized fundraising effort, which also includes links to individual, verified nonprofit humanitarian organizations.

We will continue to update this page and keep you informed about other ways you can help.

With best wishes, Simon Woods President and CEO League of American Orchestras

David K. Riddick

New Chair at the NEA On December 18, 2021, the U.S. Senate confirmed Maria Rosario Jackson as the 13th chair of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). Jackson is the first NEA chair to be an African American and Mexican Maria Rosario Jackson, new chair American woman. She is a of the NEA professor in the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University, where she also holds an appointment in the Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions. Jackson holds a doctorate in urban planning from the University of California, Los Angeles and a master of public administration degree from the University of Southern California. Her work appears in professional and academic publications, and she has been an advisor to numerous foundations. “The work of the NEA and the need for arts and creativity are more important now than ever,” Jackson stated. “In addition to serving as an economic engine, arts and creativity are core to what it takes to heal our nation, our communities, and ourselves.” In February, the Senate also confirmed Shelly C. Lowe lead the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), making Lowe the first Native American to lead the NEH. AMERICANORCHESTRAS.ORG

Championing Music Education The Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra recently honored longtime board member Marilynn Tannebaum by naming its new music education program after her. The Marilynn Tannenbaum Youth Music Education Institute is now the umbrella for IPO’s youth-education programs, Longtime Illinois Philharmonic which aim to make instrumental Orchestra supporter Marilynn Tannenbaum at the unveiling programs accessible to young of the orchestra’s new music people through experiences with education program named for her. professional musicians. The orchestra surprised Tannenbaum with the announcement during a concert at Olympia Fields Country Club. Tannenbaum attended her first IPO concert in the 1980s, routinely brought members of the orchestra into the Park Forest school where she was principal, and worked to create a full youth concert for students from Chicago’s South Suburbs.

Tannenbaum joined IPO’s board of directors in 1988 and became board president in 1993; she has continued to champion music and education for three decades, serving on the boards of the IPO and the Suburban Youth Symphony Orchestra. Said IPO Executive Director Christina Salerno, “The Institute will be a vehicle for IPO to attract wider community support for youth music programming, thereby increasing opportunities for all children.”

5

THE SCORE

St. Louis Symphony Orchestra

At the San Francisco Symphony’s world premiere of Fang Man’s Song of the Flaming Phoenix, from left: Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen, composer Fang Man, and sheng soloist Wu Wei.

ROCO

New works by women composers were increasingly performed by orchestras this winter, thanks in part to the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation Orchestral Commissions Program for women composers, an initiative of the League of American Orchestras, in partnership with American Composers Orchestra. In February, the Houston-based ROCO (formerly River Oaks Chamber Orchestra) played the world premiere of Leanna Primiani’s Neither man nor money validate my worth, led by guest conductor Sarah Hicks. In early March, the San Francisco Symphony gave the first performances of Fang Man’s Song of the Flaming Phoenix: Concerto for Sheng and Orchestra, conducted by Music Director EsaPekka Salonen, with Wu Wei as the sheng soloist. In mid-March, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, led by Music Director Stéphane Denève, premiered Stacy Garrop’s Goddess Triptych. What’s ahead for the Toulmin program? World premieres

by Cindy Cox at the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and by Wang Jie at the Buffalo Philharmonic in May and June—with more to come.

Kristen Loken

Hear Her Voice

Leanna Primiani, at far left, at a rehearsal of her new Neither man nor money validate my worth with ROCO and conductor Sarah Hicks.

Composer Stacy Garrop takes a bow at the world premiere of her Goddess Triptych with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Stéphane Denève.

MUSIC ON TAP During the pandemic, the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra in Massachusetts has taken a flexible approach, presenting concerts however and wherever it is safe to do so, from outdoor events in city parks to performances in a design showroom in the city’s seaport district. One sign of the changing times: in March, the orchestra’s “Symphony on Tap” concerts returned to Kilburn Mill, an event space in a former textile mill overlooking Clark’s Cove, near downtown New Bedford. One-hour concerts in the series feature the full orchestra performing in a nightclub setting; doors open an hour before the concert for cocktails, craft beer, and food, and the space stays open an hour afterward for audience members to mingle with musicians and Music Director Yaniv Dinur. In March, attendees were required to provide proof of full vaccination or documentation of a negative COVID-19 test.

6

The New Bedford Symphony Orchestra performs at Kilburn Mill, a converted textile mill.

SPRING 2022

The Score

Max Ritter

REMEMBERING EXECUTIVE ORDER 9066 Seattle-based multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Kishi Bashi performed in the Seattle Symphony’s February concert marking the 80th anniversary of Executive Order 9066, which confined more than 100,000 Japanese Americans to internment camps during World War II.

In February 1942, just after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, which authorized the evacuation of all persons deemed a “threat” to national security, the majority of whom were Japanese American citizens. Over the next six months, more than 100,000 men, women and children of Japanese ancestry were moved from the West Coast to guarded relocation centers known as internment camps. Two orchestras were among those marking the 80th anniversary of Executive Order 9066 this February. The Seattle Symphony performed Beyond the Hills, a commissioned world premiere by Japanese American composer Paul Chihara, which grapples with Chihara’s own experience with the incarceration. The program also featured Seattle Symphony musicians performing with Seattle-born multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Kishi Bashi in his Improvisations on EO9066. In the Benaroya Hall lobby, the orchestra presented a multimedia exhibit by filmmaker JJ Gerber in collaboration with Kishi Bashi telling stories of those impacted by Executive Order 9066, featuring oral histories and photography by Dorothea Lange.

In Colorado, the Denver Young Artists Orchestra performed with a taiko drum ensemble from the Japanese Arts Network, a national organization that celebrates Japanese arts experiences in America. The concert featured Luigi Morleo’s On Western Terror 8, an artistic critique of the legacy of Western colonialism. Denver Young Artists musicians and the taiko ensemble also performed the jazz tune “Sing, Sing, Sing,” arranged by Gary Tsujimoto, and the taiko song “Gendai Ni Ikuru” (“Living in the Present”).

In January, a long-awaited day for music-loving Floridians arrived: the opening of Orlando’s Steinmetz Hall, one of three theaters within the $612 million Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts (other venues at the Phillips Center opened in 2014). Steinmetz Hall is home to the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra and also hosts performances by other groups.

At January’s inaugural “Rise and Shine” show, among the Florida ensembles performing were the Philharmonic, Asian Cultural Association, Bach Festival Society, Florida Symphony Youth Orchestras, Orlando Choral Society, United Ballet Theatre, and Latin rock band Rico Monaco—with Philharmonic Music Director Eric Jacobsen presiding. The Orlando Philharmonic will perform six classics and five pops concerts in the new hall in the 2022-23 season. The multiform theater can be transformed to accommodate a variety of art disciplines and events, with a maximum seating of 1,650 people. The Phillips Center includes three theaters, smaller performances spaces, rehearsal studios, classrooms, offices, a rooftop terrace, and a public plaza.

Courtesy Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts

Orlando Opening

The Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra and Music Director Eric Jacobsen on opening day of Steinmetz Hall in Orlando, Florida.

Kevin McLaughlin

Silent-Movie Music in Cleveland

The marquee of the Apollo Theater in Oberlin, Ohio, one of the venues where silent films were screened with live orchestra music during the weeklong Cleveland Silent Film Festival in February.

AMERICANORCHESTRAS.ORG

In February, Cleveland Orchestra musicians and students at Oberlin Conservatory were among the participants in the inaugural Cleveland Silent Film Festival and Colloquium: Music That Once Filled the Silence. Emily Laurance, a visiting associate professor of musicology at Oberlin Conservatory, came up with the idea for the weeklong festival, which also featured the five-member Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra—which performs silent-film repertoire—and its music director, Rodney Sauer. Violinist Isabel Trautwein and other Cleveland Orchestra musicians joined Mont Alto in music by John Stepan Zamecnik (1872-1953), an American composer best known for writing music to accompany silent films, and his mentor, Antonín Dvořák. The Mont Alto orchestra performed Zamecnik’s music during screenings of the Buster Keaton classic Steamboat Bill, Jr. and other silent films at Northeast Ohio venues that included Cleveland’s 1928 Hermit Club, the Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque, and Oberlin’s restored Apollo Theater.

During the festival, Sauer coached Oberlin Conservatory on the art of choosing, arranging, and performing historic silent-movie scores, once known as “photoplay” music.

7

THE SCORE

GAME TIME Not one but two Los Angeles-based youth orchestras were featured as part of this year’s Super Bowl at the new SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. Three days before the Super Bowl, the Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles (ICYOLA) made television history when it became the first full orchestra to perform on the annual NFL Honors Show. The show—aired live on ABC, ESPN+, and the NFL Network— featured the orchestra in pre-show performances of Aaron Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man, William Walton’s Crown Imperial, and John Williams’s Superman March and Star Wars main theme. During the Honors Show itself, the orchestra played music by David Robidoux, who has composed for NFL Films. Founded in 2009, ICYOLA performs in venues throughout Los Angeles. On game day at SoFi Stadium, the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s YOLA (Youth Orchestra Los Angeles) performed “Lift Every Voice and Sing” with gospel duo MARY MARY, conducted by Thomas Wilkins, principal conductor of the LA Phil’s Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. By the way, a few hours later the home team won the football game—in overtime.

Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles musicians perform on the nationally televised NFL Honors Show, February 10, 2022.

Name Changes Orchestras in Indiana, New Jersey, and California recently changed their names. The Muncie Symphony Orchestra has merged with the Marion Philharmonic to become Orchestra Indiana. The Montclair Orchestra—based in the New York City suburb of Montclair, New Jersey—is now APEX Ensemble.

And Symphony Silicon Valley in California was renamed Symphony San Jose, after the city where it performs. Orchestra Indiana’s executive director is Scott Watkins, who previously held that position in Muncie; the two organizations will share administration and a combined board of directors, with concerts in both cities planned for the 2022-23 season, with conductor Matthew Kraemer as artistic advisor. In announcing the merger, officials from the Marion and Muncie orchestras said the merger will allow the ensembles to share programming, be more operationally sustainable, and enhance programming and performances in their hometowns. Andre Weker is founder and president of the APEX Ensemble; its music director is David Chan, concertmaster of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Student musicians associated with APEX rehearse and perform side by side with musicians from the Met and New York Philharmonic. The changes come as APEX plans to expand its youth programs this fall.

Made in Madison The Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra gave the first-ever performance of composer in residence Bill Banfield’s Symphony No. 8 in January—but it was a world premiere with a surprisingly long history. Based on the life of Black bass-baritone and activist Paul Robeson, Banfield eighth’s symphony, Where I Stand, was commissioned in 2000 by the New England Conservatory of Music. The work’s premiere never happened at the Conservatory, and eventually the digital score vanished in a technology upgrade. Banfield’s copyist, Peter Kienle, tracked down the score, and on January 28 Music Director Andrew Sewell led the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra in the work’s long-delayed debut at Madison’s Overture Center. Banfield hit the ground running when he started his three-year term as the WCO’s inaugural composer in residence last summer, meeting with students and speaking with audiences. “As a visiting musician, one of the first stops should be the local high schools,” Banfield told Madison’s Cap Times, “because if I’m going to make music that matters, it has to connect.” Banfield will write two pieces for the WCO during his residency: a work featuring the words of Frederick Douglass for this summer, and a symphony for 2024.

8

Composer in residence Bill Banfield with Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra musicians and Music Director Andrew Sewell.

SPRING 2022

The Score

Russell Lee

Mark Williams Named CEO at Toronto Symphony

Mark Williams, CEO of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra

The Toronto Symphony Orchestra has appointed Mark Williams as chief executive officer. He succeeds Matthew Loden, who became dean of Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music in October. Williams goes to the Toronto Symphony from the Cleveland Orchestra, where he was chief artistic and operations officer, overseeing artistic planning and programming, commissions and premieres, touring, and orchestra operations. Before joining the Cleveland Orchestra in 2013, Williams was artistic administrator of the San Francisco Symphony from 2009 to 2012, and directed programming of series, co-produced staged operas, and led casting.

He began his career in artist management, holding posts at Columbia Artists Management and IMG Artists. A native of Ohio, Williams holds a bachelor of music degree in horn performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music and Case Western Reserve University.

Williams stated that the Toronto Symphony “is an orchestra with immense musical gifts, big ambitions, limitless energy, and a desire to connect with its community through music.”

SECOND GENTLEMAN GETS MUSICAL When Vice President Kamala Harris toured Milwaukee in January, her husband, Doug Emhoff, visited the Milwaukee Youth Arts Center (MYAC) to highlight the federal COVID-19 relief grants that helped the arts center remain open and organizations such as the Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra (MYSO) and First Stage to keep operating during the pandemic.

Emhoff met with the leaders of MYAC, MYSO, and First Stage, and young musicians from the Milwaukee Youth Symphony spoke about what the arts mean to them. Noor Salameh, a cellist in the youth orchestra’s Senior Symphony, talked about her volunteer work with Progressions, an intensive string training program for third- and fourth-graders, and how she views classical music training and orchestral ensembles as examples of equity in education, with everyone learning and working towards a shared goal.

Clark Snavely, concertmaster of the Senior Symphony, said, “It would have been hard to make it through the height of the pandemic without MYSO.” Emhoff stated that a background in the arts would serve the students well, wherever their career paths might lead.

Doug Emhoff meets musicians from the Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra and other arts groups while visiting recipients of Shuttered Venue Operators Grants, which helped support orchestras nationwide during the pandemic.

Career Boost

2022 Avery Fisher Career Grant recipients, from left: Mackenzie Melemed, Steven Banks, Ji Su Jung, Jonathan Swensen, and Randall Goosby

AMERICANORCHESTRAS.ORG

Over the years, the Avery Fisher Career Grants have helped to launch the careers of some 166 outstanding young musicians.

This year’s grants broke new instrumental ground: for the first time, awards went to a percussionist and a saxophone player. The 2022 Career Grant recipients are: Steven Banks, saxophone; Randall Goosby, violin; Ji Su Jung, marimba and solo percussion; Mackenzie Melemed, piano; and Jonathan Swensen, cello. The winners were announced on March 22 at the Jerome L. Greene Performance Space in Manhattan, where the musicians gave a concert that was livestreamed on classical music station WQXR. The Career Grants of the Avery Fisher Artist Program give professional assistance and recognition to talented emerging instrumentalists. Each recipient is given an award of $25,000, to be used for advancing a career. Additionally, the recipients’ performances at the Career Grant announcement are professionally recorded for their unrestricted use, posted online, webcast live, and later broadcast and streamed by WQXR.

9

Alan Poizner

THE SCORE

Hugh Long speaks at the League of American Orchestras’ 2017 National Conference in Nashville.

IN MEMORIAM: HUGH WILSON LONG, LEAGUE BOARD MEMBER AND LOUISIANA PHILHARMONIC BOARD PRESIDENT Hugh Long, a champion of orchestras and a member of the Boards of Directors of the League of American Orchestras and the Louisiana Philharmonic, died on March 2, 2022, in a snowmobile accident in Yellowstone National Park. He was 82. His service to the League, to the Louisiana Philharmonic, and to the cause of orchestral music was exemplary.

Long was elected to the League’s Board of Directors in June 2010 and served three terms; he would have begun his fourth term in June 2022. Highly active on the League’s board, he served as chairman of the Program Committee (previously the Knowledge, Learning, and Leadership Committee) and was a member of the Executive, Human Resources, Audit, Investment, Finance, and Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion committees. “Hugh Long was a treasured member of the League’s board,” said League President and CEO Simon Woods. “He was a gracious and insightful presence, and he was deeply committed to the League’s mission and to the whole orchestral field. He was a great friend to many other League board members, and was a tireless supporter of the League’s staff. We thank him for everything he did for us and send deepest condolences to his family and to everyone at the Louisiana Philharmonic.”

Music played a major role in Long’s life, and he served as a trustee and president of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra’s Board of Directors. In a statement, Anwar Nasir, executive director of the Louisiana Philharmonic, commented, “The Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra is deeply sorry to announce the passing of Dr. Hugh Long, a longtime board member, colleague, mentor, advocate, and friend. In addition to serving on the boards of the LPO and the League of American Orchestras, Hugh was a long-time professor of health policy and management, and a renowned health policy and finance scholar at Tulane University.... Hugh was so giving of his time as our longest-serving board president, from 2001 to 2016, and as treasurer for an additional five years. Whether sharing his keen sense of strategy, financial and governance acumen, or passion for a good concert, Hugh could always be counted on as a leader, a mentor, a teacher, and a friend.”

Long is survived by his wife, Susan Krinsky; a son, Benjamin Alan Long; a daughter, Kira Nicole Long; a sister, Amanya Wasserman; and three grandchildren.

10

SPRING 2022

The Score

Musical Chairs The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra has named YOLANDA ALOVOR to the newly created post of vice president of external affairs and equity, diversity, and inclusion.

Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra has appointed DANIEL BARTHOLOMEWPOYSER as its principal youth conductor and creative partner.

The Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts in West Palm Beach, Florida has selected PHILLIP BERGMANN as artistic advisor for classical music.

The Oklahoma City Philharmonic has appointed MARK BEUTLER as director of marketing and public relations.

The El Paso Symphony Youth Orchestra has named NATHAN BLACK general manager, effective May 1.

Virginia’s Petersburg Symphony Orchestra has selected conductor and violinist NAIMA BURRS as music director, succeeding Ulysses Kirksey, who died in August 2021.

The Williamsburg Symphony Orchestra in Virginia has named MICHAEL BUTTERMAN as music director, effective with the 2022-23 season. Butterman also holds music director posts at the Boulder Philharmonic, Pennsylvania Philharmonic, and Shreveport Symphony.

PATRICK CHAMBERLAIN has been hired as the Aspen Music Festival and School’s vice president of artistic administration.

California’s Pacific Symphony has appointed GARRETT COLLINS as vice president of marketing and communications.

The Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra has named JOSHUA ELMORE to the post of principal bassoon.

JULIE GIBBS has been appointed vice president and chief philanthropy officer of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra.

LINA GONZALEZ-GRANADOS has been hired as resident conductor at the Los Angeles Opera.

Indiana’s Fort Wayne Philharmonic has promoted BRITTANY A. HALL from assistant managing director to managing director.

DANIEL KHALIKOV has been named concertmaster of the Chamber Orchestra of New York.

The Chattanooga Symphony and Opera in Tennessee has appointed JOHN KILKENNY as executive director.

The Springfield Symphony Orchestra (Massachusetts) has hired PAUL LAMBERT as interim executive director; previous interim executor director John Anz stepped down in December.

The Amarillo Symphony has tapped LARRY H. LANG as executive director.

The League of American Orchestras’ Emeritus Board has added three members: LOWELL J.

AMERICANORCHESTRAS.ORG

NOTEBOOM, ANNE PARSONS, and STEVEN C. PARRISH. [Note: Anne Parsons, the former president and CEO of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, died in late March, as this issue of Symphony went to press. The League’s Emeritus Board continues to list its members posthumously.

Symphony will report on Parsons’ life and career in the summer issue.]

PETER OUNDJIAN has been named the Colorado Symphony’s principal conductor.

Oundjian has served as the orchestra’s artistic consultant for the past two seasons.

The Hot Springs (Arkansas) Music Festival has appointed DAVID PALMER as interim executive director and CAROLINE KINSEY as general manager, MANDY PETERSON-TICE has joined the Alabama Symphony Orchestra as director of development.

CARLOS MIGUEL PRIETO has been appointed music director of the North Carolina Symphony, effective with the 2023-24 season. He is currently the orchestra’s artistic advisor and will serve as music director designate in 2022-23.

Wisconsin’s Madison Symphony Orchestra has tapped ROBERT REED as executive director, effective June 6, 2022.

The Erie Junior Philharmonic in Pennsylvania has named MATTHEW SALVAGGIO as music director.

The Boston Symphony Orchestra has announced staffing changes at Tanglewood. ASADOUR SANTOURIAN has been hired as vice president, Tanglewood Music Center and Learning; Santourian was previously the Aspen Music Festival and School’s vice president of artistic administration.

MAUREEN FLORES is the orchestra’s new chief development officer. Stepping down are Tanglewood Music Center Director Ellen Highstein and Tanglewood Learning Institute Director Sue Elliott.

The Chautauqua Institution in New York State has named LAURA SAVIA as vice president of performing and visual arts, overseeing the summer Amphitheater concert series and resident Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, among other programs.

SYDNEY SCHLESS has been selected as the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra’s director of marketing.

Arizona’s Flagstaff Symphony Orchestra has promoted STEPHANIE STALLINGS from development manager to executive director.

Australia’s Sydney Symphony Orchestra has appointed CRAIG WHITEHEAD as interim CEO, after Emma Dunch stepped down in December.

11

2022 Conference Preview

Walt Disney Concert Hall, home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, will be the site of concerts and events during the League’s 2022 National Conference.

Forward Together The League of American Orchestras’ 77th National Conference, June 1-3, 2022, will be the first in-person League Conference in three years, as the 2020 and 2021 Conferences headed online due to the pandemic. The world and orchestras have changed greatly in recent years, but orchestras’ commitment to their communities has never wavered and is more important than ever. Here’s a look at what’s ahead when the orchestra field gathers for the League’s 2022 Conference.

By David Styers 12

SPRING 2022

2022 CONFERENCE PREVIEW

T

he League of American Orchestras’ 2022 National Conference brings the orchestra field together for the first time physically in three years. This Conference, hosted by the Los Angeles Philharmonic for the first time since 2006, is also our first time back on the West Coast since 2014.

“What I love most about the League Conference is the opportunity for us to gather and share informally as friends and colleagues around the ideas that are percolating within our industry,” says Chad Smith, chief executive officer of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. “We are looking forward to welcoming everyone to Los Angeles in person.”

The League is excited to be partnering for this year’s Conference with the Association of California Symphony Orchestras (ACSO). “Rather than holding our own separate ACSO conference in the summer of 2022, we are working with the League to bring the orchestra field together after three long years apart,” says ACSO Executive Director Sarah Weber. “This is a prime opportunity to combine our nationwide network and for California orchestras to reconnect with each other and welcome their industry peers from around the country. After the marathon of Zoom meetings during the pandemic, this Conference offers the opportunity for

fresh ideas and a professional reboot with your colleagues in person.”

Chad Smith, chief executive officer of the Los Angeles Philharmonic

Sarah Weber, executive director of the Association of California Symphony Orchestras

AMERICANORCHESTRAS.ORG

Inspiring Speakers and Live Music Music has been a great balm during the pandemic as orchestras and musicians have reached out in new and innovative ways to connect with audience members and spotlight repertoire written and performed by a more diverse group of composers and artists. The Conference opens on Wednesday afternoon, June 1 with music center stage, when LA Phil Music and Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel conducts the Youth Orchestra Los Angeles (YOLA) at Walt Disney Concert Hall—home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and a stunning architectural landmark. The opening session will also feature a discussion between Dudamel and Oscar-winning composer John Williams on how the large-ensemble sound of an orchestra uniquely animates storytelling through film. Hilda L. Solis, Chair of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, will welcome delegates to LA. The Conference performance on Thursday evening, June 2 features the LA Phil with Dudamel and mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges at Walt Disney Concert Hall in a richly varied program of two 20th-century works—Peter Lieberson’s Neruda Songs and William Grant Still’s

2022 NATIONAL CONFERENCE The League of American Orchestras’ 2022 National Conference will take place June 1-3 in Los Angeles, hosted by the Los Angeles Philharmonic in partnership with the Association of California Symphony Orchestras.

Conference headquarters is the Westin Bonaventure Hotel and Suites. Visit leagueconference.org for more information and to register. (Note: Conference specifics may be subject to change.)

13

2022 CONFERENCE PREVIEW

Gustavo Dudamel, music and artistic director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, will lead concerts at the League’s 2022 National Conference—and open the Conference with a discussion with legendary film composer John Williams.

Symphony No. 1, “Afro-American”—and the world premiere of a new piece by Puerto Rican-born composer Angélica Negrón.

Another musical and architectural high point will be the unique opportunity to experience the LA Phil’s new Judith and Thomas L. Beckmen YOLA Center in Inglewood with architect Frank Gehry and a working rehearsal with YOLA musicians on Tuesday evening, May 31, before the Conference’s official first day.

The Conference will take advantage of another exciting performance space in LA on Thursday morning, June 2, at the Colburn School’s Zipper Hall. The Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles (ICYOLA), which describes itself as the largest majority-Black orchestra in America, will celebrate music by Black composers in a concert led by ICYOLA Founder, Executive Director, and Conductor Charles Dickerson III. For even more music, there will be a sponsored showcase by the Kontrapunktus Chamber Orchestra at the Conference’s annual meeting luncheon on Thursday afternoon. Kontrapunktus is a chamber orchestra of young classical musicians primarily from the Colburn School who perform repertoire of Baroque music intended to inspire people from all walks of life.

