Another view of the modern orchestra and other musings on the "end of summer"

Is this our fate?

I have decided to take a day or two hiatus from my own discussion of the repertoire of the American orchestra.  Despite all the tales of gloom and doom emanating from places as far and wide as Honolulu, Holland and, of course Philadelphia, Norman Lebrecht insists that their is indeed hope for the symphony orchestra in these troubled economic times.  Many may disagree with him...

Detroit's Michigan Theater-now a parking garage

"....You can shut a theatre but you cannot keep a good orchestra down. There will always be an audience for what it has to offer.

And why is that? Because in a lifestyle of wall-to-wall wi-fi and instant tweets, the concert hall is one of the few places where we become reachable, where we can switch off our lifelines and surrender to a form that will not let us go for an hour or more. The symphony orchestra is our relief from the communicative addiction. It forces us, willy-nilly, to resist the responsive urge. It is a cold-turkey cure for our reactive insanity, our self-destroying restlessness.The more concerts I attend, the more I see how they restore balance to over-busy lives. It may well be that we, as a society, need the symphony orchestra now more than ever before. How we pay for it will have to be reconfigured over the next two or three difficult years, amid challenges from rival art forms and digital distractions. There has never been such heated competition for every nanosecond of our supposed leisure time.

But after 30 years' close observation of orchestral ups and downs and half a century after the Arts Council pronounced that London needed just one super-orchestra, I have reached the irreversible conclusion that the symphony orchestra will always survive — not on the weary old argument that it is somehow "good for you" to listen to "good music", nor on any cod theories that classical music breeds clever kids and better citizens, but simply because there is a cogent human need for what an orchestra adds to the relief of city life. That need becomes ever clearer as the world speeds up."

The entire article can be read here. 

As one of my colleagues used to tell me, "You know that summer has begun when the Tri State Wind Symphony starts up again."  If that is, in fact true, then the summer has ended long before we "officially" note its department in late September.  The following is an open letter I drafted to the players, noting our accomplishments over seventeen years of concertizing as well as a truly inspiring final performance last night:

Friday, July 29, 2011

Dear Friends and colleagues:

Those who know me well are aware that I am not given to false or empty superlatives.  As a matter of fact, I am usually harder on myself because of the high standards that I place upon my music making and leadership.  That is undoubtedly why I often can come off as being a task master; know that it is all with the intent of making our ensemble the very best it can be and providing a quality experience for players and audiences alike.

Those unfamiliar with our history are unaware that we offered only three performances our first year:  one each in June, July and August and at two different venues.  Since that time we have grown incrementally, trying out various models of operation, and occasional outreach performances, until we have created a very special series of events in which our concert-going public now knows that they can expect to hear music at our beautiful site every week during the first two months of summer.

We have easily played over 100 performances and some of those performances may hold memories for each of you for entirely different reasons.  For me, last evening’s concert was something very special as we took our playing to an even higher level.  Our overall sound was at times almost overwhelming (in all the right ways) and at other times gentle, warm and tender.  But what struck me most of all, as I hope it did to each of you, was the musicianship that we demonstrated last evening.  There were times when I decided in the “heat of the moment” to pull back a phrase or push one forward and the ensemble was always there, almost to the point of wanting more. 

I have already had several messages indicating that this was THE best Tri State Wind Symphony concert in all our years of music making.  Quite frankly, I would find it difficult to disagree. 

I cannot thank each of you enough for taking the time to share your talents with the ensemble and the community and hope that this year’s experiences have meant as much to you as they have to me and you are already looking forward to next May when we will again join together in our eighteenth concert season.  Until then, I remain

Respectfully yours,

Brian Hughes, Founder and Conductor

Tri State Wind Symphony