When the Baltimore Ravens made history by winning the Super Bowl in 2000, the city rejoiced in mad celebration, and few in sports-crazed America didn?t know who Ray Lewis was.
Yet when the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra made history in 2005 by naming a female to lead its orchestra ? the first woman ever to hold that position with a major American symphony ? much of Baltimore did little more than yawn. And this was big news. Really big news.
As the BSO, around since 1916, prepares to launch its 2007-08 season in September with Marin Alsop officially at the helm, the eyes of the classical-music world are sharply focused on Baltimore.
“Maestra Alsop is going to excel,” said Mark Malinowski, music programmer for WBJC 91.5-FM. “I think she?s going to be a breath of fresh air and bring a lot of new and interesting things to the BSO. She has an international reputation.”
Under Alsop, the BSO already has introduced digital downloads of concerts on iTunes, formed a partnership with XM Satellite Radio, discounted subscription tickets (thanks to a $1 million grant from the PNC Foundation) and initiated creative collaborations with other arts groups. The upcoming season includes programs such as November?s Classical Mystery Tour, featuring the best of The Beatles.
“We really want to be on the cusp of the digital downloading scene,” Alsop said. “We want to be on the cutting edge. In terms of concert presentation, we want to mix it up with some multimedia events.”
“It?s a really unique moment in our history,” said Jane Marvine, an English horn player who has been with the BSO since 1978 and is chair of the orchestra?s Players? Committee.
“Marin Alsop and the musicians have established an exciting collaboration both onstage and off, which is creating a scintillating anticipation of her inaugural season as music director. The response from the public has been very inspiring. What has been accomplished over the past year by the BSO is amazing.”
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KEY STATS » 92: Number of full-time musicians » 50: Number of full-time administrative staff » $25 million: Operating budget for 2006-07 » $1,450: The required minimum weekly salary of musicians for the 2007-08 season for 26 weeks, moving to $1,500 for the other 26 weeks » 2,443: Number of seats in the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall » $750,000: Money already raised through a $1 million challenge grant awarded to the BSO by the Joseph and Harvey Meyerhoff Family Charitable Funds in November 2006 (The foundation will match dollar for dollar any new gift of $5,000 or more) » $1 million: A grant from the PNC Foundation to subsidize $25 discounted tickets for subscription holders » 300 percent: Increase from the previous year of new subscriptions for the 2007-08 season » 1: The number of weeks in March that the BSO?s January performance of Igor Stravinsky?s “The Rite of Spring” was the most-downloaded classical piece on iTunes |
Alsop, 51, isn?t the only new kid on the block. President and Chief Executive Officer Paul Meecham arrived at the BSO almost a year ago. A native of Great Britain, Meecham, 50, most recently was the executive director of the Seattle Symphony, previously working with the New York Philharmonic and the San Francisco Symphony.
“I had admired [Baltimore?s] symphony from afar; it?s got a great reputation,” Meecham said. “When the opportunity came up, I was very intrigued by it.”
BSO plans include the following: the increase of ticket sales through innovative incentives; the use of the Web and other technology to boost public awareness; and more reliable funding ? including a giving circle, in which major donors would commit to a multiyear gift, offering the organization more financial stability, Meecham said.
It seems that the stars are beginning to align for the orchestra, according to Tom Hall, director of the Baltimore Choral Arts Society and the culture editor for “Maryland Morning with Sheilah Kast” on WYPR Radio.
“This is a crucial moment in the history of the BSO,” Hall said. “There has been disenchantment with leadership in the past, but in my perspective as a performer and someone who cares about arts in Baltimore, the new team includes smart people who are imaginative and used to succeeding. For them, succeeding is the norm.”
Making the BSO first-rate
According to some musicians and industry experts, it is the city of Baltimore itself that has a way to go before the BSO can join the symphonic world?s upper level.
“The one thing the city needs to realize ? mostly for the younger generation ? is what an untapped gem it has,” said violinist Igor Yuzefovich, who has been playing with the BSO since September 2005 as the assistant concertmaster. “Every orchestra is going through tough times, and the only real way to get through that is for the city to take a look at what it has and appreciate it.”
“Baltimore is not unlike other midsize cities ? this inferiority complex that ?this is not New York.? But this is changing right before our eyes,” said Hall, noting that innovative programming is crucial for attracting new audiences. The Symphony with a Twist and Soulful Symphony series are both examples of the BSO?s collaborative efforts to bring new listeners into the auditorium.
But the BSO?s goal is not to become like the Boston or Los Angeles orchestras, playing with yearly budgets of about $70 million.
“Size is not everything,” Meecham said. “I think for Baltimore ? and this is a medium-sized city ? you have to tailor [the organization] accordingly. In Baltimore and in Montgomery County [home of The Music Center at Strathmore in Bethesda], there is enough demand for what we do.”
The phrase ?top-tier,? sometimes used by industry insiders, refers to a few orchestras grouped together based on their yearly operating budgets alone and is not a way for communities to judge an orchestra?s quality, Meecham said. The New York-based American Symphony Orchestra League, with about 1,000 members nationwide, organizes its members into budget-based ?meeting groups? so that similarly-sized symphonies can discuss common topics with each other, said ASOL spokeswoman Julia Kirchhausen. It is not a quality ranking system, she said.
“The quality of the art itself sells tickets, but it requires a level of excellence in performance and a consistency,” Meecham said. “If you get the right mix [of artists and programming], it helps to create the right buzz.”
It will be hard for critics to turn a deaf ear to Alsop and her vision for the orchestra.
“On any given night, they can play as well as or better than the top-tier orchestras,” said Hall, who puts Boston, Cleveland, Chicago and New York on his list of elites. “Maybe not every night, 52 weeks a year, but no orchestra can do that.”
“I think the BSO is world-class,” Malinowski said, “if for no other reason, you can hear BSO recordings on classical-music programs in different parts of the world.”
“It?s second-rate,” counters Jens F. Laurson, who has written about classical music for The Washington Post, wgms.com and for culture blog ionarts.org. “But it should be said that being second-rate is actually quite an achievement. There will never be more than a dozen or fewer orchestras in this country that will be considered in the elite. I?d call the National Symphony Orchestra second-rate also, except that second-rate sounds so bad.
“But a conductor?s work ? Osmo Vanska in Minnesota and Mariss Jansons in Pittsburgh ? can change that in a matter of years. It remains to be seen if Alsop can do that with the BSO. But surely she will lead the BSO to become a more interesting orchestra. I think it lets the NSO feel the heat. The BSO is changing, which is refreshing.”
Researcher Chris Murino contributed to this story.