The Conference will conclude on Friday morning, June 3, with a closing plenary session featuring Thomas Wilkins, principal conductor of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. In 2020, Wilkins was named the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s first-ever artistic advisor for education and community engagement, and in 2021, he was named music director

14

laureate of the Omaha Symphony after 16 years, becoming the longest-serving music director in the Omaha Symphony’s 100-plus-year history. Wilkins will share his perspectives on the importance of bringing music to young people and committing to local communities.

Pre-Conference Seminars and Conference Elective Sessions The past two years have stretched orchestras in unprecedented ways to be more flexible and agile in extremely uncertain times. On the morning of Wednesday, June 1 three Pre-Conference seminars, open to everyone for an extra fee, will take four-hour dives into specific topics on how to adapt successfully to complex times.

“Conscious Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty: Regaining Resilience, Patience, and Strategic Thinking” with Suzanne Lahl of SyncUp Leadership Group will give participants experience with a specific process to dive below the surface and explore past experiences, beliefs, and patterns that limit their strategic choices, get in the way of learning, and keep them stuck in choicemaking that derails their best self.

Participants will emerge with greater selfawareness, the ability to think deeper, and skills to drive more actions that support conscious leadership.

“Moving from Good Intentions to Impact: Exploring the Intersection of Governance and Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI)” with Vernetta Walker of Walker & Associates Consulting will create space for participants to confront challenges, deepen understanding and commitment, and explore actionable

Conductor Thomas Wilkins will deliver a keynote address on June 3 in which he shares his perspectives on the importance of bringing music to young people and committing to local communities. Wilkins is principal conductor of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, artistic advisor for education and community engagement of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and music director laureate of the Omaha Symphony.

strategies for change to build strong governance and strategic leadership on EDI. Participants will engage in critical thinking and conversations covering the role of the board of directors and leaders in setting the tone at the top for EDI, internal assumptions and practices that can impede an orchestra’s efforts, and effective strategies to help boards of directors to develop and align values and actions on EDI. “Smallify Challenges: Innovation and Problem-Solving Lab” with Dave Viotti of SMALLIFY will give participants space and tools to work on an important goal for their orchestra in a supportive and generative environment. This highly interactive, inspirational, and practical session will take any goal and break it down into smaller, more actionable pieces and help participants reach them faster through “small bets” and “small wins.” Participants will practice skills and mindsets from the fields of rapid innovation and human-centered design, make great connections with peers, and best of all, leave with a clear action plan to make progress on their goal right away.

In response to needs expressed by the League’s members, Conference programming addresses such topics as: • Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion – strategy; effective practices • Artistic Planning – women composers; multi-genre crossover • Audience Development – latest research; digital engagement

SPRING 2022

2022 CONFERENCE PREVIEW

The Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles (ICYOLA) will celebrate music by Black composers in a concert on June 2 led by ICYOLA Founder, Executive Director, and Conductor Charles Dickerson III.

• • •

Revenue Generation – philanthropy; finances Emerging Trends – environmental sustainability; workforce development and retention California Stories – Beckmen YOLA Center; ACSO’s pandemic collaboration

Networking and Learning Just about everyone at orchestras has missed the joy and camaraderie of networking in person during two long years of online convenings. So, throughout the Conference, small-group Constituency Meetings will gather delegates each day by peer group to focus on their most pressing concerns. Whether you are connected to the orchestra field as an executive director, board member, staff member, conductor, musician, or

Led by Music and Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel, the Los Angeles Philharmonic will perform two twentieth-century works and a world premiere during the League’s Conference. Dudamel will also lead Youth Orchestra Los Angeles (YOLA) during the Conference.

student, there will be agendas designed specifically for you, as well as special networking events, including those for administrators of African, Latinx, Asian, Arab/Middle Eastern, or Native American descent (ALAANA); alumni of the League’s orchestra management leadership programs; and, new this year, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual (LGBTQIA+) attendees.

The League’s Volunteer Council is planning exciting, hands-on programming for orchestra volunteers, including presentations by 2021 Gold Award of Excellence winners, insights from the LA Phil Affiliates volunteer groups, and numerous networking opportunities.

As always, the Exhibit Hall will continue to serve as the central gathering point for networking breaks and

receptions: a place to reconnect with old friends, make new ones, and visit with Conference exhibitors and sponsors.

We have all missed seeing one another since the field last convened in person. This National Conference is going to be an unforgettable moment to come back together again to share experiences and fellowship in solidarity with one another. Don’t miss joining us in the City of Angels to reunite with colleagues and celebrate how we as a field have overcome unprecedented challenges to lead, support, and champion orchestras and the importance of music and musicians for our communities.

DAVID STYERS is the director of Learning and Leadership Programs at the League of American Orchestras.

Comprising five sleek, 35-story cylindrical glass towers, the Westin Bonaventure Hotel and Suites is a symbol of downtown Los Angeles and an architectural landmark.

The striking structure and its soaring atrium have been featured in multiple films and television shows, including CSI, Hancock, Interstellar, Mission Impossible III, The Dark Knight Returns, and Vice. The Westin Bonaventure is in the heart of downtown LA and a short walk from Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Colburn School’s Zipper Hall, and major art museums.

AMERICANORCHESTRAS.ORG

15

Forward Thinking

Questioning the Canon In classical music, the term “canon” refers to traditionally accepted and sanctioned works— but accepted when, and sanctioned by whom? As orchestras strive to include a wider range of composers, musicians, and audiences, especially those that have been excluded in the past, it may be time to drop the notion of a “canon” entirely.

By Simon Woods

The Philadelphia Orchestra commissioned the orchestral version of Valerie Coleman’s Umoja, Anthem for Unity and gave its world premiere in September 2019.

In photo: Coleman takes a bow with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin. A program note at the concert said it marked the first time the orchestra played a work by a living African American female composer.

16

SPRING 2022

Craig T.-Mathew/Mathew Imaging

FORWARD THINKING

Simon Woods, president and CEO of the League of American Orchestras

T

This conversation tends to excite anger, frustration, and despair, whatever your personal conviction, but it’s a conversation we need to have. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines canon as “a sanctioned or accepted group or body of related works.” But sanctioned by whom? And who accepts it? Language matters, and the concept of canon unhelpfully perpetuates ideas that we are already moving on from.

When I went to college, I studied “music.” What that meant in the early 1980s was crystal clear: Western classical music history, harmony, counterpoint, analysis, performance, and composition—

all within certain stylistic boundaries. It’s hubristic that for so long it was blindly accepted that “music” comprised this one sanctioned slice of history, style, and technique. And correctly, those kinds of curricula are now being increasingly defined as “Western Classical Music.”

The classical music world is grappling with this recalibration, as it centers race equity and addresses the social exclusion that is embedded in our field’s history.

This impetus for change is challenging us to look differently at “heritage” and at the traditions and rituals that surround it. For many people, including large proportions of our audiences, those traditions represent timeless values and the reassuring comfort of long familiarity.

But those traditions also risk stifling us in our journey to create an art form that is vibrantly alive to the present.

The history of American orchestras derives directly from a particular slice of (entirely male) European history.

While Albert C. Barnes, Henry Clay Frick, Henry Huntington, and others were busy importing European visual and decorative arts in huge numbers, and building temples to house them, American orchestras were being built

by European immigrants: George Szell, Fritz Reiner, Eugene Ormandy, Serge Koussevitzky, and the hundreds of Russians, Italians, and others who made

Historic Black composers whose works are increasingly being performed by American orchestras include (clockwise from top left) Florence Price, Nathaniel Dett, William​Levi Dawson, and William Grant Still.

AMERICANORCHESTRAS.ORG

Todd Rosenberg

Jiyang Chen

Quique Cabanilas

ension between past and future shows up in many areas of the orchestra field today—from concert presentation styles to marketing to board governance. But no area has provoked more heated discussion than the “classical music canon.” My entire life has been lived in proximity to this loosely articulated but broadly understood corpus of work, and I find myself struggling to reconcile that history with my conviction that serious change is needed in what we play on stage and who plays it.

It is time to abandon the word “canon” and the reductive thinking that flows from it, which slows down the evolution of our art, favors one set of voices to the exclusion of others, and closes off the possibilities of speaking to today’s audiences through today’s voices.

Among the contemporary composers whose scores are being commissioned and performed by orchestras are (clockwise from top left), Fang Man, Angélica Negrón, Missy Mazzoli, and Jessie Montgomery.

17

Jim Tuttle/The University at Buffalo Music Library

FORWARD THINKING

Composer and performer Julius Eastman (​1940-1990) rehearses Peter Maxwell Davies’s Eight Songs for a Mad King in 1970. Eastman’s compositions are being rediscovered by orchestras.

up their great ensembles. So it’s hardly surprising that these orchestras rooted themselves in programming from the Old World. The Cleveland Orchestra and the Cleveland Museum of Art—astonishing and impressive institutions both—stand as parallel exemplars of how European culture was monumentalized in their respective art forms. The pattern repeats in every major city in this country.

But too much was lost along the way. Joseph Horowitz’s recent book Dvořák’s Prophecy and the Vexed Fate of Black Classical Music is a brilliant piece of scholarship that reminds us of the extraordinary legacy of Black orchestral music from the early part of the 20th century, whose importance and beauty were hidden by racism and myopia.

Rediscovering the works of Florence

Letting go of the concept of “canon” does not mean letting go of the creativity of the past that continues to speak to us today.

18

Price, William Grant Still, William Levi Dawson, Nathaniel Dett, and others brings deep satisfaction—not only in celebrating the justice that brings them finally to the fore, but in discovering the brilliance and originality of their music. Listen to any of their orchestral works and you can’t help but lament that they are not a central part of American orchestras’ repertoire. It wasn’t just the pernicious role of racism that led to their sidelining; it was also their defiance of European modernism that excluded them from the club of what classical music was supposed to be in mid-20th-century America.

So as our orchestras redefine what an orchestra can be in 21st-century America, what new approach might guide us as we consider what to play on our stages? “Redefining the canon” (Google it, and you’ll be surprised at how hackneyed this phrase has become) strikes me as a fundamentally pointless endeavor, as it still allows that there is some kind of objective set of values available to us that can help decide what’s in and what’s out at any one time. But unlike the Académie Française—that

Restoring this country’s missing musical history and celebrating its dynamic present is important work—and orchestras are throwing themselves wholeheartedly into this mission. committee of 40 members that decides which words are allowed into the official French language—music deals in no such absolutes.

Restoring this country’s missing musical history and celebrating its dynamic present is important work— and orchestras are throwing themselves wholeheartedly into this mission.

The week I was writing this piece, the New York Philharmonic revived Julius Eastman’s Symphony No. 11 at Alice Tully Hall, while at Carnegie Hall the Philadelphia Orchestra was playing works

by Florence Price, Matthew Aucoin, and Valerie Coleman. This is exciting. And SPRING 2022

FORWARD THINKING

it’s happening at orchestras large and small across the country, where music by composers of Native American, Asian American, and myriad other backgrounds is being performed—often by musicians from equally diverse backgrounds, genders, and sexual orientations.

An even more expansive approach would be to embrace the idea that our repertoire can simply comprise any music that an orchestra is able to play. There is a beautiful simplicity in this notion—that a hundred people playing together on stage make extraordinary sounds wherever the music comes from and whoever wrote it.

So where does that leave us? There is no art form where the past is entrenched so dominantly as in classical music. In passing I will note that Broadway is not filled with Shakespeare and Chekhov, and Hamlet is certainly less available to live audiences than any Beethoven symphony. So it feels timely to abandon for good the word “canon” and the reductive thinking that flows from it. It may be a convenient taxonomic shortcut, but each time we utter that word we’re

AMERICANORCHESTRAS.ORG

perpetuating a concept embraced by a narrow segment of music lovers to build a fortress around their preferred musical genre. It slows down the evolution of our art, favoring one set of voices to the exclusion of others, and closing us off to the possibilities of speaking to today’s audiences through today’s voices.

But there’s a vitally important codicil to this idea. Letting go of the concept of “canon” does not mean letting go of the creativity of the past that continues to speak to us today. To turn to Beethoven or Schubert in our moments of need, to love Mahler for his existential contemplations of life and death, to find spiritual solace in Bach, none of this is under threat. These are giants of Western civilization whose music will always find listeners in each generation to discover them for the first time—and our orchestras will continue to play them for amazed audiences. The fallacy lies not in championing them, but in assuming that they represent the whole story, the yardstick of all value, and the sole way to draw and transfix audiences.

Our current cultural climate does

not easily embrace ambiguity. But this is one ambiguity that we’re going to have to make peace with: the idea that we can ruggedly defend and extol the masterworks of the past for their creativity and humanity, while building an incisive and inclusive new vision of what constitutes orchestral repertoire.

I’m intrigued by the idea of a future in which Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony makes a brilliant reappearance to stun us anew after some years’ absence; in which Price, Dawson, and Still are as popular visitors to our seasons as Mahler, Shostakovich, and Rachmaninoff; in which women’s creative voices are heard week in, week out; and in which wonderfully diverse conductors, soloists, and musicians are our guides in celebrating this more complete picture of musical possibilities.

Bach’s “48” will never leave my piano, and no one need fear losing their Beethoven or Schubert or Brahms. These works need no container or guardrails to protect their power and legitimacy; they will always be there for us as we tend to the future. But tend to the future we must.

19

Board Room

The View from the Chair

Orchestras nationwide are regaining a semblance of normality after more than two pandemic seasons of upheaval. Yet this tumultuous time presents an opportunity for the people at the top—board chairs—to rebuild and renew their orchestras. What do today’s board leaders expect as they look forward, and what perspectives do they offer on key issues?

By Jasmine Liu

I

t has been a time of disruption and change on multiple fronts for orchestras. Despite the challenges, many orchestras took the opportunity to innovate in new ways, beefing up recording and streaming capabilities and connecting with new audiences, virtually and once again in person. Those innovations—and others—continue.

Yet many orchestras still face reduced ticket sales, season subscriptions, and memberships. Though many orchestras came through the last two years fairly well, all things considered, others are just getting back on their feet. This year sees orchestras at a critical juncture on another front: how will they convince their communities of their continued relevance when classical music has been overwhelmingly White for so long? How are orchestras rethinking their mandates to better serve their communities?

The following interviews with board chairs at orchestras range from community ensembles and youth groups to large professional orchestras across the country. Although these organizations differ in their missions, funding models, and constituencies, they share similar concerns about renewing their strategies and visions amid the uncertainty of the pandemic. Many board chairs highlighted fresh initiatives to improve equity, diversity, and inclusion at the board level, among staff, and in their orchestras’ artistic programming and community

20

engagement. The board chairs surveyed here also spoke about what they believe the proper relationship between a board of directors and the orchestra’s strategy and operations should be. (Comments have been edited for space.)

Andy Jih, Bay Area Rainbow Symphony

What do you view as the key issues facing your board and orchestra in the coming year?

As with so many organizations in the performing arts, one of the key issues ahead for us is how we adjust to the unpredictability of live events due to COVID. Planning ahead is quite challenging when health policy and guidance is shifting on a regular basis, so we’ve been focusing on how we can keep performing for the community while ensuring that all of our audience members and musicians feel safe and comfortable.

How might your orchestra’s situation differ from or be similar to the situations of orchestras elsewhere?

Our orchestra, the Bay Area Rainbow Symphony, has a mission to highlight LGBTQ+ composers and musicians.

We’re quite fortunate to be based in the

San Francisco Bay Area as this area is among the most LGBTQ+ inclusive parts of the country. We recognize that people across the country and the world who might want to hear or perform music

by LGBTQ+ composers don’t have as many options or opportunities to do so or, worse yet, they don’t feel safe doing so.

We hope that by performing for our local community, we can be a small example for others around the country and the world for how they can connect with musicians in their communities.

How do you view your board in light of the increasing calls for equity, diversity, and inclusion in orchestras?

There are many ways our board can improve as it relates to diversity, equity, and inclusion [DEI]. As it relates to DEI, our orchestra is doing well in some areas, but lagging in others. We highlight at least one LGBTQ+ composer and/ or soloist in every concert, and Dawn Harms, our phenomenal music director, ensures that there is always at least one female composer per concert. That said, we still have a lot of work to do to ensure our orchestra learns, grows, and evolves.

How involved should boards of directors be in the day-to-day running of orchestras, setting new directions, or building strategies? What inspires you about the future of orchestras?

Where possible, boards should be focused on longer-term strategies and governance, while staff should focus on day-to-day

SPRING 2022

BOARD ROOM

operations. That said, the reality for every orchestra is different. I don’t think there’s a one-size-fits-all answer to this question, as it varies depending on the specific orchestra and what their goals and challenges might be. Our board historically had been focused on dayto-day operations, but we’re gradually shifting the board’s energies and focus to longer-term strategies.

Luis Avila, Grand Rapids Symphony

What do you view as the key issues facing your board and orchestra in the coming year?

One of the key issues facing our symphony is going to be audience participation. Audiences are slowly coming back but have not quite reached a pre-pandemic level. While initial numbers are promising, it is going to be a while before we see full halls at every performance. This will require orchestras to adjust their budgets to meet lower ticket sales, without compromising artistic integrity or long-term infrastructure.

What are the critical issues facing orchestras now?

Perhaps the biggest challenge will be attempting to achieve pre-pandemiclevels of programming and operations, but without the same level of community engagement or funding as in prior years.

This is not unique to symphonies, but to arts organizations in general.

How might your orchestra’s situation differ from or be similar to the situations of orchestras elsewhere?

The Grand Rapids community has a longstanding history of strong philanthropic support of the arts, and specifically the symphony. While recovery will not be without some challenges, I believe that our community will rise to the challenge as it has numerous times before.

How do you view your board in light of the increasing calls for equity, diversity, and inclusion in orchestras?

Our board has been clamoring for an increased focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion [DEI] for some time now. As a result, leadership has made AMERICANORCHESTRAS.ORG

DEI a central focus at all levels of the organization, whether that’s on the artistic side—choosing composers, directors, and performers of historically underrepresented communities— or performing free concerts in the community or being intentional about diversity in recruiting and retention. I’m proud to say our board is increasingly representative of the community we serve.

How involved should boards of directors be in the day-to-day running of orchestras, setting new directions, or building strategies? What inspires you about the future of orchestras?

Some orchestras require deeper, more hands-on involvement from their boards, while others have a robust leadership structure where board members serve more in a governance capacity. At the Grand Rapids Symphony, we have an executive committee that is active in operations, while the larger board helps with the big picture and strategic planning.

I believe that the pandemic, coupled with a nationwide focus on DEI, has forced orchestras to think critically and creatively about their future. The symphony world as a whole has been stagnant for too long. I am inspired by the fact that we are seeing younger and more diverse audiences not only attending concerts but taking active leadership roles.

The future of our industry is in good hands.

Patti Look, Hawaii Youth Symphony

What do you view as the key issues facing your board and orchestra in the coming year?

Building back our services to prepandemic levels presents both opportunities and challenges. On one hand, we’ve learned how to be responsive and adaptive to the changing needs of our community—but as we move forward, we face complex considerations. With programming, partnerships, and fundraising all evolving, how will we now choose what to keep between the new and the old, the different and the familiar?

What are the critical issues facing orchestras now?

Opportunities for encouraging support of the arts have been disrupted as a whole, given the limitations placed on traditionally shared experiences. It will be crucial for us and other orchestras to build strategic partnerships with organizations in and beyond music. Doing so will help us to individually, and collectively, advance the roles that music plays in our communities.

How might your orchestra’s situation differ from or be similar to the situations of orchestras elsewhere?

Although Hawai’i is unique in that we are an island archipelago, the situation of being a major arts organization that serves remote and rural populations is common to many orchestras. Because this makes “run-out” concerts difficult, we instead fly young musicians from our neighboring islands to Oahu for weekly rehearsals and lean on Zoom for other activities.

Our distinct geography also opens opportunities for us to collaborate with orchestras in Asia and the Pacific Rim. How do you view your board in light of the increasing calls for equity, diversity, and inclusion in orchestras?

EDI work is important and always a work in progress. We are striving for our board to reflect the communities in which we serve. Presently, our board is made up of 17 individuals of Asian American, Pacific Islander, Caucasian, and blended backgrounds, and all our officers are women.

How involved should boards of directors be in the day-to-day running of orchestras, setting new directions, or building strategies? What inspires you about the future of orchestras?

Hawaii Youth Symphony has a bold vision to “Make Music A Right”—which is incredibly inspiring to me, because imagine what our world will be like if every child played an instrument! Our entire organization, from board to staff to stakeholders, is galvanized to play a part in advancing access to music education.

The board is very involved when it comes to developing the strategic and community connections vital for realizing this vision, and we confidently trust our President Randy Wong and his team to manage and run the organization’s dayto-day operations.

21

BOARD ROOM

Leslie Lassiter, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra What do you view as the key issues facing your board and orchestra in the coming year?

The different [coronavirus] variants— that’s in the background as we think about next year. We don’t have our own hall. We play at various venues around Los Angeles, and during COVID, that was a good thing because it gave us more flexibility. We didn’t have to worry about paying the costs of owning our own home.

But as we started to reopen this year, in many cases that made it harder because we had to scramble to find space, and everybody had different rules.

We’re focused on how to improve diversity on our stage and in our audience.

We can do things in the short run, but it’s a long-term problem that all of us in the music world need to work on.

Having more musicians of color is going to take time. It’s not inexpensive to become a world-class violinist. It takes a lot of training and investment. The foundations, the government, and all of us with orchestras are going to have to work together over the long term to fix the problem.

One of the things that we did very well on [during the pandemic] is donations. Our supporters were extremely generous. Will that continue? We had the same help as most orchestras did from the state and federal governments. But we have not returned to the same levels of programming that we had. Do we go back to our full slate of concerts?

Can you expand on the challenges of not having your own concert hall?

When you don’t have your own hall and raise long-term funding from donors, it’s harder for them to conceive of what they’re giving endowment money to.

When you have a hall, you can understand the bricks and mortar and what your money is going to.

How involved should boards of directors be in the day-to-day running of orchestras, setting new directions, or building strategies? What inspires you about the future of orchestras?

22

I see our job as directing the strategy of our organization. We have to hire the best executive director that we can and give him or her all the help that we can.

When boards start to get too involved in the minutiae, it’s not a good thing. We have a small board and a small staff, so we probably get involved in more day-today activities than a huge orchestra, and that’s okay as long as the staff feels that it’s helpful. Being the chair of the board of this orchestra has been a wonderful experience. I wish more people would serve on boards. Making more music available to the public is an important mission.

Bernard Jaffe, Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra

What do you view as the key issues facing your board and orchestra in the coming year?

There are three critical issues, and I am sure that they are the same ones all orchestras are facing now. First is restoring audience size, which relates directly to income, and regaining all our loyal audience members plus new ones to compensate for those we lost temporarily as a consequence of COVID. Second is getting all our musicians comfortable playing with their colleagues who cannot be masked during rehearsals and performances. Third is the urgent need for further diversification and greatly expanded community involvement and impact. One difference, which we are quite proud of, is that the LPO was able to function during the COVID pandemic without furloughing any musicians or staff.

How might your orchestra’s situation differ from or be similar to the situations of orchestras elsewhere?

The concerns mentioned above are pretty universal, but the mechanisms for the Louisiana Philharmonic to solve them are rather different because of our unique governance structure. The LPO is musician-owned, and the musicians have a much greater voice in dealing with problems than in most American orchestras. Despite the structure, the

board, the staff, and the musicians work closely hand-in-hand to deal with concerns and make long-term plans.

How involved should boards of directors be in the day-to-day running of orchestras, setting new directions, or building strategies?

Boards should have little to do with the day-to-day running of orchestras, but must be intensely immersed in future planning, fundraising, community involvement, and orchestra development and prosperity.

Anthony L. Bucci, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra What do you view as the key issues facing your board and orchestra in the coming year?

The biggest issue is uncertainty. Will the pandemic fade or resurge? When will audiences feel comfortable returning in their previous numbers? Will they return in their previous numbers? We need to grow our audience. What will we need to do differently with how we present, what we present, and to whom we present?

How do we ignite innovation in a staid industry? How do we pay for innovation and testing while our budgets are strained by the pandemic? At the same time, we need to embrace the idea that crisis can fuel creativity.

What are the critical issues facing orchestras now?

The industry needs more hard data.

We are in a data-driven world, and we continue to talk about ethereal values.

Our pitch about our value to our communities has to be substantiated with data.

The continuing decline of the subscription base in a more transactional world demands that we “sell” our product more. Our marketing concepts need to adapt to this. Budget challenges could lead to cost-cutting that can affect the quality of our product. We must avoid “good enough.” Finally, the industry isn’t doing enough collectively to advance the art form. We should have a national campaign to re-ignite interest.

How do you view your board in light of SPRING 2022

BOARD ROOM

the increasing calls for equity, diversity, and inclusion in orchestras?

