In which I tell orchestras in the US — or at least the National Symphony — that maybe they should stop taking so much time to thank donors (and other upper-crust supporters) — at their opening galas. They should greet the community instead.
This is the third of three posts about amateur mistakes and other problems at the NSO’s opening gala, Delayed, this post was, by a business trip, a family trip, moving into a new house, and my new resolution not to let my blog make me tense or anxious.
The other posts are here and here. In them you’ll read, among other things, about how the NSO showed a video, obscured by thick black wires hanging in front of the screen.
But before I talk about rich white people…
Where was the mayor?
Gary Ginstling, the new executive director of the NSO, read a proclamation at the from the major of Washington, DC. Which declared the day of the gala National Symphony day in the city.
Muriel Bowser, mayor of Washington, DC
But where was the mayor? Why wasn’t she at the concert?
Of course there could be many reasons. Among them maybe this — that (as far as I know) the mostly African-American city government in DC hasn’t moved in the same world as the wealthy DC arts establishment.
But wouldn’t that be all the more reason to want the mayor at the concert? Aren’t we in a new era, when orchestras strongly stress relations with the community?
So I have to ask. Was Mayor Bowser invited? If she was, how far in advance was the invitation made? How much did the orchestra and the Kennedy Center follow up? How much of an effort did they make to get the mayor there?
And why — after reading her proclamation in such a grateful, warm voice — did Gary Ginstling not say something equally warm, about how he’d love her to be there?
Rich white folks
But now the key question. Why so much stress on rich white people at the gala?
I trust that the NSO and the Kennedy Center didn’t plan that emphasis. But after intermission, out on stage came the heads of the Kennedy Center and NSO boards, both white, and both presumably wealthy (because that’s who’s on such boards).
One of these board heads at least had a dry wit. But both spoke for quite a while, thanking donors and volunteers. (And, as I noted earlier, failing to welcome the NSO’s new online audience, or members of Leonard Bernstein’s family, who were there for the gala’s all-Bernstein program.)
The only other person who spoke was Gary Ginstling, who was much more lively (and did welcome the people the board heads forgot). But coming after the two talking board heads, he seemd to represent the same upper-crust leadership.
What message does this send?
Again, I don’t think this was intentional. But I think it comes from a reality so long in place that everyone involved assumes it’s natural.
The message sent, at least to me, was simple. This orchestra is owned by rich white people. And, in the last analysis, that’s who it plays for.
Will the two board heads — and others in power at the two institutions — be offended that I’ve said this?
There’s a simple fix. Keep the board- and donor-speak to a minimum (or get rid of it entirely), And bring the community onstage. The mayor. Or maybe a former Juilliard student of mine, African-American, who when last I saw her was in charge of string instrument teaching at DC middle schools. Invite her students, let her introduce them from the stage.
Or invite the Go-Go Symphony, which brings crowds to their feet with its blend of classical music and go-go, DC’s iconic dance beat.
Invite the DC Youth Orchestra, which is heavily African-American. Maybe have them play with the NSO!
And of course that’s just the start of what might be done. The NSO does have at least one community program, The NSO in Your Neighborhood, which as far as I can see brings them parachuting into DC communities, never to return.
As happened in 2015 when they drew 2000 millennials to a dance club the orchestra never went back to.
Though the dance club show suggests one more point I have to make. When I talk about the wider community, I don’t just mean African-Americans. I’d love to see the NSO involve two of DC’s biggest immigrant groups, Ethiopians and Salvadorans..
And I don’t just mean minorities. How about the legion of millennials who’ve moved here, attracted to DC by more than the political and policy work that typified DC professional employment in the past?
Noseda ad in the DC Metro
Yes, 2000 of them were at the dance club. And yes, there’s an NSO program aimed at them (Declassified), and also a classical-music Kennedy Center series (KC Jukebox). But we don’t see millennials at the main NSO events. Could that be fixed? Why not get them involved in the gala?
Why not create real community relationships, and blow open the doors?
