October, 2011

  1. Getting in on the Act

    WolfBrown Getting in on the Act study

    One of the interesting topics that came up during the Q&A session at Sunday’s event was how arts organizations can engage communities through participatory experiences. Rather than sit and passively watch a concert, people seem to increasingly prefer doing the playing and singing themselves. Certainly the eye-popping success of the YouTube Symphony shows there’s an appetite for hands-on participation in the orchestral world. Does the role of the orchestra in its community need to change accordingly?

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  2. Event video: Spotlight Conversation #2

    Another video from our live “Talking About Community” event on Sunday: Afa Sadykhly Dworkin, VP/Artistic Director of the Sphinx Organization and Amos Yang, Assistant Principal Cellist, San Francisco Symphony, and alumnus, San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra, in conversation with Steven Winn, San Francisco arts journalist and critic. It’s an interesting dialogue about some of the societal pressures that encourage kids to participate, or not participate, in classical music.


  3. Event video: Spotlight Conversation #1

    On Sunday, October 23, Jesse Rosen, President/CEO, League of American Orchestras, Neil Harris, Professor of History and Art History, University of Chicago, and Mark Clague, Professor of Music, University of Michigan opened our “Talking About Community” event.


  4. Event video: Gustavo Dudamel and Deborah Borda in conversation

    Here is the first of our videos from yesterday’s American Orchestra Forum event in San Francisco.

    In this keynote conversation, Gustavo Dudamel and Deborah Borda discuss community, education and “symphonic metal” (a reference to that night’s LA Phil concert). It’s an inspiring talk. Under their leadership, the LA Phil is really challenging all of us to think bigger about the role of music in our society.


  5. Live Blog: Keynote with Gustavo Dudamel and Deborah Borda

    5:00pm: Deborah Borda: Indeed, music is an essential human right. We have to believe that and act on it.

    4:58pm: A discussion of the music on tonight’s concert — the electric cello concerto by Enrico Chapela is like heavy metal.

    4:51pm: Gustavo Dudamel made very different choices for the launch of his tenure at the LA Phil: free concerts at the Hollywood Bowl (not at Walt Disney Hall) and the first group he conducted was YOLA (Youth Orchestra LA), not the LA Phil. Why did he do it? Because music is for everybody. It is a human right.

    4:48pm: To see other young people playing is the way to connect young people to music.

    4:44pm: To have access to beauty is really important. El Sistema is not just a musical movement, but a social movement as well.

    4:41pm: As a kid, you love to play — it is fun to “play” in an orchestra — and for Gustavo Dudamel that attitude has continued.

    4:37pm: Gustavo Dudamel on Deborah Borda: I thought she was a stalker. Deborah Borda was very persistent in courting him for the LA Phil. On a trip to Caracas, she also realized that even if she couldn’t convince Dudamel to come to LA… she had to bring El Sistema to LA. It was a life-changing trip.

    4:30pm: Gustavo Dudamel and Deborah Borda take the stage for our keynote event.


  6. Live Blog: Roundtable Discussion

    4:12pm: Do cities still use orchestras to credential themselves? Jesse Rosen cites an example from Pittsburgh. Business leaders who travel to promote Pittsburgh abroad always include information about the orchestra. So yes, orchestras are still a source of pride for communities much as they were a hundred years ago.

    4:05pm: The audience gives a round of applause to a woman who introduces herself as a 75-year concert attendee, until she says that in her opinion “Music without melody is noise.” Some continue to applause, some gasp. Is part of the problem our mixed bag programming? Should concerts be more thematic, so people can pick and choose?

    3:55pm: What do orchestras have to learn from choruses? People have an appetite for being part of the performance itself. Over 42 million Americans sing in choruses.

    3:52pm: Time for questions from the audience. Do you have something to ask? Leave a comment on this blog.

    3:50pm: Orchestras being involved in “social justice” issues is a new idea in the United States, though not in other countries (Venezuela’s El Sistema program). Mark Clague: American orchestras have a representative function. As more people participate, it leads to new conversations.

    3:44pm: Sphinx Organization does a series of church concerts leading up to Carnegie Hall and other larger performances. The goal is to be relevant and meet people where they are.

    3:41pm: Online comments and feedback can allow for more open dialogue. Or just it does get more vicious?

    3:38pm: Amos Yang: challenging music sometimes needs multiple hearings. It can be hard to get something out of it the first time.

    3:37pm: Audience poll: do you want concerts with music you like? The audience is divided. Some people raise their hands, but some respond “What do you mean, ‘music we like?’ We also want to be challenged.”

    3:30pm: Amos Yang is offended by people who are offended when people clap between movements. (Err, not sure I got that grammar right.) Clapping between movements has a long tradition and shows appreciation for the music.

    3:28pm: How can technology be used in the context of a live performance? Afa Sadykhly Dworkin: A video of the conductor’s face communicates so much more than what you get from staring at the person’s back. Mark Clague: close-ups can help you focus on particular instruments, you actually hear the music differently, because of the visual.

    3:20pm: The roundtable discussion is an opportunity to pick up on threads and conversations from earlier in the afternoon. First topic? YouTube. Amos Yang finds it a phenomenal tool for education.

    3:19pm: Getting ready for our roundtable discussion with panelists from our two spotlight conversations.