I view our board as on the early stages of a new journey—one that will enrich the organization, as well as our community. One that will build on our storied past and lead us to an enhanced future. We start with our board-adopted commitment to creating a welcoming, accessible, and inclusive environment for all, while focused on the core values the orchestra brings to the community.

We are working hard to move beyond words on paper to action. We have already seen significant progress in attracting more diverse board members.

We have significantly expanded our pre-professional fellowship program for young musicians identifying as Black or African American that we believe will be important in the pipeline for diversity on the stage. Our strategy is already reflected in programming. We have only just begun.

How involved should boards of directors be in the day-to-day running of orchestras, setting new directions, or building strategies?

Boards need to be engaged in strategic planning, community relationship building, fundraising, and preserving and protecting the mission of the organization—not day-to-day operations.

What inspires you about the future of orchestras?

The fundamental value we bring to our community: the higher good of our emotional well-being that music gives us; the sense of community as we bring people together to share common experiences; and the economic value and enhanced quality of life that we bring to our communities.

because of COVID, and that’s going to be a concern for the foreseeable future.

Subscriptions are strong, but they’re not at pre-COVID levels: we’re down 10 to 20 percent in renewals. The challenge is, how do we get people to come back into the hall? Are they going to say, “I’m going to stream that online”? Will they rely on other avenues? That’s our biggest challenge.

We have a unique challenge in that in 2023-24, we’ll be 100 years old. We’re gearing up for a centennial in a time of COVID. That centennial is very exciting; for the board, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and it’s obviously a historic event for Rochester. People have been incredibly generous throughout COVID, and now we’re going to ask them to make special gifts for the centennial. So we have to highlight everything that the orchestra has done in the past 100 years, and amplify what we’re going to do for the next 100 years. We’re looking to fulfill our mission of being a community orchestra.

How do you view your board in light of the increasing calls for equity, diversity, and inclusion in orchestras?

In late 2020, we created an anti-racism working group that was populated by people from within and outside the Philharmonic. It presented recommendations to the board, all of which were adopted, starting with a commitment statement in our bylaws and employee handbook. It’s the policy of the board to ensure that the corporation serves the entire Rochester community

as a culturally astute, engaged, anti-racist civic organization that is committed to modeling and strengthening the values of equity, diversity, and inclusion.

One objective was to increase board representation by members of the BIPOC [Black, Indigenous, and People of Color] community by up to 30 percent by 2024.

When we started this, we had no BIPOC members. Today, four out of 29 board members are members of the BIPOC community. We’re working hard to reach the target.

How involved should boards of directors be in the day-to-day running of orchestras, setting new directions, or building strategies?

We have a very capable president and CEO who reports to the board and who’s responsible for what happens, but we don’t give day-to-day direction.

Same thing with the music; we don’t make recommendations. We’ve got a wonderful music director, wonderful principal pops conductor, fantastic VP of artistic planning. Committees make recommendations to the board. If it becomes a policy or directive, it goes to the staff, but that’s strategic, not day-today management.

JASMINE LIU is a journalist from the San Francisco Bay Area who writes about literature in translation, contemporary art, classical music, and more. She holds bachelor’s degrees from Stanford University in anthropology and mathematics.

Ross P. Lanzafame, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra What do you view as the key issues facing your board and orchestra in the coming year? What critical issues are orchestras facing now?

I don’t know that we’re any different than anyone else in terms of the pandemic issues. Attendance is still impaired AMERICANORCHESTRAS.ORG

23

Dmitro Larin

The Kyiv Symphony Orchestra, in a photo taken before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Listening to Ukraine When Russia invaded Ukraine this winter, orchestras around the world opened their concerts by performing the Ukrainian National Anthem in support of the country. That show of solidarity, while heartening, reminds us that Ukraine’s classical composers and musical contributions are far more significant than many people realize, writes Elena Dubinets, and it’s time for that to change.

24

SPRING 2022

homecomings inevitably affecting these composers’ creative expressions—and despite a diverse range of different ethnicities from within the former Soviet Union, these composers continue to be identified by many listeners, critics, and scholars as “Russian.”

Most of these ethnicities are distinct and iconic; in fact, in many cases their representatives strongly disassociate themselves from Russia. In a 2018 interview, Georgian composer Giya Kancheli (1935-2019) referred to the ethnopolitical conflict over Georgia’s autonomous region of South Ossetia and noted bitterly that Russia “hasn’t lost its imperial ambitions.” Ukrainian composer

Elena Dubinets

O

n February 26 of this year, a concert by the London Philharmonic Orchestra at Royal Festival Hall began with a standing ovation. But it was not for the musicians or the composers; it was for a civic cause reflected in the music. Russia had launched a fullscale military invasion into Ukraine just two days earlier, and London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) became one of the first ensembles in the world to add the Ukrainian National Anthem to a concert as a small but meaningful gesture of solidarity with the people of a sovereign nation fighting for their country with courage and dignity. As musicians, we have the power and the responsibility to participate actively in the ongoing struggle for a better world, and the LPO, where I am the artistic director, found it necessary to make a musical statement about the Ukrainian war.

Ukrainian music is less known than it ought to be. That’s due to its close association with Russian music, which has overshadowed it while at the same time significantly imbibing Ukrainian influences.

In my 2021 book Russian Composers Abroad: How They Left, Stayed, Returned, I discuss the circumstances of many composers who, like Stravinsky, Rachmaninoff, and others, emigrated from Russian and Soviet territories during the past dozen decades. Despite a multitude of roots and influences—the border crossings, diasporic peregrinations, and

My husband is from Ukraine, I am a Jew from Moscow, and our native countries are now at war.

Leonid Hrabovsky, who lived in Moscow for nine years before emigrating to the U.S., said to me in 2018: “I don’t refer to myself as a member of the ‘Russian world.’ My attitude to its representatives entirely depends on whether or not they think that Ukrainians are a separate nation, like, let’s say, Poles or Bulgarians.

Fortunately, there are many like-minded

as Russia invades Kyiv.

My husband is from Ukraine, I am a Jew from Moscow, and our native countries are now at war. Neither of us is content with current Russian policies.

Due to our entangled family history, very typical for many “Russian” families, we don’t ever say that we are Russians— and, strictly speaking, we aren’t, either by ethnicity or nationality, even though “Russian” is the label usually slapped on all former citizens of the USSR, regardless of their actual ethnicity or self-identification. The war that was recently instigated by my native country against my husband’s country is a shared tragedy of many people. It is not only a war against Ukraine; it is also a war against Europe, and against our future.

What the Russian government is forgetting is real, documented history. In his pre-war February 21 speech, Russian President Vladimir Putin presented Ukraine as part of Russia’s imperial world rather than as a fully independent state, depriving it of statehood and nationhood. The truth is that, as an ethnic and territorial entity, Ukraine is much older than Russia. Ukraine is a geographic and cultural ancestor of Russia, and the latter derived its name from the name of the first Slavic state, which existed between the ninth and thirteenth centuries: Kyivan Rus’, named after Kyiv, the current capital of Ukraine.

Moscow didn’t even exist when Kyiv was already a major metropolis. Incidentally, Kyivan Rus’ was the location of Alexander Borodin’s opera Prince Igor, known by music lovers for its Polovtsian Dances.

Russian music—like the Russian empire—has never been simply Russian. Even as it was wearing the patriotic trappings of official Russian nationalism, Russian music was always multiethnic and multicultural. Many of the most “Russian” composers have embodied a heady blend of ethnicities and characteristics, and the Ukrainian element has always been an important layer of Russian music. For example, Tchaikovsky wrote his Symphony No. 2 while spending a summer in Ukraine; he used three

As musicians, we have the power and the responsibility to participate actively in the ongoing struggle for a better world.

AMERICANORCHESTRAS.ORG

people in Russia, and a normal dialogue is not excluded. Let’s live with a hope.” This hope is disappearing in front of our eyes

25

Sergei Supinsky/AFP

On March 9, musicians from the Kyiv-Classic Symphony Orchestra, which is part of the Ukrainian National Tchaikovsky Academy of Music, performed a 25-minute, nationally televised concert in Kyiv’s central Maidan Square. Led by Herman Makarenko, the musicians performed works including Ukraine’s National Anthem, Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy,” and “Lileya,” a ballad by Konstantin Dankevich.

Ukrainian folk songs in it. The subtitle of the symphony—“Little Russian”— means “Ukrainian,” as “Little Russia” or “Malorus” was a term used by Russians to designate Ukraine’s territory as part of the Russian empire. Ukrainians— among them such cultural figures as Taras Shevchenko and Nikolai Gogol—have found the “Little Russian” label insulting and demeaning.

In the 1910s and 1920s, such major Ukrainian composers as Boris Lyatoshinsky, Mykola Leontovich, Lev Revutsky, and Mihail Verikovsky were creating symphonic music with a distinctive national approach.

By the 1960s and 1970s, a number of important avantgarde Ukrainian composers— among them Valentyn Silvestrov, Vitalii Hodzatsky, Leonid Hrabovsky, Valentyn Bibik, Lesya Dychko, Myroslav Skoryk, Volodymyr Zahortsev, Yevhen Stankovych, Ivan Karabyts, and Volodymyr Huba—managed to

establish their individual voices within the Soviet musical culture. In the early 1960s, Leonid Hrabovsky’s Symphonic Frescos and Valentyn Silvestrov’s Symphony No. 1 opened a new, Ukrainian world in the Soviet symphonic canon, characterized by a connection with

distinguished itself as a “national school,” and exciting new voices on the Ukrainian music horizon include Hanna Havrylets, Ihor Shcherbakov, Sviatoslav Luniov, Hennady Liashenko, Victoria Poliova, Oleksandr Shchetynskyi, Bohdan Kryvopust, Bohdana Froliak, Oleksii Retynskyi, and others.

Ukrainian music has become a major part of not just Russian but also international musical legacy, and especially of American music. Leonard Bernstein was the son of Ukrainian-Jewish parents.

American composers Leo Ornstein and Dimitri Tiomkin were born in Ukraine. Another émigré, Joseph Schillinger, was born in Kharkiv and became a famous private music composition teacher, mentoring George Gershwin, who studied with him up to the premiere of Porgy and Bess. The unforgettable melody “Summertime” in Porgy and Bess was borrowed, in part, from the Ukrainian folk song “Ot hodit’ son kolo vikon” (“A Dream Passes by the

Towards the end of the twentieth century, Ukrainian music distinguished itself as a “national school,” and there are exciting new composers on the Ukrainian musical horizon.

26

Ukrainian folk, choral, and sacred music and vivid lyrical expression.

Towards the end of the twentieth century, as Ukraine was gaining independence following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukrainian music

SPRING 2022

Windows”). One of the most beloved Christmas carols, “Carol of the Bells,” originates from the Ukrainian New Year’s song “Shchedryk” (“The Little Swallow”), first arranged by Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych in 1916 and published with new lyrics by Peter J. Wilhousky in 1936.

The importance of the Ukrainian school of instrumental performance is broadly known. Pianist Vladimir Horowitz was born in Kyiv. Odessa, one of the largest Ukrainian cities, gave the world talented pianists and violinists: David Oistrakh, Nathan Milstein, and Emil Gilels were born there, and Sviatoslav Richter was born in the Ukrainian city of Zhytomyr but lived and studied in Odessa for a long period. In 2021, the Ukrainian conductor Oksana Lyniv became the first woman conductor in the history of the Bayreuth Opera Festival, leading The Flying Dutchman at the festival’s opening; she is also the first woman chief conductor of an Italian opera orchestra as general music director of the Teatro Comunale di Bologna.

Ukraine has earned its place in the pantheon of classical music.

The unity of the Western countries in supporting Ukraine is encouraging. And the orchestral community has become an important contributor in this process. In the first weekend of the war, aside from the Ukrainian National Anthem, the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chief Conductor Vladimir Jurowski— whose family has Russian, Jewish, and Ukrainian roots—performed Symphony No. 1 by 19th-century Ukrainian composer Mykhailo Verbytsky. In midMarch, the London Philharmonic will perform Valentyn Silvestrov’s Symphony No. 4. Other orchestras will follow and, sooner rather than later, Ukrainian music will become an essential part of the symphonic repertoire.

RESOURCES The Ukrainianlive.org website has extensive information about historic and contemporary Ukrainian composers, available scores, and an app featuring music by Ukrainian composers of classical music. The “Stand with Ukraine” section of the Lviv National Opera’s website at opera.lviv.ua/en/standwithukraine/ includes information and links to several orchestral scores by Ukrainian composers. The American Musicological Society has posted “Music from Ukraine: A Collaborative Portrait Gallery in March 2022,” with wide-ranging essays, videos, and information about Ukraine’s classical music scene at https://musicologynow.org/music-from-ukraine/.

ELENA DUBINETS is the artistic director of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. She previously held top artistic planning positions at the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the Seattle Symphony. She received her MA and PhD degrees from the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Russia and has lived in the U.S. since 1996, moving to London in 2021.

AMERICANORCHESTRAS.ORG

27

Catalyzing Progress The League’s new Promising Practices: Actions Orchestras Can Take to Make Progress Toward Equity Catalyst Guide provides concrete advice and real-world examples from orchestras that are working to expand equity, diversity, and inclusion.

T

o support orchestras on their journeys toward becoming more just and equitable, the League of American Orchestras is publishing multiple resources about equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) specifically for the orchestra field. Published this February, the new Promising Practices: Actions Orchestras Can Take to Make Progress Toward Equity Catalyst Guide explores some of the most productive emerging practices from orchestra grantees of The Catalyst Fund Incubator, a League program. Orchestras supported by The Catalyst Fund are laboratories for showing what works in building understanding and creating effective EDI practices.

Download the Promising Practices: Actions Orchestras Can Take to Make Progress Toward Equity Catalyst Guide for free at https://hub.americanorchestras.org/2022/02/14/new-equity-diversity-and-inclusion-resources-from-the-league/. Learn more about the new Catalyst Guide and other equity, diversity, and inclusion resources from the League of American Orchestras, including webinars, seminars, and other publications, at the League’s Catalyst Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Resource Center at https://americanorchestras.org/learn/equity-diversity-and-inclusion/. And check back this summer for a new Catalyst Guide, featuring snapshots of orchestras putting these promising practices into action.

28

SPRING 2022

CATALYST GUIDE

Promising Practices: Actions Orchestras Can Take to Make Progress Toward Equity

By Theodore Wiprud This Catalyst Guide highlights concrete actions that your orchestra can take to support its equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) journey. The actions characterize the work of The Catalyst Fund Incubator orchestra grantees that were identified as making tangible progress towards their EDI goals.

The Catalyst Fund Incubator is a program of the League of American Orchestras that empowers Leaguemember orchestras to create a culture of inclusivity, and ultimately to nurture and sustain the diversity they seek. Orchestras supported by The Catalyst Fund are laboratories for showing us what works in building understanding and creating effective EDI practices.

ORGANIZE 1. Reallocate Resources Action Items • •

Devote time, money, and staff across all departments.

Make a commitment to the long haul and to fundamental change.

Most Catalyst orchestras faced severe budget cuts during the pandemic, but still invested money in the EDI process – far beyond the Catalyst grant itself. They had found that without investment, change never came.

“Don’t pretend you can do this without reallocation.”

–Jonathan Martin, President and CEO, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra

2. Shake Up Power Dynamics Action Items • •

Empower all levels of staff, alongside musicians and board, to speak and be heard from their own experiences and perspectives.

At the same time, maintain unequivocal executive focus on the issue, with a designated executive-level EDI leader.

Too often, staff members of color, whose voices are critical to this effort, tend to be on lower rungs of the org chart. However, when all staff and musicians feel agency, many orchestras report increased engagement across the organization, supporting progress in EDI and more. Some orchestras have created positions with titles like Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, but the title may be less important than enabling a member of senior management to spend significant time to keep the process moving forward.

AMERICANORCHESTRAS.ORG

“A shift of power dynamics is the beginning of actual antiracist change.” –Lori Adams, Crossroads Antiracism Facilitator, working with the New World Symphony

3. Build Structure Action Items • • •

Create a steering committee with board, staff, and musicians that meets regularly.

Spin off ad hoc task forces and affinity groups around different social identities.

Empower committee members as EDI champions in their everyday work.

Cross-functional leadership can take various forms: separate, coordinated working groups or one grand body. Specialized training for EDI leadership helps.

Spin-off groups enable a wide range of voices to be heard around gender, ableism, ageism, and more. Many participants may feel empowered as change agents back in the office, the orchestra, or the board room.

“Once you get some momentum, you need structure so your team can stick to a schedule.” –Christina Salerno, Executive Director, Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra

4. Audit All Departments and Systems

Action Items • •

Conduct a comprehensive EDI audit covering policies, practices, and communications across all departments.

Base the audit on shared language and understanding, which takes time to achieve.

Every aspect of an orchestra’s work, from finance to artistic production to development, must be involved in systemic change. But an audit or major adjustment of policies and practices that is carried out before building shared understanding is unlikely to surface what needs fixing.

“We used to have more boundaries, but we’ve reached a point where [EDI] is part of everything.” –Caen Thomason-Redus, Senior Director of Community and Learning, Detroit Symphony Orchestra

SET A COURSE 5. Create a Plan Action Items • • •

Detail responsibilities and outcomes.

Set a baseline and an imagined future, using metrics both quantitative and qualitative.

Take opportunities to recognize and celebrate change.

29

Change requires a way of recognizing progress. You can track numbers of people on committees or representation in the orchestra, board, or staff. Signs of culture change also appear in qualitative shifts like the quality of conversations or the empowerment of formerly quiet colleagues. But take care to root benchmarks in learning, mutual trust, and collaboration, lest they in effect reinforce established hierarchies and deny the opportunity for more radical change.

“EDI moved from high ideals to action when we created a detailed implementation plan with more than sixty specific actions to take over three years, with timelines and budgets for each item.” –David Snead, President and CEO, Handel and Haydn Society

6. Be Accountable Action Items • •

Include the board in devising and approving an EDI plan.

Set EDI performance goals for the board, departments, and individual employees.

The board time and focus required to develop and approve an EDI plan can overcome concerns about priorities and mission. EDI progress becomes a standing agenda item on the way to a board-adopted strategic plan. Goals set for functional areas can be implemented in individual performance goals set by mutual agreement based on shared understandings.

7. Bring in an Expert

8. Educate Sequentially Action Items • • •

Truly effective antiracist learning takes place over a period of years. Some learners will not be pushed too fast. In time, when common ground has been established, groups can break out for topics of special interest to their constituency or even related “elective” topics.

“People are on a continuum, and it’s difficult to keep the work moving forward in a way that brings people along.

Some may be ready to move quicker, but the intent is that we get as many people as possible to move forward in the work. Backlash can be real, and sometimes it is necessary to allow those who truly are not ready for next steps to leave the organization. But ideally, we are trying to build a shared understanding demonstrating meaningful purpose.”

–Christina Salerno, Executive Director, Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra

ENGAGE 9. Achieve Early Results Action Items •

Action Items

•

•

•

• •

Engage an EDI professional for external perspective and a theory of change.

Match specific consultants to your orchestra and your stage of work.

Expect executive coaching to help handle pitfalls and stay on mission.

Years of good intentions can finally be put into action when an EDI professional comes on the scene. A good consultant provides professional guidance through a well-defined process for change, and safe spaces for all to be heard.

Whether consultants have a deep background in orchestras or in a particular community, it’s incumbent on them to do their homework. Confidence in the consultant’s knowledge, targeting the scope to the consultant’s strengths, and sequencing consultants as the orchestra’s work progresses, are factors for success.

“They got what H&H needed. They had a template and a process and pushed us.” –David Snead, President and CEO, Handel and Haydn Society

30

Meet people where they are.

Begin by “leveling” everyone for shared vocabulary and history.

Sequence topics and experiences to keep everyone growing.

Inspire participation and trust through early wins – even small wins.

Show the community you are serious through simple public-facing changes.

Celebrate ancillary benefits like new donors and more engagement among staff or with your community.

While patience is a virtue in this long game, any early, visible results show that change is possible and good for the institution. In many orchestras, the first steps can be in programming, artists, and substitute players. But wins can come in many forms, including new revenue streams.

“Drive fast where you see an opening.” –Karen Philion, President and CEO, Virginia Symphony Orchestra

10. Target Community Engagement Action Items • • •

Recruit external stakeholders to committees and as partners.

Don’t expect external buy-in until you have made real internal progress.

In time, move beyond “symbolic” change to real equity in the community.

SPRING 2022

Engaging authentically with local organizations and audiences can be the ultimate sign of EDI success, leading to a broader impact on civic society. Many orchestras begin their EDI journey a considerable distance from that goal, but those that already have a history of sustained community engagement can leverage their partnerships for change, internally and externally.

“A lot of work needs to happen internally before external-facing change can be made in a way that’s authentic and sustainable.” –Elizabeth Shribman, Chief of Staff, San Francisco Symphony “A sense of civic responsibility is a sign of success. It says, we value these communities and music education and access.” –Lori Adams, Crossroads Antiracism Facilitator, working with the New World Symphony

11. Practice Patience and Flexibility Action Items • • •

Expect a multiyear process and bumps in the road.

Recalibrate when necessary.

Be generous and kind.

While early wins can galvanize the process, most EDI consultants bring a theory of change and a process that take years to bear fruit. There may be individuals on fire to make change, but others need time to listen and learn.

When the process seems to go off the rails, leadership needs to be unafraid to admit error and adjust course.

“You need to change people’s motivations, not just their actions. That takes time.” –Caen Thomason-Redus, Senior Director of Community and Learning, Detroit Symphony Orchestra “Balance your sense of urgency with knowledge that this is a long journey with no end—and that you have to take the time to be thoughtful and responsive enough to effect sustained,

AMERICANORCHESTRAS.ORG

meaningful change.” –Julian Kehs, Manager of Institutional Giving and DEI Task Force member, Los Angeles Philharmonic

12. Create Favorable Conditions Most orchestras begin their EDI work long before receiving dedicated support. Those achieving tangible results tended to show some combination of the following prior conditions: •

•

• • •

• • •

Conversations already happening about changes going on in the field, relevance in your community, and donor expectations.

Board commitment to lead and participate in EDI work already evident, with people of color as full participants.

Music director voicing support for changing practices.

Strategic planning already taking place with an EDI lens.

Good relations and healthy communications between the institution, musicians, and the union.

Individual musicians who are ready to step forward on EDI. New music embraced, easing the way to more inclusive programming.

Relationships begun with organizations, groups, and leaders in traditionally overlooked sectors and neighborhoods – showing up, learning, supporting community work.

League with questions at member@ americanorchestras.org.

Theodore Wiprud is a

composer and a consultant in the arts and education, and was the longtime Vice President, Education, at the New York Philharmonic. He has been active in multiple EDI initiatives, including the launch of The Catalyst Fund in 2019.

Acknowledgements

The Catalyst Fund Incubator and Catalyst Guide are made possible by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation with additional support from the Paul M. Angell Family Foundation.

Additional support for the Guide is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts and by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

Not all of these need to be in place, but the more of these describe your orchestra, the more likely you are to be ready.

LEARN MORE

To explore additional EDI resources and information for orchestra board members, staff, and musicians, visit the League’s Catalyst Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Resource Center at https:// americanorchestras.org/learn/equitydiversity-and-inclusion/. Contact the

31

On the first day of programming at the Beckmen YOLA Center, students in kindergarten through fifth grade attended classes with teaching artists.

Home, Sweet Home

YOLA’s new Inglewood headquarters is designed by starchitect Frank Gehry, but it represents something beyond bricks and mortar: a solid commitment to free music-making for young people in an underserved neighborhood. And the building is the tip of the architectural iceberg, as music education—and permanent homes for youth orchestras and communities—is increasingly important.

By Jim Farber

O

n October 16, 2021, a small but enthusiastic crowd of student musicians, civic officials, parents, and members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic gathered in front of a former bank building at 101 South La Brea Avenue in the City of Inglewood in Los Angeles County. They were there for the ceremonial ribbon-cutting that would inaugurate the 25,000-square-foot Judith and Thomas L. Beckmen YOLA Center. And while YOLA—the Youth Orchestra Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s free community-based music education program—has been in operation

32

since 2007 on four other campuses in LA, the newly opened YOLA Center in Inglewood represents the program’s first permanent home.

Designed by architect Frank Gehry and acoustician Dr. Yasuhisa Toyota, the center is anchored by 250-seat Edgerton Foundation Performance Hall, designed to be the same dimensions and caliber of the LA Phil’s Walt Disney Concert Hall stage. The YOLA hall can be converted into two smaller multi-purpose rehearsal spaces; in performance mode, retractable risers can provide theater-style seating. The building

SPRING 2022

houses offices, multiple rehearsal spaces, and a small practice studio with recording capabilities that YOLA students can use when they audition for high school and college. Built-in fiber-optic cables support distance learning and videoconferencing programs for remote musical collaboration. The building also has a lounge for parents and family members to hang out in during YOLA hours. Floorto-ceiling windows in the lobby offer open views of the building’s activities to the neighborhood.

