The Top Ten Reasons the Arts are Important

Randy Cohen of ARTSblog posted a really great article last week about why the arts are important, and why it’s especially important to invest in them. And in my opinion, the best thing about the article is not that it’s a brief, accessible read (although that’s always a plus). It’s that it’s relevant. Even as our economy slowly builds strength, regional orchestras across the country are continuing to file for bankruptcy, cut staff and performances, or close altogether. The funding arts organizations needs and deserves just isn’t there. But what good is this doing for the economy? What Cohen does is explain how the arts do so much more than just provide a nice evening out–the arts stimulate economic growth, cultivate academic achievement, and strengthen community bonds. And every individual, from a first grader to a top CEO, is in some way affected by the arts. We must spread the message! We need to continue to stress the importance of the arts and keep them a priority in our society.

So give the article a read, and share with your friends. We can keep the arts alive and thriving!

The Top Ten Reasons the Arts are Important

Shannon Kingett, Operations Manager, Fairfax Symphony Orchestra

A Surprised Webern Fan is Born

I admit it.  I work for the Fairfax Symphony, but I’m a music curmudgeon.  I’m the person the cognoscenti feel the need to educate.  I try to be open, but I’m just not always successful.  However, after months of dreading Webern’s Six Pieces for Orchestra that the FSO performed this past Saturday, I got to hear it…and I surprised myself and everyone who knows me when I actually liked it.

Why did I like it?  I think it was the set-up by FSO music director, Christopher Zimmerman.  Chris spoke about the piece to the audience in advance of the performance.  He told us that if we didn’t like it, it was Okay.  Our failure to like it didn’t signal stupidity.  Neither would our liking of it signal our intellectual prowess.

So, I felt a little better about the torture I was sure to experience.

Then he talked about the music.  He described what we shouldn’t prepare to hear:  familiar chords, repeated themes and melodies, just about anything recognizable that would provide musical comfort to me and any other Neanderthals who might be in the audience.

Then he painted a road map – a series of musical signposts that would guide us through what we were to hear.  The expression that most struck me, and which I found to be the most helpful, was that of snowflakes.  Chris said that like individual snowflakes falling on the instruments and making sometimes just the slightest of sounds, the sounds generated by these individual snowflakes would create a musical landscape.

What his description did for me was to allow me to focus on each note as the “snowflakes” touched the instruments, and hear and appreciate each sound until I felt I’d heard the instruments for the first time.  It was truly lovely and moving.

I won’t say I’ve become a Webern fan, but I learned two very important things at that concert.  The first was that, for those of us who aren’t among the cognoscenti, with the proper “set-up” or introduction, we too can enjoy music that stretches or challenges us.  The second thing I learned, or perhaps I should say was reinforced for me, was the significance of attending a live orchestral event.  I had been listening to the Webern on my computer for months, and I hated it.  However, being there live, listening to this musical snow falling, and being able to appreciate the precision with which each of the instrumentalists played his or her part was an entirely different experience.

In my job, one of the most difficult things I do is to try to convey the importance of being physically present at the concert to experience the energy that flows between the orchestra and the audience.  Maestro Zimmerman once said that each performance is unique.  If you aren’t in the hall that night for that performance, then you will never have the opportunity to hear and experience it the same way – never.  I’m so glad I was there that night for that performance.

by Cathy Smith, Marketing Director, FSO

Is Anything “Wrong” with Classical Music?

We in the music business have made a sub-industry out of hand-wringing and self-questioning about the future of classical music and our inability to reach into all corners of society for our audiences. Classical music is never going to be to everybody’s taste. Doubtlessly, there will always be that tag of “elitism”. So what?

It is our job to offer it to everyone, to make it available – as attractively as possible certainly – but not to keep hoping or expecting that some magic bullet is going to cause teenagers, rockers, exhausted yuppie parents and whoever else it is we think we are missing, to throng into the concert hall. We should not pretend that Classical Music is something that it isn’t. As Music Director of this fine regional orchestra, in an affluent and diverse area, I lead a team that will continue to try to build its audience by performing , talking about and advocating for this music in all ways, with the passion and enthusiasm that we have for it. One of Classical Music’s most potent strengths is that it can exactly relate to today’s society, but the audience has to be exposed to the whole spectrum, not just the “3 B’s”. If we restrict the repertoire to the “old warhorses” , we fuel the argument that this music is “old” and “irrelevant” and that the institution is only a museum. I also believe such actions tacitly acknowledge that the art form is indeed not alive and well. But it most certainly is! There are centuries of glorious music out there and today’s composers are as active and creative as ever. Instead of hand-wringing, let’s tap into that wonderful source with courage, vigor and optimism.

