{"id":876,"date":"2024-04-30T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-30T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/?p=876"},"modified":"2024-04-17T16:10:58","modified_gmt":"2024-04-17T16:10:58","slug":"behold-lo-the-louisville-orchestra-walks-the-walk-of-a-nonprofit-arts-organization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/2024\/04\/30\/behold-lo-the-louisville-orchestra-walks-the-walk-of-a-nonprofit-arts-organization\/","title":{"rendered":"Behold LO: The Louisville Orchestra Walks the Walk of a Nonprofit Arts Organization"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Bourbon, bats, and basketball. Mint juleps, fast horses, and \u201cKeep Louisville Weird.\u201d Muhammad Ali, Jennifer Lawrence, and Mitch McConnell. And, happily, Teddy Abrams.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Louisville, Kentucky. Teddy Abrams, center.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

LOUISVILLE, KY \u2014 Horses race in the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on the first Saturday of every May. The college\u2019s sports teams (the ones who wear red, not the ones who wear blue) tend to be pretty good (although not so much this year). The Greatest of All Time was born here. Great writers are from Louisville \u2013 Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Marsha Norman, internet storyteller Jon Bois, alphabetically-obsessed detective writer Sue Grafton, and the Gonzo icon Hunter S. Thompson, among others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then there\u2019s this orchestra.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Louisville Orchestra<\/a> (LO) won a Grammy\u00ae Award in 2024 \u2014 Best Classical Instrumental Solo (The American Project – Yuja Wang; Teddy Abrams, conductor)<\/a>. And while an award is a special kind of acclaim, Abrams would give it back if it meant that they couldn\u2019t bring their music to the people \u2013 all the people, not just those with Krugerrands in their Herm\u00e8s Birkin bags. They are expert chefs who have prepared exquisite food \u2013 and don\u2019t insist that all of it has to be served within the same four walls of a chichi bistro. In fact, the LO would prefer to give away their version of artistic sustenance if it benefits those who might never get it any other way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Open Fifth<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The perfect way to describe the culture of the region can be found in the principal feature of the music of this region, \u201cthe open fifth.\u201d In Louisville, the birthplace and chief purveyor of bourbon whiskey, an open fifth might mean there\u2019s a party going on. Or, that it\u2019s, I don\u2019t know, Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in a musical sense, the open fifth is that bare, unfulfilling sound when the two notes DO and SOL are played together.  Sometimes it is transposed to appear to be an \u201copen fourth\u201d when the two notes are SOL and the higher DO. But the feeling is the same either way. Whether the open fifth is performed by a choir, a bluegrass fiddle, or a symphony orchestra, it has a mischievous, reedy quality, even when played quickly. Unresolved, it offers the idea that something is afoot. \u201cCould be\/Who knows\u2026\u201d (Higher DO-SOL\/Higher DO-SOL) the opening of the song \u201cSomething\u2019s Coming\u201d from West Side Story, has that unsettled air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Open Fifth<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

If you add a note between DO and SOL, the feeling of the music changes radically. Adding MI, for example, makes it a bright, major, birds-are-singing-and-all-is-right-with-the-world musical moment. But if you drop that third note by a half-step \u2014 ME (pronounced \u201cmeh\u201d or \u201cmay\u201d) \u2014 the result is a dreadful, minor, sorrowful, everyone\u2019s-dying musical moment. The tipping point between happiness and sadness is determined by a half-step.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the LO decided to bring its music to the people \u2014 rather than just being another good orchestra playing for rich, White people \u2014 they could have celebrated the notion by hoisting major-chord praise upon themselves. It could have been a moment of happy inclusiveness, one that required no additional support or fulfilled no other need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But they didn\u2019t do that. Abrams refused to add that third to the chord. The \u201copen fifth\u201d remained intact and ready to adapt. Abrams called it a \u201cdistinctive American sound.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think if you look at it as a metaphor,\u201d he said, \u201cthen as we come to communities locally or throughout the state, we’re not trying to tell people what to think or how to think. This is not some kind of subliminal program to get people to think something politically. We’re not trying to sneak in a hidden message through our music. We’re not trying to sell people on an ideology. This really is a celebration of largely American and Kentucky music. But also music from all eras with no agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Connecting with the people of Kentucky by providing services where arts organizations have never been in the past is the primary goal of the company. However Kentuckians can be made more tolerant, more open to change and cultural shifts, and more engaged \u2014 in essence, more whole \u2014 can be done through the work of the LO. The same applies to almost every region in America, and the key to success is intent. The orchestra just has to want to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Teddy Abrams<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

