The big time offenders
Hint to the mayor and the police;
I've seen many children in the lobby of the Seattle Symphony, where alcoholic beverages are served.
I've never been carded nor have I ever seen anyone else carded.
Don't be afraid to "do your duty" as Brigham Young once said.
Now that I think about it, liquor control violations aside, surely that noise they pump out to the street is a noise control violation.
Do they Have a busking license?
Do we have laws around here, or does social position conquer all?
Note to whoever or whatever makes decisions at the SSO;
Instead of pandering to video gamers to increase "the youth market", why not try playing music that has the kind of energy that appeals to "the youth market"
Giant TV screens have nothing to do with "serious" music
Music can be intelligent, deep, emotionally satisfying, relevant to today's world and still be exciting.
Too bad you are on my shit list or I could condescend to let you use some of mine.
Or is this harassment of nightclubs just a slimy way to try to cut out the competition and increase Gerry's paycheck?
I've seen many children in the lobby of the Seattle Symphony, where alcoholic beverages are served.
I've never been carded nor have I ever seen anyone else carded.
Don't be afraid to "do your duty" as Brigham Young once said.
Now that I think about it, liquor control violations aside, surely that noise they pump out to the street is a noise control violation.
Do they Have a busking license?
Do we have laws around here, or does social position conquer all?
Note to whoever or whatever makes decisions at the SSO;
Instead of pandering to video gamers to increase "the youth market", why not try playing music that has the kind of energy that appeals to "the youth market"
Giant TV screens have nothing to do with "serious" music
Music can be intelligent, deep, emotionally satisfying, relevant to today's world and still be exciting.
Too bad you are on my shit list or I could condescend to let you use some of mine.
Or is this harassment of nightclubs just a slimy way to try to cut out the competition and increase Gerry's paycheck?
Labels: SSO shitlist
posted by Lane Savant at 10:38 AM
6 Comments:
Discord at the Seattle Symphony Orchestra
Survey likely to show musicians are unhappy with director Schwarz
By R.M. CAMPBELL
P-I REPORTER
The Seattle Symphony Orchestra's ambition to become one of the country's great orchestras has entered a tumultuous phase.
Next week a survey of SSO musicians, described by one trustee as "explosive," is expected to be released, expressing their unhappiness with music director Gerard Schwarz.
Trustees said the survey showed a high level of dissatisfaction over Schwarz's artistic leadership and his three-year contract extension, announced in early May, as well as board leadership in ignoring the opinions of the musicians regarding Schwarz's new contract.
In an unexpected move, Paul Meecham, executive director since 2004, announced his resignation Monday.
"I am leaving for personal reasons," Meecham said, "and I am asking people to respect that." His contract expires in December.
The executive committee of the board asked the musicians to delay making public the results of the survey until after the end of the fiscal year on Friday because it could potentially harm fundraising efforts, said Scott Wilson, chairman of the Seattle Symphony and Opera Players Committee.
However, Ronald Woodard, board chairman, denies that such a request ever was made. Neither the full board nor musicians have been given the results of the survey.
In a meeting between the musicians' artistic advisory committee, which conducted the survey, and the board's executive committee, the musicians, sources said, were handed a letter by Woodard that threatened them with "insubordination" if they released the survey's results.
Wilson said, "I am aware of threats of intimidation."
The letter was subsequently turned over to Seattle lawyer Bruce Heller, who represents the musicians. He refused comment.
"I made no threat to the musicians," Woodard said. "The letter was an opinion given to me by outside counsel that if the results of the survey were released, there could be remedies under the contract."
"The survey is the result of the musicians who feel their voice has not been clearly heard by the symphony leadership," said one trustee. "They are so frustrated they feel the only way to make themselves heard is to go public."
Schwarz said he had seen the survey, commenting, "My relations with the musicians remain excellent. We have new challenges and new hurdles."
The most divisive issue for the musicians, some trustees and musicians agreed, was the extension of Schwarz's five-year contract, due to expire at the end of the 2007-08 season.
