Chicago Symphony Orchestra
It has been all over the news since Monday, but the CSO is still buzzing with excitement after the announcement that Riccardo Muti will take over as Music Director in 2010/11. Andrew Patner was on WTTW talking about the appointment. Steve Lester from the CSO's bass section and chair of the Members Committee of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra also discussed the partnership on NPR's Performance Today. Steve also talked about how fortunate we've been to also have established such a wonderful connection with Bernard Haitink. His leadership has been and continues to be rewarding and enriching for the orchestra and institution overall and the recordings we've made with Mr. Haitink document that great legacy. The CSO goes on tour with Mr. Haitink to Carnegie Hall next week and he will also take them to China for the first time in early 2009.
While great things are on the horizon, great things are happening right now.
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Some very exciting news from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra! In a note to the CSO family, also posted on our Web site, CSO Association President Deborah Rutter Card shared the news:
Dear Friends,
It is my extreme pleasure to share with you some very exciting news!
We have just announced the appointment of Riccardo Muti—one of the most extraordinary and respected conductors of all time—to the position of music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. His unparalleled musicianship, steadfast commitment to the highest level of music making, and dedication to preserving the rich history of the CSO while continuing to propel the organization into the future perfectly complement the world-class stature of our Orchestra and its musicians. He will begin his tenure in September 2010.
Our goal was to bring the best musical leader to Chicago, an extraordinary musician that would match the international profile of our Orchestra, and we have found this in Maestro Muti. I would like to thank all of you for your support, advice, guidance and input throughout the search. Your enthusiasm and passion for our great Orchestra inspired us all. I know that Maestro Muti looks forward to getting to know our wonderful city and community. If you would like to read more about Maestro. Muti’s appointment, please click here.
Most sincerely,
Deborah Rutter Card
President, Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association
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Social network services on the Internet come and go; a while ago MySpace was the dominant service, now it is equaled, and soon undoubtedly surpassed, by Facebook in traffic. There are dozens of other popular services, such as Orkut and Friendster, and probably thousands of small, niche-market sites.
What’s an arts organization to do with all this new media? Jason Heath
talks about it in a video (in which he mentions Chicago Classical Music as an excellent example). In the last section, he talks about Facebook (“more and more Facebook over Myspace,” according to Jason).
Facebook didn’t start out very business friendly, but there have always been ways for fans of different organizations to express their love. The most commonly used way was Facebook Groups. Some of CCM’s Participating Organizations have these groups (I’m not sure which were started by fans and which were started by the organization:
Ars Antiqua;
Chicago Chamber Musicians;
Grand Park Music Festival;
Ravinia Festival). The CSO has several, all started by fans.
Then in November of last year, Facebook launched Facebook Pages. Two CCM organizations have already established a presence:
Chicago Opera Theater and
WFMT. Today, we launched
our own Facebook page. There are obvious marketing benefits to having a page for your own organization, but I believe the main strength is building a community and participate (just like CCM aims to do).
So go explore Facebook and if you have an account, be sure to
become a fan of the CSO. If you do so before this Friday, April 11, you enter for a chance to win the latest recording from our new CSO Resound label,
Mahler’s Symphony No. 6,
signed by Principal Conductor Bernard Haitink.
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The Chicago Symphony Chorus is turning 50! They are a remarkable group and the CSO will be celebrating with a program dedicated to this incredible ensemble of virtuoso voices. The performance has been sold out for quite some time as their loyal fan base has come out in force and extremely early to get tickets to this one-night-only event.
There is another opportunity to hear the Chorus in a more traditional role with the phenomenal Valery Gergiev conducting the CSO and Chorus for Berlioz' wonderful Romeo and Juliet.
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Regarding Jim's blog on Dudamel's appearance on 60 Minutes (which agreed is a good piece), I'd like to link to Andrew Patner's
Critical Thinking interview with Dudamel which took place just days before he flew to California (mid-stint with the CSO!) to make his announcement with the LA Philharmonic. Contrary to the last line of the 60 Minutes piece, we in fact heard all about Dudamel on WFMT first.
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I just returned from New York and had an opportunity to talk with my counterpart at the NY Phil about their performance in North Korea. While the general press has been great, they have been criticized in some circles, which is completely misplaced.
I lived in Romania for four years after the fall of communism. They had every bit as cruel a leader in Nicolae Ceausescu who in fact implemented many of his cruelist policies after a visit to Kim Il Sung, the former North Korean leader. I talked with many of my friends there about music and they shared stories about the bootleg Led Zeppelin albums among others that they kept hidden. It was to them just a taste of music and inspiration that was beyond their borders (a place very few of them had the opportunity to see).
I also had the pleasure of meeting many of the young musicians that comprise Daniel Barenboim's West-Eastern Divan Orchestra when they came through Chicago. This is the youth orchestra of Arabs and Israelis that Barenboim established to bring together young people from these different cultures to show how music can truly bridge cultural chasms. Every one of them was delighted with the experience. To see a Lebanese violinist, a Syrian Clarinet player and an Israeli bass player play together in a late-night open jam session was something to behold. Making music together broke down all the perceived barriers and they all reveled in their new friendships.
I tip my hat to the NY Phil for reaching across the divide. Music can't solve the grand problems of our time, but it can be a way to bring people together, even if for a short respite.