  7. Live Blog: Spotlight Conversation #2

    3:005 pm: A peer network is one of the best things to come out of Sphinx training.

    3:02 pm: We are learning that Amos Yang is a major prankster. When the substitute teacher would come in, all the members of his school orchestra would switch instruments. Suddenly, he was the Concertmaster!

    2:55 pm: Afa Sadykhly Dworkin has observed that the idea that classical music “isn’t cool” doesn’t come into play until the teenage years. Young kids don’t have this bias.

    2:54 pm: Afa Sadykhly Dworkin: for many kids that Sphinx works with “survival skills are perhaps more key” than learning an instrument. Music is a luxury and a foreign value. Sphinx brings music to them — literally — transportation is often an issue. Sphinx instructors often have to be the cheerleader to keep a kid to stick with music, in the face of many obstacles. Often it’s not going to be someone in the family telling them to continue.

    2:49 pm: Amos Yang fist stepped on the stage of Davies Symphony Hall thirty years ago as an 11-year-old cellist in the SF Symphony Youth Orchestra. He claims he goofed off in the last stand of the cello section. He wanted to quit, but was encouraged to stay in the orchestra. He recognizes that kids these days have so much pressure to excel in so many different activities.

    2:45 pm: Community often starts in small, grassroots ways.

    2:40 pm: Amos Yang on beginning to play the cello: his teacher told him, “put your arms around the instrument and give it a bear hug.” That’s how it all began! Amos Yang played in the SF Symphony Youth Orchestra, and now in the SF Symphony.

    2:39 pm: Afa Sadykhly Dworkin introduces the Sphinx Organization. Growth in audience will reflect the growth in the population.

    2:35 pm: Spotlight conversation #2 begins with Afa Sadykhly Dworkin, VP/Artistic Director, Sphinx Organization, Detroit, and Amos Yang, Assistant Principal Cellist, San Francisco Symphony, and alumnus, San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra; moderated by Steven Winn, San Francisco arts journalist and critic.


  8. Live Blog: Spotlight Conversation #1

    2:33pm: Neil Harris: culture is a religion to many people. Historically, many concert halls were built almost as temples; you approached as a worshiper. There was a “priest” and a “congregation.” This created a distance between people and the art form.

    2:27pm: Interesting question. How do you convince someone of the redeeming spiritual value of music — that experiencing beauty or being intellectually stimulated — actually serves the public good?

    2:22pm: How does technology change the relationship between the orchestra and the community? Jesse Rosen: the New World Symphony’s new concert hall with giant outdoor Wallcasts changes the nature of what is “live” — people watch the first part of the concert in the hall, then walk out to experience the second half in the crowd outside. The energy of the crowd is part of the musical experience.

    2:19pm: A hundred years ago, there was live music everywhere (cafe orchestras, park bands, etc.) — and you couldn’t carry the music around in your ear. Early funders sometimes saw this as a cheapening of musical taste. Many wanted to establish a “quality” sound.

    2:15pm: It can be a challenge to grow an international reputation, while also serving local communities. Orchestras tour around the world and also perform in local senior citizen centers — an amazing range of activity.

    2:11pm: Jesse Rosen: the initial focus of orchestras was solely on the quality of the artistic experience, but as our country changed — and as our sensibilities changed about what it meant to be a non-profit organization in America — we’ve seen a shift in what is expected of an American orchestra.

    2:07pm: Neil Harris: in the late 19th/early 20th century, cities felt they needed orchestras (and other civic organizations) to place the community on the world map. Philanthropists played the role of city boosters.

    2:00pm: SF Symphony Executive Director Brent Assink welcomes the audience and outlines the afternoon. With tongue-in-cheek: “Please participate and stump our panelists with your questions.”

    1:57pm: Greetings from Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco! People are taking their places for our first spotlight conversation with Jesse Rosen, President/CEO, League of American Orchestras, and Neil Harris, Professor of History and Art History, University of Chicago; moderated by Mark Clague, Professor of Music, University of Michigan.


  9. Talking about Community: Things I’m Hoping to Learn at Today’s Event

    In this post, Mark Clague, co-moderator of today’s live event, shares some of what he’s hoping to learn from each of our speakers. If you can’t join us in San Francisco, you can follow the conversation on this blog, on Twitter and view complete videos from the event later this week.

    Things I’m Hoping to Learn… (more…)


  10. Is music an essential human right?

    In this guest post, Deborah Borda, President and CEO of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, explains how thinking big and embracing social responsibility led the LA Phil to a groundbreaking new partnership. Ms. Borda will be speaking at our free event on Sunday, October 23rd, with Gustavo Dudamel, Music Director of the LA Phil.

    Who would imagine that an orchestra, a conservatory, and a college on opposite coasts would – or could – unite around a common goal? A few short weeks ago, the answer to this question was revealed when the LA Phil announced a groundbreaking new partnership with the Longy School of Music and Bard College to support social change through music. The joint initiative, called Take a Stand, is inspired by Venezuela’s revolutionary music education program, El Sistema, and supports the pioneering field through national conferences and a credentialed teacher training program. In the past, a venture like this – so heavily rooted in social responsibility – may have been considered out of place in the symphony orchestra world. But today, it is precisely this kind of undertaking that we must challenge ourselves to seek out in order to survive and stay relevant. (more…)