Familiar Faces

Photos courtesy Mankato Symphony Orchestra

NAME: Bethel Balge

HOMETOWN:

New Ulm

OCCUPATION:

Executive director of the Mankato Symphony

FAVORITE PIECE OF CLASSICAL MUSIC

There are too many to list here!

Beautiful music

Bethel Balge leads the Mankato Symphony Orchestra to a new chapter

Few artistic organizations in southern Minnesota have as long and storied a history as the Mankato Symphony Orchestra.

For 70 years, the MSO has produced beautiful music, attracted talented musicians, and kept the beat going through thick and thin. And in recent years, the MSO has seen its share of both thick and thin.

Like every other arts organization, it has dealt with the pandemic. MSO leaders also took a year to hire a new conductor (who is now in place, by the way) and are still searching for a permanent home.

Luckily, Executive Director Bethel Balge is at the helm. Balge, an accomplished musician, has steered the MSO ship gracefully and from a musician’s perspective.

Mankato Magazine: You’re currently in charge of the Mankato Symphony Orchestra. Tell us what it was like ushering the MSO through the pandemic.

Bethel Balge: Like everyone else, we faced unprecedented challenges. But there were silver linings: We discovered an outreach tool in virtual concerts, sending our programs out to an even wider audience on social media, including the homebound and residents of assisted living facilities. We continued to send out appeals to individuals and corporations for their fiscal support. And we even had time to clean out our attic.

MM: Tell us about some of the challenges MSO faces during both pandemic and “normal” times.

BB: Our perennial challenge —pandemic or not — is the lack of a permanent home. Though the MSO is over 70 years old, every year we need to work hard to find venues for both rehearsals and performances. Every season we try to book time and space in the busy schedules of area schools. Also, our office, our library and our instruments are scattered around in different locations around the city. We hope someday soon to find a permanent home for all of MSO’s needs.

Another challenge is continuing to grow our audience. As COVID waned, we were blessed with record attendances. We would like to build on those numbers as we also work to reach people from all socioeconomic backgrounds, making concerts available to everyone. The MSO free ticket program presently offers vouchers to various underserved groups in the Greater Mankato area through organizations like the YWCA and MYSpace.

MM: No form of music is for everyone, but classical music does struggle at times getting the attention of the masses. Is that something MSO worries about? Do you have any plans to offer the kind of programming we saw a few years ago with “The Music of Queen”?

BB: Classical music is definitely alive and doing very well — we’re not worried yet! Just this past season, we nearly sold out two of our four symphony concerts and had very full attendance at the other two. Our Symphony on the Prairie concert in North Mankato’s Benson Park played to a huge crowd last Sept 11. Those in attendance included young families with children.

Developing a taste for the fine arts at a young age is a key to our future. With this in mind, we hope to bring back MSO visits into schools and to offer a competition to young people with the incentive of an opportunity to perform in concert with the MSO. Plans are in the works to offer just such a competition in the spring of 2023.

The MSO is definitely open to programming collaborative concerts with alternative rock groups and are exploring possibilities for next summer.

MM: Give us your elevator speech about why people should come to an MSO concert.

BB: Seventy years young, the MSO is a dynamic, energetic organization that showcases the musical talent of our community and state. Our audiences are not bound by demographics. All are welcome and encouraged to attend. Anyone who has NOT ever seen a full orchestra in concert should have this experience at least once in their life! Bethel Balge is the executive director of the Mankato Symphony Orchestra and has performed with orchestras and ensembles all over the world

MM: You’ve hired a new conductor to replace Ken Freed. What impact will this have on the MSO?

BB: We have waited a long time to secure a replacement for Ken Freed. Freed finished his tenure at the end of the 2019 season. So in the spring of 2020, when I came on board as executive director, MSO did not have a conductor/artistic director to make personnel and programming decisions. Now after two years, I am feeling the positive effects of having that vital position covered. Ernesto Estigarribia was a very popular choice and I feel he will inspire greatness amongst our musicians and interest from our community. extremely difficult for a musician doesn’t necessarily seem so to the listener.

MM: What piece of music is the most haunting?

BB: Recently I played a piano trio (D’un soir Triste) by the French composer Lili Boulanger. She composed it soon before she tragically died at age 25. It is one of the most haunting pieces I’ve played in terms of its harmonic language and the blending of piano, violin and cello sounds.

MM: You’re an accomplished musician in your own right. Tell us a bit about your musical history and accomplishments.

BB: My focus has always been performing classical piano. I have done degree programs in piano performance with outstanding teachers at Michigan State University, University of Wisconsin, University of Frankfurt, Germany, and finally a doctorate at the University of Minnesota, where I studied with Lydia Artymiw.

I’ve performed in various American venues as well as in Germany, Portugal and Russia. American Public Media’s Performance Today and Minnesota Public Radio have broadcast things I’ve done in solo and chamber performance. In 2016 I founded a chamber music series called ProMusica Minnesota and in 2019 co-founded the ProMusica Festival with violinist Peter McGuire. All along, I’ve done some teaching as well.

MM: What piece of music do you hope you never have to play again?

BB: A singer once wanted me to accompany him on piano as he sang “Phantom of the Opera” on his senior recital. Yeah … don’t care to do that again. That piece definitely needs organ backup, not piano.

MM: Tell us something about you that would surprise people.

BB: I was on stage with Bill Murray in 2018 when he appeared at the Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis with a classical piano trio. My “performance” consisted of turning pages for the pianist, accepting a rose from Murray and taking a bow at the end. It was great fun to meet Murray, observe his backstage routine, and be a part of his onstage improvised antics.

MM: What kind of music do you listen to when you’re not listening to classical? Grunge? Crunk? Country music radio? Salsa?

MM: What piece of music is, for you, the most BB: I enjoy jazz piano — especially the music of Nicolai difficult to play? Kapustin. And when I go out for a run, I’ll listen to Billy Joel BB: I can’t narrow it down to one. Every classical piece I or other ‘80s light rock groups. perform presents some sort of challenge, be it technical, emotional or stylistic. Sometimes what sounds difficult to an audience isn’t actually so difficult, and what is actually Compiled by Robb Murray