Mr. Lawrence's comments are nothing if not self serving, since he, as well as his colleague at the Miami Herald, was instrumental in bringing about the death of the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra. At the time, the two of them (the Herald music critic has since passed on, so I shall not print his name) were very busy stoaking the fires of anti-unionism in South Florida, thus being true mouthpieces for their anti-labor employers. In their view, a successful, union-organised orchestra in South Florida, and one that had the chutzpah to go on strike on top of it, could not be tolerated. So both critics were turned loose on the FPO and it's musicians. I was one of those musicians and I remember well being interviewed by Mr. Lawrence during the strike, only to be missquoted in his subsequent article.

The practice of misquoting and misrepresenting musicians only balooned over the next two years, with the two music critics acting as the leaders of the lynch mob. Not once was there any effort at all on their side to present a balanced view of the issues at hand, or to act in a responsible maner. To the musicians this was not much of a surprise: between the two of them, the critics of the Sun-Sentinel and the Herald reviewed in detail pieces that were not played during the concert (really!), praised and criticised musicians who were not on stage, and commented on solos from instruments that were not playing. Never was there an explanation or an apology offered, either to the musicians or the public.

Regarding serving the community, Mr. Lawrence knows extreemly well that the FPO's nickname was the "I 95 orchestra," due to the fact that it traveled and performed for all it's constituent communities, from Miami to Palm Beach, rather than expect music lovers from such a large area to come one location.

To remember all these bothersome details, as well as to write about what a community, any community, loses when an organization of the caliber of the Florida Philharmonic close down, would take a lot more courage and moral fiber than someone like Mr. Lawrence posseses. It's much easier to twist facts, to not write at all about others (what happened to all the school concerts and programs that the FPO pursued so vigurously, for most kids, the only chance they had to come in contact with classical music), and generally to rewrite history according to an incredibly selective and defective memory.

I also found it interesting that in Mr. Lawrences comments here or elsewhere nothing is mentioned about the role that local political infighting and the petty interests of those who fancy themselves movers and shakers, has in events such as the death of the FPO, and how the community as such, particularly in a place such as South Florida, can have no input in it's own cultural future when it faces the likes of Dan Lewis, the last chairman of the board of the FPO, who had his own agenda (I understand the Cleveland Orchestra, Mr. Lewis' hometown orchestra will now have a residency in Miami, something that Mr. Lewis was instrumental in bringing about) and minions such as Mr. Lawrence.

The sad thing is that, despite Mr. Lawrence's assurances otherwise, it is the community who suffers from such a demise, the people who can not jump into their own plane to go to New York or to Aspen to hear a concert, the kids who grow up in a community where they will never hear even the words "classical" and "music" in the same sentence and the elderly for whom the twice a season FPO concerts at their retirement community was something they looked forward all year.

Hopefully, other communities will have learned the true lessons from this tragedy, lessons to which paid mouthpieces such as Mr. Lawrence will always be deaf.