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The CSO released its Traditions and Transformations: Sounds of Silk Road Chicago CD this week. It is the most recent release from CSO Resound, our in-house recording label. This recording helps to illustrate the full range of the CSO musicians, with music ranging from Prokofiev's Scythian Suite to Bloch's Schelomo, his cello concerto performed with Yo-Yo Ma. But it also includes Harrison's Pipa Concerto that was also featured during 2007's Silk Road Chicago collaboration between the CSO, the Art Institute, Silk Road Project and Chicago's Department of Cultural Affairs.
I'm writing not just about this release, but the freedom that the current recording and distribution environment provides to all ensembles. With CSO Resound, we have been able to define our artistic priorities and record what the CSO feels is important. There are many examples of groups looking at music distribution differently. Radiohead's In Rainbows release is one that is often referenced, but it is an outstanding example.
The methods by which music will be distributed in the future are absolutely continually in flux, which makes it an exciting time. We all recognize the shift from physical to digital product, but the digital environment is shifting as well. Where will Rhapsody fit into the mix as its share of the market grows?
We feel there will always be interest in the highest fidelity sound, which is why we released our Bruckner 7 recording with principal conductor Bernard Haitink in SACD Hybrid format. In April, we will be releasing Mr. Haitink's Mahler 6 with the CSO, also in an SACD and traditional format. There may be some opportunities where we cannot have a physical product, such as our Shostakovich 5 conducted by Myung-Whun Chung. But there is still merit in making such an outstanding performance available to the public, which is why this was our first digital-only release. Digital buyers are much more interested in portability than fidelity. It doesn't mean that you have to give up fidelity for portability in all cases. The key is to reach out to as many potential listeners as possible in the formats that make sense to them.
While those strategic decisions need to be hashed-out, the freedom this new recording environment provides is incredibly exciting.
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This week, the CSO is performing
Osvaldo Golijov’s Ainadamar for the first time. It was such a mind-blowing experience that it motivated me to begin blogging about “Classical” music in Chicago here at CCM.
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I attended Sunday afternoon's CSO "Beyond the Score" presentation on Tchaikovsky's Fourth. What is so great about these programs, which I highly recommend, is how they put masterpieces in perspective in terms of other art of the period - literary, visual, and musical. Right off the bat, three pieces were mentioned as influences on Tchaikovsky's 1878 symphony: Verdi's
La Forza del Destino, Bizet's
Carmen, and Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.
This got me to thinking about how some of the recordings in our catalog try to put great works into musical perspective. While Cedille Records' main mission is to present the work of Chicago's finest musicians and composers, we have a secondary mission of "increasing awareness and knowledge of neglected areas of the classical repertory" (from our Mission Statement). In addition to presenting unrecorded or relatively obscure works, this also means presenting programs that combine the familiar and the unfamiliar in ways that often shed new light on the more familiar work.
I should note that almost all our program ideas come from the Chicago musicians we record. The champion in finding ways to illuminate renowned works is violinist Rachel Barton Pine. Her 2003 recording of the Brahms Violin Concerto with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Carlos Kalmar made quite an impression, not only for the great playing but because she coupled it with the great (but very rarely recorded) "Hungarian" Concerto by Joseph Joachim, which one critic called "the Holy Grail of Romantic violin concertos."
The reason this was such an illuminating choice was
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Submitted by Jon Weber on Thu, 09/20/2007 - 3:13pm.
I was recently alerted to an impending budget crunch for Illinois arts organizations, if cuts to state funding of the Illinois Arts Council are not reversed.
Late last month, Governor Blagojevich vetoed a budget approved by the Illinois General Assembly on August 10, reducing funding to the Illinois Arts Council by 19%. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago are among hundreds of organizations and individual artists who enrich the lives of every state resident and visitor through a wide range of artistic programming. Every business and individual is impacted by this veto.
As passed by the general assembly, the IAC budget represents less than one half of 1% of the state budget, an amazing bargain at $2 per citizen per year.
Also on the chopping block is the state board of education's Arts and Foreign Language grant program. If the Governor's veto is not reversed, this entire program will be cut.
Hopefully, this is not new news for all CCM readers, but I encourage all colleagues and friends of the arts to raise your voice in opposition of the proposed cuts.
Illinois Arts Week is slated for October 7-13, and, in eloquent (and now ironic) form, the state has published a proclamation affirming the importance of the arts to each Illinoisan.
Regardless of political affiliation, it would be a terrible sign of concession and apathy NOT to respond with fervent support of the immeasurable benefits of a rich arts experience for every citizen of the state.
Consider what the value of the arts is to YOU. (If you are reading this blog, there is a pretty good chance that it is significant.)
Imagine what difference could be in the life of your neighbors or the students at the nearby public school through:
~a hands-on recreation of an Impressionistic masterpiece, offering a creative way to explore cultural and social common ground;
~the chance to take affordable violin lessons with an inspiring teacher, a new role model who opens a gateway for creativity, pride, and aspiration;
~the opportunity for an at-risk teenager to express--through community theater--the struggle to find a meaningful place in a complex world;
~attending an inspiring orchestra performance of music from different cultures and traditions, lifting a perceived notion of exclusivity and introducing the possibility of creative teamwork.
Perhaps we won't have the chance to find out.
Please share this information and voice your opinion.
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