All of which seems even more important, since the NSO has an ad campaign, to tell DC about Gianandrea Noseda, its new music director. So wouldn’t they want to make all of DC feel welcome at his concerts?
***
Of course I’ll be told that the board and the donors are important, that they have to be stroked for these institutions to survive.
Which makes me think of talk I’ve heard about big classical music institutions turning into money machines, that money is so desperately needed that the search for it comes first, while everything else trails far behind.
Which, if true, leaves these institutions stuck, hobbled in launching vivid change. Because, first, they spend too much of their time raiding money, and, second, because vivid chsnge might displease their donors.
Sad, if true.
I enjoyed all of this and am thinking about your note that the orchestra parachuted into communities, never to return… inspires me examine the possibilities and see if there is a way to support the connectivity while attempting to find a way to pay for the concerts (hurtle towards solvency)
Nice to see you here, Nadina! And you’re asking a good question. An answer might be to thoroughly reorient the goals of the institution, so that participation in the outside world is a very high priority. Then you get board members understanding that one of their main jobs is to support that. You get donors understanding that, too. So then maybe they also understand why they’re not going to be featured at great length onstage.
Even “high art” feels the pressures of capitalism!
Which makes sense, since high art (in the US) is funded by capitalism!
I loved your post. I am a Marketing Consultant who has been living here in D.C. since 2000. I often counsel arts organizations on how to better reach and engage underserved communities and there are two challenges that I always observe as an African-American man who grew up in the Bronx, N.Y. but attended such prestigious predominantly white educational institutions as Amherst College:
1. There is a basic inherent discomfort that White people in the symphony orchestral world have with others culturally. If someone is uncomfortable with even acknowledging someone of a different ethnic persuasion in the line at Starbucks, how can we expect them to think top-of-mind about “integrating” (sorry, hate using that word in this context but what’s done is done. lol) what they consider as “their” world with anyone else…which is a whole other issue in itself.
2. Taking race out of it (and mind you, this is a bonified BLACK man saying this), in my work I have found that the classical music world is strikingly limited by the fact that it simply CANNOT see itself in ANY other lens besides the stereotypical traditional one of rich white people going to a high-brow venue dressed in their finest standing around at intermission talking about their portfolio performances and summer plans in Maine (gross generalization but not very far off).
Until these two issues are faced in a “come-to-Jesus” moment, it will continue to feel like a “we are forced” activity to break down the social barriers that are constantly reinforced both in and out of the classical music concert, and truly embrace the rich and diverse tapestry of cultures and genres of musical expression that literally define the cities and communities these symphony orchestras occupy.
Let’s connect in person and talk more! I think folks like us connecting is where that change can start ✊.
Chris, I’d love to meet you. I’ll email privately, and we’ll set it up. Of course I loved reading what you wrote in your comment. And I’m very happy that you liked what I wrote.
The culture of symphony orchestras (or, more generally, the — sigh — “high” arts) — it’s really so limited. I’m sure that the people who spoke at the gala (not to mention others in high positions at the NSO and the Kennedy Center) would be thrilled to have more diverse participation. But it doesn’t occur to them that the diverse people they’d like to attract are in fact different from them, that they have their own culture, and that they won’t be attracted to the orchestra or feel comfortable with it until the orchestra in some way reflects and acknowledges their culture. And, beyond that, until the people running the orchestra welcome diverse participation, realizing that it makes them stronger in every way. Including artistically. In my experience, the value of diversity is seen as political, or as something necessary for funding. Or maybe they even see it as a moral imperative.
But they don’t see it as something that would make their lives better, including their artistic lives. They’re happy to talk about cultural diversity in the past, about the various cultures that make up classical music history, about how Brahms incorporated gypsy music, etc. (And of course “gypsy” is a term not everyone is comfortable with.)
But in today’s culture, they don’t realize that it’s not just having a rainbow of skin color that diversity would bring. It would, or should, bring a babel of languages. (Imagining a gala where for instance we heard people speaking Spanish and Aramaic, which — hope I’m getting that right — is the language of Ethiopia. (I got it wrong. That language is Amharic. Thanks to Joseph Zitt, for catching my mistake!) Plus Chinese, Korean.
