Saturday, October 20, 2012

Minnesota Orchestra Lock Out: Best Concert Ever

While I was away in Utah, the musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra were trying to negotiate with their management to avoid a lock out, an unfortunate situation that has befallen several of America's great orchestras. I was deeply saddened to hear that no agreement was reached and the musicians were in fact locked out. But the musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra are not easily shut down. One of the things that makes this orchestra so special is the passion the musicians feel for performing music. And so, on Thursday night, they played on. They put on a concert by pooling their own resources, relying on volunteers and community support, and getting the word out throughout the Twin Cities. It was the best concert I've ever attended.

I'm one of those people who thinks that standing ovations are overdone these days. It seems that every performance is followed by one, which leaves me feeling that they are less meaningful than they used to be. It's not to say that I'm not grateful for audience support, it's just that there's really something special about an audience letting performers know that they not only performed as expected, but well beyond. At the gala concert last Thursday, there were no fewer than six standing ovations given, several of them before a single note had even been played. But every single one of those ovations was absolutely deserved. The orchestra walked out on stage together as a unified force and the sold-out audience jumped to their feet, myself included, to applaud the orchestra. There was screaming and cheering so loud, you may have thought walked into a rock concert. I felt that I couldn't clap loud enough. I wanted to show the musicians how much I support them and how much I appreciated that they were performing even though they are going through awful circumstances. I only wanted to applaud more as I could see the gratitude and emotion on the faces of the musicians as many of them were overwhelmed by the giant showing of support.

The conductor, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, a former conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra, received the next standing ovation as he walked on stage. The fact that he was willing to conduct this concert, and do so with such passion and disregard for its potential implications with management, was beautiful. The audience was clearly welcoming an old friend back to the podium with gratitude and respect. The orchestra played our national anthem, which chokes me up every single time I hear it, no matter what. As 2,100 people sang along to the standing orchestra, my heart was in my throat. I felt so proud to be an American, where there is freedom of artistry, a Minnesotan, where one of the best orchestras in the world resides, and an audience member in what I felt was the most emotionally loaded concert I've seen in over a decade.

The first piece on the concert was Dvorak's cello concerto, played expertly by the amazing principle cellist of the orchestra, Anthony Ross. I've seen Mr. Ross perform several concertos and I am always amazed at his talent and the emotion that he puts into each performance. I've met many musicians like Mr. Ross: they have all the musical talent in the world and they've been playing with orchestras and as soloists for many years. But here's the difference between many of the musicians I've met and Mr. Ross: he is not jaded and bored. I have never understood the jaded orchestral musician, and yet I've met so many of them in my life, many of whom play for the best orchestras in the world. They've played all the music a million times, they do the same thing each night, they're underpaid, the weary from travel. Fine. But do they realize how many musicians would kill to have their position? Do they know how many of us would love to play the same pieces over and over again because they're fresh and new every single time? The jaded and bored musicians have lost sight of this. Anthony Ross has not. I can't speak for him, but his performance spoke volumes. I've heard the Dvorak concerto hundreds of times, ever since I was little and growing up with an older sister who is a cellist. But Mr. Ross's version woke me up and proverbially smacked me in the face with emotion. His cello was merely an extension of his body, pouring out the beauty, sorrow, angst, and many more emotions reflected in the concerto. The fact that he performed like this, not because he was getting paid the big bucks, but because it is what he loves to do, made his performance incredibly worthy of the standing ovation he received. It was honestly one of the longest ovations I've experienced for a soloist in quite some time, and every second of it was well-deserved.

During intermission, I got to witness another of my favorite aspects of the Minnesota Orchestra Musicians: they interacted with their audience. In some circles this may be deemed "unprofessional," but in Thursday night's performance, it couldn't have been more appropriate. Musicians were hugging members of the audience from the stage, and Anthony Ross, fresh off his performance came out to hang out in front of the stage and chat with people. A musician of his caliber, Mr. Ross has the right to be a standoffish God of Cellists, but he's one of the nicest, most down-to-earth people with whom I've come into contact. I stopped to congratulate him during intermission on his phenomenal performance, and though he'd only met me once before when he gave a master class to a chamber music program I was in, he talked to me like he would talk to a friend. He was humble and respectful and greeted all of his fans in the same manner.

