I’m happy that people are reading me here!
It’s been so long since I’ve last posted. So it’s good to get replies to my post, encouraging ones.
There’s just one thing, though. I talked about a book on the history of American orchestras, covering maybe the last 60 years. So much of what happened isn’t known publicly, and may never be.
But I won’t write that book. I do know parts of the history, things I’ve picked up in various ways, partly from my old work as a journalist, and a lot from working inside the orchestra field.
But I don’t know enough to write a history, and don’t know if I — or anyone — could ever find out what would need to be known.
A history ought to be more than a collection of anecdotes. Take my story about the Columbus, Ohio Symphony, building a PR campaign that said the sound of the orchestra was as thrilling as the roar of a Harley. Having forgotten that their main corporate sponsor was Honda, which makes motorcycles and competes with Harley-Davidson.
To say that much is an anecdote. For a history, we’d need more. How’d the campaign do? Did it succeed in any way, or did it fail? And what was the fallout from Honda’s understandable anger? Did they stop giving money, or give less?
And then inside the orchestra, what was the fallout? Was anyone fired, reprimanded?
Then — and here’s where things get really hard — what was the larger context? How many other orchestras took their marketing down new paths? What were the results? Were there any other outright blunders?
To find this out — to see whether Columbus was at all typical of what went on in the field back then, or was an outlier — I’d have to ask dozens of orchestras, maybe 100 or more. Where people may no longer remember what happened in the 1990s, or won’t want to tell me. Since American orchestras aren’t famous for transparency.
So then I’d have to find other sources, just ask, ask, ask, till I found people who knew what I wanted to know, and would tell me. That could take months, hours each week on the phone.
I’d only give time like that to a project close to my heart, which this isn’t. It’s interesting, no doubt of that.
But it’s not what I’d most like to do. Especially since there’s no guarantee of success.
There’s no archive, by the way, where info like this can be found. And, as I’ve found over many years, the League of American Orchestra doesn’t have what I’d need. Asking them is like asking any other possible word of mouth source. People there might have information, or might not.
The institution doesn’t have it, so I’d just be interviewing whatever staff members might talk to me.
And there are worse difficulties. The orchestra that, in the mid-2000s, projected its demise — I couldn’t say which orchestra it was, because I’d learned of their crisis at private discussions I was at.
But to write a real history, I’d have to name that orchestra. To do that, I’d have to find people willing to tell me what happened, knowing I’d put what they told me in the book. That’s another 20, 30, or more phone calls, with no guaranteed result.
The orchestra would never tell me, for publication. They wouldn’t want it known, any more than they did at the time.
And I’d need to know more than I put in the post. Not just that the orchestra projected its death, but how that happened. Who first made the projection? How was it received? Did some people there not want to believe it?
And the solution they found (which I also can’t name, because to name it would out the orchestra). Who at the orchestra proposed it? Was there quick agreement, or was there doubt? Were alternate fixes proposed?
And did the fix the adopted work right away, or were there glitches? Was it clear from the start that it likely would work, or was there doubt?
And then how has it held up, over around 20 years? Is it still working? Or could it be starting to fail?
Who knows these things, and would tell me about them? In a field which, as I’ve said, isn’t known for transparency?
I’m not young, and could spend the rest of my good years working on this, without ever finishing.
I just can’t go there.
I hope you might find interesting my fledgling project to map the concerts of American orchestras, with the data filterable by composer and piece. You can see it at classicalconcertmap.com.
I covered the seasons of more than 400 orchestras this year, and while there is a long way to go to make this tool as useful as it could be, I do think that anyone who wants to understand what’s happening in classical music in the US should glance at it: not only are there orchestras (and other presenters) everywhere, there are interesting programs everywhere. The Lee County Community Orchestra in Sanford, North Carolina is performing a Kalinnikov symphony and a premiere of a work by Ash Stemke this spring: does any classical music aficianado outside of Lee County realize that? I don’t think so, hence the project!
Yes, a fine project! As you say, this information isn’t available anywhere. Bravo for starting to put it together. Thanks for telling me what you’re doing.
Something that strikes me — it’s not just people observing the orchestra scene (or the larger classical music scene) who’ll like this. It’s also people at the orchestras, staff members, board members, and musicians. The big orchestras all know what each other are doing, but smaller orchestras may not.
How are you going to publicize this? I wonder if you might put out a newsletter, maybe each month, to highlight some of what’s going on, and to let people know of the project. The more you call attention to this, on a regular basis, the more people will know of it, and the more support you can get.
Thank you! I have posted on various classical music forums about it and reached out to a variety of organizations, but the time required to promote my work competes with the time it takes to improve it! My current best thought is to capture every ensemble and presenter in the New York area and to get the attention of one of the NYT classical journalists.
I agree that highlighting the best programs each month and maybe interviewing the folks who put them together would be hugely valuable, as would linking the map to reviews of each concert when possible.
Thanks again for your comments.
The key is your heart isn’t in it. I’m a novelist and have faced this same decision several times—a great subject, my agent’s excited—but I don’t want to do it.
Bless you, Alice! You understand.
Please write and pinpoint for now and
Future generations..
What I’d need to do this:
Collaborators who are orchestra insiders, know more than I do, and have more contacts than I had.
Collaborators who could take on some or much of the writing.
Funding! No way I can do this unpaid. Possibly a publisher’s advance, but first, these aren’t large in specialized fields, if you get them at all. And, second, a lot of work would have to be done before we had enough to show to get any advance. So other funding is needed.
Then, finally, more time than I have without sacrificing other projects I care more about. And that are more doable, on top of that.
I don’t mean to be discouraging, and I know many people would like to see this. As would I! I just want to explain why I can’t do it.