The Florida Orchestra

Source:St. Petersburg Times
Published: December 5, 2010
By: John Fleming

Delivering a Divine Cello Concerto

ST. PETERSBURG — Mark Kosower is a brilliant young cellist who just this season became principal cello of the Cleveland Orchestra, one of the most prized positions in the music world. Kosower will surely play the Dvorak Cello Concerto many times in years to come, but it's hard to imagine a finer performance of it than the one he gave Saturday night with the Florida Orchestra at Mahaffey Theater.

Kosower brought an uncanny combination of burning intensity and composure to the concerto, with each movement feeling deeper and more moving than the one before. The orchestra meshed fantastically well with him under music director Stefan Sanderling.

There was a nice connection between Dvorak and the other composer heard Saturday. Brahms, whose Serenade No. 1 took up the first half of the program, did the proofreading on the Cello Concerto for his and Dvorak's German publisher and then wrote to the publisher that "cellists can be grateful to your Dvorak for bestowing on them such a great and skillful work.''

The concerto was largely written during Dvorak's sojourn in the United States in the 1890s, and it was fun to hear the suggestions in Kosower's playing of folk influences on the Czech composer, tunes like Go Tell It on the Mountain and even Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair. The cellist's articulation of rapid passagework in the first movement was a model of clarity.

The second movement had Kosower in his instrument's lower register, with a tone like rich loam, set against flute trills and a clarinet phrase, typical of the sublime ensemble between soloist and woodwinds. The horn section shone, first in principal Robert Rearden's gorgeous, brief solo near the beginning of the concerto, then in a second-movement chorale. The finale featured slashing exchanges between Kosower and concertmaster Jeff Multer, building to the profound lament of the cello coda.

There is nothing profound about Brahms' Serenade, which was just his second orchestral work, but it has charm and humor, like the sly little tremolos in the strings around a flute and clarinet duet at the end of the first movement. Brahms is one of Sanderling's strengths, and this was an interesting work to hear from him, but he was unable to overcome the diffuse quality of some of the writing in the second and third movements.

A program of Brahms and Dvorak won't win any honors for being with-it or cool, but their music is what this 19th century machine, the symphony orchestra, was designed for. Saturday's concert, played to a virtually full Mahaffey, showed how glorious it can sound.

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Source:St. Petersburg Times
Published: December 5, 2010
By: John Fleming

Art trumps money

When Michael Kaiser comes to town, it's a good news/bad news sort of thing. Kaiser, president of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., is known as "the turnaround king'' for his work with troubled arts organizations, so he doesn't usually show up when things are going great. But the good news is that Kaiser has a savvy outsider's perspective and a wealth of ideas that may help an organization.

The Florida Orchestra brought Kaiser to the Tampa Bay area for two days in November, and he met with the orchestra's board, management and musicians. One morning in St. Petersburg, I sat in on a meeting he had with orchestra president Michael Pastreich and executives of other arts organizations, including Kent Lydecker, new director of the Museum of Fine Arts, and Paul Wilborn, executive director of the Palladium Theater.

The purpose of the meeting was rather vague, but Kaiser's main message came through loud and clear. No matter how bad the financial problems of an arts organization are, its primary focus must be on the art, not the money.

"Programming is always first,'' he told the group, drawing a chart on a blackboard. "There is no reason for an arts organization to exist unless it does important programming. Organizations get into trouble because the programming isn't interesting enough, or it got cut. Too many boards think their mission is to break even. It's not. The mission is to have imaginative, interesting programming.''

This, of course, is a relevant message for the orchestra, which had a deficit in the fiscal year that ended in June. Pastreich and the board responded by cutting the musicians' pay, among other measures intended to help balance the budget.

I'm not sure how useful Kaiser can be to the orchestra. The musicians were on a break during his brief visit, and he didn't hear the orchestra play, even in rehearsal. He didn't meet music director Stefan Sanderling. Still, the Kennedy Center president makes several points that are well worth keeping in mind as the organization seeks to revitalize itself.

• You cannot save your way to health. "Revenue is the problem with most arts organizations, not cost,'' Kaiser wrote in his 2008 book The Art of the Turnaround: Creating and Maintaining Healthy Arts Organizations. "Organizations focused simply on reducing costs will continue to get smaller and smaller and will never create the economic engine that is required for long-term stability and growth.''

• Big, visionary projects matter. Nobody gets excited about an arts organization's budget. What excites donors, the audience and the press are important new projects.

When Kaiser was at American Ballet Theatre, the company was virtually bankrupt, but a key turning point was its commissioning a new work based on Shakespeare's Othello.

"Othello was the largest project in the history of ABT,'' Kaiser wrote in his recently published Leading Roles: 50 Questions Every Arts Board Should Ask. "It was a seemingly foolhardy thing to do when we were in such bad financial shape; yet this project allowed us to announce an exciting new venture, exactly at a time that people thought we were going bankrupt and were afraid to contribute to the company.'' Two years later, ABT had eliminated its deficit.

• Excellence takes time. "Major artistic programs should be planned four or five years in advance,'' Kaiser wrote in Leading Roles, citing the Kennedy Center's 2009 festival of Arab art.

