More Music Makes a City…
If you missed last week’s State of Affairs, featuring Owsley Brown III, Jerome Hiler and Robin Burke, directors and prodcuers of the film, and Rob Birman, executive director of the Louisville Orchestra, discussing the film Music Makes a City, listen here! Mr. Hiler contributed this article for the May 20 edition of the Courier-Journal. Elizabeth Kramer has a story about today’s Louisville Orchestra here.
Louisville Orchestra Plans its Future Place in the City
By Elizabeth Kramer
[podcast]http://archive.wfpl.org/arts_and_humanities/20100519_Orchestra_Future.mp3[/podcast]
A new documentary about the formative years of the Louisville Orchestra premieres tomorrow at the Baxter Avenue Theatres. But the organization is looking now to make itself relevant in a world where classical music is often an afterthought.
The documentary Music Makes a City recounts how in 1937 a politician named Charles Farnsleyand conductor Robert Whitney founded the Louisville Orchestra, then launched this semi-professional group into the worldwide limelight. As the film explains, that fame came during the 1950s after Whitney had some interesting ideas.
“He drew up a detailed plan of growth with an exacting timetable of goals,” the film’s narrator, Will Oldham says, “and presented it to the symphony board. The board agreed to all of Whitney’s ideas.”
The ideas included inviting composers to create new works for the orchestra to perform at world premieres and record on LPs that were distributed by subscription. Participating composers included Elliott Carter, Aaron Copland andWilliam Schuman. And along with Schuman the orchestra commissioned Martha Graham so the two worked together to create new music with original choreography for a Louisville performance.
But in recent decades, financial instability has overshadowed the international accolades the orchestra once received. In 2006, the orchestra leaders declared the institution on the verge of bankruptcy and musicians were threatening to strike. But the orchestra worked through that with the administration pledging to stabilize the organization by raising $15 million and the musicians agreeing to a pay cut over the next five years.
In dire times, the message the orchestra sent to the community was — “We need money.”
That’s Robert Birman, the orchestra’s current chief executive officer.
These days the orchestra’s budget is in the black and Birman is looking to the future and working to help the orchestra — and the community — thrive with music.
Over the past six months, he and a few members of the orchestra have worked to develop a vision to make the orchestra into a musical resource for the community and spur demand for orchestral music. Birman says it’s an important step, especially given that only 3 percent of the local population buys tickets and participates in the orchestra’s educational programs.
“Fewer and fewer people are learning and having exposure to live music,” Birman says, “so if the orchestra doesn’t help as an antidote to that future demographics and audience projections could look pretty dire.”
The vision to change that includes serving local music teachers, offering private teaching studios, instituting an instrument loan program, giving music appreciation classes, and creating a resource center with a library. And all this would feed into nurturing audiences for performances. Birman says no details are set, but one idea is to have all these services in a building called the Louisville Orchestra Symphony Center.
“This is a space where,” Birman says, “regardless of your age or your station in life, you can walk through the doors, you’re greeted by a concierge and you’re asked one simple question — ‘What can we do for you?’”
In recent weeks, Birman has been incorporating ideas from others with whom he’s shared this vision — from musicians to potential partner groups, like schools. And in the coming year, he plans neighborhood forums throughout the region to get new ideas and hone existing ones.
Drew McManus consults symphonies nationwide and has a blog dedicated to issues about the orchestra business. He says the ideas percolating in Louisville are the most novel he’s seen.
“A lot of groups still jump into things that might seem like really good ideas,” McManus says, “without really having planned out what they want to get from it.”
McManus says these ideas give hope to a future where orchestras can flourish, something that’s needed now as orchestras nationwide are struggling to survive. He says the vision even has the potential to change how the public thinks about an orchestra and builds a solid business model.
“Ultimately, I think you do have to look at music — classical music — as any other type of business where you have to out and build your audience; you have to create market,” he says.
Birman says he’s on board with that idea as well. And this month, he’s taking this vision to New York when the orchestra and the producers of the documentary about its history meet with some national foundations.
Famous People by Photographer Yousuf Karsh
Some photographs are familiar, like the one of Audrey Hepburn or another of Winston Churchill. Most are of famous people — artists, scientists and statesmen. These images are by Yousuf Karsh one of the 20th Century’s most accomplished photographers. Karsh died in 2002 at age 93, but in 2008, Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts organized a visual biography of his work. Works from that exhibit are on display at the Speed Art Museum through June 27th. Louisville Public Media’s Elizabeth Kramer sat down with Jerry Fielder, who worked as Karsh’s assistant for nearly 30 years. Now, Fielder is the curator and director of Karsh’s estate.
[podcast]http://www.wuol.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/Speed-Exhibit-Interview-WUOL.mp3[/podcast]
Click below to listen to, or download, an audio tour of the exhibit with the Speed Art Museum director Charles Venable. (Length 27:28, 25 MB)
[podcast]http://archive.wuol.org/Podcasts/20100507C.Veneble-Y.Karsh.mp3[/podcast]
JoAnn Falletta
JoAnn Falletta is a Grammy-award winning conductor, and serves as the Music Director of the Buffalo Philharmonic. During her tenure with Buffalo she has recorded the music of Richard Strauss, Franz Schubert, Daron Hagen, John Corigliano, among others. Maestro Falletta talked with Daniel Gilliam about the upcoming Naxos releases featuring the music of Dohnanyi and Corigliano, and the process of choosing music for a CD.
Louisville Orchestra Pre-Concert Conversation 04/24/10
The Louisville Orchestra presented their final Classics Series concert of 2009-10, the “Frazier Finale,” on a rainy and blustery evening, April 24th, in Whitney Hall. The program consisted of William Schuman’s New England Triptych, John Williams’ Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra, Bernardino Monterde’s La Virgen de la Macarena, and Witold Lutoslawski’s Concerto for Orchestra. The latter two works featured Arturo Sandoval on trumpet.
Classical 90.5′s Scott Dowd was the host at the pre-concert conversation in the Mary Anderson room. As usual, music director and conductor Jorge Mester discussed key features and shared interesting insights on all of the works on the program.
Listen in here.
Music Makes a City
The story of Louisville is intertwined with the birth of the Louisville Orchestra and its landmark commissioning program. The imagination of Mayor Charles Farnsley, a group of dedicated musicians and a conductor, and a healthy grant from the Rockefeller Foundation provided the groundwork for The Commissioning Project. Film producer Owsley Brown III has turned this piece of history into a new documentary called Music Makes a City: A Louisville Orchestra Story. You will have a chance to see the film here in Louisville starting May 20th. To find out how, visit the Louisville Orchestra’s page. You can also see the trailer here. KET will offer a preview during Louisville Life.