America doesn\u2019t have just one orchestra or is part of some fictitious National Orchestra League in which there are franchises in Cleveland, New York, Los Angeles, Louisville, or San Francisco. That would be ridiculous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As such, and this emphasis is a key to this particular success story, this is the Louisville Orchestra<\/em>. No other orchestra creates the powerful impact for Louisville and the rest of Kentucky. It could not exist anywhere else because these people partner with the people who live here \u2014 all the people, not just the elite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Teddy Abrams<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe pandemic was when this all really shifted for us,\u201d said Abrams in an exclusive interview, \u201cbecause that\u2019s when I basically said to our people that we needed to frame the institution as an essential part of the town, not as a vestigial thing that could be cut, something no one would notice. We talked about what we do as something that can be framed and structured around an essential thing that people love and care about and can’t imagine living without. If we could do that, we\u2019d be just fine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He continued, \u201cThis was the first time in my entire life that we’ve ever actually thought about the results, and not the result of artistic excellence, but it’s not a result. That’s a practice. You should be artistically excellent anyway. Who doesn’t want to be artistic? Who goes in saying, \u2018We’re going to do the community engagement thing, but now we’re not going to be artistic excellence.\u2019? That’s insane, that doesn’t mean anything at all, that’s just words thrown together. We as an American orchestra ecosystem still have not fully recognized the value of what American culture really might be, which is crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The commonwealth sponsored a two-year tour of every county in Kentucky, performing free of charge in rural and urban areas; in high school gyms, local theaters, libraries, and myriad other types of meeting places (even a performance at Mammoth Cave), in which they not only performed orchestral work, but played with Kentucky music legends such as Grammy\u00ae<\/sup> winning bluegrass aficionado Michael Cleveland and his group, Flamekeeper. From experience, I can tell you that bluegrass and orchestral music combined to make \u201cOrange Blossom Special\u201d an unmatched, runaway-train, magical, all-Kentucky sound. Even in a high school gymnasium. Now that I think of it, especially <\/em>in a high school gym, with people step-dancing in the aisles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Michael Cleveland and Flamekeeper playing in front of the Louisville Orchestra (conductor Teddy Abrams, center)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s next? Well, the commonwealth just put another $4.3 million<\/a> in the budget to cover the next two years of performances. Their reasoning is sound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou always hear about the rural\/urban divide,\u201d said GOP State Senator Robert Stivers, the Senate President, in an interview with PBS about why he helped steward the first round of funding. \u201cWhat we\u2019re doing and what [the LO] is trying to do is to bridge those gaps.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everyone in the state should catch a performance. But every orchestra in the country should re-think their reason for performing orchestral music. Is yours? How about your theaters, dance companies, and operas? If it\u2019s not for the people who are paying your taxes, then who is it for? Acclaim? History? Vainglory? I\u2019ll have more on the Louisville Orchestra at a later date. Until then, there\u2019s a bourbon neat with my name on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Have you purchased your copy yet? Well, not to push, but my birthday IS coming up next week. And besides, your board, staff, artists, and volunteers will thank you for doing the right thing! Just click on the image to order yours right now. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The Louisville Orchestra would prefer to give away their version of artistic sustenance if it benefits those who might never get it any other way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":880,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,100,40,32,25,19,18,17,99],"tags":[10,113],"class_list":{"0":"post-876","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-culture","8":"category-book-recommendation","9":"category-change","10":"category-charity","11":"category-development-and-fundraising","12":"category-leadership","13":"category-nonprofit","14":"category-nonprofit-arts-organizations","15":"category-scene-change","16":"tag-impact","17":"tag-louiville","18":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Teddy-conducting-and-pointing.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":859,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/2024\/04\/23\/the-mellon-foundation-did-a-nice-thing-next-time-look-at-where-the-action-is\/","url_meta":{"origin":876,"position":0},"title":"The Mellon Foundation Did a Nice Thing. Next Time, Look at Where the Action Is.","author":"Alan Harrison","date":"April 23, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"If the Mellon Foundation would start to look at the next-level budgets, they\u2019ll find transformation is the purview of better-run organizations.","rel":"","context":"In "Arts and Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Arts and Culture","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/category\/arts-and-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/atlanta-and-louisville.jpg?fit=1200%2C650&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/atlanta-and-louisville.jpg?fit=1200%2C650&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/atlanta-and-louisville.jpg?fit=1200%2C650&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/atlanta-and-louisville.jpg?fit=1200%2C650&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/atlanta-and-louisville.jpg?fit=1200%2C650&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1517,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/2025\/10\/07\/a-punchy-outspoken-argument-for-how-nonprofit-arts-organizations-should-be-run\/","url_meta":{"origin":876,"position":1},"title":"“A PUNCHY, OUTSPOKEN ARGUMENT FOR HOW NONPROFIT ARTS ORGANIZATIONS SHOULD BE RUN.”","author":"Alan Harrison","date":"October 7, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"\"An example-driven new map to success in the realm of nonprofit theater.\" \u2014 Kirkus Reviews.","rel":"","context":"In "Arts and Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Arts and Culture","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/category\/arts-and-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Scene Change, Scene Change 2, and Scene Change 3 - 3 books to improve your arts organization","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/3-book-titles.jpg?fit=1200%2C606&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/3-book-titles.jpg?fit=1200%2C606&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/3-book-titles.jpg?fit=1200%2C606&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/3-book-titles.jpg?fit=1200%2C606&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/3-book-titles.jpg?fit=1200%2C606&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":853,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/2025\/07\/15\/art-doesnt-need-to-be-served-people-do\/","url_meta":{"origin":876,"position":2},"title":"SUMMER RERUN: Art Doesn\u2019t Need to Be Served. 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