Trustees familiar with the negotiations between the board and Schwarz said the agreement stipulated that the contract would be Schwarz's last with the symphony, of which he has been music director since 1985. However, the provision was not made public because the music director objected on the grounds he would be regarded as a lame duck.
Schwarz, at Newark Airport on his way to the Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro, N.C., where he is principal guest conductor, denied the existence of such a stipulation: "It is completely untrue. In three years' time, we will all decide whether I have overstayed my welcome."
"There is no such provision in the contract," Woodard said.
Five years ago, there was impetus in trustee circles to begin looking for Schwarz's successor. However, the landscape has been altered. Many people who advocated such a change either left the board or their influence was minimized.
When the board considered hiring Meecham three years ago, his appointment was vigorously fought by Schwarz and Schwarz's allies because he was regarded as a potential threat to the conductor's authority. That rocky beginning colored their subsequent relationship, but the two men disagreed Monday with that widely held perception.
"I know there will be speculation," said Meecham, who also left town Monday, "that Jerry's contract extension was an impetus to my leaving. I would like to say that we worked well together and that my leaving has nothing to do with Jerry."
Shortly after the extension of Schwarz's contract was announced, SSO second trumpet Geoffrey Bergler, a widely admired musician, wrote a letter to The Seattle Weekly, the first SSO musician to speak openly about its terms.
He wrote: "The vast majority of Seattle Symphony musicians are shell-shocked and dismayed: They recognize the need for change. The issue is not Maestro Schwarz personally. If anything, I'm biased in his favor. He's a friend, was my teacher at Juilliard (School in New York), and he hired me for this job. He has brought a lot to the organization and is enormously popular with our major donors. However, it is time for fresh artistic leadership for the symphony."
Less than two weeks later, the day after Schwarz's return to Seattle from conducting his final performances with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic in England, Bergler said he was given notice by principal trumpet David Gordon, on direction from Schwarz, that his playing was no longer adequate.
Bergler equates the warning with "retaliation."
Schwarz refused to talk about Bergler.
Most of those interviewed requested anonymity.
As Schwarz has his allies on the board, he has allies in the orchestra who are fervent in their support of the maestro. Each side calls the other a minority voice. What the survey should establish is which side is the majority in the orchestra.
Another musician, considered an ally of Schwarz, said: "A lot of people are tired of Jerry. He has been here a long time and has angered many, a danger of any long tenure. There is a lot of frustration that has been pent up, but I am not sure releasing the results of the survey is a good idea. It does not help sell tickets."
One of the reasons why Schwarz's contract was extended, said a number of trustees, is his ability to raise money. For some, one trustee said, his staying is a question of money over music. For others, "He is a superstar, a supreme schmoozer, very engaging and interesting and very smart." Many on the board, said another trustee, are simply afraid of change.
P-I music critic R.M. Campbell can be reached at 206-448-8396 or rmcampbell@seattlepi.com.
You give them hell, Doug! Lane is referring, of course to the upcoming:
VIDEO GAME SYMPHONY
"Watch graphics from everyone's favorite video games --including SUPER MARIO BROTHERS, SONIC THE HEDGEHOG, HALO, & THE LEGEND OF ZELDA --all projected on the big screen while the Seattle Symphony, Vocalpoint, and the Seattle Northwest Boy's Choir perform the soundtrack.
Thursday January 24, 2008
Saturday January 26, 2008.
Would the local constabulary actually be interested in "doing their job", or "doing their duty"?
Of course Social Position, those creeps with the bucks, and those cretins who determine what is and what is not culture are privledged folks who will not be held accountable for the same offenses that we would be prosecuted for. That is the way of things, the hard truth, and the abrasive facts.
Brigham Young used to send out his "angels", his "avengers" and he would murder any one, Mormon or otherwise that disrespected him, or gave him any lip.
Yeah, when their noise spills out onto the public street where pedestrians like Lane Savant can be hassled, where do they get off busking without a license?
Are you prepared for the George Takai led STAR TREK concert coming up as well? Why not resurrect CAPTAIN BEEFHEART, and put on his musical fare?