That brings me to one of the most important points about the musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra: they are not just fantastic on stage. They go out into the community and share their talent, intelligence, humor, and musicality. Being a musician myself, I have had the opportunity to work with several of the musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra. One of them is the conductor of the orchestra in which I play. Others have been my teachers or coaches, and still others have led master classes. At times I've had the honor of sharing the stage with them as they perform as soloists. These are special musicians. These are not the jaded, bored musicians I've met in other cities. They love what they do and they use that passion to enrich the entire community both with their performances and with their time outside of work. They are some of the best teachers and conductors I have ever had, and my musical life in Minnesota would be severely lacking without them. We don't just need high-caliber musicians in our city, we need these high-caliber musicians. I've lived in a lot of places, and what we have here with these musicians is very special.

As the orchestra began to tune for the second half of the concert, and Anthony Ross finished up signing a few autographs from his chair on stage, I anxiously awaited the second half of the concert: Shostakovich's 5th Symphony. The musicians could not have chosen a more appropriate symphony. It is one of my all-time favorites. There is so much angst and dissonance in the symphony that reflects the current times, and yet, there is resolution and triumph in spades. This particular piece never fails to take me on an emotional roller-coaster such that I have to remind myself to breathe. The musicians played this piece with the technical prowess that we have come to expect from them, but they also played with more emotion than I've felt in a long time. I was sitting close enough that I could see the players faces. I could see their hands - either steady and soft, or flying with precision. Their bows could eke out the quietest, most pure pianissimos, or tremolo in the loudest of fortissimos. Their faces and body language said it all. But even with my eyes closed, I felt the power and emotion behind the notes.

I have always felt that superstars of all kinds (musicians, sports figures, actors) are overpaid, and that it is the people in true helping professions (nurses, firefighters, social workers) who should be making the big bucks. I still feel this way, except that I classify musicians, such as those from the Minnesota Orchestra, as being in a helping profession. They deserve the money they make, the benefits they receive, and so much more. They provide an escape from daily life and they provide the musical balm that heals individual, invisible wounds of audience members seeking refuge in the concert hall. For someone like me, listening to a heart-felt rendition of a certain piece of music can be the best therapy in the world. It can change my mood, my swirling thoughts, or even my direction in life as I sit and alternatively get shoved deeper into my thoughts by the music, or am completely carried away from them by the notes. That's how I felt on Thursday night with the powerful performance of Shostakovich's symphony.

I took a class in college called "Constraints and Creativity," from which I learned that sometimes when we are under the greatest of constraints we are at our most creative. My final presentation for this class focused on Shostakovich's 5th Symphony and how constrained he was by the necessity that it be well-liked by certain authorities. In my opinion, he came up with his most brilliant symphony under those harsh constraints. The musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra played on Thursday under the constraints of facing unemployment and lack of funds, and they delivered one of their best performances to date. That single performance alone should be enough to end the lock out.

Many measures before the end of the symphony, audience members began to stand, unable to stay seated any longer, ready to applaud. I know based on the reaction from the crowd that I am not alone in thinking Thursday was an especially powerful experience. The musicians came through for us, and we came through for them. Now if only management could do the same.


7 comments:

  1. VERY nice. Written like a true musician. End the lockout!

    ReplyDelete
  2. All of what you write is so very, very true!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great post! What instrument do you play?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks to everyone! I play viola. It's the love of my life!

    ReplyDelete
  5. That's so awesome! You are a great writer.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Please forward this to Minnesota Orchestra CEO Michael Henson and Richard Davis - chair of the negotiating team and Jon Campbell, board chair. Their emails are on the Minnesota Orchestra Musicians website - www.minnesotaorchestramusicians.org
    I was at the Oct 19 concert with my husband. The audience is behind the wonderful musicians. Pay them their just wages. We are anxious to have our orchestra back.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thank you! I have already written a separate letter to the people you mentioned above, but I'll consider forwarding this to them as well. I couldn't agree more that we are anxious to have our orchestra back!

    ReplyDelete