As part of the opening festivities— delayed a couple of months due to last summer’s COVID surge—YOLA students and their LA Philharmonic mentor/musicians performed Gordon Jacob’s The Canterbury Flourish, a fanfare, and Made By and For the Future by Yoni Fogelman, a member of the LA Philharmonic’s Composer Fellowship Program, led by Philharmonic Music Director Gustavo Dudamel. A succession of speakers praised the new center, including Dudamel, the man most responsible for YOLA’s inception, and CEO Chad Smith, who played a AMERICANORCHESTRAS.ORG

major role in coordinating the project.

But it was, perhaps, architect Frank Gehry, whose firm oversaw the $23.5 million redesign and repurposing of the building, who put it best: “To the kids of Inglewood, I say, let it rip! This is your building, and I hope you use every inch of it to experiment and further your creative explorations. It was a joy for me to make it, and I hope it is a joy for you to use it!” Following the ribbon-cutting, there were tours of the facility and the YOLA percussion ensemble performed in the center’s acoustically bright performance hall.

Also on hand at the center’s fall opening was Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts Jr., whose administration has played a principal role in the city’s renaissance.

The City of Inglewood, in southwestern Los Angeles County, has recently emerged as a sports and entertainment center for Los Angeles County. YOLA musicians performed at this year’s Super Bowl, which took place less than two miles from the new Beckmen Center, at the dazzling new SoFi Stadium. A new indoor arena for the LA Clippers is also

under construction in Inglewood. When we spoke this winter, Butts explained that in 2017 Inglewood found itself burdened with an empty 100,000-square-foot former Security Bank building, right in the middle of its downtown business district. At the same time, the Los Angeles Philharmonic was looking for a site that could become the first permanent home for YOLA. It was a perfect match.

The Philharmonic purchased the property for $5.65 million. Then, propelled by a $14.5 million dollar donation from Judith and Thomas Beckmen, the vision of Frank Gehry and Associates was brought into play, leading to the creation of the center.

The Beckmen Center joins four existing YOLA sites—in South LA, the Rampart District, Westlake/MacArthur Park, and East LA—which together serve students from more than 200 schools in LA County.

Located less than four miles northeast of LAX in southwest Los Angeles County, the city of Inglewood is a diverse neighborhood that is developing into one of LA County’s hottest neighborhoods, with multiple 33

Craig T. Mathew/Mathew Imaging

Students in the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s YOLA (Youth Orchestra Los Angeles) program perform outside the newly opened Beckmen YOLA Center, October 2021.

Craig T. Mathew/Mathew Imaging

Craig T. Mathew/Mathew Imaging

Students in class with a teaching artist at the Beckmen YOLA Center in Inglewood, Los Angeles.

At the ribbon-cutting on the Beckmen YOLA Center’s opening day (left to right): architect Frank Gehry, Los Angeles Philharmonic Music and Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel, Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts Jr., a YOLA student, and LA Phil CEO Chad Smith.

sports and entertainment facilities under construction or just completed—and now, the Beckmen Center. The neighborhood until recently had been in financial decline and associated with gang violence and poverty. Inglewood was a place you went to see the Lakers play or attend a rock concert at The Forum, put money down at the Hollywood Park Race Track and Casino. You did not consider staying. The attitude toward Inglewood has changed completely, making it the most happening area in greater Los Angeles, especially with the opening of SoFi Stadium, where the Rams won this year’s Super Bowl.

Financed by Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke, the stadium reportedly cost more than $5 billion to build—a price not without ironies in an area suffering from long neglect. Amid all these giant arenas, YOLA’s presence as a nonprofit that is free represents a meaningful commitment to the Inglewood community.

34

Architect Frank Gehry speaks with Gustavo Dudamel during opening ceremonies of the new Beckmen YOLA Center in Inglewood, California, October 2021.

“YOLA connects children from every background with some of the greatest musicians in the world, the members of the LA Phil,” says Mayor Butts. “That’s a game-changer in the level of commitment. Let me explain it in terms of sports. There are a lot of cities and parks that provide tennis instruction.

In Inglewood, we subsidize a non-profit program called ‘40 Love’ that employs exclusively Black former Olympic competitors in tennis. Our youth play in tournaments at country clubs. They compete against the best. There are programs, and there are programs. YOLA is a program!”

To be clear, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel are not the only ones making a commitment to free music education for children who otherwise would not have the opportunity to participate. The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra has its OrchKids program,

founded in 2008 by Music Director Marin Alsop, now offered to students at nine Baltimore City schools. Charles Dickerson founded the Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles (ICYOLA) in 2008 and, in an impressive feat of cross-country synergy, he added a second initiative, the South Side Chicago Youth Orchestra, in 2019. (People nationwide got to know the Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles when its young musicians performed during a nationally televised NFL awards ceremony three days before this year’s Super Bowl.) In January 2022, the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra announced that it is constructing a new music center set to open in 2023; a major impetus for building the space is to expand music education programs. In February, the Knox-Galesburg Symphony in Illinois announced that it is renovating a former Farm Bureau Building, also with a goal of

SPRING 2022

Courtesy Cargo Films

The Wisconsin Youth Symphony is building a new music center in Madison, expected to open in 2023, with a design inspired by the curves of a cello.

Young musicians in the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s OrchKids program are featured in The Conductor, a new documentary about conductor Marin Alsop, who founded the program in Baltimore in 2008.

In January 2022, the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra announced that it is constructing a new music center; the space allows the orchestra to expand its music education programs. The Stella Boyle Smith Music Center is set to open in 2023.

Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles (ICYOLA) and Charles Dickerson perform at Walt Disney Concert Hall in in 2018. ICYOLA is one of many programs around the country focusing on free music education for children who otherwise would not have access to it. In 2019, Dickerson added a second initiative, the South Side Chicago Youth Orchestra.

expanding music education. Increasingly, music education is a critical part of the work orchestras are doing in their communities—and the mini-burst of new buildings dedicated to these endeavors is an encouraging sign of ongoing investment in that work in many places.

Still, with its multi-year embrace of YOLA and now the Beckmen Center, the Los Angeles Philharmonic has made a statement with this very visible commitment to YOLA and to the Inglewood community. As a conductor already a superstar in his twenties, Dudamel could have chosen any number of paths. But it’s music education that has remained a consistent focus for him, and for the LA Phil. It’s not quite true, as some have said, that Dudamel’s decision to go to Los Angeles from his native Venezuela hinged on a promise to create a Los Angeles incarnation of El Sistema, the free, longstanding music

AMERICANORCHESTRAS.ORG

education system in which he was raised, but it certainly was a factor. Former LA Phil CEO Deborah Borda remembers traveling to Venezuela to recruit Dudamel as music director, and learning more about El Sistema and meeting its founder, José Antonio Abreu. “It was so inspirational to see these young performers and to watch Gustavo working with them,” she recalls.

“One of the things that Maestro Abreu explained that really turned my head, was that we wouldn’t have to make YOLA exactly like El Sistema in Venezuela. For the program to thrive, he told me, it has to be developed and tailor-made for each country, community, or city. There are, however, basic aspects that have to be applied such as: starting children when they’re very young, closely involving the families, getting kids to teach other kids, and sometimes putting them into orchestras with players that are much better than they are.”

In February, the Knox-Galesburg Symphony in Illinois announced that it is renovating a former Farm Bureau Building, with a goal of expanding music education.

35

Inglewood, California Mayor James T. Butts Jr. (left, with LA Phil M ​ usic and Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel at the new Beckmen YOLA Center) says, “For Inglewood, YOLA is a long-term commitment. It’s part of the brand of the city now, and it’s brought a whole new energy.”

Beckmen YOLA Center director Camille Delaney-McNeil says, “We all want YOLA to be a model and a resource center for other organizations. At the same time, we have the potential to grow deep roots right here in the community of Inglewood.”

YOLA saxophone teacher Albert “Poncho” Williams, a longtime resident of Inglewood, California, says, “We’re committed to the wellbeing of these children and how that will manifest into positive community growth.”

live classes even as the protocols seem to Smith told the crowd that on September Borda (who stepped down from the change every week. We currently have a 30, 130 students attended their first LA Phil to become president and CEO faculty of 15 teaching artists and a student classes at the Beckmen YOLA Center. of the New York Philharmonic in 2017) body of 140. Our original goal was to “I’m proud to say,” Smith added with a says that she had to convince the LA have 160 students, but COVID made nod to Inglewood’s Mayor, “80 percent Phil board to sign on to creating YOLA us limit that number. Someday, when of the incoming class are residents of in 2007. “When we initially proposed the pandemic is no longer a problem, Inglewood.” it, they turned it down,” she says. “They we would like the total enrollment for were more concerned with dollars-andall five centers to be about 500.” cents than the unique aspects of Increasingly, music education is a She points out with pride that the the program. To their credit, when school was able to present two we presented a revised proposal critical part of the work orchestras “Winter Showcase” concerts in a few months later, emphasizing are doing in their communities. mid-December, and at press time how YOLA could be financially intensive rehearsals were underway supported and provide a way for A burst of new and renovated for a spring showcase. the Philharmonic to really integrate buildings to house these programs Delaney-McNeil emphasizes itself with the community, they “how important a role the LA Phil came on board. In the beginning demonstrates ongoing investment. and YOLA can play in the field I think everyone, including the of community involvement. We all want School’s Open orchestra, was nervous. Today they’ll tell YOLA to be a model that can serve as an Camille Delaney-McNeil joined the LA you YOLA is one of the programs they’re example and a resource center for other Phil last spring as the first director of the most proud of.” national and international organizations.

Beckmen YOLA Center. A classically On the eve of the center’s official If we can bring other organizations on trained singer and flutist who previously opening in October, Dudamel told board, YOLA can be the genesis for how administered the Baltimore Symphony Spectrum News 1 in Los Angeles that this we inspire and mobilize the field. We Orchestra’s OrchKids program, she is moment represented a culmination: “For want this to be a hub and a laboratory also a board member of El Sistema USA, these young people,” he said, “they will go that sparks new conversations for the which supports a nationwide alliance of to a new place that is full of beauty and music education community at large.

El Sistema-inspired organizations. Since possibilities. I believe that in this place We also want it to be the place where assuming her current post, Delaneythey will build not only their future, but people can come and try out new ways of McNeil has dealt with meeting and the future of their community through thinking. At the same time, we have the working with faculty and students in culture. That is something that is very potential to grow deep roots right here in a new building—all while confronting important. It’s about identity…. After all the community of Inglewood.” the elaborate protocols and health issues these complex times, this tragedy, to get This winter during the Omicron raised by the pandemic. “The school together and bring better possibilities surge, I spoke by phone with Sophia could not have picked a more challenging and better spaces for our children is the Grant, an Inglewood resident and fifthtime to open,” she says. “We have been best way to celebrate them.” Just before grade student at St. John Chrysostom making every effort to continue offering the official ceremony in October, Chad

36

SPRING 2022

The Grant Family

high school students. We help them with building resumes and applying to college.

Our goal is to address the whole child.”

Fifth-grader Sophia Grant, a first-year YOLA student and Inglewood resident, says, “I signed up in August, and I’ve had great experiences.

I’ve made a lot of new friends. My homeroom for my first semester was percussion, and I learned how to play the marimba. But my instrument is the trumpet. I think I would really like to have a career in music.”

School who is in her first year as a YOLA student. Her instrument of choice, she says, is the trumpet. “I came to be involved with YOLA through my family and friends,” she explains. “I signed up in August, and I’ve had great experiences.

I’ve made a lot of new friends. My homeroom for my first semester was percussion, and I learned how to play the marimba. But my instrument is the trumpet. I think I would really like to have a career in music.”

While steering students toward a career in music is admirable, DelaneyMcNeil points out, it is not a primary YOLA objective. “It’s great that Sophia would like to become a musician,” she explains. “But that’s not necessarily our goal. What we expect from our students is a commitment, both from them and their parents. If they are willing to dedicate themselves and put in the necessary time, they’re welcome. It’s the experience of making music and having the opportunity to work with remarkable teachers that’s the real takeaway.”

Delaney-McNeil says the response to this year’s YOLA program from the Inglewood community has been strong.

“When we had our first open enrollment, 396 families showed interest for about 160 slots. If I could use the image of a pillar to describe our structure, our students and their families are the pillar that YOLA is built on. That level of social consciousness also carries over into how we treat our alumni and our graduating AMERICANORCHESTRAS.ORG

Civic Pride YOLA saxophone teacher Albert “Poncho” Williams comes to the organization by way of his 20 years as a resident of Inglewood. Delaney-McNeil credits Williams, one of the Center’s original faculty members, with laying the foundation for all the woodwind classes and playing a critical role in establishing the Center’s learning infrastructure. As a military veteran (who performed in the Army’s music division), and a veteran of the Los Angeles public school system, Williams says, “I’m used to adversity. I taught at a school where we couldn’t even afford to buy horns. We had to figure out how to raise the money ourselves to buy instruments. When I was teaching in middle school and high school, you would invariably end up with students in your classes that were there simply because they couldn’t get any other elective. The students at YOLA are here because they dig music. We all share a common goal.

We’re committed to the well-being of these children and how that will manifest into positive community growth.”

“When I first began working here,” Williams says, “I remember being at a gas station, and I had on a YOLA mask. The local mailman recognized me and said the whole neighborhood had heard about me teaching at YOLA. ‘We are so excited,’ he told me. ‘That Center has brought a whole new energy to Inglewood.’ ” Timing also played a critical role in the creation of the Beckmen YOLA Center. Just ask Inglewood’s three-term mayor, James T. Butts Jr. At the time he was first elected in 2011, the city was mired in debt. Since then, Inglewood has emerged as a Los Angeles success story, climaxing this past February with the hometown Los Angeles Rams playing the Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl LVI beneath the vast, glowing dome of Inglewood’s SoFi Stadium. And as a further celebration of the city, the Super Bowl pre-game ceremonies featured the contemporary gospel duo MARY MARY, accompanied by the student musicians of YOLA performing “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” conducted by Thomas Wilkins, principal conductor of the Los

Angeles Philharmonic’s Hollywood Bowl Orchestra.

Mayor Butts says, “Our goal was not just to create an environment in Inglewood that would attract people from outside the city to places like the renovated Forum and SoFi Stadium.

We want to build a city that could be an incubator for employment and for our youth. We wanted to add a cultural component as part of the overall mosaic, and our interests coincided perfectly with the goals of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. For Inglewood, YOLA is a long-term commitment. It’s part of the brand of the city now, and it’s brought a whole new energy. People used to say, no one’s going to come to Inglewood. There’s too much crime, it’s too dangerous. There are gangs, poverty, yada, yada, yada. No one is saying that now!”

JIM FARBER has been a music critic and arts feature writer in Los Angeles since 1982. He is the Los Angeles correspondent for San Francisco Classical Voice and has received five Los Angeles Press Club awards for feature writing and criticism.

37

At a 2019 performance, Aspen Music Festival and School Music Director Robert Spano leads the Aspen Festival Orchestra in Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with vocal soloists and choristers from the Colorado Symphony Orchestra Chorus, Seraphic Fire, and students of the Seraphic Fire Professional Choral Institute.

Festivals on the Move

Summer music festivals are continuing to adapt and change with the times, two years after the COVID-19 pandemic began. As live, in-person concerts resume, festivals nationwide are taking to heart the lessons learned and implementing fresh approaches to concerts, rethinking audience access, and expanding the range of the music they play. What’s ahead?

By Steven Brown

A

t the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in California, musicians and audiences share an up-close-and-personal experience. Open rehearsals offer listeners a window into the creative process. When the musicians call it a night, they stay with host families in the community. “It’s an extension of the festival family,” Executive Director Ellen M. Primack says. “People who host musicians feel like they have the best experience of the festival. They make new friends. They understand more about a musician’s life.”

COVID-19 turned that coziness into a liability. In the summers of 2020 and 2021, before vaccinations had yet to become widespread, Cabrillo’s musicians had to stay away: putting them into hosts’ homes would have been too risky for everyone, so the festival moved into the 38

virtual realm. This summer, the festival will at last bring composers, performers, audiences, and host families back together.

“We have a whole task force working on spreading the word in our pool of hosts,” Primack says. “We’re looking forward to that.”

Even for festivals that returned to in-person performances last summer— taking advantage of outdoor venues’ relative safety—this year will still bring pandemic-era firsts. The Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Tanglewood Festival, the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Hollywood Bowl concerts, and the California-based Music Academy of the West’s professional training programs will return to full-length seasons after last summer’s shortened ones. The Boston University Tanglewood Institute, after shrinking its student roster the past two

summers, will fill it out again. Chicago’s Grant Park Festival, which focused last summer on music that could be performed by a reduced, socially distanced orchestra and chorus, will again marshal full-strength groups.

But some festivals still confront changing dynamics in their regions. The super-hot housing market in Aspen, Colorado, put the kibosh on the Aspen Music Festival’s plans to build back this summer to a full-sized student roster.

Before the pandemic, a portion of the students typically found rental quarters on the open market, but the city’s population influx squelched that option. So the festival had to drop 80 student slots— leaving a final tally of 480—and eliminate its all-student Aspen Philharmonic Orchestra.

The Britt Music and Arts Festival in SPRING 2022

Carlin Ma

southern Oregon returns this summer to a full-sized orchestra and schedule. But its 60th-anniversary edition will serve notice that pandemics aren’t the only largerthan-life forces we face: the festival, based in a hillside amphitheater, will abandon its usual late-summer time slot and shift six weeks earlier, trying to finish before wildfire season.

“For the past nine years, we have had to deal with forest-fire smoke at our venue,” says Donna Briggs, the festival’s recently retired president and CEO. (The festival’s new president and CEO, Abby McKee, begins in the job on May 1, 2022.) “Unfortunately, there have been multiple occasions when we’ve had to either cancel shows altogether or move them into a school auditorium, which is not ideal—moving 90 musicians and the audience at the last minute. We hope this new arrangement is going to solve that problem.”

music festivals to feature creators and performers from long-neglected groups.

By forcing music organizations to throw out long-set schedules, the pandemic made them “rethink everything” just as Black Lives Matter and other socialjustice movements put the spotlight on diversity and inclusion, says Grant Park Music Festival President and CEO Paul Winberg. “That gave us an opportunity to double down on highlighting works of people who have too long been ignored,” Winberg says. Concertgoers’ response to these works at Grant Park has signaled that “audiences’ ears are open now more than ever,” he continues. “They say to me, ‘I’m so proud that we’re doing this,’ or, ‘I’m so glad that I came to this concert and you did this work. I didn’t know anything about this composer.’ ” This summer’s Grant Park fare includes the premiere of a work the festival commissioned before the

Britt Festival President and CEO Donna Briggs says, “For the past nine years, we have had to deal with forest-fire smoke at our venue.” The festival will shift to earlier dates this summer, in hopes of avoiding wildfire season.

works by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) or women composers will figure into 63 percent of the festival’s roughly 200 concerts.

The Hollywood Bowl also will feature a wide range of conductors and artists. Finland’s Dalia Stasevska will lead the Los Angeles Philharmonic in a program including Dvořák’s New World Symphony, and Colombian Underrepresented Voices American conductor Lina By forcing music organizations to Starting the Britt Festival in midGonzalez-Granados will helm throw out long-set schedules, the June also created an opportunity: a program featuring Rimskythe opening weekend coincides pandemic may have helped pave the way Korsakov’s Sheherazade. Both with Juneteenth, and incorporatprograms will open with music ing that into the festival is “a nat- for music festivals to feature creators composed by women. Joseph ural evolution,” Briggs says. Music and performers from long-neglected Young will guest-conduct the Los Director Teddy Abrams and Angeles Philharmonic in Carlos groups just as Black Lives Matter and the Britt Festival Orchestra will Simon’s Portrait of a Queen, which mark Juneteenth with a program other social-justice movements put the weaves in the spoken word to look devoted to music of living and at Black history in the United historical Black composers includ- spotlight on diversity and inclusion.

States. Pianist Isata Kannehing Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, Mason will join Polish conductor pandemic: the Violin Concerto No. 2 by Valerie Coleman, and Tyshawn Sorey. The Marta Gardolińska and the LA Phil jazz pianist and composer Billy Childs. following weekend, bass-baritone Davóne in Clara Schumann’s Piano Concerto.

Conductor Jonathon Heyward will lead Tines will join the festival orchestra in his Those will come amid Bowl programs a program including Dvořák’s Symphony multi-composer song collection Reflections featuring the LA Phil and Music and No. 8, and the festival orchestra will and Prayers.

Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel and perform with mariachi and gospel groups.

The pandemic, serendipitously, the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra led by Widening the lens, Winberg says that may have helped pave the way for Thomas Wilkins, its longtime principal conductor.

During the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s opening weekend at Tanglewood in rural Lenox, Massachusetts Music Director Andris Nelsons will lead the BSO in Duke Ellington’s New World A-Comin’ rhapsody for piano and band, spotlighting pianist Aaron Diehl, and the U.S. premiere of Helen Grime’s Trumpet Concerto. Later in the festival, a concert performance of Mozart’s Don Giovanni will feature the BSO and a cast made up mostly of singers Aspen Music Festival and School artist-faculty member Timothy Adams Jr. and members of the AMFS of color. JoAnn Falletta, music director of Percussion Ensemble perform Adams’s newly composed Ode to Breonna last summer.

AMERICANORCHESTRAS.ORG

39

Adriane White Jay Neuman

The Britt Festival Orchestra and Music Director Teddy Abrams perform with narrator Bruce Campbell.

Music Director Cristian Macelaru and the Cabrillo Festival Virtual Orchestra gave the world premiere of Stacy Garrop’s The Battle for the Ballot, commemorating the centenary of the 19th Amendment, online in 2020. The work will receive its in-person premiere at this summer’s Cabrillo Festival.

the Buffalo Philharmonic, will make her BSO debut leading a program of Roberto Sierra, Respighi, and Tchaikovsky, and the podium roster also includes conductor Karina Canellakis and Anna Rakitina, the BSO’s assistant conductor.

“We’re embracing the idea that engaging with artists with a range of life experience makes what we do more interesting and more relevant,” says BSO President and CEO Gail Samuel.

This extends into making Tanglewood “more fluid around genre,” she adds, citing Diehl in Ellington and concerts by multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Rhiannon Giddens—heading up the Silkroad Ensemble—and jazz singer Cécile McLorin Salvant.

The Cabrillo Festival has long championed the cause of diversity, under conductor Marin Alsop, who led it from 1992 to 2016, and now under Cristian Măcelaru, music director since 2017. The festival has continued to focus on “making our orchestra more relevant—to be a 40

catalyst for conversation and dialogue,” Primack says. Cabrillo is located in an area that was ravaged by wildfires in 2020.

This summer, the vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth will join Cabrillo’s orchestra to premiere Scott Ordway’s The End of Rain, fourth in a series of commissions on the environmental crisis.

Tech Still Matters The Cabrillo Festival will also include the live-performance premiere of the one work premiered at the festival in 2020: Stacy Garrop’s The Battle for the Ballot, a celebration of the centennial of the 19th Amendment recognizing the right of women to vote. The lockdown summer’s virtual performance was just one example of technology providing a lifeline for festivals whose musicians and audiences were shut away.

“We had been doing no online programming at all” before the pandemic, Primack says, but a “herculean” effort enabled Cabrillo to mount a mini-festival

Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music Executive Director Ellen Primack says the festival is focused on “making our orchestra more relevant— to be a catalyst for conversation and dialogue.”

Cabrillo is in an area that has been ravaged by wildfires and this summer will present the world premiere of Scott Ordway’s The End of Rain, fourth in a series of commissions on the environmental crisis.

Cellist Seth Parker Woods will perform in the Britt Festival’s Juneteenth celebration this summer, which will feature music by Valerie Coleman, Tyshawn Sorey, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, Adolphus Hailstork, and Julius Eastman.

virtually. For The Battle for the Ballot, 60 of the orchestra’s far-flung musicians recorded their parts individually on audio and video, syncing to a click track.

Then a tech-savvy percussionist, Svet Stoyanov, combined everything into a video made available on demand. The result was “so artful and so beautiful and intimate,” Primack says. “You get to see the individual players. There’s something magical about them, both individually and as an ensemble.”

The Music Academy of the West— which in pre-pandemic years presented 200 summer concerts and other offerings in Santa Barbara, California—couldn’t bring its 2020 fellows and faculty to Santa Barbara, so it connected them virtually, wherever they were. To make sure no students were shortchanged because of technology, the academy sent them all iPads, cameras, tripods and microphones, plus WiFi hotspots for whoever needed them, explains Chief Artistic Officer Jamie Broumas. It supplied instruments SPRING 2022

Noel Morris

Ken Richardson

“The initial impetus for streaming was about connecting with our existing audience,” says Boston Symphony Orchestra President and CEO Gail Samuel. “The question I want to build out is, how can it help us connect with new audiences?