"It took five years to conceive of the festival, identify the best artists, write contracts, obtain visas and raise the substantial funds required; if there had been far less time to plan this project, it would not have been successful. Projects that are rushed usually look rushed.''

• Find partners. "I believe in projects that tie us together,'' Kaiser told the gathering of arts executives in St. Petersburg. "I'm always trying to find ideas that allow a group of community organizations to program across art forms.''

Exhibit A: the Shakespeare in Washington Festival, which the Kennedy Center put together with more than 60 arts organizations, from theater and dance companies to galleries, all presenting work by or inspired by Shakespeare.

• Have a list of projects for donors to choose from. "I always have five years of projects in my head,'' Kaiser said. "Nothing helps raising money more than presenting a menu of programming ideas to donors. People like to support projects. Too many arts administrators have only one project to sell. I never go to a prospect meeting with fewer than 10 projects in mind.''

• "There are a lot more people in this country who care more about education than they care about the arts,'' Kaiser replied to Pastreich, who said the orchestra is thinking about eliminating its educational concerts for bused-in fourth-graders next season, because the cost of doing them has become too much. There are also questions about how educationally effective such concerts are beyond simply exposing students to the sound of a symphony orchestra.

Because schools now include little arts education in their curricula, Kaiser worries about the "episodic'' nature of it. "In many schools, it is left to the individual teachers to decide whether children in their classes will have the benefit of arts offerings from local institutions,'' he wrote in Leading Roles. "If a third-grade teacher likes the arts, the students will get many arts experiences. If the fourth-grade teacher does not care about the arts, the students may get no exposure at all. No other subject is taught with such carelessness and inconsistency."

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Source: The Tampa Tribune
Published: December 3, 2010
By: Kathy Greenberg

TV captain steers orchestra's cruise through holiday classics

When Gavin MacLeod asked me if I remembered "The Love Boat," I wanted to say, respectively, "Do fish have gills?!" I grew up watching him play Capt. Merrill Stubing on that hit TV series and, later (on Nick at Nite reruns), Murray Slaughter from "The Mary Tyler Moore Show." MacLeod was, in fact, prepping me for one of several stories explaining his appreciation for music, so I kept my mouth shut.

"When 'The Love Boat' went off the air, I became spokesman for Princess Cruises. They had a new ship coming out, and Tony Bennett was with us on that cruise. We spent a lot of time with him. I've never heard anybody sing 'God Bless America' like Tony Bennett," said MacLeod in a telephone interview from California.

He prefers the classics and Bennett-era standards to today's radio hits, a lot of which he said, "is not music to me." It makes sense, then, that, in addition to acting, he dipped his toe in orchestral waters in December 2008, conducting the Colorado Symphony in Denver. This month he'll join the Florida Orchestra for "A Holiday Pops," a program that will present favorite holiday carols and hits, featuring the Master Chorale of Tampa Bay and vocalist Shana Blake Hill.

MacLeod will chat with the audience before narrating in his distinctive voice "The Night Before Christmas" and "One Solitary Life." He'll also borrow the baton from Richard Kauffman to conduct Leroy Anderson's "Sleigh Ride."

"I went to Ithaca College, and Leroy Anderson sent whatever pieces he was writing to our school first, because we specialized in that kind of music. We were the first to hear 'Sleigh Ride.' He wrote it in the summer. He was watering his lawn and it just came to him," MacLeod recalled.

The orchestra will also perform works such as "Bellringers Holiday," "Once Again it's Christmas Time This Year," "We Need a Little Christmas," "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year," "Silent Night" and "Oh, Holy Night."

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Source: The Tampa Tribune
Published: November 6, 2010
By: Kathy Greenberg

Orchestra guests aren't that kind of diva

Because some celebrities demand all-green M&Ms and Evian water backstage, "diva" has earned the reputation of a dirty four-letter word. But vocalists Erin Mackey and Julia Murney claim the derogatory definition is a misnomer. Indeed, the true meaning of the Italian term is goddess.

When Mackey and Murney join the Florida Orchestra this month for "Wicked Divas on Broadway," they'll celebrate idols both real and fictional whose star power defies those negative perceptions.

"The whole connotation of a diva being nasty, there are other words for that. I prefer the positive definition of a woman, or I suppose a man (a divo?), who is magical to watch on stage," said Murney, who starred as Elphaba in Broadway's "Wicked."

Mackey, who played Elphaba's nemesis, Glinda, noted skill as an element of prima donna status.

"A true diva excels in something specifically special in what they do, in music or style," Mackey said.

In a series of solos and duets backed by the Florida Orchestra, Mackey and Murney will perform hits from "Gypsy," "Ragtime," "Chicago," "Wicked," "Phantom of the Opera" and "Evita." They'll also pay tribute to Celine Dion, Barbra Streisand, Donna Summer and disco — the ultimate platform for divas. Think back to "No More Tears (Enough is Enough)," the 1979 Streisand/Summer hybrid of easy listening and the glitzier genre.

