SALT LAKE CITY — Marin Alsop, music director laureate of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and chief conductor of the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Ravinia Festival, and the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, was named recipient of the Gold Baton Award at the League of American Orchestras’ 80th National Conference held here June 11-13.
Established in 1948 and presented annually since 1958, the Gold Baton Award is the highest accolade conferred by the League of American Orchestras.
“Clearly, the value of the performing arts in this country has never been more fiercely under attack,” said Matthew Erikson, senior publicist and media relations lead for the Boston Symphony Orchestra. “Yet I agree vehemently with Marin Alsop that moments of crisis can be moments of opportunity.
“Throughout this conference, health and wellness have been widely used buzz words as we attempt to navigate the toxic minefields left by the presidential administration. There has been greater clarification of the role of the symphony orchestras as purveyors of healthful art, beauty, and entertainment that can counter the current climate.”
Entitled “Ascend,” the conference drew constituents from the league’s 630 orchestras, which include all 50 states, Canada, and seven countries around the world. Along with administrative staffs, attendees included composers, conductors, consultants, and musicians.
A cornucopia of exhibitors, representing diverse facets of the orchestral industry from acoustical engineering to travel companies, lined the hallways with a forest of conference booths. One of the coolest demos at the international event was a conducting platform and music stand, made by UK-based RATstands, that could be raised and lowered with the touch of a button.
“I come to be inspired and collaborate,” said conductor Rebecca Nederhiser, director of Wartburg Community Symphony and assistant professor of music at Wartburg College. “It’s a great time for me and my team to get creative and apply creative ideas to our season. As a female conductor, it is also rewarding to connect with other female conductors. There are designated meetings for conductors only, and that makes the conference very worthwhile.”
At a panel discussion on the benefits of music led by soprano Renée Fleming, Assal Habibi, associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of Southern California, described how music stimulates the brain and activates good social bonding. Neuroscientist Indre Viskontas, associate professor of psychology at the University of San Francisco, explained the ways in which transcendent music experiences improve physical health and collective self-esteem.
Habibi and Viskontas contributed essays to Music and Mind: Harnessing the Arts for Health and Wellness, a 592-page book that Fleming edited. The book contains thoughtful observations by scientists and academics on how music enhances cognitive skills, lowers stress, and enhances the lives of people of all ages.
A panel on “The Art of Orchestral Storytelling and Its Impact Through Video” was hosted by Symphony.live, an online streaming platform that broadcasts orchestral concerts. Samples of short clips that promoted concerts and orchestras were shown and discussed. A poignant one-minute video the Detroit Symphony made with an iPhone started with a large sign reading “Does anyone love classical music?” The sign was held up by a young Black woman and pointed across the river. A white woman on the Canadian side answered with a sign, “I do!” That was followed with a sign by the woman on the Detroit side: “Let’s get together!” The two women are last seen entering Detroit’s Orchestra Hall together. That’s all it was, but the audience loved it.
An eye-opening twist on crowdsourcing input via livestreaming came from Curtis Stewart, composer, violinist, and artistic director of the American Composers Orchestra. For a few of his works, he has engaged listeners online to ascertain which direction his composition will go.
The session on “Building a Compelling Case” featured a huge success story from the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra about how they failed to raise $20 million because they raised $50 million instead. Another inspiration was Connecticut Orchestra Month, in which 29 orchestras throughout the state quickly put together a campaign to celebrate orchestral music. A third innovative story highlighted the Louisville Symphony Orchestra, which built connections with small towns and venues throughout Kentucky and worked with the state government to receive $4.3 million to perform concerts throughout the state.
Daniel Crupi, executive director of the Asheville Symphony Orchestra, thanked the League for helping it to recover from disastrous flooding the previous year. The league’s CEO and president, Simon Woods, and its board chair, Alan Mason, reaffirmed the organization’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
On June 12, I attended the Utah Symphony’s season closer at Abravanel Hall. Dedicated in 1979 in honor of Maurice Abravanel, the orchestra’s music director for 32 years, the hall has a classic shoebox shape and is noted in Leo Beranek’s book Concert Halls and Opera Houses for its fine acoustics. A striking sculpture of red blown glass by Dale Chihuly adorns the spacious lobby.
As recently as last year, there was serious talk about razing Abravanel Hall and replacing it with a new sports-entertainment complex. A petition to save the hall was signed by over 50,000 citizens, and the Salt Lake County Council passed a resolution to preserve it.
Abravanel Hall seats up to 2,811, and it was near capacity for the concert. Thierry Fischer, music director emeritus, put together a program of music by immigrants to the United States. First up was Noche de encantamiento (Night of Enchantment) by Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas, who attended St. Edwards University in Austin, Tex., and Chicago Musical College.
According to the program notes, the Revueltas piece was actually the fourth movement from an arrangement that José Yves Limantour created in 1960. The sound from the full-scale orchestra was dominated by 14 percussionists who wielded an impressive array of instruments in an attempt to convey the sacrificial rites of the Mayans. Intense rhythmic drives created massive crescendos that briefly receded before starting up again — pretty much obliterating the rest of the orchestra. It all culminated in a gloriously wild racket that elicited enthusiastic applause from all corners of the hall.
Next came Korngold’s Violin Concerto with soloist Clara-Jumi Kang. The German-born Korean virtuoso, winner of the Indianapolis International Violin Competition (2010), Sendai Violin Competition (2010), and Seoul Violin Competition (2009), gave a polished performance. Kang created silky moments and immaculately delivered the quicksilver passages with élan. In the second movement, she fashioned phrases that lingered delightfully, and her acceleration into the final section of the third movement electrified the audience, which gave her a thunderous standing ovation.
Mexican composer Gabriela Ortiz currently splits her time as composer-in-residence at Carnegie Hall, the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León, and the Curtis Institute of Music. Her Téenek – Invenciones de Territorio generated a sonic landscape that constantly shifted. Sometimes the strings offered an enticing melody that would be interrupted by a sudden cascading of notes from a different section of the orchestra. An enchanting line from the xylophone would catch the ear for a few minutes before dissolving into a tutti orchestral blur that was accented lightly brushed cymbals. Myriad combinations finally coalesced with the orchestra gradually transitioning to a propulsive finale that made this reviewer want to hear it all again.
The concert ended with Edgard Varèse’s Amériques, which was the first work he wrote after he moved from France to the United States. Depicting the cacophony of New York City, the piece is very loud and dissonant. A battery of 16 percussionists, including two bass drums, two sets of timpani, and an instrument that imitated the sound of a police siren, overpowered the rest of the orchestra except when the five trombones and two tubas let loose.
There were some listeners who didn’t like Amériques, including two sitting behind me, who may have been attending the conference. They held a conversation about the merits of the music, and, though they were annoying, they sort of fit the noise of the piece, which, by the way, was first recorded in 1966 by the Utah Symphony under Abravanel.