Are there ways to use the virtual space to provide different access?”

Mask on, mask off: The pandemic has forced last-minute changes in safety precautions at festivals, as these photos of the Grant Park Chorus—taken earlier and later during the 2021 Grant Park Music Festival—demonstrate.

Hilary Scott

The Grant Park Orchestra and Music Director Carlos Kalmar perform at Millennium Park’s Pritzker Pavilion in Chicago.

A pre-pandemic performance by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Music Director Andris Nelsons, the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, and vocal soloists. This summer, the Tanglewood Festival Chorus will give its first in-person concerts since 2019.

to percussionists in Italy and New Zealand, and it arranged practice space for pianists who couldn’t work in their apartments. Zoom made it possible for musicians to perform together. “We had a steep learning curve, but we pulled it off,” Broumas says. “I’m so proud of 2020.” The whole exercise, she adds, complemented what the Music Academy calls its Innovation Institute, which teaches the AMERICANORCHESTRAS.ORG

Grant Park Music Festival President and CEO Paul Winberg says the pandemic forced music organizations to “rethink everything” just as Black Lives Matter and other social-justice movements raised issues of diversity and inclusion: “That gave us an opportunity to double down on highlighting works of people who have too long been ignored.”

Norman Timonera

Elliot Mandel

Charles Osgood

Aspen Music Festival CEO Alan Fletcher (with patrons at Benedict Music Tent in 2021) says the festival’s streamed concerts during the pandemic “were reaching people in Hanoi and Capetown and Buenos Aires ... We will absolutely continue a streaming program.”

young musicians to marshal electronic and social media as springboards to their careers.

Aspen, like the Music Academy, mounted a virtual mini-festival— including both teaching and concerts—in 2020, then maintained some virtual offerings after in-person activities resumed in 2021. While President and CEO Alan Fletcher says Aspen’s

streamed concerts may offer “a very different musical experience” than, say, the Berlin Philharmonic’s Digital Concert Hall, it’s still “a fresh, exciting one,” he says. “We were reaching people in Hanoi and Capetown and Buenos Aires, who probably will never come to Aspen,” Fletcher explains. Closer to home, he adds, the streams have become “really important to people who know us but no longer come up to Aspen. The letters and cards I’ve gotten from those people are so emotional. We will absolutely continue a streaming program.” Chicago’s Grant Park festival, which largely relied on archival material for its virtual offerings, hopes to add new videos as its home, Millennium Park’s Pritzker Pavilion, beefs up its equipment, Winberg says.

Festivals are taking a variety of approaches to virtual programming as live, in-person concerts again become the norm. “People are desperate to go into a live setting,” the Music Academy’s Broumas says. Because direct contact between musicians and audiences is so important to the Cabrillo experience, Primack explains, the festival will limit itself to live streams of open 41

Moshe Busman

“We had a steep learning curve, but we pulled it off,” says Jamie Broumas, Music Academy of the West’s chief artistic officer. “I’m so proud of 2020.” The Academy couldn’t bring its 2020 fellows and faculty to Santa Barbara, so it connected them virtually.

Phil Channing

Rich Coburn won a Music Academy of the West Alumni Enterprise Award in 2021 for his BIPOC VOICES project, an online library with orchestrated vocal works by Black, Indigenous, and other composers of color.

The Music Academy of the West Festival Orchestra performs at the Santa Barbara Bowl.

restaurants and other businesses across the country, the Bowl struggled to find people for food service and other roles, Song adds. When a vaccine mandate created the need for additional staffers, Los Angeles County’s Parks & Recreation Department—the Bowl’s owner—pointed toward some workers whose seasonal jobs were ending. “We got a good cadre of county lifeguards to come and do our vaccine verification,” Song says.

Going into summer 2022, the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s staff feels “ready for anything,” Song says. The Bowl will celebrate its 100th season with the likes of a Richard Wagner night conducted by

Multiple Approaches During the pandemic, summer festivals, just like year-round groups, have navigated through unfamiliar technologies, changing health mandates, and plain old uncertainty. The Los Angeles Philharmonic didn’t get the go-ahead for an in-person 2021 Hollywood Bowl season until February or March that year, recalls Daniel Song, the orchestra’s chief operating officer. “We had to scramble and just book whatever we could,” Song says. “It became kind of a race—which artists were available when. Everybody was trying to just fill dates in the calendar and see how things landed.”

The need for adaptation and new solutions went far beyond that. Like

42

Dudamel, who will lead a phalanx of bigvoiced singers in Act 3 of Die Walküre; also planned are the world premiere of a commissioned concerto for cuatro by Gonzalo Grau, with soloist Jorge Glem, and Orff ’s Carmina Burana.

The Grant Park Music Festival will revel in the return of its full-sized orchestra and chorus, with Artistic Director Carlos Kalmar conducting such works as Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 9 and Benjamin Britten’s Spring Symphony. The Tanglewood Festival Chorus will return to its namesake setting, where it hasn’t been heard since 2019.

Last year, there were no singers, student

Farah Sosa

rehearsals. The Britt Festival will focus on educational material offered virtually throughout the year, Briggs says.

Tanglewood will stream some concerts this summer, the BSO’s Samuel says, “but that will continue to evolve. The initial impetus for streaming was about connecting with our existing audience.

The question I want to build out is, how can it help us connect with new audiences—people in the community who maybe don’t feel like they’re engaged with us yet? Are there ways to use the virtual space to provide different access?”

Concertgoers arrive at the Hollywood Bowl for a concert in 2021.

SPRING 2022

Dealing with the exigencies of the pandemic at the Hollywood Bowl last summer, says Daniel Song, the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s chief operating officer, “We’ve become more unified. After our world was rocked in the way it was, we all came together—our musicians, our board, our donors, our staff. We came together to be able to get through it.”

which helped make up for lost revenue; staffers who made and re-made plans as circumstances changed; musicians who performed in their living rooms and wrestled with the challenges of onstage social distancing; and the audiences who have welcomed them back.

“While we didn’t have the normal numbers of concerts last year, the [Hollywood Bowl] audiences were at 100 percent,” the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Song says. Within the orchestra’s own

operation, he adds, “I think we’ve become more unified. After our world was rocked in the way it was, we all came together— our musicians, our board, our donors, our staff. We came together to be able to get through it.”

STEVEN BROWN is a Houston-based writer specializing in classical music and the arts. He previously served as classical music critic of the Orlando Sentinel, Charlotte Observer, and Houston Chronicle.

or professional—for fear of superspreader risk among grouped vocalists—but this year it is bringing them back in force with programs including Brahms’s A German Requiem and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Tanglewood’s Vocal Arts Program will resume.

Festivals also will take advantage of discoveries they made during last year’s scaled-back programs. Musicians at Tanglewood appreciated the “more relaxed feeling” of a schedule that was less jammed than usual, Samuel says, and that led the festival to leave “some space” this year. “Do we have to be going every single night?” Samuels asks.

After cutting its student body way back last summer, so it could limit student housing to one person per room, Aspen discovered some benefits, Fletcher says.

“Our piano program used to be about 60 young people,” he recalls. “When we cut it to 20 for last summer, the piano faculty said, ‘We love this. We can give them multiple lessons a week. We can give chamber music with strings to every pianist.’ So we said, ‘OK. Let’s go with a smaller piano program.’ ” While the city’s real-estate squeeze forced the festival to make a last-minute reduction in this summer’s student count, the vocal program will nevertheless build from last year’s 15 to 60, enabling it to stage Verdi’s Falstaff with Welsh baritone Bryn Terfel.

Fletcher and other leaders repeatedly credit the legions of people who enabled the festivals to survive the lockdowns: donors who maintained or increased their contributions; the lawmakers behind the federal CARES Act (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act), AMERICANORCHESTRAS.ORG

43

Cody Woodard

The Grand Teton Music Festival in Jackson, Wyoming celebrates its 61st season this summer.

CALIFORNIA Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music Santa Cruz, CA July 24 to August 7

Hybrid Programming with Both Online and In-Person Attendance The Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, America’s longest-running festival of new orchestral music, returns to in-person concerts July 24–August 7, 2022. Featuring Grammy Award-winning conductor Cristian Macelaru, renowned soloists mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke, violinist Benjamin Beilman, pianist Lara Downes, and vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth, the program includes premieres by composers Stacy Garrop, Jake Heggie, Scott Ordway, and Ivan Enrique Rodriguez.

FESTIVAL CONDUCTORS: Cristian Macelaru FESTIVAL ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: Cristian Macelaru FESTIVAL ARTISTS: Composers-inresidence: Stacy Garrop, John Harbison, Jake Heggie,Jessie Montgomery, Paola Prestini, Kevin Puts, Andrea Reinkemeyer, Ivan Enrique Rodriguez, Sarah Kirkland Snider

44

GUEST ARTISTS: Sasha Cooke, mezzosoprano; Lara Downes, piano; Katherine Needleman, oboe; Benjamin Beilman, Thais Chernyavsky, violin FEATURED GROUPS: Cabrillo Festival Orchestra; Roomful of Teeth, vocal ensemble FOR INFORMATION: Ellen Primack 147 S. River Street Suite 232, Santa Cruz CA 95060 (831) 426-6966 info@cabrillomusic.org cabrillomusic.org @CabrilloFest  @cabrillofestival 

Music@Menlo Chamber Music Festival and Institute Atherton, CA July 14 to August 6

Hybrid Programming with Both Online and In-Person Attendance Music@Menlo celebrates its twentieth anniversary this summer with “Haydn Connections” from July 14 to August 6. The festival includes three weeks of concerts, lectures, free afternoon performances, master classes, and more.

FESTIVAL ARTISTIC DIRECTORS: David Finckel and Wu Han

baritone; Scott Pingel, bass; Steven Dibner, Peter Kolkay, bassoon; Dmitri Atapine, Nicholas Canellakis, Estelle Choi, David Finckel, Mihai Marica, Inbal Segev, cello; Romie de Guise-Langlois, Tommaso Lonquich, clarinet; Aaron Boyd, Ara Guzelimian, Michael Parloff, encounter leaders; Amir Hoshang Farsi, Sooyun Kim, flute; Mark Almond, Kevin Rivard, horn; Sasha Cooke, mezzo-soprano; Fred Child, narrator; James Austin Smith, Stephen Taylor, oboe; Michael Brown, Gilbert Kalish, Hyeyeon Park, Mika Sasaki, Shai Wosner, Wu Han, piano; Meigui Zhang, soprano; Nicholas Phan, tenor; Aaron Boyd, Matthew Lipman, Paul Neubauer, Tien-Hsin Cindy Wu, viola; Aaron Boyd, Ivan Chan, Jennifer Frautschi, Bella Hristova, Kristin Lee, Richard Lin, Daniel Phillips, Todd Phillips, Arnaud Sussmann, James Thompson, Tien-Hsin Cindy Wu, violin FEATURED GROUPS: Calidore String Quartet, Orion String Quartet FOR INFORMATION: Edward Sweeney 50 Valparaiso Avenue, Atherton, CA 94027 (650) 330-2030 info@musicatmenlo.org musicatmenlo.org @musicatmenlo  @musicatmenlo 

FESTIVAL ARTISTS: Edward Nelson,

S P E C I A L A DV ERT I S I N G S U P P L E M EN T TO SYM P H O NY

SPRING 2022

S U M M ER FES T I VA L S

Music in the Vineyards Napa Valley, CA August 3 to August 21

info@ojaifestival.org OjaiFestival.org @ojaifestival  @ojaifestivals 

In-Person Only

Pacific Symphony SummerFest Five Point Amphitheater; Irvine, CA July 4 to September 4

Music in the Vineyards is a nationally acclaimed chamber music festival held in the Napa Valley. The festival features new and classic repertoire in intimate winery settings with wine country views.

In-Person Only

FESTIVAL ARTISTIC DIRECTORS: Michael Adams & Daria Tedeschi Adams

Pacific Symphony’s three-concert SummerFest season celebrates the music of John Williams. Principal Pops Conductor Richard Kaufman leads the orchestra in the July 4th Spectacular featuring favorite Williams film scores, followed by the live film concert of The Empire Strikes Back on Aug. 20 and closing with Carl St.Clair directing the Sept. 4 Tchaikovsky Spectacular.

FESTIVAL ARTISTS: Edward Arron, James Baik, Nicholas Canellakis, Karen Ouzounian, David Requiro, Jeremiah Shaw, Brook Speltz, Duncan Strachan, Brandon Vamos, cello; Tara Helen O’Connor, flute; Michael Adams, host; Michael Brown, John Novacek, Stephen Prutsman, piano; Mark Holloway, Pierre Lapointe, Pei-Ling Lin, Dimitri Murrath, Masumi Per Rostad, Elliot Perks, Becky Young, viola; Daria T. Adams, Adam Barnett-Hart, Eric Chin, Simin Ganatra, Austin Hartman, Tessa Lark, Kristin Lee, Joseph Maile, Maureen Nelson, Susie Park, Colin Scobie, George Smith, Brendan Speltz, Arnaud Sussmann, violin

FESTIVAL CONDUCTORS: Carl St.Clair, Richard Kaufman FESTIVAL ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: Carl St.Clair FESTIVAL ARTIST: Richard Kaufman ORCHESTRA AFFILIATION: Pacific Symphony

FEATURED GROUPS: The Escher Quartet, The Maxwell Quartet, The Pacifica Quartet

FOR INFORMATION: John Forsyte 17620 Fitch, Irvine, CA 92614 (714) 755-5799 info@PacificSymphony.org PacificSymphony.org @PacificSymphony  @PacificSymphony 

FOR INFORMATION: Evie Ayers 1020 Clinton Street, Suite 201 Napa, CA 94559 (707) 258-5559 Evie@musicinthevineyards.org musicinthevineyards.org @MusicIntheVineyards  @musicinthevineyards 

SummerFest 2022 La Jolla, CA July 29 to August 26

Ojai Music Festival Ojai, CA June 9 to June 12

Hybrid Programming with Both Online and In-Person Attendance

In-Person Only

La Jolla Music Society’s SummerFest returns to the Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center in 2022, expanded to four glorious weeks!

Music director Inon Barnatan has created an ambitious program, evocatively titled “Under the Influence,” exploring the muses that seduced and inspired some of the greatest

Ojai Festival culminates its 75th anniversary season with Music Director AMOC, a 17-member multi-disciplinary collective of today’s most inventive and adventurous musicians, singers, composers, choreographers, and dancers. The 2022 edition reflects the openness and experimentation that are signature traits of Ojai, from Messiaen’s song cycle Harawi and a Bach-inspired program to Anthony Cheung’s new commission featuring works

by Asian-American poets to the world premiere of Matthew Aucoin’s Family Dinner, a cycle of new mini-concertos. The enchanting setting of the Ojai Valley creates a relaxed sense of community with no great divide between playing and listening.

Instead, there is an informal bond that brings kindred spirits together for exploration and adventure.

composers in musical history. During the festival we’ll hear the magnetic influence of Wagner and Bach on their peers, take a musical trip to the salons of Paris, and experience the sins and merry pranks of Kurt Weill and Strauss. We’ll spend a genredefying and unique week with opera stars, dancers, and jazz luminaries, and go further under the influence in a new Wednesday series that combines the best of San Diego’s food and wine scene with intermissionfree concerts delving into the worlds of Shakespeare, Vivaldi, and more. Anthony Roth Costanzo, Garrick Ohlsson, Augustin Hadelich, Marc-André Hamelin, Anthony McGill, Caroline Shaw, James Ehnes, the Dover and Miró Quartets, and many more astounding artists will join us in La Jolla for a festival you won’t want to miss.

FESTIVAL ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: Inon Barnatan FESTIVAL ARTISTS: Caroline Shaw, artistin-residence; Doug Balliett, Timothy Cobb, bass; Brad Balliett, bassoon; Julie Albers, Efe Baltacigil, Carter Brey, Jay Campbell, Sterling Elliott, Clive Greensmith, Nina Lee, Johannes Moser, cellos; Anthony McGill, Osmo Vänskä, clarinet; Bridget Kibbey, harp; Ruben Valenzuela, harpsichord; David Byrd-Marrow, horn; Paul Holmes Morton, lute; Inon Barnatan, Imogen Cooper, Sullivan Fortner, Marc-André Hamelin, Garrick Ohlsson, Francesco Piemontesi, Joyce Yang, piano; Yura Lee, Teng Li, Richard O’Neill, Cynthia Phelps, Masumi Per Rostad, Jonathan Vinocour, viola; Benjamin Beilman, James Ehnes, Liza Ferschtman, Augustin Hadelich, Stefan Jackiw, Erin Keefe, Alexi Kenney, Tessa Lark, Simone Porter, Blake Pouliot, Andrew Wan, violin; Anthony Roth Costanzo, Cecile McLorin Salvant, Robin Tritschler, vocalists FOR INFORMATION: 7600 Fave Avenue, La Jolla, CA 92037 (858) 459-3728 boxoffice@ljms.org LJMS.org @LaJollaMusicSociety  @ljmusicsociety 

FEATURED GROUPS: AMOC (American Modern Opera Company), Ruckus FOR INFORMATION: Gina Gutierrez 201 South Signal Street (805) 646-2053

AMERICANORCHESTRAS.ORG

Mathew Imaging

FESTIVAL ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: Ara Guzelimian

John Williams conducts the Los Angeles Philharmonic in his music at the Hollywood Bowl, to a backdrop of lightsabers. Williams returns to the Hollywood Bowl this September.

S P E C I A L A DV ERT I S I N G S U P P L E M EN T TO SYM P H O NY

45

COLORADO Aspen Music Festival and School Aspen, CO June 30 to August 21

Hybrid Programming with Both Online and In-Person Attendance

FESTIVAL CONDUCTORS: Marin Alsop, Lionel Bringuier, Maurice Cohn, Roderick Cox, Patrick Dupré Quigley, Kevin Edusei, Andy Einhorn, Jane Glover, Miguel HarthBedoya, Kerem Hasan, Lawrence Isaacson, George Jackson, Nicholas McGegan, Ludovic Morlot, Tomáš Netopil, Vasily Petrenko FESTIVAL ARTISTIC DIRECTORS: Alan Fletcher, AMFS president and CEO; Asadour Santourian, AMFS vice president for artistic administration and artistic advisor; Robert Spano, AMFS music director; Renée Fleming and Patrick Summers, co-artistic directors, Aspen Opera Theater and VocalARTS FESTIVAL ARTISTS: Rod Gilfry, Will Liverman, baritone; Edgar Meyer, bass; Bryn Terfel, bass-baritone; Sterling Elliott, Alisa Weilerstein, Seth Parker Woods, cello; Sharon Isbin, guitar; Hung Kuan Chen, Lise de la Salle, Vladimir Feltsman, Martin Helmchen, Jeffrey Kahane, Paul Lewis, Alexander Malofeev, John O’Conor, Matthew Whitaker, Terrence Wilson, Joyce Yang, piano; Amjad Ali Khan, sarod; Steven Banks, Jess Gillam, saxophone; Renée Fleming, Raven McMillon soprano; Zach Borichevsky, Lawrence Brownlee, Nicholas Phan, tenor; Lawrence Power, viola; Diana Adamyan, Randall Goosby, Augustin Hadelich, Robert McDuffie, Gil Shaham, Stephen Waarts, Melissa White, Esther Yoo, violin FEATURED GROUPS: American Brass Quintet, Aspen Chamber Symphony, Aspen Conducting Academy Orchestra, Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, Aspen Festival Orchestra, Aspen Philharmonic Orchestra, Kantorei, Pacifica Quartet, Seraphic Fire Professional Choral Institute, Matthew Whitaker Quintet FOR INFORMATION: AMFS Box Office 225 Music School Road, Aspen CO 81611 (970) 925-9042 tickets@aspenmusic.org aspenmusicfestival.com @aspenmusic  @aspenmusicfest 

Bravo! Vail Music Festival Vail, CO June 23 to August 4 In-Person Only

This season features The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra, New York

46

RR Jones

One of the world’s leading summer centers for performance and musical training, the AMFS will be back, live and in person with a full schedule in 2022.

In 2019, California’s Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music featured the world premiere of Kristin Kuster’s When There Are Nine tribute to Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Philharmonic, plus world-class chamber concerts and launch of the New Works Symphonic Commissioning Project.

FESTIVAL CONDUCTORS: George Daugherty, Stéphane Denève, Fabio Luisi, Nathalie Stutzmann, Bramwell Tovey, Jeff Tyzik, Jaap Van Zweden; Duain Wolfe, chorus director FESTIVAL ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: AnneMarie McDermott FESTIVAL ARTISTS: Ryan Speedo Green, bass; Davóne Tines, bass-baritone; Xavier Foley, Edgar Meyer, double-bass; Taylor Raven, mezzo-soprano; Seong-Jin Cho, Kirill Gerstein, Hélène Grimaud, Myra Huang, Anne-Marie McDermott, Conrad Tao, Haochen Zhang, piano; Joélle Harvey, Maureen McKay, Susanna Phillips, soprano; Nicholas Phan, Issachah Savage, tenor; Stefan Jackiw, Bomsori Kim, Eunice Kim, Daniel Lozakovich, Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider, violin FEATURED GROUPS: Balourdet Quartet, Bravo! Vail Festival Chorus, Colorado Symphony Chorus, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Danish String Quartet, Dover Quartet, The Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Verona Quartet FOR INFORMATION: Parker Owens 2271 N. Frontage Rd W, Suite C; Vail, CO 81657 (970) 827-5700 powens@bravovail.org bravovail.org @bravovail  @bravovail 

Colorado Music Festival Chautauqua Auditorium; Boulder, CO June 30 to August 7

FESTIVAL CONDUCTORS: Peter Oundjian FESTIVAL ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: John Adams, Composer-in-Residence FESTIVAL ARTISTS: John de Lancie, Marnie Mosiman, actors; Anthony McGill, clarinet; Abigail Nims, mezzo-soprano; Timo Andres, Jeremy Denk, Simone Dinnerstein, Jan Lisiecki, Gabriela Montero, piano; Timothy McAllister, saxophone; Jennifer BirdArvidsson, soprano; Randall Goosby, Tessa Lark, violin FEATURED GROUPS: Attacca Quartet, Danish String Quartet, Takács Quartet FOR INFORMATION: Cindy Hohman (administrative) 200 E. Baseline Road, Lafayette, CO 80026 (303) 665-0599 info@comusic.org coloradomusicfestival.org @COmusicfestival  @comusicfestival 

Music in the Mountains Durango, CO July 7 to July 31

Hybrid Programming with Both Online and In-Person Attendance An exceptional summer classical music festival with musicians of the highest caliber, set against the jaw dropping beauty of southwest Colorado. This will be the 36th Anniversary Season.

FESTIVAL CONDUCTORS: Guillermo Figueroa FESTIVAL ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: Gregory Hustis FESTIVAL ARTISTS: Richard Kaufman, guest conductor; Tomoko Kanamaru, Min Kwon, piano; Vadim Gluzman, violin

In-Person Only

FEATURED GROUPS: Music in the Mountains Festival Orchestra

Under the baton of Music Director Peter Oundjian, the Colorado Music Festival presents a six-week summer concert season in Boulder, Colorado.

FOR INFORMATION: Angie Beach 515 East College Drive, Durango, CO 81301

S P E C I A L A DV ERT I S I N G S U P P L E M EN T TO SYM P H O NY

SPRING 2022

S U M M ER FES T I VA L S

(970) 385-6820 abeach@musicinthemountains.com MusicintheMountains.com

FESTIVAL CONDUCTORS: Eric Mahl

National Repertory Orchestra Breckenridge, CO June 25 to August 13

FESTIVAL ARTISTS: Ariana Nelson, Mitchell Lyon, cello; John Cziner, Paul Frucht, Hannah Lash (Composer-in-Residence), composers; Katie Althen, flute; Emily Levin, harp; Priscilla Rinehart, horn; Eric Mahl, trumpet; Anna Petrova, Mika Sasaki, piano; Paul Frucht, percussion; Jacob Shack, viola; George Meyer, Jeremías SergianiVelazquez, Chelsea Starbuck Smith, violin

In-Person Only

The National Repertory Orchestra (NRO) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and a preeminent intensive fellowship that develops diverse, thoughtful, and socially conscious musicians through experiential learning.

We inspire young professional musicians to be great leaders in their communities while Changing Lives Through Music!

FESTIVAL CONDUCTORS: Teddy Abrams, Nic McGegan, Tania Miller, Steven Schick, Jason Seber, Carl Topilow (NRO Music Advisor) FESTIVAL ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: Michael Stern FESTIVAL ARTISTS: Larisa Martinez, soprano; Joshua Bell, violin FOR INFORMATION: Dan Howard 111 South Main Street, Breckenridge, CO 80424 (970) 453-5825 danial@nromusic.org www.NROmusic.org @NROmusic  @nromusic 

CONNECTICUT Charles Ives Music Festival at WCYO Ridgefield, CT August 1 to August 15 In-Person Only

CIMF honors the history and legacy of Charles Ives by bringing American music to the Fairfield County, CT area via professional concerts and educational events for youth and adults.