"I'm singing Barbra's part," said Mackey. "Julia is singing Donna's."

There's also a third component that can make or break any performer's or character's chance for success, regardless of talent or flash: the music.

"So much has to do with the material written," Murney said. "No diva is a diva by herself. It's because someone has written incredible music for her to sing. There may be a woman up there (on stage) who radiates an energy, but she's got to have something to do, and someone has to write that."

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Source: St. Petersburg Times
Published: November 6, 2010
By: John Fleming

Florida Orchestra's performance of Mahler's No. 6 overwhelmingly good

TAMPA — Mahler's Symphony No. 6 is like a great, sprawling novel. There are so many things going on in it that when the music — or the book — is finished, you want to start all over again just to stay in that world.

The Florida Orchestra and music director Stefan Sanderling performed Mahler's 80-minute symphony — the only piece on the program — Friday at Morsani Hall of the Straz Center for the Performing Arts. As the final, crushing A-minor chord reverberated, the audience seemed stunned by the magnitude of what it had just heard.

And for good reason. The orchestra was overwhelming, with a large brass section (nine French horns) and percussion that had two timpanists, three triangles, four sets of cymbals, xylophone and much more. Most intriguing was the huge cube that principal percussionist John Shaw smacked twice with a giant mallet — the hammer-blows of fate in the finale.

It was a good night for soloists, especially principal horn Robert Rearden, whose rich, sturdy tone was at the heart of the symphony. Principal tuba William Mickelsen shone in the eerie solo that opens the finale. The strings sounded sumptuous in the allegro melody in the first movement that is called the "Alma" theme and was meant by Mahler to represent his wife.

Sanderling and the orchestra took a while to settle into the work. His initial tempo seemed too brisk, dynamic contrasts were lacking and the musical line threatened to disintegrate at one fragile point in the Andante. But the performance grew nicely and became totally engrossing in the mammoth finale.

Incidentally, Sanderling put himself on the side of the angels by playing the middle two movements in the order preferred by Mahler, with the tender Andante followed by the heavy, abrasive Scherzo. Many conductors have changed the order, with the Scherzo first, then the Andante. Mahler himself vacillated over the order of the movements when he conducted the symphony, but he ultimately chose what was played Friday.

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Source: St. Petersburg Times
Published: October 31, 2010
By: John Fleming

As Florida Orchestra cuts salaries, new business model is needed to survive

It was an embarrassment this month when the Florida Orchestra opened the 2010-11 season by cutting the pay of its musicians. It has happened before through the years — the orchestra board and management being unable to fulfill the terms of its labor contract with the musicians has been more common than not — but surely this was the final straw.

Can the orchestra survive yet another broken promise to its musicians? Or was this a necessary tough choice to put the orchestra on a realistic financial footing once and for all?

When I originally reported the revision of the musicians' contract — made through a legal device called a "side letter,'' rather than a renegotiation of the contract, which has two years left to run — the facts of the change were not readily forthcoming from the orchestra or the American Federation of Musicians. I had to write the story with less than precise information.

So, for the record, here is the deal, according to Harold Van Schaik, bass trombone player and spokesman for the musicians: ". . . our annual salary for the next two years will be $24,500 for 25 weeks this year and 24 next year. We were supposed to make $29,890 this year for 32 weeks and $32,000 next year for 34 weeks,'' he said in an e-mail.

Is that sustainable pay for a musician to make a living?

"I don't know the answer to that,'' said orchestra president Michael Pastreich, when I asked him that question. "My assumption is that it is more sustainable than nonexistence of the orchestra.''

Van Schaik said it wasn't a living wage and would compromise the orchestra's ability to hold on to and attract talent. "Quite a few members are seriously looking at leaving the orchestra,'' he said. "It was already a challenge to get people to come here to take auditions.''

It should be pointed out that few, if any, in the orchestra actually make the base pay. Under the contract, principal players receive a premium — the concertmaster, for example, typically is paid at least double the base pay — and musicians can negotiate their own deals for extra compensation. Many musicians also teach and play other gigs.

Still, with the revision, Florida Orchestra members are at the bottom of the list among U.S. orchestras that pay their musicians under an annual contract rather than on a per service (that is, per each rehearsal and concert) basis. Van Schaik has a chart that compares the orchestra's base pay to that of 20 others, and the range goes from $107,640 for 52 weeks at the Pittsburgh Symphony to $26,100 for 37 weeks at the Richmond Symphony.

Van Schaik and other musicians object to the way the contract revision was carried out. They say they were basically presented a take-it-or-leave-it offer: Accept the pay cut or the season would be canceled. The musicians ratified the change in a vote completed the day before the first rehearsal of the season.

Pastreich said that $8 million in gifts and pledges from five anonymous donors was contingent on the musicians' pay — as well as other budgetary items — being cut. A portion of this money was made available to the orchestra at the beginning of the season to give the board and management some breathing room, he said, to work on sustainable solutions to the perennial financial problems, instead of constantly having to hustle just to make the payroll.

