Indy.com
Today:
How do you feel about having a few modern pieces on the ISO lineup?
Along with its regular menu of classics in 2008-09, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra plans a few high-profile contemporary pieces, including world premieres. How does that work for you? Love it? Hate it? Don't care?
The modern selections will include Hilary Hahn's premiere of a Violin Concerto by Jennifer Higdon, "Pilgrims" by Gabriela Lena Frank and a Christopher Rouse percussion piece, based on Wagner's opera cycle "The Ring of the Niebelung."
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a few years ago i was lucky enough to witness the north american premier of a Brian Curent piece and a few weeks later a fantastic percussion work by Michael Torke.
in my opinion as a young listener with taste the ISO is kinda screwed in that the demographic is old white people that like "classical" classical music, but returns the screw with a few more contemporary works that forces the audience to think about the music.
master works arent realized as such until later anyway.
AND hilary hahn is a cute little genius.
I think playing newer works should be an essential function of any Symphonic organization. One of the reasons I refuse to continue in a Classical music career was precisely because of how most of the ponderous organizations like Symphony Orchestras, Opera and Ballet companies was just because they were more like Aural museums rather than networks for contemporary and living arts (I know that was a bit of a loade statement). If the ISO were constantly playing newer works I'd be much more likely to attend regularly.
A few years ago, the ISO made a commitment to playing major works by living American composers through the whole season. It was a great experience, getting to meet and hear works by artists including Michael Torke and Michael Daugherty. Later, I heard that season did not sell well, but everybody I knew from the symphony was glad the ISO took the risk. The sad truth is that no American orchestra could get away with a steady diet of modern works for very long and survive.
I remember reading Greg Sandow's piece "Why orchestras don't play new music" and heard about what the ISO was doing. The ISO won the ASCAP award for "Adventuresome Programming" for that year, if I'm not mistaken. Their concerts had fallen off my radar at the time (it wasn't until more than half through their season that I noticed they were doing that kind of programming), and I was weaning myself off classical music at the time anyway and was gigging pretty heavily doing experimental music.
Unfortunatly it is a sad truth that no American Orchestra could do that regularly and survive. I still love the standard orchestral repertoire, don't get me wrong, but as the friend (who is a Trombonist with the Navy Band, and a composer) I visited with in DC over the weekend said--"How many more recordings of Beethoven's 5th do we really need? Or why does it need to be programmed every year?"