FESTIVAL ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: Paul Frucht

ORCHESTRA AFFILIATION: Western CT Youth Orchestra FOR INFORMATION: Katie Ragland P.O. Box 964, Ridgefield, CT 06877 (203) 894-8786 CIMF@wctyo.org charlesivesmusicfestival.org @westernconnecticutyouthorchestra  @charles_ives_music_festival 

Talcott Mountain Music Festival Simsbury Meadows Performing Arts Center; Simsbury, CT July 1 to July 29 In-Person Only

Pack a picnic, gather your family and friends, and enjoy the Hartford Symphony Orchestra and phenomenal guest artists performing five concerts under the stars in beautiful Simsbury, CT! FESTIVAL CONDUCTORS: Carolyn Kuan FESTIVAL ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: Carolyn Kuan ORCHESTRA AFFILIATION: Hartford Symphony Orchestra FOR INFORMATION: Ashley Fedigan 166 Capitol Avenue, Hartford CT 06016 (860) 987-5900 afedigan@hartfordsymphony.org hartfordsymphony.org @HartfordSymphony  @hartfordsymphony 

FLORIDA Sarasota Music Festival Sarasota, FL June 5 to June 25 In-Person Only

For three weeks each June, faculty artists and pre-professional musicians come together in Sarasota for masterclasses, coaching, and to perform chamber and orchestral music. Sarasota in June never sounded so good!

FESTIVAL CONDUCTORS: Jeffrey Kahane, Larry Rachleff FESTIVAL ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: Jeffrey Kahane, Music Director Faculty Artists include: Timothy Cobb, bass; Frank Morelli, bassoon; Timothy Eddy, cello; Charles Neidich, clarinet; Demarre McGill, flute; Julie Landsman, horn; Toyin Spellman-Diaz, oboe; Robert Levin, piano; Barbara Westphal, viola; Martin Beaver, Ani Kavafian, Alexander Kerr, violin FEATURED GROUPS: Calidore String Quartet, SMF Faculty Ensembles, SMF Fellow Ensembles ORCHESTRA AFFILIATION: Sarasota Orchestra FOR INFORMATION: Olivia Steinman Deems 709 N. Tamiami Trl, Sarasota, FL 34236 (941) 953-4252, ext. 718 osteinman@sarasotaorchestra.org sarasotamusicfestival.org @SarasotaMusicFestival 

HAWAII Pacific Music Institute by Hawaii Youth Symphony Honolulu, HI July 17 to July 24

Hybrid Programming with Both Online and In-Person Attendance Programs for aspiring young musicians (ages 8-19) who play orchestral or jazz instruments, ukulele, or string chamber music. An intensive 8 days of music in beautiful Hawaii!

FESTIVAL CONDUCTORS: Grant Okamura, Richard Scerbo, Joseph Stepec

Chris Johnson

FESTIVAL ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: Joseph Stepec

Enjoying the great outdoors at the Bravo! Vail Music Festival in Colorado.

AMERICANORCHESTRAS.ORG

FESTIVAL ARTISTS: Brady Anderson, Jennifer Humphreys, Parry Karp, Vicky Wang, cello; Adam Ebert, Clarinet; Marie Lickwar, Markus Osterlund, horn; Dean Taba, Abe Lagrimas Jr., Steve Treseler, jazz; Tim Daniels, Alex Hayashi, Susan OchiOnishi, oboe; Chris Cabrera, percussion; Steve Treseler, Allen Won, saxophone; Casey Tamanaha, trumpet; TJ Ricer, tuba; Bruce Shimabukuro, Jake Shimabukuro, ukulele; Zoe Martin-Doike, Leilehua Lanzilotti, Alex Pena, Igor Veligan, viola; Eugene Chukhlov, Holly Jenkins, Khullip

S P E C I A L A DV ERT I S I N G S U P P L E M EN T TO SYM P H O NY

47

Jeung, Jisun Kang, Clara Kim, Michael Lim, Helen Liu, violin

Harth-Bedoya, Jonathan Heyward, Markus Stenz, conductors; Marina Piccinini, flute; Susan Platts, mezzo-soprano; Nicole Rose Richardson, narrator; She-e Wu, percussion; Michelle Cann, Andreas Haeflinger, Simon Trpceski, ZOFO, piano; Janai Brugger, Ellie Dehn, Maeve Hoglund, soprano; Duke Kim, John Matthew Myers, tenor; Simone Lamsma, Rachel Barton Pine, Christian Tetzlaff, violin

ORCHESTRA AFFILIATION: Hawaii Youth Symphony FOR INFORMATION: Jeremy Lawi, General Manager 1110 University Avenue Suite 200, Honolulu, HI 96826-1598 (808) 941-9706, ext. 700 jeremy@hiyouthsymphony.org pacificmusichi.org @PacificMusicHI  @PacificMusicHI 

FEATURED GROUPS: Anima - Glen Ellyn Children’s Chorus, Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus, Mariachi Herencia de Mexico, Soul Children of Chicago, Troupe Vertigo, aerialists

IDAHO Sun Valley Music Festival Sun Valley, ID July 24 to August 18 In-Person Only

The nation’s largest admission-free classical music festival presents its 38th Summer Season this year, featuring renowned guest artists, classical mainstays, and contemporary masterpieces, including works by living composers.

ORCHESTRA AFFILIATION: Chicago Symphony Orchestra FOR INFORMATION: Box Office 418 Sheridan Road, Highland Park, IL 60035 (847) 266-5100 tickets@ravinia.org ravinia.org @RaviniaFestival  @raviniafestival 

FOR INFORMATION: Sun Valley Music Festival P.O. Box 1914; Sun Valley, ID 83353 (208) 622-5607 info@svmusicfestival.org svmusicfestival.org @SunValleyMusicFestival  @svmusicfestival 

FESTIVAL CONDUCTORS: Kirk Muspratt

ORCHESTRA AFFILIATION: Northwest Indiana Symphony Orchestra

FESTIVAL CONDUCTORS: Marin Alsop

FEATURED GROUPS: Edgar M. Bronfman Quartet, Time For Three

Enjoy free concerts under the stars in communities around Northwest Indiana: Lansing, Schererville, Crown Point, Munster, Valparaiso, Griffith, and Hammond.

FOR INFORMATION: Patron Services 205 E. Randolph Street, Chicago, IL 60601 (312) 742-7647 patronservices@gpmf.org gpmf.org @grantparkmusicfestival  @grantparkmusicfestival 

Ravinia is North America’s oldest and most programmatically diverse music festival, presenting over 100 summer events in myriad genres and featuring worldacclaimed classical artists, including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

FESTIVAL ARTISTS: Daniil Trifonov, Orion Weiss, piano; Nicholas Phan, tenor; Leila Josefowicz, violin

In-Person Only

FESTIVAL ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: Kirk Muspratt

In-Person Only

FESTIVAL ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: Alasdair Neale, Music Director

South Shore Summer Music Festival Northwest Indiana June 22 to August 13

ORCHESTRA AFFILIATION: Grant Park Orchestra

Ravinia Festival Highland Park, IL June to September

FESTIVAL CONDUCTORS: Alasdair Neale, Music Director; Sameer Patel, Associate Conductor; Andy Einhorn, Guest Conductor (Pops Night)

INDIANA

FOR INFORMATION: Tammie Miller 1040 Ridge Road, Munster, IN (219) 836-0525 info@nisorchestra.org nisorchestra.org NISOrchestra 

MAINE Monteux School and Music Festival Hancock, ME June 19 to July 31 In-Person Only

The Monteux School and Music Festival’s intensive six-week program and distinguished reputation attract musicians nationwide and from around the world.

The carefully curated curriculum offers conductors and instrumentalists an unrivaled opportunity to learn a large and varied repertoire, provides training and practical experience to enable conductors to handle any conducting situation, and helps instrumentalists to meet the demands of orchestral playing. Over the eight decades of its existence, the school has

ILLINOIS Grant Park Music Festival Millennium Park, Chicago, IL June 15 to August 20 In-Person Only

The Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus return outdoors to the Frank Gehry-designed Pritzker Pavilion for 10 weeks of classical favorites and world premieres, along with Broadway, Mariachi, and Gospel concerts.

FESTIVAL ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: Carlos Kalmar FESTIVAL ARTISTS: Douglas Williams, bass; Capathia Jenkins, Sam Simahk, vocalists; Afendi Yusuf, clarinet; David Chan, Charles Floyd, Kimberly Grigsby, Miguel

48

Norman Timonera

FESTIVAL CONDUCTORS: Christopher Bell, Carlos Kalmar

Grant Park Music Festival concertgoers on the Great Lawn at Millennium Park’s Pritzker Pavilion in Chicago.

S P E C I A L A DV ERT I S I N G S U P P L E M EN T TO SYM P H O NY

SPRING 2022

S U M M ER FES T I VA L S

FESTIVAL ARTISTS: David Cunliffe, cello; Clarice Assad, Tony Manfredonia, composer; Marta Aznavoorian, Nathan Lee, piano; Martha Guth, soprano; Desirée Ruhstrat, violin FEATURED GROUP: The Lincoln Trio FOR INFORMATION: Matthew Thomas PO Box 326, Beaver Island, MI 49782 (989) 859-8893 info@baroqueonbeaver.org baroqueonbeaver.org @baroqueonbeaver  @baroqueonbeaver 

Nils Ribi

MONTANA Idaho’s Sun Valley Music Festival offers concerts free of charge.

trained thousands of conductors and instrumentalists.

FESTIVAL ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: BSO Music Director Andris Nelsons

FESTIVAL CONDUCTORS: Michael Jinbo, Tiffany Lu, Ludovic Morlot

FESTIVAL ARTISTS: Yo-Yo Ma, cello; Emanuel Ax, Seong-Jin Cho, Aaron Diehl, Lucas and Arthur Jussen, Paul Lewis, Alexander Malofeev, Christina and Michelle Naughton, Garrick Ohlsson, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Orion Weiss, piano; Branford Marsalis, saxophone; Håkan Hardenberger, trumpet; Paul Appleby, Janai Brugger, Julia Bullock, Nicole Cabell, Ying Fang, Christine Goerke, Susan Graham, Will Liverman, Ryan McKinny, Shenyang, vocalists; Antoine Tamestit, viola; Joshua Bell, Pamela Frank, Leonidas Kavakos, Itzhak Perlman, Gil Shaham, violin

FESTIVAL ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: Michael Jinbo FESTIVAL ARTISTS: Felicia Foland, bassoon; Bjorn Ranheim, Jeff Zeigler, cello; Gabriel Lefkowitz, concertmaster; Frank Rosenwein, oboe; Marc Damoulakis, percussion; Steve Lange, trombone; Tony Prisk, trumpet; Shawn Weil, violin FEATURED GROUPS: Monteux Festival Orchestra and Chamber Ensembles FOR INFORMATION: Marc Thayer PO Box 457, Hancock, ME 04640 (207) 812-6260 pierremonteuxschool@gmail.com monteuxmusic.org @monteuxschool 

MASSACHUSETTS Tanglewood Lenox, MA June 17 to September 4

Hybrid Programming with Both Online and In-Person Attendance One of the world’s most beloved music festivals, Tanglewood is the famed summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and its training academy, the Tanglewood Music Center, as well as the Boston Pops. It’s also the year-round home of the Tanglewood Learning Institute. In a typical summer, Tanglewood welcomes more than 350,000 visitors between late June and the end of August.

FESTIVAL CONDUCTORS: Thomas Adès, Stefan Asbury, Karina Canellakis, JoAnn Falletta, Earl Lee, Keith Lockhart, Cristian Macelaru, Ken-David Masur, Andris Nelsons, Anna Rakitina, Dima Slobodeniouk, Michael Tilson Thomas, Thomas Wilkins

AMERICANORCHESTRAS.ORG

FEATURED GROUPS: Danish Quartet, Dover Quartet, Lorelei Ensemble, Silkroad Ensemble with Rhiannon Giddens, Takács Quartet

Tippet Rise Art Center Fishtail, MT August 26 to September 25 In-Person Only

Tippet Rise Art Center, set on a 12,500acre working sheep and cattle ranch, hosts classical music performances by an impressive roster of artists and exhibits large-scale outdoor sculptures.

FESTIVAL ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: Pedja Mužijevic, artistic advisor FESTIVAL ARTISTS: Gabriel Cabezas, Sterling Elliott, Arlen Hlusko, cello; Brandon Patrick George, Alex Sopp, flute; Yulianna Avdeeva, Zoltán Fejérvári, Richard Goode, Marc-André Hamelin, Pedja Mužijevic Audrey Vardanega, Wynona Wang, piano; Jordan Bak, Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, viola; Jennifer Frautschi, Johnny Gandelsman, Katie Hyun, Geneva Lewis, violin

ORCHESTRA AFFILIATION: Boston Symphony Orchestra

FEATURED GROUPS: Aizuri Quartet, Calidore String Quartet, Gryphon Trio, Sandbox Percussion

FOR INFORMATION: Anthony Fogg 297 West Street, Lenox, Massachusetts 01240 (888) 266-1200 afogg@bso.org tanglewood.org @TanglewoodMusicFestival  @tanglewoodmusicfestival 

FOR INFORMATION: Lindsey Hinmon 96 South Grove Creek Road. Fishtail, MT 59028 (970) 470-9772 lindsey.hinmon@tippetrise.org tippetrise.org @TippetRiseArtCenter  @tippet.rise 

MICHIGAN Baroque on Beaver Beaver Island, MI July 29 to August 6 In-Person Only

The Festival’s orchestral, choral, and chamber ensembles present world-class performances from the Baroque Era and beyond—all on the most remote inhabited island in the Great Lakes.

FESTIVAL CONDUCTORS: Robert Nordling, Kevin Simons FESTIVAL ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: Robert Nordling

S P E C I A L A DV ERT I S I N G S U P P L E M EN T TO SYM P H O NY

49

NEVADA Classical Tahoe Incline Village North Lake Tahoe, NV July 22 to August 6

Hybrid Programming with Both Online and In-Person Attendance The virtuoso Classical Tahoe Orchestra—half of its musicians are principal players from the MET Opera Orchestra, LA Phil, and other superb symphonies—performs in an intimate amphitheater under Tahoe sky.

FESTIVAL CONDUCTORS: David Chan, Jonathan Darlington, Ken-David Masur FESTIVAL ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: Laura Hamilton, Interim Artistic Director FESTIVAL ARTISTS: Whitney Crockett, bassoon; Winona Zelenka, cello; Dongsok Shin, harpsichord; Nathan Hughes, oboe; Svet Stoyanov, percussion; Aldo LópezGavilán, piano; Isabel Leonard, mezzosoprano; Tessa Lark, Sarah Vonsattel, violin FOR INFORMATION: Stephanie McCoy 948 Incline Way, Incline Village, NV 89450 (775) 298-0245 info@classicaltahoe.org ClassicalTahoe.org @ClassicalTahoe  @ClassicalTahoe 

NEW JERSEY

FESTIVAL ARTISTIC DIRECTION: Gregory J. Geehern, festival director; Rossen Milanov, music director FESTIVAL ARTISTS: Highlights include Aaron Diehl Trio, Festival Chorus, The Princeton Symphony Orchestra, The Sebastians, Sierra Boggess, Signum Quartet, Storm Large. Artists and programs subject to change.

ORCHESTRA AFFILIATION: Princeton Symphony Orchestra FOR INFORMATION: Gregory J. Geehern PO Box 250 Princeton, NJ 08542 (609) 497-0020 info@princetonsymphony.org princetonsymphony.org/festival @princetonfest  @princetonfest 

NEW MEXICO Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival Santa Fe, NM July 17 to August 22 In-Person Only

This internationally renowned summer festival, held in a stunning southwestern setting, demonstrates the depth and breadth of the chamber music repertoire—which includes Festival-commissioned works— through outstanding programming and performances.

double bass; Rachel Blumenthal, Bart Feller, Tara Helen O’Connor, flute; Roberto Capocchi, guitar; Grace Browning, June Han, harp; Kathleen McIntosh, harpsichord; Jennifer Montone, Julia Pilant, horn; Fleur Barron, mezzo-soprano; Robert Ingliss, Liang Wang, oboe; Gregory Zuber, percussion; Julius Drake, Zoltán Fejérvári, Kirill Gerstein, Benjamin Hochman, Soyeon Kate Lee, Bradley Moore, Nicolas Namoradze, Craig Terry, Gilles Vonsattel, Haochen Zhang, piano; Tony Arnold, Susanna Phillips, soprano; Paul Groves, tenor; Toby Appel, Che-Yen Chen, Margaret Dyer Harris, Ida Kavafian, Scott Lee, Max Mandel, Paul Neubauer, Theresa Rudolph, Steven Tenenbom, viola; Martin Beaver, Jennifer Frautschi, L. P. How, Paul Huang, Daniel Jordan, Leila Josefowicz, Ida Kavafian, Benny Kim, Daniel Phillips, John Storgårds, violin FEATURED GROUPS: Beijing Guitar Duo, Chien-Kim-Watkins Trio, Dover Quartet, Escher String Quartet, FLUX Quartet, Miami String Quartet FOR INFORMATION: Steven Ovitsky 208 Griffin St., Santa Fe, NM 87501 (505) 983-2075 sovitsky@sfcmf.org SantaFeChamberMusic.com @SFChamberMusic  @santafechambermusic 

NEW YORK

In-Person Only

FESTIVAL ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: Marc Neikrug

American Music Festival Trailblaze NY Troy, NY (Albany/Capital Region) May 30 to July 3

Princeton Symphony Orchestra presents its outdoor Princeton Festival with orchestral, chamber, Baroque, jazz, and cabaret performances, plus fully staged operas beneath a state-of-the-art performance tent at Morven Museum & Garden.

FESTIVAL ARTISTS: Julia Harguindey, Lewis Kirk, Christopher Millard, Ted Soluri, bassoon; Alastair Eng, Joseph Johnson, Eric Kim, Keith Robinson, Peter Stumpf, Paul Watkins, Peter Wiley, cello; Taylor Eiffert, Todd Levy, Carol McGonnell, YaoGuang Zhai, clarinet; Leigh Mesh, Mark Tatum,

World and U.S premieres by the Albany Symphony and our genre-bending ensemble Dogs of Desire, followed by five weekends of outdoor festivals in communities along the Empire State Trail.

The Princeton Festival Princeton, NJ June 10 to June 25

FESTIVAL CONDUCTORS: James Gaffigan, John Storgårds

Hybrid Programming with Both Online and In-Person Attendance

FESTIVAL CONDUCTOR: David Alan Miller FESTIVAL ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: David Alan Miller FESTIVAL ARTISTS: Gloria Cheng, piano; Timothy McAllister, saxophone FEATURED GROUPS: Albany Symphony, Dogs of Desire ORCHESTRA AFFILIATION: Albany Symphony

James Estrin

FOR INFORMATION: Derek Smith, Director of Operations and Programming 19 Clinton Avenue, Albany NY 12207 (518) 694-3300 dereks@albanysymphony.com albanysymphony.com @albanysym  @albanysym  At Caramoor in Katonah, New York in 2021, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s performed with conductor Tito Muñoz and soloist Tai Murray.

50

S P E C I A L A DV ERT I S I N G S U P P L E M EN T TO SYM P H O NY

SPRING 2022

S U M M ER FES T I VA L S

Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival Bridgehampton, NY July 24 to August 21 In-Person Only

BCMF’s 39th summer season, “One World.

Many Worlds,” celebrates the diverse influences that permeate classical music across the ages through bespoke programs performed by the world’s finest chamber musicians.

FESTIVAL ARTISTS: Donald Palma, bass; Peter Kolkay, bassoon; Nick Canellakis, Leland Ko, Mihai Marica, David Requiro, Peter Stumpf, cello; Bixby Kennedy, clarinet; Marya Martin, flute; Stewart Rose, horn; Alan Alda, narrator; James Austin Smith, oboe; Sandbox Percussion, percussion; Michael Brown, David Fung, Ying Li, Gilles Vonsattel, Zhu Wang, piano; Ettore Causa, Matthew Lipman, Melissa Reardon, Cong Wu, viola; Ben Beilman, Stella Chen, Chad Hoopes, Ani Kavafian, Kristin Lee, Tessa Lark, Anthony Marwood, Amy Schwartz Moretti, Tien-Hsin Cindy Wu, violin FEATURED GROUPS: Sandbox Percussion FOR INFORMATION: Michael Lawrence 135 E. 57th Street, 14th FL, New York, NY 10022 (212) 741-9073 info@bcmf.org bcmf.org @bridgehampton.chamber  @bcmfphoto 

Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts Katonah, NY June 18 to August 19 In-Person Only

Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts is a destination for exceptional music, captivating programs, spectacular gardens and grounds, and wonderful moments with friends and family.

FESTIVAL ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: Kathy Schuman FESTIVAL ARTISTS: Alexander Hersh, Coleman Itzkoff, Yo-Yo Ma, cello; Anthony McGill, clarinet; Emi Ferguson, flute; Molly Tuttle, guitar; Ashley Jackson, harp; William Christie, harpsichord; Thomas Dunford, lute; Inon Barnatan, Janice Carissa, Candace Chien, Lara Downes, Marc-André Hamelin, Bradley Moore, piano; Dorit Chrysler, theremin; Brendon Elliot, Karen Gomyo, Maria Ioudenitch, Colin Jacobsen, Rubén Rengel, violin; Ayane Kozasa, viola; Jeremiah Abiah, Stephanie Blythe, J’Nai Bridges, Shemekia Copeland, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Lea Desandre, Tyler Duncan, Rhiannon Giddens, Angelique Kidjo, Raquel Acevedo Klein, Maya Lahyani, Daniela Mack, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Laquita Mitchell, Marie-Eve Munger, Angélica Negrón, Christine Taylor Price, Caroline Shaw, Alek Shrader, Dawn Upshaw, Thomas West, vocalists

AMERICANORCHESTRAS.ORG

Julia Piven

FESTIVAL ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: Marya Martin

Boston Symphony Orchestra Assistant Conductor Anna Rakitina is among the conductors who will lead the BSO at Tanglewood, the summer home of the BSO and the Boston Pops in Lenox, Massachusetts.

FEATURED GROUPS: Bang On A Can Percussion Ensemble, Benny Benack III Quartet, Black Opry Revue, Boyd Meets Girl, Brentano Quartet, Camille Thurman and the Darrell Green Quartet, Candice Hoyes & Damien Sneed: Duke Ellington’s On a Turquoise Cloud, The Chick Corea AfroCaribbean Experience FOR INFORMATION: Caramoor 149 Girdle Ridge Road, Katonah, NY 10536 9142321252 info@caramoor.org caramoor.org @caramoor  @caramoor 

Chautauqua School of Music Chautauqua, NY June 25 to August 15 In-Person Only

Every summer, Chautauqua Institution brings some of the world’s most talented musicians, vocalists, dancers, and visual artists to the grounds for educational and performance opportunities amid our world-class culture and arts environment.

FESTIVAL CONDUCTOR: Timothy Muffitt FESTIVAL ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: Timothy Muffitt FESTIVAL ARTISTS: Jeff Robinson, bassoon; Erik Lindblom, bass trombone; Felix Wang, cello; Frank Cohen, Eli Eban, Diana Haskell, clarinet; Curtis Burris, Owen Lee, double bass; Richard Sherman, flute; Beth Robinson, harp; William Caballero, Roger Kaza, horn; Jan Eberle, oboe; Michael Burritt, Pedro Fernandez, Brian Kushmaul, percussion; Shannon Hesse, Akiko Konishi, piano; Stuart Chafetz, timpani; Scott Hartman, John Marcellus, trombone; Micah Wilkinson, trumpet; Don Harry, tuba; Karen Ritscher, viola; Aaron Berofsky, Ray Chen, Ilya Kaler, Nurit Pacht, Almita Vamos, Kathryn Votapek, violin

ORCHESTRA AFFILIATION: Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra FOR INFORMATION: Sarah Malinoski-Umberger, Manager 1 Ames Ave, Chautauqua, NY 14722 (716) 357-6233 smalinoski@chq.org chq.org/schools @CHQSummerSchools  @chqschools 

Lake Placid Sinfonietta Lake Placid, NY July 6 to August 14

Hybrid Programming with Both Online and In-Person Attendance The Lake Placid Sinfonietta is a twentymember chamber orchestra performing from July 6 to August 14 in Lake Placid and the surrounding Adirondack region of New York State.