"This is the first time in my three years with the organization that the majority of our conversation has not been about what are we going to do next week in order to stay alive,'' Pastreich said. "The financial crisis has been abated so that we can focus on how do we pull ourselves out of a cycle that's been around a long time. We went into this season with more money in the bank than at any time in our discernible history.''

To be sure, musicians are not the only orchestra employees who have taken hits. Pastreich said management staff has been decreased by about one-third over the past three years. There were staff pay cuts last season. Pastreich said he took a 10 percent pay cut and will make $147,420 in the 2010-11 season.

On a recent Friday afternoon, I had a meeting with Pastreich and Van Schaik in Pastreich's office. The two represent opposite sides, of course, but usually they seem to be on good terms. This time, though, the exchanges were sometimes testy and awkward.

Pastreich didn't go into detail, but it's clear that he envisions a smaller number of musicians under contract for a shorter season. At the moment, the full-time musician complement is 71, and the revised contract calls for a gradual reduction to as few as 65, likely through attrition.

He said a 24- or 25-week season was a base from which to build upon, pointing out that all the orchestra's subscription programs this season are still in place despite the cuts. The number of park and youth concerts are close to the same. What was mainly lost, he continued, were nonsubscription concerts, such as last season's Led Zeppelin and "Blue Planet'' concerts, which can be risky to present. The Zeppelin show did well at the box office; "Planet'' flopped.

For possible role models, the orchestra CEO said, he had looked at so-called nonstandard orchestra contracts around the country for organizations such as the Orchestra of St. Luke's in New York, Music of the Baroque in Chicago and Philharmonia Baroque in San Francisco.

Van Schaik rejected these as models, because they are smaller orchestras that tend to be made up of a mix of musicians paid annually and per service. They don't perform week in and week out, and they have a more specialized profile than a symphony orchestra. They're in musically rich cities.

"They're not comparable,'' he said. "These are niche ensembles. These are not the cornerstone ensembles and cultural pillars of a city. Music of the Baroque has, if they're lucky, half a dozen concerts in Chicago, which is quite well served by the Chicago Symphony . . . and a number of semi-full-time professional orchestras that surround Chicago. For us to be modeling ourselves after a niche ensemble when the Tampa Bay area is the 19th largest metropolitan area in the United States, and we are the largest resident performing arts organization in this area, that's where the logic breaks down.''

To some degree, Pastreich's response was that the model of the orchestra has to be changed, because the old model never really worked, and the change will be painful. When I asked him if it was like that old saw that you have to break eggs to make an omelet, he said, "I think there is something to that.''

On a more dramatic level, something like this is taking place in Detroit, where the symphony orchestra's musicians have been on strike all season, having rejected a contract proposal that includes a 30 percent pay cut to a base of about $70,000. The Detroit Symphony is projecting a $9 million deficit.

One thing Pastreich said surprised me. Conventional wisdom used to be that the revenue brought in by nonprofit performing arts organizations was split 50-50 between earned income (ticket sales, basically) and donations. However, he said donations now account for a much higher percentage of revenue.

"Our economic engine isn't selling tickets,'' he said. "Our economic engine is fundraising. Last year we went from being a little bit below average in earned revenue to a little bit above average. We went from 32 percent to 36 percent of earned income; the average was 34 percent for American orchestras.''

The orchestra projects a budget of $8 million in 2010-11 — down from slightly more than $9 million the previous season. And it has to raise some two-thirds of the budget from individual, corporate and government sources. That is a mighty tall order in a tough economy.

"We have to become a greater and greater fundraising machine,'' Pastreich said.

Fair enough. But can the orchestra keep up its musical standards while reconceiving its business model? On that question turns its survival.

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Source: St. Petersburg Times
Published: October 23, 2010
By: John Fleming

'The Creation' covers a lot of ground with grace and some surprises.

TAMPA — The Creation has it all. Surprisingly "modern" harmonies in the opening orchestral section that suggest the earth "without form, and void." An operatic warmth to the chorus and three soloists representing archangels and Adam and Eve. Plenty of humor, such as the contrabassoon blast to depict "heavy beasts" or the droll phrasing of the "sinuous" worm by bass soloist Leon Williams.

Haydn came to oratorio writing late, and he had a lot to say in his three-part Creation. With a text from Genesis, the Psalms and Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost, it covers the first six days of creation in the first two parts. The third part has Adam and Eve praising God and expressing their love for each other.

Florida Orchestra music director Stefan Sanderling, in his first appearance of the season, led the orchestra, the Master Chorale of Tampa Bay and a vocal trio Friday night. These musical forces almost overflowed the cramped stage of Ferguson Hall at the Straz Center.

Williams shone in his dramatic, communicative performance of recitatives. Soprano Heidi Grant Murphy came into her own with the bird trills in "On mighty pens." Tenor Bryon Grohman had a reedy tone.

This was the first performance of the Master Chorale to be prepared by new artistic director James Bass, and the group sounded great in the counterpoint of "Awake the harp."

Principal flute Clay Ellerbroek had a busy, brilliant night. Michael Sponseller added a nice period touch on fortepiano.