Read the post by Colin Eatock that inspired today’s message here:

http://www.3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2010/10/whats-wrong-with-classical-music

Chris Zimmerman, Music Director–The Fairfax Symphony Orchestra

Minds Wide Open: Virginia Celebrates Women in the Arts

From Executive Director Elizabeth Murphy:

Yesterday I attended a press conference in Richmond to mark the end of the first statewide arts endeavor of its kind: Minds Wide Open:Virginia Celebrates Women in the Arts. First Lady Maureen McDonnell, along with four former Virginia first ladies, were on hand to help us announce the success of this creation.

MINDS WIDE OPEN: Virginia Celebrates Women in the Arts. Below are some comments from Peggy Baggett, Executive Director of the Virginia Commission for the Arts..

Thanks to those who joined us yesterday in Richmond to commemorate the successful conclusion of our inaugural MINDS WIDE OPEN effort, hear First Lady Maureen McDonnell announce the commissioning of portraits of her living predecessors, and proclaim the theme for our next statewide collaboration: Children and the Arts. Former first lady Anne Holton announced the final statistics, as follows:

“What started out as an idea among fewer than two dozen major arts groups became a massive statewide celebration that involved some 324 different organizations. Collectively, they produced 10,123 individual performances or exhibitions for residents of Virginia and visitors to our state. Almost 700 plays, musicals, concerts, exhibits, readings, and screenings took place in every corner of the Commonwealth and we have documented over 400 locations which hosted at least one Women in the Arts event. The goal of the Women in the Arts Celebration was to increase visibility of the arts in our state, promote the breath and diversity of our programs, and encourage partnerships throughout the entire cultural sector. By any measure, we have succeeded in this endeavor. The positive media coverage for MINDS WIDE OPEN was read by nearly 30,000,000 people with internet and broadcast coverage reaching even more audience members.”

Stay tuned for the 2012 statewide celebration: Minds Wide Open: Virginia Celebrates Children and the Arts, chaired by Gus Stuhlreyer (of Virginia Opera) and me! We are excited to make the next festival even more successful, and raise the profile of the arts in Virginia!

Posted Monday, Jan. 4, 2010

Barber’s Violin Concerto – Augustin Hadelich with the FSO, January 23, 2010

The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is one of the most prestigious music institutions in the country. At the most, the student body consists of two hundred pupils, enough to fill an orchestra, all with merit scholarships.

It was at this well-respected establishment in the late 1930s, a decade after the institution opened, where composition student Samuel Barber and violinist Iso Briselli collaborated to create what would become Barber’s Violin Concerto. The Fairfax Symphony looks forward to performing this work again on January 23, 2010, on the 29th anniversary of Barber’s death, with world-renowned violinist Augustin Hadelich.

Both Barber and Briselli exhibited musical talents from a young age, although their backgrounds were vastly different. Barber was a Pennsylvania native from West Chester and Briselli immigrated was a Russian immigrant. A fellow Curtis student, Gama Gilbert, recognized the incredible talents of Barber and Briselli, and convinced them to work together to create a concerto for violin and orchestra.

The two friends decided it would be an interesting and challenging task. Samuel Fels, a businessman and philanthropist, commissioned the work, offering Barber $1000.

Barber would compose the piece one movement at a time, and Briselli would realize it on violin, influencing the composition with his performance style. Barber finished the first two movements for Briselli, but trouble began to arise once he presented the third movement. Sources dispute the exact problem revolving around this movement. Was the piece lacking in Briselli’s standards or did he find the piece to be too challenging?

Either way, Briselli was unsatisfied with Barber’s work. Fels and Briselli both tried to persuade Barber to alter the third movement to make it more “playable,” but by that time, Barber was tired of their complaints. He was pleased with his arrangements, and he was also busy with other commissions. Barber left the Violin Concerto as it was, even when Fels threatened to take back his $1000 payment.

Barber neither let this dispute discourage him nor let it dissuade him from finding a way to present his composition to the world. He held onto his work, and that same year, in 1939, he found a violinist competent and able to play the concerto. Herbert Baumel helped Barber bring life to the work. He premiered and performed the piece during multiple live performances that year.

For more information on the Fairfax Symphony’s performance of Barber’s Violin Concerto and to purchase tickets, click here.