Update, 10:50 Good to see the Oregonian‘s David Stabler picking up on this story, too.
Original post: Blogger Noble Viola, a professional violin-ish player with the symphony, Charles Noble, has weighed in on the hot subject: Should Mayor Sam Adams give $200,000 for the Oregon Symphony to go to New York to play a concert for one night, that nobody in Portland will even see? In a year where budgets are so tight, we are facing the very real probability of closing a fire station? Well, evidently, if you’re a professional violin-ish player, the answer is yes:
Going to Carnegie Hall is the crowing achievement of one’s career as an individual musician, and for orchestras it is much the same. Once you go to Carnegie, you declare yourself to the world that you have arrived.
But we constantly face the obstacle that music is an ephemeral art: it happens and then it’s gone. There is no fire station, mall, bike lane, or homeless shelter left behind to admire. But the orchestra itself (made up of people who love this city and make it our home) does remain, and so do our audiences, who spend money in the downtown core, lobby their schools for more arts education, pay taxes, and yearn for a more artistically viable community. Our going to Carnegie is for them, really, and for all of those musicians who have come before us, working entire lifetimes to make the Oregon Symphony a great orchestra — we love Portland, we love playing for our fantastic audiences here, and we want to take that love and joy and Oregonian spirit to Carnegie hall and knock their socks off in NY. Isn’t that worth a measly $200,000?
Not this year, it isn’t. No. And there’s a great point made by Bob Priest in the comments—shouldn’t the rich arts donors in this city smooth the way?
while i agree with nearly every point in the excellent article above, i also can well imagine one of the more diamond-encrusted symphony patrons uncorking a tax-deductible check for 200K without undo duress. after all, what’s a measly 200K for someone worth 50,000,000?
let’s put it this way, 200K to someone with 50Mil is the equivalent of someone worth 250K ponyin’ up 1K.
my basic belief is that when there is a SIMPLE way around intense karfufflage, let those that can smooth the path, git to it.
Does the symphony simply need to hire a better fundraiser?
New York doesn’t need any more Oregon spirit, they’ve got Stumptown.
Oh! Oh! New York Stumptown! I have meant to make a reference to theirs and this is as good a place as any: it’s good!
Also, I could have gone to Carnegie Hall if I stayed on at my music program for another 5 weeks, but my tutor was cray cray and smelled like crayons and now I hate the Viola.
I’d agree w/ Priest’s comments there – If the city just said a flat, “No, sorry,” I’d bet dollars to donuts that someone out there would pony up the dough. It’s too big an opportunity to miss – and the symphony has been so incredibly on fire this season they would certainly make the most of it (for themselves and for our city’s reputation nationally, too).
The City should work behind the scenes to shift more of the cost to private donors who would like to be in attendance at the concert.
But in my view, it’s a worthy marketing cost to attract NY business to Portland, and I fully support the City kicking in the money if private funds can’t be found. To treat it as a political football is disgusting teabaggery. (how’s that for a mixed metaphor)
The current Portland conductor, Carlos Kalmar, has just been invited to cover a few concerts for the great James Levine in Boston.
“To treat it as a political football is disgusting teabaggery.”
I think this pretty much hits the nail on the head.
I’m sorry, but I can barely get past “violin-ish.” What the hell, Matt? It’s called a viola.
“i also can well imagine one of the more diamond-encrusted symphony patrons uncorking a tax-deductible check for 200K without undo duress. after all, what’s a measly 200K for someone worth 50,000,000? “
Really? My husband I and are season ticket holders to the symphony, as are several of our friends. And not a one of us earns anything near 200K in a year, let along being able to donate that. And looking around at our fellow symphony goers – I don’t think there are a lot “diamond encrusted patrons” in the lot.
Here’s what I don’t get about the little crusade against the Oregon Symphony by the Mercury (which, by the way, NEVER bothers to cover anything the Oregon Symphony does on stage) — and yes, when Matt Davis goes from simply reporting what a city commissioner says to the out-and-out campaigning above, it qualifies as a crusade:
The Mercury’s original story on all this had a chart that listed $1,678,294 in money requests the city has received. $200,000 of that was from the Oregon Symphony, this area’s single largest and most important arts organization. Right below the symphony’s request on the Mercury’s chart is another $881,650 in proposed city grants to other groups that most of your readers have probably never even heard of. Yet there’s not a peep from the Mercury about any of those. The only thing that has gotten the Mercury’s shorts all bunched up is the thought of the symphony getting city money.
What’s up with that?