The Creation is a work that you want to follow along in the libretto in the playbill, but I had to squint to read it in the dark. The house lights should have been turned up. The oratorio is more than 100 minutes long, so Sanderling broke it up with intermissions after parts one and two. One break is necessary, but two of them made for a drawn-out evening, and I had to leave early to meet my deadline.

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Source: St. Petersburg Times
Published: October 17, 2010
By: John Fleming

Master Chorale of Tampa Bay gives voice to light in 'The Creation'

In The Creation, the chorus essentially represents the voice of God in the opening of the oratorio by Joseph Haydn, which is one reason that James Bass started with that section in his rehearsals of the Master Chorale of Tampa Bay.

"One of the most exposed moments for the chorus is right away, right after the representation of chaos, and the chorus has this moment when it has to represent the voices of the ether, in a sense, and say that God has created light,'' he said.

Bass, 37, became artistic director of the Master Chorale this year, as well as director of choral studies at the University of South Florida. His first task involving a performance by the chorus has been to prepare it for next weekend's concerts of Haydn's oratorio with the Florida Orchestra.

"I think The Creation is the absolute perfect first piece for me,'' said Bass, who succeeded Richard Zielinski. "It's plenty of singing for us, 30 to 35 minutes of just choral singing, so it allows you to set some intonation standards for your group. It allows me, in a selfish way, to discuss with the chorale my standards of tone, my standards of color and dynamics.''

The Creation is Haydn's inspired response to hearing Messiah, Israel in Egypt and other oratorios by Handel during visits to England in the 1790s. The original text on God, humanity, nature and the creation of the world — a mix of biblical verse from Genesis and sections of Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost — was in English, but Haydn had it translated into his native German (as Die Schopfung) when he composed the score.

When the oratorio was originally published, Haydn included both the German and the English texts, making it the first bilingual work in Western musical history. The Master Chorale will sing the English text, using an edition by Nicholas Temperley.

Bass, who previously was director of choral studies at Western Michigan University, has sung The Creation as a soloist — naturally, he is a bass — and as part of a chorus. He loves the work's classical clarity.

"We live in an HD TV era; we want everything in high definition,'' he said. "It's kind of classical music HD, this piece. It's not muddy; it's clear, refined and defined. If you don't like something in it, just wait two or three minutes, you're going to get something different. You get a beautiful aria, you get a duet, you get a chorus.

"There is also a sense of joy in The Creation that I haven't felt in many works. It feels honest. Gentle and happy. The physical representation of watching the firmaments being created — and how happy that is — is in this work. And once you get to the third part, in the duet between Adam and Eve, it expresses the greatest aspects of human love.''

The Master Chorale and orchestra performed The Creation in 2002, with Zielinski conducting (he's now director of choral activities at the University of Oklahoma). This time around, orchestra music director Stefan Sanderling will be on the podium, making his first appearance of the season.

Haydn's oratorio has five characters with solos, but the soprano and baritone parts of Gabriel and Raphael are often doubled with Eve and Adam, so next weekend there will be three soloists: Heidi Grant Murphy, soprano; Bryon Grohman (replacing Philippe Castagner, who had to cancel because of illness), tenor; and Leon Williams, baritone.

Soprano Murphy was Eve on a celebrated 1992 recording of The Creation conducted by Robert Shaw. "I grew up with the Shaw recording,'' said Bass. "I tried to stay away from the Shaw completely because it had been my icon, and I didn't want it to influence my thinking.''

The Master Chorale has 141 singers, and they are unpaid. In fact, for the first time in the group's 33-year history, chorus members this season are paying dues of $150 to belong. The income is needed for the chorale to stay afloat in these difficult economic times.

"It was very tough,'' said Bass, adding that the chorus gave 15 members scholarships to cover the dues. "But we couldn't write a ticket for everyone, or else we couldn't survive. These people are very special because they sing in the chorale because they love it.''

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Source: St. Petersburg Times
Published: October 17, 2010
By: Thomas Wilkins

Florida Orchestra needs community to do its part

A very successful buddy of mine in Chicago, a man named Jim, once told me that he believes a glass of water is neither half full nor half empty. It's simply half a glass of water.

I used to think that was just plain silly. I'm a dreamer, and I'm forever encouraging people — especially kids — to "see what's not there," to dream big and to cling to hope. But I've come to agree with Jim.

He's not a pessimist. He's simply a realist who believes we must see what's right in front of us before we can ever pursue what we hope will be ahead of us.

I've been in the classical music business now for well over 25 years. I've seen enough vision statements and five-year plans and 10-year projections to sink a rowboat. I have been with orchestras that have flourished even in this economy, and others hanging on by a thread. I have never known, however, a group of musicians more patient, more resilient, more accommodating and perhaps more realistic than the men and women of the Florida Orchestra, where I was resident conductor from 1994 to 2002. After being with them again a few days ago, I am reminded why.

This is where I grew up as an artist. This is where I made some of my biggest mistakes and had some of my greatest successes. These are the people who not only played for me, but also nurtured me and fed my musical soul. And perhaps more important, these are the people who partnered with me on the mission to turn the lives of hundreds of Tampa Bay's children away from what was in front of them and fervently toward what could lie ahead of them. They did it early morning after early morning, long week after long week. And they did it with a strong sense of dedication, passion and purpose.