More than likely every shit list you have created over the last several years has SSO on the top of it, the number One offenders. What would you actually do, sir, if Schwarz or some lacky contacted you after the Salon performance, and requested permission to perform some Palmer originals?
In response to my naivete about your twin violin pieces, or two separate things, yes, I did get mixed up between the Violin Duet, and the Violin Concerto. Your Concerto did send me off into an interesting place though, enit?
My "condition" is hitting a bit hard this week. I can alreay see that on Friday night, January 25, 2008 when the world hears the Violin Duet, I will be in absentia, sitting home and missing out. How terrific it will be to have Alex Shapiro and Anonomann, Janet and Hubby, and several arts and entertainment reporters there!!! Can the Palmer Palace of Performing Arts be that far behind? Life and the universe have conspired to keep me from hearing the music "live". Sorry about that old buddy.
Glenn
That is an older article @ 2004(?)
Brenda Little peter Kaman's lawyer has been threatened with contempt for revealing the results of the survey.
Ron Woodard has an interesting reputation with Boeing.A job from which he was canned. You worked there once didn't you? What do you have to do to get fired?
Ilkka Talvi's earlier blog's were bought off and suppressed by the SSO. Read Talvi Agoniste on this site.
Mr Talvi complained of his own rude dismissal, the odd and unusual acoustics at the hall, and Gerry's programing choices.
I think Jeff Bergler is solid gone.
I haven't seen Walter Gray at Caffe Ladro for awhile
Hmmmmm.....
Desperate people tell desperate lies.
We need more Eddy Emerald music
Hallo, nochmals, Lane & Glenn!
Thanks for two of the most interesting entries I've read at this site.
The particular RM Campbell article Glenn helpfully reprinted is one I missed (so, THANKS!!), though I do read the "P-I" on line when I'm in Schwerin (on a State Library (where the LL volunteers in retirement) computer. But I missed THAT article.
Walter Gray is now the Principal 'Cello in the SeaOP "Pagliacci" orchestra and has a beautiful solo in the interpolated "Zaza" music, which you'll hear, Lane, on Saturday. I may not attend a SeaSymph concert until the pair with Sam Jones' new concerto; I'll check the programme then to see if Gray and Bergler are still listed in the Orchestra Roster.
Thanks for the cue to read "Talvi Antagoniste"
Tschuess,
-- Anonomann
When you work at Boeings one would have to be caught with his knickers down in the President's private washroom, having sex with both a duck and a porcupine, face smeared with feces, letting loose a nest of fire ants in order to be fired. They do not call it the Lazy B for nothing, enit?
You are more than welcome, Anonomann. I'm pleased that you know all those folks mentioned in the article as Lane does.
Eddy Emerald was mentioned on FFTL October 2006:
We 21st century composers will be heard!
If you have been reading me regularly, you may have perceived that I am involved in a lover's quarrel with the Seattle Symphony. This Is partly because they play other music by 20 and 21st century composers and not any of mine! The Bitch! Hmmmph!
I came in one day to find all my stuff tossed out on the lawn, right on top of some dog waste. (O.K. That's from a Frank Zappa song, sorry, Moon, Dweeze.)
What they do play, however, is pretty good, nay, excellent. Sam Jones' Tuba concerto is one of them. Gabriella Frank, Cindy McTee of the suprizingly firm grip, David Diamond, and one guy I havn't actually heard yet, Eddy Emerald.
Basta!
And he was mentioned on FFTL later:
Feel free to laugh: May 2007I'm still trying to find some of this Eddy Emerald guy's work. I'm beginning to think the search in futile. Considering my background, I should be able to ...
stellamartis.blogspot.com/2007
Other than those two references made by Lane, Mr. Eddy Emerald is a persona non gratia out there in Cyberland. Too bad. I, for one, would like to hear him play the accordian.
Glenn
Mr Emerald is a champion of "Imaginary Music"
His is even more subtle than mine.
Since we all inhabit the ethereal sphere -
What do you guys think of my latest imaginary poetry?
Emily
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