Chicago recap
posted 01:06 PM Wednesday, June 24, 2009
By: Chip Chandler
As some readers may be aware, most of our staff recently traveled to Chicago to take part in the annual League of American Orchestras national conference.
The League is our national advocacy and leadership organization, and the conference is a phenomenal time for networking and education. Recognizing the precarious state of the arts across the country, this year's conference focused heavily on offering tips for how to survive this economic environment.
My job here put me on two tracks at conference -- marketing and development -- and I tried to divide my time evenly between those sort of sessions. I won't bore you with all of the details, but sessions inspired me to reinvigorate my efforts in our online component, gave me some new avenues to try with the Downtown Social Club (our young professionals group), and gave me a boatload of new ideas to use in sales and marketing. Executive Director Bill Russell and Director of Operations Sue Buelow also came away with reams of new ideas that we may be implementing soon. Also attending with us were Mark White, our board president; Terry White, Mark's wife and an active member of the Symphony Guild; and Ellen Jones, our incoming Guild president.
In addition to the work sessions, we were treated to some absolutely amazing concerts by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and others. The CSO was wrapping up its Dvorak festival, so we got to see his Symphony No. 8 and Cello Concerto on the first night. The Civic Orchestra of Chicago took part in CSO's innovative "Beyond the Score" program, which used video, narration, acting and live music examples to fully delve into Dvorak's Symphony No. 9, The New World. I had known that Dvorak was inspired by Longfellow's Hiawatha epic when writing his marvelous Ninth Symphony, but I had no idea how deep that inspiration ran, nor that Dvorak also borrowed from African-American and Czech musical traditions in his composing. I'm looking more forward than ever to hearing our Symphony perform the piece in September.
We also saw our friend Allen Tinkham, who guest conducted for us in March 2008, lead his Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra in a stunning concert featuring Strauss' incredibly challenging Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche. Following that was one of the most memorable musical experiences of my life -- an example of CSO's MusicNOW program, which puts the spotlight on the works of living composers. My favorite piece was certainly the dark cello and marima duet Mariel by Osvaldo Golijov, one of CSO's composers-in-residence. (Alas, I've only found a downloadable version with four cellos, but it's still beautiful.) I also enjoyed Jeremy Flower's Self Destruct, a CSO commission that featured cello, viola, marimba and Flower himself on the laptop. The electronica vibe reminded me initially of Angelo Badalamenti's score for Twin Peaks, if that gives you some idea of the sound.
But the most indelible performance was saved for last: Michael Ward-Bergeman's Three Roads, which took inspiration and actual lines of poetry from Dante's Divine Comedy, Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken" and Walt Whitman's "Song of the Open Road." It felt at first like some sort of indie-rock or contemporary folk composition, thanks to an ethereal vocalist and the use of alto flute, dobro and laptop. Then, the vocalist took out a violin and, after playing it only a short time in the third movement, began to violently tear it apart on stage. She shuffled around in its remains, sang a few more lines and, as I said in my Facebook update that morning, left the stage with just a bow and a fretboard. It was disturbingly fascinating. I was still talking about it at dinner that night with some conference friends, one of whom was upset that some student couldn't use that violin to learn to play. Almost two weeks later, I still don't know exactly how I feel about the piece, but I still haven't stopped thinking about it. I even downloaded it here from Carnegie Hall's website to listen to it again. Give it a listen; the demolition starts at about the 13:30 mark, though you won't hear the audible gasps I heard in Chicago. I'd be interested to see what you guys think.