FESTIVAL CONDUCTOR: Stuart Malina FESTIVAL ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: Stuart Malina, Music Director FESTIVAL ARTISTS: Jeffrey Biegel, Sara Davis Buechner, piano; Alexander Kerr, violin FEATURED GROUPS: Lake Placid Sinfonietta ORCHESTRA AFFILIATION: Lake Placid Sinfonietta FOR INFORMATION: Deborah Fitts, Executive Director PO Box 1303, Lake Placid, NY 12946 (518) 523-2051 Info@LakePlacidSinfonietta.org LakePlacidSinfonietta.org @officialLPSinfonietta  @officialLPSinfonietta 

FEATURED GROUPS: ChamberFest Cleveland, Imani Winds, Tempest Trio

S P E C I A L A DV ERT I S I N G S U P P L E M EN T TO SYM P H O NY

51

NORTH CAROLINA

Eastern Music Festival Greensboro, NC June 25 to July 30

An Appalachian Summer Festival Boone, NC July 1 to July 31

Five inspiring weeks of music performed by dedicated young artists and acclaimed professional musicians from around the globe under the leadership of Maestro Gerard Schwarz in Greensboro, NC.

In-Person Only

In-Person Only

FESTIVAL CONDUCTOR: Gerard Schwarz, Music Director

Named one of the top 20 Events in the Southeast by the Southeast Tourism Society, Appalachian State University’s acclaimed festival celebrates its 38th season with a variety of world-renowned chamber, orchestral, and popular music, dance, theatre, visual arts, and film programming.

FESTIVAL ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: Gerard Schwarz, Music Director FESTIVAL ARTISTS: To Be Announced Spring 2022 FEATURED GROUPS: Eastern Festival Orchestra; two Young Artist orchestras; chamber music performed by faculty and guests

FOR INFORMATION: Schaefer Center Box Office Appalachian State University, ASU Box 32045, Boone, NC 28608 (828) 262-4046 theschaefercenter@appstate.edu AppSummer.org @anappalachiansummerfestival  @appsummerfestival 

FOR INFORMATION: Chris Williams, Executive Director PO Box 22026 Greensboro, NC 27420 (336) 333-7450 cwilliams@easternmusicfestival.org easternmusicfestival.org @easternmusicfestival  @emfsummerstudy 

Brevard Music Center Institute & Festival Brevard, NC June 24 to August 7

OKLAHOMA

In-Person Only

OKM Music Festival Bartlesville and Tulsa, OK June 9 to June 13

Situated in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Western North Carolina on a wooded 180acre campus, Brevard Music Center stands as one of this country’s premier summer training programs and festivals.

Hybrid Programming with Both Online and In-Person Attendance

FESTIVAL CONDUCTORS: Ankush Kumar Bahl, Matthias Bamert, JoAnn Falletta, Angel Gil-Ordonez, Damon Gupton, Ken Lam, Keith Lockhart, Tito Muñoz, Kraig Alan Williams

As OKM Music sets the stage for the Season 38, patrons will experience a unique musical experience at each concert.

Great music, good food, and community are the ingredients for our internationally recognized music festival. This season, patrons will enjoy classical, smooth jazz, swing, crossover classical, country, brass, reggae, pop, and so much more. There will also be free showcase events throughout the week and free children’s events and booths

FESTIVAL ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: Keith Lockhart FESTIVAL ARTISTS: Gabriel Martins, cello; Lara Downes, Kirill Gerstein, Norman Krieger, Conrad Tao, piano; Larisa Martínez, soprano; Joshua Bell, Maya Anjali Buchanan, Randall Goosby, Geneva Lewis, violin

a week prior to and during the festival.

FOR INFORMATION: Isabel Zielenski 415 S.E. Dewey Ave., Bartlesville, Oklahoma 74003 (918) 336-9900 izielenski@okmozart.com okmmusic.org @okmfestival  @okmmusic 

OREGON Britt Festival Orchestra Jacksonville, OR June 17 to July 3 In-Person Only

The Britt Festival Orchestra includes 75+ world-class musicians from orchestras across the nation. Performing at our natural outdoor amphitheater, they’re led by Music Director Teddy Abrams.

FESTIVAL CONDUCTOR: Teddy Abrams FESTIVAL ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: Renia Shterenberg FESTIVAL ARTISTS: Davóne Tines, bassbaritone; Seth Parker Woods, cello; Bruce Campbell, narrator; Sebastian Chang, piano; Tessa Lark, violin FEATURED GROUP: People of Earth FOR INFORMATION: Renia Shterenberg PO Box 1124 Medford, OR 97501 (541) 690-3856 renia@brittfest.org brittfest.org @BrittFestivals  @brittfestival 

Chamber Music Northwest 2022 Summer Festival Portland, OR June 25 to July 31

Hybrid Programming with Both Online and In-Person Attendance

FEATURED GROUP: Steep Canyon Rangers

OKM Music Annual Music Festival

FOR INFORMATION: Margaret Williams 349 Andante Ln, Brevard, NC 28712 (828) 862-2100 marketing@brevardmusic.org brevardmusic.org @brevardmusiccenter  @brevardmusic 

A performance at the OKM Music Festival in Oklahoma.

52

S P E C I A L A DV ERT I S I N G S U P P L E M EN T TO SYM P H O NY

SPRING 2022

S U M M ER FES T I VA L S

FESTIVAL CONDUCTOR: Brett Mitchell FESTIVAL ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: Brett Mitchell FESTIVAL ARTISTS: 2022 Cliburn competition medalist, Timothy Jones, bassbaritone, and more!

FOR INFORMATION: Meagan Iverson, Executive Director PO Box 4308, Sunriver, OR 97707 (541) 593-1084 information@sunrivermusic.org sunrivermusic.org @sunrivermusicfestival  @sunrivermusicfestival 

PENNSYLVANIA Concerts at the Tippet Rise Art Center in Montana take advantage of the natural setting and the center’s large-scale artworks.

Portland, Oregon’s Chamber Music Northwest hosts its 52nd Summer Festival June 25 to July 31. CMNW’s diverse programming ranges from Crumb to Ravel, Purcell, and Debussy, to Reena Esmail and Melinda Wagner, and more.

FESTIVAL ARTISTIC DIRECTORS: Gloria Chien & Soovin Kim FESTIVAL ARTISTS: Lester Lynch, baritone; Efe Baltacigil, Zlatomir Fung, Alexander Hersh, Deborah Pae, Sophie Shao, Fred Sherry, Peter Stumpf, cello; David Shifrin, clarinet; Tara Helen O’Connor, flute; Fleur Barron, mezzo-soprano; Ian Rosenbaum, percussion; Gloria Chien, Ellen Hwangbo, George Li, Monica Ohuchi, Gilles Vonsattel, piano; Dawn Upshaw, soprano; Benjamin Beilman, Jessica Bodner, Daniel Chong, Nicholas Cords, Jennifer Frautschi, Vijay Gupta, Wenting Kang, Alexi Kenney, Soovin Kim, Jessica Lee, Teng Li, violin FEATURED GROUPS: Brentano String Quartet, Sandbox Percussion, Sinta Saxophone Quartet, Viano String Quartet FOR INFORMATION: CMNW Ticket Office 2300 SW 1st Ave, Suite 103, Portland OR 97201 (503) 294-6400 tickets@cmnw.org cmnw.org @chambermusicnorthwest  @chambermusicnw 

FEATURED GROUPS: Berwick Academy, OBF Chorus, OBF Orchestra, University of Oregon Chamber Choir, Viano String Quartet FOR INFORMATION: Josh Gren 1257 University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, 97403 (541) 346-5666 obfstaff@uoregon.edu OregonBachFestival.org

Sunriver Music Festival Sunriver, OR August 9 to August 21 In-Person Only

Mann Center for the Performing Arts Philadelphia, PA April 13 to October 7 In-Person Only

Highlights include but are not limited to Downstage @ the Mann, The Philadelphia Orchestra, and BalletX. Artists and programs subject to change. Please visit MannCenter. org for our full season lineup.

FOR INFORMATION: Toby Blumenthal 5201 Parkside Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19131 (215) 546-7900 tblumenthal@manncenter.org Manncenter.org @themanncenter  @manncenter 

Nestled in the Central Oregon High Desert, Sunriver Music Festival presents premier classical, pops, and world-class soloists with the Festival Orchestra. The 45th season of the landmark Summer Festival moves forward with creativity and excellence led by newly appointed Artistic Director and Conductor Brett Mitchell.

Oregon Bach Festival Eugene, OR June 17 to July 5 In-Person Only

A 17-day celebration of Bach and music inspired by his work.

FESTIVAL CONDUCTORS: Miguel HarthBedoya, Eric Jacobsen, Julian Wachner FESTIVAL ARTISTS: Tyler Duncan, baritone; Matt Haimovitz, cello; David Shifrin; clarinet; Paul Jacobs, organ; Simone Dinnerstein, Lara Downes, piano; Monica Huggett, violin

AMERICANORCHESTRAS.ORG

S P E C I A L A DV ERT I S I N G S U P P L E M EN T TO SYM P H O NY

53

3333 Cullen Blvd., Room 120, Houston, TX 77204-4017 (713) 743-3167 tmf@uh.edu tmf.uh.edu @TexasMusicFestival.UH  @txmusicfestival 

Round Top Music Festival Round Top, TX June 5 to July 17 Monteux School and Music Festival

In-Person Only

Interaction is key at the Monteux School and Music Festival in Hancock, Maine.

PUERTO RICO Casals Festival of Puerto Rico San Juan, Puerto Rico May 22 to June 4 In-Person Only

Founded in 1956 by the famous cellist, conductor, and composer Pablo Casals, the festival annually brings to San Juan the most outstanding musical talent in the world to present orchestral and chamber music—as well as opera and ballet.

FESTIVAL CONDUCTORS: Carmen Acevedo, Josep Caballé, Maximiano Valdés FESTIVAL ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: Maximiano Valdés FESTIVAL ARTISTS: Ricardo Lugo, bass; Horacio Contreras, cello; Santiago Cañón Valencia, cello; Andrea González Caballero, guitar; Patricia Vázquez, mezzosoprano; Yefim Bronfman, Ana Maria Otamendi, piano; Ana María Martínez, Larisa Martínez, Elizabeth Rodríguez, soprano; Rafael Dávila, José Daniel Mojica, tenor; Joshua Bell, Simon Gollo, violín FEATURED GROUPS: Coralia, Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra, Reveron Trio ORCHESTRA AFFILIATION: Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra FOR INFORMATION: Ana Martha Soto P.O. Box 41227 San Juan, PR 00940 (787) 723-5005 Ext. 13011 amarta@cam.pr.gov ospr.pr.gov/casals @festivalpablocasals  @festivalpablocasalspr 

Concerts in the Garden Fort Worth, TX June 16 to July 4

54

FESTIVAL CONDUCTORS: Brent Havens, Martin Herman, Alex Amsel FESTIVAL ARTISTS: Angela Turner Wilson, soprano; Mick Adams, MiG Ayesa, Terry Brock, Glenn DeLaune, John Hines, Randy Jackson, vocalists FESTIVAL GROUPS: Asleep at the Wheel, Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Jackopierce, Sarah Jaffe ORCHESTRA AFFILIATION: Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra FOR INFORMATION: Carrie Ellen Adamian 330 E 4th St., Ste. 200, Fort Worth, TX 76102 (817) 665-6000 ceadamian@fwsymphony.org fwsymphony.org @fwsymphony  @ftworthsymphony 

Olshan Texas Music Festival Houston, TX June 7 to June 25

Hybrid Programming with Both Online and In-Person Attendance Since 1990, Texas Music Festival has trained and presented music’s rising orchestral, vocal, jazz, and keyboard stars in performances by participants, faculty, and guests to the greater Houston area.

FESTIVAL CONDUCTORS: Mei-Ann Chen, Hans Graf, Franz Anton Krager

TEXAS In-Person Only

Concerts in the Garden, a Fort Worth favorite, returns after a two year hiatus. The food, fun, and fireworks will be here June 16-July 4 complete with nightly fireworks!

FESTIVAL ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: Alan Austin FEATURED GROUPS: Faculty, Festival Orchestra, Jazz Orchestra, Keyboard Academy, Vocal Institute FOR INFORMATION: Alan Austin

S P E C I A L A DV ERT I S I N G S U P P L E M EN T TO SYM P H O NY

Round Top Festival Institute offers six weeks (no absence is permitted) of intensive training for talented young musicians.

Symphony orchestra, chamber orchestra, chamber music, and solo repertoire are included in this concentrated 6-week program.

FESTIVAL CONDUCTORS: Alex Amsel; Christoph Campestrini; Emilio Colon; Dongmin Kim; Michelle Merrill; Carl St.Clair FESTIVAL ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: James Dick FESTIVAL ARTISTS: Kristin Wolfe Jensen, Drew Pattison, bassoon; Stephen Balderston, Emilio Colon, Dmitry Kouzov, cello; Victor Chavez, Jason Shafer, Amitai Vardi, clarinet; Brett Shurtliffe, James VanDemark, double bass; Gretchen Pusch, Alexa Still, Carol Wincenc, flute; Kyunghee Kim, harp; Maura McCune, Albert Suarez, horn; Nancy Ambrose King, Andrew Parker, Nicholas Stovall, oboe; Thomas Burritt, Tony Edwards, Todd Meehan, percussion; James Dick, Viktor Valkov, piano; John Kitzman, Brent Phillips, trombone; Kevin Finamore, Kyle Sherman, Marie Speziale, trumpet; Justin Benavidez, tuba; Brett Deubner, Susan Dubois, Roger Myers, viola; Elizabeth Adkins, Joan Kwuon, Chavdar Parashkevov, Regis Pasquier, Christiano Rodrigues, Sheryl Staples, Guillaume Sutre, Chen Zhao, violin FOR INFORMATION: Alain G. Declert 248 Jaster Road, Round Top, TX 78954 (979) 249-3129 alaind@festivalhill.org festivalhill.org/summerinstitute @RoundTopFestivalInstitute  @fest.institute 

UTAH 2022 Deer Valley Music Festival Park City, UT July 1 to August 6 In-Person Only

The Deer Valley Music Festival is the summer home of the Utah Symphony. The eight-week summer series takes place in spectacular Park City venues surrounded by the Wasatch Mountains.

FESTIVAL CONDUCTORS: Mary Mitchell Campbell, Stephanie Childress, Conner Gray Covington, Christopher Dragon, Kerem Hasan, Sarah Hicks, Benjamin Manis, Edwin Outwater, John Morris Russell, Lucas Waldin

SPRING 2022

S U M M ER FES T I VA L S

FESTIVAL ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: Bob Neu FESTIVAL ARTISTS: Stewart Copeland, drums; Zlatomir Fung, cello; Stephen Banks, soprano saxophone; Brant Bayless, viola; Kathryn Eberle, Geneva Lewis, violin; Kristin Chenoweth, Ben Folds, Capathia Jenkins, LaKisha Jones, Cecilia Violetta López, Hugh Panero, Dee Rosciolli, Scarlett Strallen, Darryl Williams, vocalists FEATURED GROUPS: ARRIVAL from Sweden, The Hot Sardines ORCHESTRA AFFILIATION: Utah Symphony FOR INFORMATION: Meredith Kimball Laing 123 West South Temple Salt Lake City, Utah 84101 (801) 533-5626 mlaing@usuo.org deervalleymusicfestival.org utahsymphony  utahsymphony 

AMERICANORCHESTRAS.ORG

VERMONT

VIRGINIA

2022 Summer Festival Tour: Celebrate!

Multiple Locations, VT July 1 to July 10

Virginia Arts Festival Coastal Virginia/Hampton Roads, VA March 25 to June 19

The Vermont Symphony Orchestra’s annual Summer Festival Tour is the Green Mountain state’s only outdoor orchestra pops concert tour, visiting South Pomfret, Manchester, Grafton, Shelburne, Burke, and Stowe in 2022.

For 25 seasons, the Virginia Arts Festival has brought world-class performing artists each spring. Full of joyful, thrilling, humbling, unifying, beautiful art, the Festival plans to mark this milestone with a season suitably spectacular featuring chamber, classical, dance, theater/musical theater, Broadway, pop, Americana, jazz, blues, world, and beyond.

In-Person Only

FESTIVAL CONDUCTOR: Julian Pellicano FESTIVAL ARTIST: Matt Wright, trombone FEATURED GROUP: Vermont Symphony Orchestra FOR INFORMATION: Elise Brunelle 2 Church St, Suite 3B, Burlington, VT 05401 (802) 864-5741 hello@vso.org vso.org/events @VermontSymphony  @VT_Symphony 

In-Person Only

FESTIVAL CONDUCTOR: Rob Fisher FESTIVAL ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: Robert W. Cross, Executive Director, Perry Artistic Director FESTIVAL ARTISTS: Mark Schatz, bass; Laura Leisring, bassoon; Bela Fleck, banjo; Rebecca Gilmore Phillips, Sterling Elliott, Thomas Mesa, Yo-Yo Ma, cello; Michael Byerly, clarinet; Stuart Duncan, fiddle; Debra Wendells Cross, flute; Bryan Sutton, Justin Moses, Yamandu Costa, guitar; Jacob Wilder, horn; Sierra Hull, mandolin; Sherie Lake Aguirre, oboe; Amanda Mole, organ; Kathryn Stott, Olga Kern, Vladislav Kern, piano; Joel Ross, vibraphone; Beverly Kane

S P E C I A L A DV ERT I S I N G S U P P L E M EN T TO SYM P H O NY

55

Baker, viola; Alexandre da Costa, Brendan Elliot, Maithena Girault, Emily OndracekPeterson, violin; Kristin Chenoweth, Renee Fleming, vocal FEATURED GROUPS: Akropolis Reed Quintet, Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, Chanticleer, Danish String Quartet, Jerusalem Quartet, New Morse Code, The Tallis Scholars, Virginia Symphony Orchestra FOR INFORMATION: Robert W. Cross 440 Bank Street, Norfolk, VA 23510 (757) 282-2822 info@vafest.org www.vafest.org @VaArtsFest  @VaArtsFest 

Wintergreen Music Festival Wintergreen, VA July 3 to July 31

Hybrid Programming with Both Online and In-Person Attendance The Wintergreen Music Festival features a combination of orchestra, pops, jazz, and chamber music on Wintergreen Mountain and neighboring cideries, wineries, and breweries in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.

FESTIVAL CONDUCTORS: Erin Freeman, Andrew Grams, Michelle Merrill, Carl St.Clair FESTIVAL ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: Erin Freeman FESTIVAL ARTISTS: Michael Dean, bassbaritone; Wesley Baldwin, David Bjella, cello; Charlie Messersmith, clarinet; Daron Hagen, Gilda Lyons, Michael White, composers; Dee Moses, Patricia Weitzel, double-bass; Lance Suzuki, flute; Barbara Hill, Brandon Nichols, Jacob Wilder, horn; Heather Johnson, mezzo-soprano; Justin Alexander, Matt Bassett, Luis Rivera, percussion; Sean Chen, Ingrid Keller, Kathy Kelly, Peter Marshall, Edward Newman, piano; William Ferguson, tenor; Dave Vonderheide, trumpet; Steve Larson, viola; Elisabeth Adkins, John Meisner, Meredith Riley, Elizabeth Vonderheide, Ross Monroe Winter, violin

WASHINGTON Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival Orcas Island, WA August 4 to August 20

Hybrid Programming with Both Online and In-Person Attendance OICMF’s 25th season of music on Orcas Island in-person and livestreamed—a string quartet premiere by Jake Heggie, free outdoor classical-crossover and big band concerts, a concert on Lopez Island, and so much more!

FESTIVAL ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: Founder & Artistic Director Aloysia Friedmann/ Artistic Advisor Jon Kimura Parker FESTIVAL ARTISTS: Olliver Aldort, Joshua Gindele, Desmond Hoebig, Olivia Marckx, cello; Jose Franch-Ballester, clarinet; Chad Wesselkamper, double bass; Jon Kimura Parker, Christopher Shih, piano; Steve Alboucq, Oliver Groenewald, Jens Lindemann, trumpet; Aloysia Friedmann, John Largess, viola; Robyn Bollinger, Daniel Ching, William Fedkenheuer, Charlotte Marckx, Sandy Yamamoto, violin. Many more artists are yet to be confirmed FEATURED GROUPS: Miró Quartet, Time for Three, Sempre Sisters, OICMF Big Band FOR INFORMATION: Anita Orne, Executive Director PO Box 646 / Eastsound WA 98245 (360) 376-6636 info@oicmf.org www.oicmf.org @OICMF  @OICMF 

Bellingham Festival of Music Bellingham, WA July 1 to July 24 In-Person Only

In 2022, we celebrate the Laudatory Season of Maestro Michael Palmer, Artistic Director and Conductor. Highlights are

orchestral works of Beethoven including the five Piano Concertos with pianist Garrick Ohlsson.

FESTIVAL CONDUCTOR: Michael Palmer FESTIVAL ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: Michael Palmer FESTIVAL ARTISTS: Edith Kraft, Garrick Ohlsson, Richard Roberts, Steven Thomas, piano; Stefan Jackiw, violin; Clayton Brainerd, Ellen Graham, Katie Van Kooten, Maria Valdes, vocalists FEATURED GROUPS: Bellingham Festival Chorus, Bellingham Festival Orchestra, Calidore String Quartet ORCHESTRA AFFILIATION: Bellingham Festival Orchestra FOR INFORMATION: Mary Pat Thuma PO Box 818 Bellingham, WA 98227 (360) 201-6621 bellinghamfestival@comcast.net bellinghamfestival.org @bellingham.festival 

Marrowstone Music Festival Seattle, WA July 18 to July 29 Online Only

A two-week music intensive for advanced student musicians. This year’s Festival will be non-residential; out-of-area musicians attending are responsible for providing lodging.

FESTIVAL CONDUCTOR: Juan Felipe Molano FESTIVAL ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: Juan Felipe Molano ORCHESTRA AFFILIATION: Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra FOR INFORMATION: Wendy Devaney 11065 5th Ave NE Suite A (206) 362-2300 marrowstone@syso.org syso.org/marrowstone

FEATURED GROUPS: Richmond Symphony Chamber Chorus, QuinTango, Wintergreen Festival Orchestra FOR INFORMATION: Erin Freeman Post Office Box 816, Wintergreen, VA 22958 (434) 325-8292 info@wintergreen-music.org wintergreen-music.org @WintergreenMusic  @wintergreenmusic 

At the Music in the Vineyards festival in California’s Napa Valley, concerts take place in intimate winery settings.

56

S P E C I A L A DV ERT I S I N G S U P P L E M EN T TO SYM P H O NY

SPRING 2022

S U M M ER FES T I VA L S

WISCONSIN Concerts on the Square Madison, WI June 29 to August 3 In-Person Only

The Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra removes the barriers to classical music through memorable summer concerts atop the Wisconsin State Capitol steps, providing free and accessible chamber performances for 250,000 people annually.

FESTIVAL CONDUCTOR: Andrew Sewell FESTIVAL ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: Andrew Sewell FESTIVAL ARTISTS: Xavier Foley, bass; Elliott Funmaker and Wisconsin Dells Singers; Maxim Lando, Johannes Wallman, piano; Sharel Cassidy, saxophone; Spectrum, Young Artist Concerto Competition Winner (TBD) FEATURED GROUPS: Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra ORCHESTRA AFFILIATION: Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra FOR INFORMATION: Elliott Valentine 321 E Main St. Madison, WI 53703 (608) 257-0638 elliottvalentine@wcoconcerts.org wcoconcerts.org @WisconsinChamberOrchestra  @wisconsinchamberorchestra 

Green Lake Festival of Music Green Lake, WI June 10 to August 5

Hybrid Programming with Both Online and In-Person Attendance Green Lake Festival of Music, Inc. is a non-profit corporation whose mission is to entertain, inspire, and educate through musical performances and activities of the highest quality.

FESTIVAL CONDUCTORS: John C. Hughes, Elizabeth Oakes FESTIVAL ARTISTS: Elaine Hagenberg, composer; Paul Wiancko, cello; Janna Ernst, Anastaysia Magamedova, Madeline Slettadhal, piano; Ayane Kosaza, viola/ violin; Salley Koo, violin; Sarah Brailey, Kathryn Henry, voice FEATURED GROUPS: Aizuri Quartet, LunART, Third Lake Brass Quintet FOR INFORMATION: Deb MacKenzie PO Box 569 Green Lake, WI 54941 (920) 748-9398 info@greenlakefestival.org GreenLakeFestival.org @greenlakefestival  @greenlakefestivalofmusic 

Peninsula Music Festival Door County, WI August 2 to August 20 In-Person Only

AMERICANORCHESTRAS.ORG

Celebrating 70! Renowned conductors, acclaimed soloists, and the Festival Orchestra representing symphonic and operatic institutions from around the world.

The Symphony Series August 2-20, 2022, at the Door Community Auditorium!

