The demise of a symphony is usually cause for gnashing of civic teeth over lost community status, lost performance experience, and lost infrastructure for working musicians. That was certainly the case with the collapse of the Florida Philharmonic in South Florida back in 2003. But Lawrence Johnson in the Sun-Sentinal suggests that the death may have led to a new life in the classical music scene.
In the music marketplace and creative/financial energy released by the Philharmonic’s dissolution, several smaller ensembles have sprung up to serve the classical music community. Says Johnson:
It’s not what former Philharmonic musicians want to hear, nor what those who prefer to experience the rich glory and volume of a large symphony orchestra desire. But the fact is that these smaller, less expensive orchestras and chamber ensembles may be more effectively serving the needs of local audiences than the Florida Philharmonic.
While the region is likely to be served by touring symphonies of larger scope and scale, these smaller ensembles serve a niche market but also carry a much lower overhead. Says Marshall Turkin, co-founder and executive director of new Boca Raton Philharmonic Symphonia:
”Each community is forming its own little orchestra, which will function as the image of its community,” said Turkin, who sees the downsizing as a healthy response accommodating the needs of regional audiences. ”Boca can afford to maintain a chamber orchestra indefinitely. I don’t think the Boca area can afford a full symphony for more than year or two.”
Certainly, South Florida is a strange and unique region of the world — with seasonal audiences, retirees, a sprawling market area, and a radically shifting demographic. But the upside of downsizing the area’s orchestral infrastructure offers a fascinating case worth watching.
Nicolae Soare says
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.
Andrew Singer, South Florida Philharmonic Orchestra says
From the ashes of the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra still under the name of its Cleveland hometown boy Daniel Lewis, comes the Phoenix, South Florida Philharmonic Orchestra, a name that you can not threaten to sue, Mr. Lewis. Mr. Lewis whatever happened to that Library of Music that the Musicians of the FPO earned? The writer/Musician has the exact truth and nothing less than the truth about the demise of the FPO at the hands of Daniel Lewis.
I find it disgusting how Mr. Lewis turned on those people that brought beautiful Classical Music to South Florida. I will never attend a Concert in which Mr. Lewis is part of. The Cleveland Orchestra made a sour note of Classical Musical when they chose Daniel Lewis and he made Musicians in the FPO hate him. As for the people’s collection of music estimated to be a half million dollars, that should be placed in a Library where it can be used rather than an asset that only Daniel Lewis can touch. Save your money on Concert Tickets to the Cleveland Orchestra and give Mr. Lewis what he deserves, a one way ticket to Cleveland.