And now here they are once again, like so many of our colleagues around the country, holding half a glass of water. Just before I came to town recently to conduct the Florida Orchestra, the musicians had a tough choice: Accept a potentially devastating cutback in pay or have their season canceled. They took the pay cut. They will make $24,500 for 25 weeks this year and then for 24 weeks next year. They were supposed to make $29,890 this year for 32 weeks and $32,000 next year for 34 weeks.

And yet once again, I can't help but have hope. It is, however, hope based not just on what they want but who they are. I have hope because I see the same men and women I saw when I arrived in Tampa Bay in the mid '90s. I see the same dedication, the same passion, the same striving for excellence and yes, the same sense of mission and purpose.

I believe there are just three options available with half a glass of water: Drain it, abandon it or fill it. The choice we will make says much about who we are. Options one and two say we only did this all these many years for the glory and the money. Those options say we considered ourselves merely in the entertainment business and the business has moved on without us.

Fortunately for the Florida Orchestra, there exist in this community plenty of folks, including many former 9- and 10-year-olds, whose lives were forever changed by the transformative power of music. To this day, I continue to run across young adults across the country who were profoundly and forever affected by one of our youth concerts. One such young lady doing business in Omaha a year ago stopped by our concert hall during a performance. After asking the security guards which car was mine, she then took the time to write a note of thanks, and left it prominently on my windshield.

It surely seems to me that our only choice therefore is to look at that half a glass of water and, with hearts full of courage, commit as an organization and a community of supporters to fill it. The orchestra members are doing their part. Now it's up to the community to respond. There are just too many young lives in need of inspiration in our midst.

On a wall in my office is a plaque created by artist/poet Mary Anne Radmacher. I read almost daily. It simply says:

"Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying ... I'll try again tomorrow."

Dearest friends, tomorrow is here.

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Source: St. Petersburg Times
Published: October 9, 2010
By: John Fleming

An old friend raises his baton

TAMPA — "Welcome home, maestro," a voice from the audience said when Thomas Wilkins stepped onto the podium Friday night at Morsani Hall of the Straz Center for the Performing Arts. The sentiment was perfect for the return of the Florida Orchestra's former resident conductor who made a big impact on the community during his tenure in the Tampa Bay area from 1994 to 2002.

Wilkins seems to have an intuitive grasp of what is right for the orchestra. As guest conductor of the 2010-11 season's opening program, he put the focus on the orchestra itself. No soloist. No big, complex piece to draw a lot of attention to the conductor.

Wilkins couldn't have known it when he assembled it months ago, but his program was just what the orchestra needed.

Respighi's symphonic postcard, The Pines of Rome; Liszt's bombastic slice of 19th century romanticism, Les Preludes; the melancholy tunes of Faure's Pelleas et Melisande suite; the Polovtsian Dances (including Stranger in Paradise) from Borodin's opera Prince Igor — all these popular standard showed off the orchestra. And a contemporary piece, James A. Beckel Jr.'s 2006 Toccata for Orchestra, was a propulsive, exciting curtain raiser that gave each section its moment in the spotlight.

No, the ensemble was not completely polished, not after a summer's hiatus, but the playing was still impressively strong.

Wilkins is fondly remembered by musicians in the orchestra because he served diligently with them in the trenches — and, in many ways, grew up as a conductor here — before moving on to have a prominent national career. Today he has his own orchestra, as music director of the Omaha Symphony, and is principal guest conductor of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra.

Before rehearsals began this week, the musicians had to take a substantial, potentially devastating pay cut, or else the season could have been canceled. I am certain they appreciated the supportive presence of Wilkins at a demoralizing time.

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Source: St. Petersburg Times
Published: October 7, 2010
By: John Fleming

Florida Orchestra musicians agree to pay cuts

ST. PETERSBURG — The Florida Orchestra is opening the 2010-11 season this week with a revised musicians' labor contract. Details have not been released by either the orchestra board and management or the musicians, but the bottom line will be less income for the musicians.

"We approached the musicians about a revision to the existing contract, and they agreed," said Michael Pastreich, president of the orchestra, who declined to elaborate on Wednesday.

Essentially, the contract revision will mean that the base salary for orchestra members will be $24,500 for 24 weeks of work during this season and 2011-12. That's a reduction from what had been planned, a 31-week season with minimum annual salary of $28,800. Some youth and parks concerts are likely to be canceled.

The contract's changes, which orchestra musicians ratified in a vote before their first rehearsal on Tuesday, and other budget cuts were inevitable. In the fiscal year that ended on June 30, the orchestra had a substantial deficit — as much as $750,000, Pastreich said in an interview in September. Those figures have not yet been released.

These are hard times for many orchestras. On Wednesday, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra canceled this weekend's concerts, the first casualties of the musicians' strike that began on Monday. The Detroit Symphony is projecting a $9 million deficit and has asked the players to take a 30 percent pay cut.

