News and Notes: Symphony experiments and critics talking

By Barry Johnson

David Cole and Elizabeth Klinger in "Find Me Beside You"

Some issues just never seem to go away. Should the American symphony orchestra re-invent itself one way or another?  Is LA a good theater town getting worse or a bad theater town getting awful? And what about those musicals made from pop albums, anyway?

These are seen as perilous times for the American symphony orchestra, even though some of the biggest seem to be bobbing along nicely in Los Angeles (Dudamel!), New York and San Francisco, just to name a few. But other, mostly smaller orchestras are struggling, and one of the biggest, the Philadelphia Orchestra is in crisis mode.

A recent story in the Philadelphia Inquirer quoted the Philadelphia Orchestra's president, Allison Vulgamore at some length: "I'm not going to predict the plan at this point. We simply can't go on doing the same thing and expecting a different result. We've got a great musical heritage and ensemble, but we have to pay for it. And we also have to be able to experiment with it." I liked the sound of "experiment," but other elements of the story worried me.

What's the composition of the 27-member steering committee, for example, and why allow outside consultants to run it.  Worse was Vulgamore's use of "we" in the story, because I think she was talking about the staff, the orchestra and the board -- not the community of classical music lovers in Philadelphia. They're the first ones the orchestra should consult about about possible experiments and "profound change."