And of course the diversity of points of view, of ideas, of lifestyle, of dress, of music. Hard to imagine they’d be comfortable, the donors and board members, having to deal with that at every moment of their work with the orchestra!
Long, long story, this. Let’s meet and talk!
Chris –
Have you been to classical music concerts lately? I have, and I see all types – boys in jeans, women in crop tops and pants, children, old folks, etc. – not everyone there is “dressed in their finest…”
It is not so much the “social barriers,” more than likely it is the economic barriers that keep some people away from classical music concerts. Years ago, it was possible to attend a classical concert at the Kennedy Center for about the price of a first run movie. Not any more.
Hey Carlo,
Thanks for your comment. I understand your point. Granted, I exxagerated a bit for effect but there is a larger point I’m making. There is a need for a fundamental paradigm shift that goes beyond normalizing the experience to take the snootiness out of it for audiences. The industry must reflect the diversity of people and cultures in every facet of the performance and organization.
Now removing those who live at or below the poverty line, the argument of economic barriers don’t necessarily apply when juxtaposed with the fact that both working class and (in particular) middle class Blacks and Latinos in reality do have the financial means to attend classical music concerts. This is evidenced by the other things we spend our money on from clothes to sporting events to musical concert tickets of genres that we associate as “our own”. So why don’t they/we?
I believe the issue is not necessarily the economic means to attend a classical music concert, but rather if they don’t feel #1. The experience is RELATABLE #2. The experience is ENTERTAINING and ultimately #3 It is not VALUABLE when given other options to invest their time and disposable income.
If most people in the audience or on-stage don’t look like them, and the music doesn’t connect to them culturally, then just because folks are standing around in jeans and t-shirts at intermission still doesn’t quite get to the root of the problem. And it’s not something we grew up hearing as part of our everyday lives.
I’m not saying the solution is simple, because saying that would disrespect the problem – which I believe is a bit more complex and entails an openness on both sides.
Just my thoughts. But I’m always learning and understanding others as I go along.
Carlo, re your last comment. Sure, we now see a variety of people at classical events But that variety isn’t represented on the National Symphony’s staff, or on its board. And the people you described — younger, casually dressed — are just a scattering in the audience. Sometimes there’s a classical music event where everyone is young and casual, like when the NSO played to 2000 millennials at the Echo Stage dance club. When I see something like that, I realize there’s a whole new era waiting to be born.
And Chris, though blacks and Latinos are notably left out of orchestras’ consciousness, it’s not just them. In my experience, the classical music world doesn’t understand current culture of any kind, from whatever ethnicity. So (just for one striking example) they’re not reaching my wife’s college roommates, all of them professional women in their 50s. One of them is even an arts professional, but no chance that you’ll find her going to her local orchestra.
Do you realize how racist this post appears? Maybe some of the donors are black, asian, or latino.
Of course some of the donors might not be white. Too obvious, really, to be said.
But who do you think the huge majority of the donors are? Especially the ones who give large amounts of money, the ones who become board members and prominent volunteers for the orchestra? The ones who are thanked for things like providing fklowers for the dinner after the gala? I know these institutions very well, and diversity is hardly one of their strengths.
Carlo, have you ever been at an event like this? Maybe you have, but it’s hard for me, at least, to imagine anyone being there and not seeing the point I was trying to make.
I should probably thank the donors as I usually only buy discount tickets to the NSO via Goldstar or other sources. I used to pay full price, but NSO ticket prices have increased much more than the inflation rate.
I am very active in my community, but I have never been invited to a symphony gala, or been able to afford it (I think it starts at $1,000 per person). I think if the rest of us were included, there would be a lot more involvement and success. Our small dollars can add up fast if you don’t shut us out.
You’d also bring a different point of view to the board. Orchestras risk having a narrow view of their community if only one kind of person is involved in major decisiona. (Or a few similar kinds of people.)