Guest conductor Thomas Wilkins will lead the Florida Orchestra in four concerts over the next four days, beginning tonight at the Center for the Arts at Wesley Chapel.

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Source: St. Petersburg Times
Published: October 6, 2010
By: John Fleming

Pop quiz with popular orchestra conductor Tom Wilkins

Often, when an orchestra conductor turns around to speak to the audience, it's time to cringe. Conductors are trained to make music, not small talk. • But Tom Wilkins is different. For eight years, until 2002, he was resident conductor of the Florida Orchestra, and because of his witty, welcoming manner on the podium, he was a popular figure with audiences. He's a good conductor, too, and his time here is fondly recalled by the musicians. • So maybe it's no surprise that Wilkins has turned his charm on Hollywood. • Since 2008 he has been principal guest conductor with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra in Los Angeles, where he's fresh off performances with Earth, Wind and Fire and Pink Martini. • Wilkins, 53, also was resident conductor of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra for a decade, and now has his own orchestra, as music director of the Omaha Symphony. He has a busy guest conducting schedule, frequently appearing with the likes of the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Indianapolis Symphony and the New Jersey Symphony. • This week he returns to lead the Florida Orchestra in its season-opening concerts featuring The Pines of Rome, Respighi's splashy tone poem. Because Wilkins was always so quick with a quip, we asked him if he would submit to a little pop quiz, and he was happy to play along.

1. Favorite piece to conduct?

Mahler's First Symphony. It's a piece I've known since I was a young boy when I first started to fall in love with classical music. It seems to me that there is not a moment in that symphony that doesn't know me personally. When I was first old enough to walk to the public library by myself, it was a monumental thing because that's where all the albums were. I heard Mahler One at the library. It's always been a very special piece for me.

2. Piece you dream of conducting?

The final scene of Salome. You know why I haven't conducted it? Because I cannot get a soprano to do it for three days straight.

3. Composer to have a beer with?

Haydn, just based on his sense of humor and my sense of humor. Reading through his compositions, you can see the twinkle in his eye.

4. You're conducting The Pines of Rome with the orchestra. The Tampa Bay equivalent should be . . .

The Pines of Pinellas Park.

5. Music playing in your car?

Currently, it's a compilation CD with Willie Nelson, Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder.

9. What's in heavy rotation on your iPod?

I vacillate between Miles Davis, Nancy Wilson, Pink Martini (pictured), James Taylor and opera arias.

6. L.A. celebrity you'd like to be mistaken for?

Denzel Washington.

7. L.A. celebrity you are mistaken for?

I was just mistaken for Al Jarreau leaving the hotel on Monday morning.

8. Favorite movie score?

Seven Years in Tibet.

10. Coolest guest artist you've conducted?

I had a lot of fun with Chris Isaak. I had a lot of fun with B.B. King. Maybe B.B. King would top Chris.

11. Most "pop'' classical artist?

Kirill Gerstein. Kirill thought he was going to be a jazz pianist. He's one classical player who really understands what "groove'' — his word, not mine — is.

12. Most "classical'' pop artist you've worked with?

There's a part of me that wants to say Branford Marsalis, because I've turned Branford on to a lot of classical music. But the pop artist that I've worked with who really loves classical music is Bruce Hornsby. He is a major Charles Ives fanatic.

13. How are L.A. audiences different from those in Tampa Bay?

Not at all. And that was a surprise to me. People love sincerity, and it doesn't matter where you are. The audience at the Bowl has responded to me the same way audiences have responded to me all across the country. They love genuineness and sincerity.

14. If you go to the Hollywood Bowl or any concert in a park, what's in your picnic basket?

One container of Gatorade, two bananas and one Snickers bar.

15. What's the best (or worst) Hollywood habit you've picked up?

Impatience with tourists. Because my hotel is at Hollywood and Highland, and if I ever want to walk to the CVS, I have to weave in and out of people standing on Hollywood Boulevard and taking pictures.

16. What does "going Hollywood'' mean?

Not getting excited when you see actors on the street.

17. What does "going Omaha'' mean?

Engaging strangers in conversation.

18. And "going Tampa Bay''?

Being able to golf in the winter.

19. TV show you never miss? Mad Men.

20. If you could learn a new instrument from scratch, what would it be?

Steel guitar.

21. What advice would you give to young musicians who want to grow up to be just like you?

Always know that the music is greater than we are.

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Source: St. Petersburg Times
Published: October 6, 2010
By: John Fleming

5 particularly promising programs in TFO's 2010-11 season

It can be hard to predict what's going to stand out in the Florida Orchestra's season. Inevitably, a little-ballyhooed program turns out to be a highlight. One of my candidates for the sleeper of this season is the April 15-17 program that includes a pair of Sibelius works, his Symphony No. 7 and the tone poem En Saga. Music director Stefan Sanderling and the orchestra have been concentrating on the Finnish composer the past few seasons. Other standbys of the repertoire I'm looking forward to are Mahler's Symphony No. 6 (Nov. 5-7), Shostakovich's Symphony No. 15 (March 12-13) and Bruckner's Symphony No. 4, Romantic (May 13-15). Top-level soloists include Mark Kosower in the Dvorak Cello Concerto (Dec. 4-5) and Augustin Hadelich in the Brahms Violin Concerto (May 27-28). Here are five programs that look particularly promising.

