Orchestra seeks to achieve 'balance' | NEWSMAKERS | VIDEO

Philharmoic starts 76th season

• Posted September 12, 2010 at 12:09 a.m.

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The Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra is embarking on its 76th season with performances that celebrate the best in American classical music, revel in the works of Mozart and embark on journeys from gospel to the best on Broadway.

Like many arts organizations in the Tri-State and elsewhere, the Philharmonic is working to maintain and grow its audience in the midst of enormous economic and demographic changes.

Glenn Roberts, executive director of the Evansville Philharmonic, appears this week on "Newsmakers," a weekly public-affairs television program co-produced by WNIN-PBS9 and the Courier & Press. Roberts is beginning his sixth year in Evansville and is the former executive director of the Northeast Pennsylvania Philharmonic Orchestra.

The following is an edited transcript of Roberts' interview with Courier & Press Editor Mizell Stewart III. The entire interview can be seen today at 11:30 a.m. on WNIN.

Q: The opening night performance this year features two accomplished guest violinists, Mark O'Connor and Kelly Hall-Tompkins, in a tribute to American music. How do you and Alfred Savia, the music director, put together a season?

A: Well, that's a wonderful process. It's probably the most fun part of our job that we have is to put together a season. Of course, we have a classic series, and then the pops series, and within each we seek to find a balance.

There is, perhaps, a certain kind of repertoire we want to feature, perhaps a certain period of time we want to feature, perhaps the guest artist is the one who is driving the program.

In terms of the opening night concert, it all began, actually, before Mark O'Connor was entered into the picture. We wanted to do a program of all American music. So we have Ives on there, variations for "America," we've got "An American in Paris" by Gershwin, and then we've got Copeland's "Appalachian Spring" and we thought, 'Who would be the right guest artist for this?' And we came up with Mark O'Connor. And Mark is just one of those crossover artists. He's comfortable doing Appalachian music

Q: One thing that was quite intriguing about Kelly Hall-Tompkins' background is that she credits the youth orchestra of the Greenville (S.C.) Symphony for her getting her start. I want Evansville Philharmonic in terms of the public performance aspect of what you do, but there is also a major educational component.

A: We are all about engaging the community in the powerful experience of live symphonic music. That has to cross all generations. One of the most important things we do is our education program where we introduce youngsters to symphonic music.

We have several programs. One, starting at the very youngest age, preschool and kindergarten, is our Lollipops Concerts. We introduce them to musicians and symphonic music, and we also have other concerts, our Young People's Concerts, which target grades 3 through 5.

For many of these kids, it's their first introduction to hearing a full symphony orchestra playing at full throttle. Hopefully that will inspire many of them to take up an instrument themselves and learn how to play an instrument, in which case we partner with schools, with the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp., to strengthen their instrumental programs.

You mentioned a youth orchestra program. That's a very big part of the whole philharmonic umbrella is our Evansville Philharmonic Youth Orchestras, where we help supplement what they are learning in their schools by coming together and performing real symphonic music and doing two performances a year.

So many people who turn to symphonic music as patrons and ticket buyers, they have had a history of playing an instrument themselves or singing in a choir. And so it is critical to invest in the youth so they can experience that and become musicians themselves.

Q: We are in the age of hip-hop and file-sharing and iPods. How do you engage young people in classical music forms and instrumental music when there is so much variety out there?

A: That's a true challenge in our business and, I would say, in any of the performing arts businesses and probably in the entertainment industry itself. I think over the decades people have become very eclectic in what they like. It used to be that you were pegged as either a classical music lover or a country music lover or a jazz lover, but now people have got an appreciation for all of this.

It's getting them into the concert hall and making it a part of their regular lives. It's a challenge, yes, but we hope that word of mouth, social networking when going to a concert is something you do not just for the experience of hearing the music but as a way to connect with other people. It's a great night out.

At the Evansville Philharmonic, we're trying to stay ahead of these trends in social networking and social media. We have a Facebook page that we started a couple of years ago. We just started on Twitter. That's a way that some of the younger generation can spread the word about the orchestra and make it a real social event as well.

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