Dress code clarity

Tuxedos just keep the mass audience away that would otherwise be interested in giving classical music concerts a chance.  After all, the only reason orchestras wear tuxedos is because they had to back in the 1800's.…

Why not have a competition among designers to create a new 'public friendly' concert dress for the performers? They should get input from players as to comfort, movement that facilitates playing (I know I hate playing my horn in a tux), and repetitive 'wearability' (washing machines and dryers). Every time I've pitched that idea to an orchestra executive all I get is reasons why it won't work or why the current audience would hate it.

Well, I don't hate the idea. A competition could be pretty wonderful -- it'd get good publicity, as well as (we hope) producing something the musicians would want to wear.

But input from the players is important. Late in the '80s, I served informally as a consultant on the Grammys. The producer wanted to have a full orchestra, and called me, out of the proverbial blue, to ask if I thought that would work. (I was pop music critic for the L.A. Herald-Examiner, and hadn't hidden my classical background.) Thinking fast, I told him that if he added saxes and a rhythm section, he could think of the orchestra as a big band with strings, and then it would work with everything.

He really made it go. He opened the show, I remember, with Whitney Houston, singing with the full orchestra behind her. And if I remember correctly, he later used the orchestra (minus the saxes and rhythm section) to accompany Leontyne Price. It all came off wonderfully.

There was just one problem. He didn't want the orchestra in formal dress, so he had clothes designed, which looked classy, but with an appropriate touch of flash. And the players (or so the Grammys' music director told me) complained, saying the new creations didn't leave them free to move.

So any new design has to be carefully thought out. Don't think, though, that orchestras aren't pondering this. Ideas for more relaxed concert dress have been floated, I know, at two of the Big Five orchestras, and doubtless there are more cases I haven't heard of.

And one last example from recent experience. Last week, I saw the American Composers Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. For those who don't know it, this is an expert group that's been playing American music, much of it new or recent, in Carnegie Hall since the '70s. Dennis Russell Davies used to be music director; now it's Steven Sloane, who's quite good. The musicians are some of the best in New York, and to judge from concerts I've heard over the years, they're one of the best orchestras in America.

Anyhow, they were wearing black for the concert, but not formal black. I didn't see a tie of any color on stage, though I can't guarantee that I looked at every male musician. With everyone in black, they looked unified, sharp, but also not too formal. Seemed exactly right, and something orchestras playing standard pieces could easily adopt.

Though there was just one problem. One player, sitting on the outside of the first violins, wore a black velvet dress that was probably stunning close up. From the audience, though, it was so much blacker than the other outfits on stage that it stood out -- showing that even something as simple as an all-black dress code needs some policing.