1. Sanderling makes his first appearance of the season with Haydn's grandiose The Creation. With a text mainly drawn from Genesis and Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost, the oratorio will feature three soloists — soprano Heidi Grant Murphy, tenor Philippe Castagner, baritone Leon Williams — and the Master Chorale of Tampa Bay, prepared by its new artistic director, James Bass. Oct. 22-24.

2. Time for Three headlines the orchestra's pops programming. Made up of violinists Zach De Pue and Nick Kendall and double bassist Ranaan Meyer, the group performs a funky mix of styles ranging from bluegrass and jazz to Renaissance chorales. No less an eminence than Simon Rattle, the Berlin Philharmonic's chief conductor, describes the trio as "three benevolent monsters, monsters of ability and technique surely . . . but also conveyors of an infectious joy that I find both touching and moving.'' Oct. 29-31.

3. The orchestra celebrates the opening of the new Salvador Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg with the traditional (Beethoven's Consecration of the House), the Spanish (de Falla's Three-Cornered Hat) and the surreal (HK Gruber's Frankenstein!! A Pan-Demonium for Chansonnier & Ensemble). Jan. 14-16.

4. Beethoven's towering Ninth Symphony is always an event. The vocal quartet — Layla Claire, soprano; Frances Pappas, mezzo-soprano; Steven Tharp, tenor; Richard Zeller, baritone — and the Master Chorale will patiently wait through three movements before making their contributions in the finale's Ode to Joy. The concert opens with Schoenberg's hymn for peace, Friede auf Erden. Feb. 25-27.

5. Sarah Shellman, principal second violin of the orchestra, is the soloist in a dazzling, difficult contemporary work, the Violin Concerto of English composer Thomas Ades. Called Concentric Paths, the concerto's sensuous sound suggests a meeting of Led Zeppelin and Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. "It is a work of astonishing fearlessness and fierce beauty,'' critic Peter Culshaw wrote. March 25 and 27.

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Source: Tampa Tribune
Published: October 4, 2010
By: Kathy Greenberg

Orchestra returns with familiar hand on baton

The Florida Orchestra begins its 2010-2011 season with the return of Thomas Wilkins to the podium. From 1994 to 2002, he was the orchestra's resident conductor, serving the community both behind and beyond concert hall doors.

"The Florida Orchestra is a vital part of the quality of life," said Wilkins, who is currently the Omaha Symphony's music director. "For me, that involved a lot of activities with children, and the organization provided the opportunity for me to do that. It was a huge thing for me to be an earnest community partner."

Wilkins' selections for the October Masterworks concert reflect the message he has always tried to impart to audiences and, specifically, children: Music is more than notes on a page. From Respighi's textured "Pines of Rome" to Borodin's emotive "Prince Igor: Polovtsian Dances" to Faure's delicate and elegant "Pelléas et Mélisande, op 80: Suite," they all try to articulate who we are.

"Liszt is telling a story of the great overture of life, our own beginnings, our own quest in 'Les Préludes (Symphonic Poem No. 3).' Jim Beckel is telling a story of the brilliance of orchestra with his 'Toccata.' In general. all of these composers are telling stories that, as human beings, we are built as conquerors. There's a thing called the indelible human spirit. When challenged by an obstacle, we're built to rise up," said Wilkins.

It's especially fitting that "Pines of Rome" starts off with an image of children playing soldier, then transitions to the deadly realities of war, glory and ultimate triumph. This is life, he is saying. This is all that we are. And this is exactly what Wilkins wants people — kids — to appreciate about music.

"The thing I wanted to do was to get kids to understand that the music we play in the orchestral world has a direct relationship to their everyday lives. For me, music is more about being a tool to teach life's skills to children. Music is not just about instruments or the life of a composer, but our lives as human beings — how we are supposed to react as human beings to the story being told," Wilkins said.

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Source: St. Petersburg Times
Published: October 4, 2010
By: John Fleming

Meet TFO: Andrew Karr, French horn

With the orchestra since: 2008

Originally from: Boston (Brookline), Mass.

Education: The Curtis Institute of Music

Age I started studying my instrument: Piano at 5, horn at 9

Favorite date night place to eat out (in Tampa Bay): La Teresita for casual, South Howard strip or Ybor City for fun.

Last book I read was: Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell.

An offbeat fact about you: I speak four languages proficiently and many more poorly. I have traveled to and performed in 30 different countries.

Funniest concert moment: The time in the Philippines where I was playing at a massive sports arena for a Concert for World Peace. The producers thought it would be a nice touch to release seven white doves of peace while the orchestra was playing. One of them promptly flew over and "blessed" my tuxedo.

The question you're asked most often about your instrument (and your answer): 1) Q. Why do you stick your hand in the bell? A. So we don't sound like a trombone! 2) Q. Why is it called a French horn if it's not French? A. Because the Brits think that anything with nice curves must be French.

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