FESTIVAL CONDUCTORS: Rune Bergmann, David Danzmayr, Yaniv Dinur, Marcelo Lehninger, Ward Stare FESTIVAL ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: Christoph Ptack, President and CEO FESTIVAL ARTISTS: Oliver Herbert, cello; Susanna Self, flute; Inna Faliks, Stewart Goodyear, Peter Jablonski, Drew Petersen, piano; Benjamin Beilman, Bella Hristova, Rachel Barton Pine, Simone Porter, violin FOR INFORMATION 10431 N. Water Street, PO Box 340, Ephraim, WI 542112 USA (920) 854-4060 musicfestival@musicfestival.com www.musicfestival.com @PeninsulaMusicFestival  @peninsulamusicfestival 

WYOMING Grand Teton Music Festival Jackson, WY July 3 to August 27

Hybrid Programming with Both Online and In-Person Attendance Grand Teton Music Festival unites over 200 celebrated orchestral musicians from over 80 orchestras worldwide. This 61st season sees the launch of an opera initiative and new piano recital series.

FESTIVAL CONDUCTORS: Sir Donald Runnicles, Music Director; Andy Einhorn, Broadway Evening conductor; Eun Sun Kim, Markus Stenz, guest conductors FESTIVAL ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: Sir Donald Runnicles, Music Director FESTIVAL ARTISTS: Carlton Ford, Thomas Lehman, baritone; Ryan Speedo Green, bass-baritone; Johannes Moser, cello; Tamara Mumford, mezzo-soprano; Inon Barnatan, Ingrid Fliter, Garrick Ohlsson, Joyce Yang, 2022 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition Gold Medalist, piano; Nicole Cabell, Capathia Jenkins, Meechot Marrero, Heidi Stober, soprano; Jonathan Tetelman, tenor; Byron Stripling, trumpet; Augustin Hadelich, violin; Carmen Bradford, Aoife O’Donovan, vocalist FEATURED GROUPS: Grand Teton Music Festival Chorus, St. Lawrence String Quartet, VOCES8 FOR INFORMATION: Emma Kail, Executive Director 175 S. King Street, Suite 200; P.O. Box 9117; Jackson, WY 83002 (307) 733-3050 gtmf@gtmf.org gtmf.org @GrandTetonMusicFestival  @grandtetonmusic 

S P E C I A L A DV ERT I S I N G S U P P L E M EN T TO SYM P H O NY

57

CEMENTING FLEXIBILITY In November, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra announced a new collective-bargaining agreement with its musicians, with more flexible work rules. The contract represents some of the fresh approaches that are emerging as orchestras and musicians across the country reconsider their contracts and business models. In the wake of the pandemic, will contracts like Cincinnati’s usher in permanent changes in how orchestras and musicians craft labor agreements?

Chris Lee

By Jeremy Reynolds

The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Music Director Louis Langrée, and piano soloist Kirill Gerstein perform at Music Hall during the pandemic.

O

f the 53 member orchestras in the International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians (ICSOM), 26 are negotiating new collective bargaining agreements during the spring and summer, moving beyond the speedily negotiated side letters of the COVID-19 pandemic and formally codifying certain clauses. (Side letters are temporary or permanent modifications to the primary collective bargaining agreement.) Some of those changes, like a pivot to producing all-digital content, will fade or evolve as ensembles return to live performance. Other shifts, like

58

allowing ensembles to break into smaller, more nimble ensembles—initially a strategy to accommodate socialdistancing measures—may stick around longer to allow orchestras to more easily dive into their local communities.

Despite the tumult and turmoil caused by the pandemic, leaders in the orchestra field are confident about the industry’s immediate future. “There’s a lot of optimism,” says Meredith Snow, chairperson of ICSOM and a violist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

“Everybody worked together toward some sort of compromise and reestablished a good working relationship

SPRING 2022

and forged some trust through mutual sacrifice. That is going to bode well for all.”

The fruits of that working relationship are clear at the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, which kept the music alive during the pandemic through commissioning projects, small-ensemble performances, and digital content. In November, the orchestra announced a landmark, three-year contract that restored musician pay to pre-pandemic levels, with plans for modest raises and additional compensation for serving in community-focused ensembles.

The new contract also redefines the way musicians’ time is structured on a weekly basis and enshrines a diversity task force launched during the pandemic.

The Cincinnati Symphony is not the only orchestra to announce a new, wide-ranging musicians’ contract. In recent months, orchestras large and small have announced agreements that establish new work rules, or offer more flexibility with community engagement and educational events, or restore salaries, or make room for digital and online media. A few contracts were even signed before the deadlines.

CSO President and CEO Jonathan Martin credits the orchestra’s ingrained culture of collaboration for the success of recent negotiations. “The pandemic compressed what was probably going to happen anyway, from a 10- to 15year timeframe to a two- to three-year

In Cincinnati, “Everybody worked together toward some sort of compromise and reestablished a good working relationship and forged some trust through mutual sacrifice,” says Meredith Snow, chair of International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians.

“That is going to bode well for all.”

CSO President and CEO Jonathan Martin credits the orchestra’s ingrained culture of collaboration for the success of recent negotiations.

“The pandemic compressed what was probably going to happen anyway, from a 10- to 15-year timeframe to a two- to three-year timeframe,” he says.

timeframe,” he says. “Orchestras are supertankers that can take years to turn around. This contract improves our ability to do that faster.” This departure from traditional contracts is progressive but not revolutionary, as many of the changes emerged directly from the orchestra’s one-year agreement during COVID-19 or from work rules relating to the orchestra’s status as the resident orchestra at Cincinnati Opera. Snow agrees that the CSO’s collaborative culture likely allowed for greater flexibility and says

that Cincinnati’s contract could be a helpful blueprint for orchestras moving into the next phase of their business models. “What Colorado needs is not the same thing that Houston needs,” she says. “I don’t know what negotiations are going to look like in the spring, but we have to serve our communities better than in the past.

And if that takes this kind of flexibility, then that’s where we gotta go.”

To get into the details of the new contract in Cincinnati, two of the agreement’s architects—Paul Frankenfeld, a violist with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and the president of the American Federation of Musicians Local 1, and Robert McGrath, the CSO’s chief operating officer—discussed the longstanding, collaborative relationship between musicians and management and board that they believe was essential to creating such new agreements. Below is a transcript of that conversation, edited for length and clarity.

JP Leong

PAUL FRANKENFELD: Some musicians refer to flexibility as the management “F” word because it’s been used in a really abusive fashion in acrimonious contract disputes.

Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Louis Langrée perform at Music Hall, October 2021.

AMERICANORCHESTRAS.ORG

ROBERT McGRATH: I used that word enough at the negotiating table that

59

JP Leong

Within the workweek, traditionally, you have eight services a week of two-and-a-half hours each.

Now, we have 20 hours available and up to 10 work calls and up to three services a day that we can structure however we need. That’s the big picture.

“We were absolutely committed to financial restoration for the musicians and the staff,” says Robert McGrath, the CSO’s chief operating officer. “The next priority was preserving the flexibility borne out of necessity during the pandemic season, making sure that we were leveraging the full skills of the orchestra to serve the community.”

Paul Frankenfeld, a violist with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and the president of the American Federation of Musicians Local 1, says, “There really was not much resistance to the changes. There are concerts planned for next year that have us playing six 45-minute performances in a week, and that wouldn’t have been possible under our old agreement.”

I was gifted a coffee mug by one of the retiring members of the players’ committee that said, “flexible AF.”

that we had already from our time in the summers—where we subcontract for the Cincinnati Opera—and started applying them. That helped tremendously when we rolled up our sleeves and hammered out a true new master contract.

FRANKENFELD: My mug said “eloquent AF.” McGRATH: Going back a bit, we began collective bargaining in the last week of February 2020 for a new long-term agreement. When we shut down in March, we delayed our discussions to August 2020 and agreed to a one-year temporary contract, with the goals of the board, the staff, the musicians, the artistic leadership, quickly aligning around a desire to make sure that we could return to performing as fast as possible, whether that was getting the whole orchestra back onstage or in smaller groups or as individuals.

FRANKENFELD: During those discussions, we laid a lot of the groundwork for the current agreement.

The orchestra had an emergency fund, and we were paid our full salaries until September 2020. Going into the one-year agreement, the organization took an across-the-board 10 percent salary reduction, and everybody was anxious to get back to work in any way that we could. We looked at many of the contractual provisions

60

McGRATH: Paul, correct me if I’m wrong, but there seemed to be equally quick alignment around the priorities for the new three-year contract as well.

FRANKENFELD: Absolutely. It’s important to realize that we have worked to have a truly collaborative arrangement and relationship between board and management and players and union. That’s gone on for years.

McGRATH: First, we were absolutely committed to financial restoration for the musicians and the staff. The next priority was preserving the flexibility borne out of necessity during the pandemic season, making sure that we were leveraging the full skills of the orchestra to serve the community as robustly as possible. The two main areas of that flexibility are the way the workweek itself is scheduled for the orchestra and the other is the number of ways in which musicians can be assigned to smaller groups of nonconducted ensembles.

FRANKENFELD: There really was not much resistance to the changes, though we did agree to set stop times as new guardrails. There are concerts planned for next year that have us playing six 45-minute performances in a week, and that wouldn’t have been possible under our old agreement.

McGRATH: The other big change is how the orchestra can be assigned into different groups. For decades we’ve had musicians perform for education programs and in the community on a volunteer basis in exchange for some modest compensation or time off. Now, we’re seeking to find groups of musicians that would form at the beginning of the season and then work with our learning department and community engagement department to curate thoughtful programs throughout the year. Who’s going to invest time and effort into something that they’re just performing once? So that is now in exchange for some additional time off as incentivization. But we need to be thoughtful about that programming, and to have a group of people that’s invested in time and commitment over the course of the season.

Musicians can also sign up for the sorts of things that come up in any given workweek that otherwise could only be accomplished through volunteer capacities, now for additional time off. For instance, we did a performance for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center that involved a string quartet of musicians who opted into the program to be assigned. They performed this during a week where we didn’t have all 90 members of the orchestra performing on stage.

FRANKENFELD: We were very, very insistent that the programs weren’t compulsory. There hasn’t been a tremendous amount of enthusiasm so far to sign up for assigned ensembles,

SPRING 2022

The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s recent contract could be a helpful blueprint for orchestras moving into the next phase of their business models.

The Cincinnati Pops and Principal Guest Conductor Damon Gupton in performance at Music Hall.

to be honest. But it’s brand new.

For decades we’ve had musicians perform for education programs and in the community on a volunteer basis in exchange for some modest compensation or time off [known as service exchange], and that program took off in a year or two.

Aside from the flexibility, there’s a big thrust right now in the orchestra field to identify underrepresented musicians and give them every opportunity to come play auditions here. Things are headed in the right direction, but it’s important for orchestras to get ambitious about this simply because there’s a demand that they better reflect what the communities they serve look like.

McGRATH: We have a diversity task force that was adopted initially as part of our one-year agreement in 2020 and then again in the three-year agreement. It’s an outgrowth of years of work. The task force is dividing its work into three categories, focusing first on things we can do locally that are in our power to change. For example, we’re prioritizing the hiring of musician graduates of the successful Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music Diversity Fellowship program [a partnership between the CSO and CCM] as substitutes with the orchestra. The second area of focus is data collection regarding the number of underrepresented candidates

AMERICANORCHESTRAS.ORG

auditioning, and the third is discussing the things that require actual systemic change in the field.

The task force has also been empowered to make recommendations to the players’ committee to allow for contractual changes during the term of the collective bargaining agreement rather than just waiting to address all these issues again in three years.

FRANKENFELD: Necessity really dictated an awful lot of this in my estimation, but people are already taking notice and asking questions.

We’re a small metropolitan area, very different from the demands of orchestras that have much larger population areas, such as New York or Los Angeles or San Francisco. But certainly, the one thing we’ve always felt is that the relationships that we’ve developed over all these years are worth their weight in gold.

McGRATH: Exactly. There have been countless times when both parties have compromised because the strategic long-term benefits of maintaining this culture supersede any one issue at any given time. I do think the agreement is groundbreaking and historic, but I’m not sure that any one individual concept is revolutionary. It’s the capstone of a culture that’s been in place for decades.

FRANKENFELD: There hasn’t been a work stoppage here in over 50 years.

That’s remarkable for an orchestra of any stature, to be perfectly frank.

And we’ve had a very, very successful launch to this agreement.

JEREMY REYNOLDS is the classical music critic at the Pittsburgh PostGazette, where he is also an editorial writer. His bylines include Opera Magazine, EMAg (the magazine of Early Music America), and San Francisco Classical Voice.

Advertiser Index Artist Vision

27

Bravo Vail Valley Music Festival

23

The Cliburn

C3

Colorado College Summer Music Festival

31

Dan Kamin Comedy Concertos

11

Deer Valley Music Festival

1

Grand Teton Music Festival

19

League of American Orchestras

C2

Music in the Vineyards

57

OK Mozart

37

Oregon Bach Festival

55

Peter Throm Management

C4

Portland Symphony

43

Vermont Symphony Orchestra

53

61

League of American Orchestras With the support of our valued donors, the League continues to have a positive impact on the future of orchestras in America by helping to develop the next generation of leaders, generating and disseminating critical knowledge and information, and advocating for the unique role of the orchestral experience in American life before an ever-widening group of stakeholders.

We gratefully acknowledge the generosity of the following donors who contributed gifts of $750 and above in the last year, as of February 25, 2022. For more information regarding a gift to the League, please visit us at americanorchestras.org/donate, call 212.262.5161, or write us at Annual Fund, League of American Orchestras, 520 8th Avenue, Suite 2005, 20th Floor, New York, NY 10018.

$150,000 and above

Bruce and Martha Clinton, on behalf of The Clinton Family Fund ✧ Baisley Powell Elebash Fund

Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation $50,000–$149,999 American Express Melanie Clarke

Howard Gilman Foundation

The Hagerman Family Charitable Fund Mrs. Martha R. Ingram Lori Julian

National Endowment for the Arts The Negaunee Foundation

New York State Council on the Arts

Patricia A. Richards and William K. Nichols Linda & David Roth †

Sargent Family Foundation, Cynthia Sargent The Wallace Foundation $25,000–$49,999

Paul M. Angell Family Foundation

Thomas Beckmen, Board Chair, LA Phil Barbara and Amos Hostetter Alan Mason +

Dr. and Mrs. Malcolm McDougal Brown ✧ Mark Jung Charitable Fund

Mr. and Mrs. Alfred P. Moore

New York City Department of Cultural Affairs

Steve and Diane Parrish Foundation ✧ Mary Carr Patton

Sakana Foundation

Richard & Emily Smucker

Trine Sorensen and Michael Jacobson $10,000–$24,999

Trish and Rick Bryan ✧

The John and Rosemary Brown Family Foundation William & Solange Brown

62

The CHG Charitable Trust ✧

Gloria DePasquale †

Carmen Amalia Corrales

Steve & Linda Finerty Family Foundation

The Aaron Copland Fund for Music The Doerr Foundation

Marisa and Allan Eisemann Marian Godfrey

John and Marcia Goldman Foundation The Hyde and Watson Foundation Catherine and Peter Moye Robert Naparstek, MD Howard D. Palefsky

Mark and Nancy Peacock Charitable Fund

Daniel and David Els-Piercey

Drs. Aaron & Cristina Stanescu Flagg Catherine French ✧

Lawrence and Karen Fridkis

Gary Ginstling and Marta Lederer

The Joseph B. Glossberg Foundation

Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles Joseph Kluger and Susan Lewis Fund John A. and Catherine M. Koten Foundation †

Drs. Helen S. & John P. Schaefer

Dennis & Camille LaBarre

Penny and John Van Horn ✧

John and Gail Looney

Michael J. Schmitz

Leslie Lassiter Charitable Fund

Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation

William M. Lyons

$5,000–$9,999

David Alan Miller

Burton Alter Benevity

Nancy Bell Coe and Bill Burke Galena-Yorktown Foundation, Ronald D. Abramson

Mary Louise Gorno Jim Hasler

Sharon D. Hatchett

Robert Kohl and Clark Pellett Hugh W. Long* Kjristine Lund

Anthony McGill †

Lowell and Sonja Noteboom ✧ The Brian Ratner Foundation Helen P. Shaffer

Connie Steensma and Rick Prins ✧ Edward Yim & Erick Neher • + $2,500–$4,999

Jennifer Barlament •

Marie-Helene Bernard • Ann D. Borowiec

Dr. Lorenzo Candelaria

Martha and Herman Copen Fund of The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven

Mattlin Foundation Raymond & Tresa Radermacher Susan L. Robinson Jesse Rosen †

Deborah F. Rutter † Laura Street

Isaac Thompson and Tonya Vachirasomboon Melia & Mike Tourangeau Steve & Judy Turner Alan D. Valentine

Kathleen van Bergen

Doris and Clark Warden † Terry Ann White †

Simon Woods & Karin Brookes Anonymous (1) $1,000–$2,499

Jeff & Keiko Alexander Gene & Mary Arner Alberta Arthurs

Dawn M. Bennett

Peter Benoliel & Willo Carey

Beracha Family Charitable Gift Fund William P. Blair III ✧

David Bornemann, Vice Chair, Phoenix Symphony Elaine Amacker Bridges

SPRING 2022

Susan K. Bright

Barry & Susan Rosen

Steven Brosvik •

Don Roth & Jolán Friedhoff †

Doris & Michael Bronson Karen & Terry Brown Monica Buffington Janet Cabot

Charles W. Cagle †

Janet and John Canning † Leslie and Dale Chihuly Darlene Clark

Clear Pond Fund

Michèle and Laurence Corash LOU Fund Katie and Kevin Crumbo Loretta H. Davenport The Dirk Family

Dr. D.M. Edwards

Feder Gordon Family Fund

Courtney and David Filner • Henry & Frances Fogel ✧ Michele & John Forsyte • James M. Franklin †

Robert & Barbara Rosoff ✧ Dr. Lee Shackelford

Pratichi Shah and Gaurang Hirpara Robert N. Shapiro Norm Slonaker Irene Sohm

Daniel Song

Linda S. Stevens

David Strickland

Elizabeth F. Tozer & W. James Tozer Jr. Marylou and John D.* Turner Robert Turner and Jay James Gus M. Vratsinas Robert Wagner

Camille Williams

Donna M. Williams Sheila J. Williams

Paul Winberg & Bruce Czuchna

William & Nancy Gettys

$750–$999

Martha Gilmer

Drs. James William Boyd & Misook Yun •

Edward B. Gill ✧, in honor of Jesse Rosen Gordon Family Donor Advised Philanthropic Fund

Joe Green

Nancy Greenbach Bill Hagens

Daniel & Barbara Hart • Dale Hedding

Howard Herring

James M. Johnson

The Junek Family Fund Emma (Murley) Kail • Andrea Kalyn

Cindy & Randy Kidwell † Peter Kjome

Donald Krause and Joanne Krause † Gina Elisa Laite

Dr. Barbara C. Lake

Bob and Charlotte Lewis Ginny Lundquist

Sandi M.A. Macdonald & Henry J. Grzes Yvonne Marcuse

Jonathan Martin

Steve and Lou Mason ✧

Julie and Douglas Meredith Anne W. Miller †

Robert & Kathy Olsen Primo Artists

Barbara S. Robinson

AMERICANORCHESTRAS.ORG

Matthew Aubin

The League of American Orchestras recognizes those who have graciously supported the League with a planned gift as members of the League Legacy Society.

Janet F. and Dr. Richard E. Barb Family Foundation

Wayne S. Brown & Brenda E. Kee † ‡ John & Janet Canning † ‡

Richard * & Kay Fredericks Cisek ✧ ‡

Martha and Herman Copen Fund of the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven Myra Janco Daniels Samuel C. Dixon •

Henry & Frances Fogel ✧ ‡ Susan Harris, Ph.D.

Louise W. Kahn Endowment Fund of The Dallas Foundation

Judy Christl †

The Curtis and Pamela Livingston 2000 Charitable Remainder Unitrust † ‡

Scott Faulkner & Andrea Lenz †

Charles & Barbara Olton † ‡

Bruce Colquhoun Jack M. Firestone Piotr Gajewski

Eric Galatz & Lisa Tiegel Bob Garthwait, Jr.

Marena Gault, Volunteer Council

Steve & Lou Mason † ‡

Walter P. Pettipas Revocable Trust Rodger E. Pitcairn

Patricia A. Richards & William K. Nichols ‡ Robert & Barbara Rosoff ✧ ‡

Sarah J. Good

Robert J. Wagner ‡ Tina Ward • † ‡

Patricia G. Howard

Robert Wood Revocable Trust

Michael Gehret

Mary W. Hammond Rhonda Hunsinger

Sally & William Johnson

Mr. & Mrs. Albert K.*✧ & Sally Webster ‡ Anonymous (1)

James Roe

The Helen M. Thompson Heritage Society Named after the League’s first executive director and a passionate advocate for American orchestras, The Helen M. Thompson Heritage Society recognizes the visionary individuals who have not only provided essential support to the League through a planned gift, but have led the League through service on its Board of Directors. Helen’s own generous bequest to the League established an annual award to recognize the achievements of young orchestra professionals.

David Snead

‡ Members of The Helen M. Thompson Heritage Society

Jeffrey vom Saal

† Directors Council (former League Board)

Christopher Wingert

• Orchestra Management Fellowship Program Alumni

Russell Jones & Aaron Gillies

Anna Kuwabara & Craig Edwards • David Loebel

John and Regina Mangum Florence McLean Steven Monder †

Marianne Sciolino, in honor of Chester Lane* Joan Squires • Charlie Wade

✧ Emeritus Board

+ Includes Corporate Matching Gift * Deceased

63

Coda

MORE THAN A VOICE

Countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo is expanding the definition of the classical singer to include impresario, activist, connector. He’s a big name in opera—he made headlines in title role of Philip Glass’s Akhnaten at the Metropolitan Opera—and he’s increasingly familiar at orchestras. Offstage, Costanzo is launching projects that address the present through music. He curated and performed in the New York Philharmonic’s recent Bandwagon series: Philharmonic musicians and Costanzo made music—free for all—from a pickup truck on NYC streets. Then Bandwagon helped local artists and communities to stage their own shows. Costanzo’s “Authentic Selves” artist residency at the Philharmonic features collaborations with diverse arts groups, concerts

by Costanzo with the Philharmonic, and a celebration of queer artistry with Costanzo and singer and trans activist Justin Vivian Bond. Here, Costanzo shares his vision of a modern artist residency.

C

The music that orchestras play can stand on its own, and we want to have all of this beautiful music. But how can these works be illuminated and amplified?

64

Davóne Tines, the wonderful bass-baritone, and with the PUBLIQuartet.

We’re collaborating with El Puente and Flushing Town Hall, fantastic organizations that serve communities in Brooklyn and Queens, on performances at Lincoln Center’s Atrium.

Our art is greatly influenced and changed by connecting with other artists, other audiences, and working to create community. When I was thinking about “Authentic Selves” at the Philharmonic, I realized that nobody wants to see an “opera singer” onstage, people want to see a human being. In an orchestra concert, there are no costumes and no characters.

It’s just you. That is what moves people about music: the human part. Without

Chris Lee

urating the Bandwagon concerts, I had the opportunity to work with every department at the Philharmonic, producing and curating the project: making spreadsheets, scouting locations, working with Local 1 stagehands. I got to know almost every musician in the orchestra on a first-name basis. Though some people within the institution were initially skeptical, when they saw that audiences had such positive reactions, it was so moving for all of us.

After the success of the two versions of Bandwagon, I was thrilled when CEO Deborah Borda asked me to be the orchestra’s artist in residence, to program a major pillar of the 2021-22 season and two different weeks of programming— which was a dream.

Our collaboration with National Black Theater included a panel discussion and a performance, and we created a collaboration with Alliance Française exploring different French cultural traditions.

I’m going to Casita Maria in the Bronx to talk with students about self-expression and authenticity in music and introduce them to opera. I am working with Lincoln Center on a concept and concert by

Justin Vivian Bond and Anthony Roth Costanzo in performance with the New York Philharmonic and Music Director Jaap van Zweden as part of Costanzo’s residency with the orchestra this season.

Our art is greatly influenced and changed by connecting with other artists, other audiences, and working to create community. that, just singing standard repertoire doesn’t have the same charge, the same excitement.

With collaborators like the National Black Theater, I was clear that never were we going to say, “This is what we’d like you to do.” Rather, we wanted National Black Theater to tell us what they were interested in creating and how they wanted to partner. It’s a slow and considered process, a relationship that develops over time. It can’t just be about checking boxes; it’s about seeking meaningful collaborations. Communities see very clearly when that happens, and when it doesn’t, they don’t feel compelled to return.

The music that the Philharmonic and other orchestras play can stand on its own, and we want to have all of this beautiful music. But I always think about how can these works be illuminated and amplified, what other stories can we tell? Classical music always benefits from being in beautiful relief with other genres, other works, other idioms, whether through interdisciplinary collaborations, expressions of personality, playing music from a pickup truck, with a class, a collaboration, and beyond. I’m always searching for new paths to the future.

SPRING 2022

520 8T H AVENUE, SU IT E 2005, 20T H F LO O R , N EW Y O R K NY 1 0 0 1 8 - 4 1 6 7