{"id":916,"date":"2018-01-16T14:20:50","date_gmt":"2018-01-16T19:20:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/?p=916"},"modified":"2018-01-16T14:20:50","modified_gmt":"2018-01-16T19:20:50","slug":"americas-most-exceptional-orchestra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/2018\/01\/americas-most-exceptional-orchestra.html","title":{"rendered":"America’s Most Exceptional Orchestra"},"content":{"rendered":"

Setting aside PostClassical Ensemble<\/a>, the guerilla DC chamber orchestra I co-founded fourteen years ago, the most exceptional American orchestra I know is the South Dakota Symphony.<\/p>\n

South Dakota\u2019s \u201cCopland and Mexico\u201d festival, which concluded last Sunday afternoon, had many highlights. The performance of Silvestre Revueltas\u2019s Sensemaya<\/em> was lots better than the versions you can see on youtube conducted by Gustavo Dudamel. The crucial difference was a slightly slower tempo, maximizing the weight and momentum of this amazing Mexican juggernaut, and the expert punctuation of certain rhythmic details at the very end. The musicians, for whom Revueltas was a discovery, responded with an infectious gratitude and excitement I do not typically encounter elsewhere.<\/p>\n

Another new work for the orchestra as Aaron Copand\u2019s prize-winning 1934 Communist workers\u2019 song, \u201cInto the Street May First!\u201d It was to have been sung by a local chorus. When that fell through, the musicians took it over with interest and alacrity, singing from their seats. (A few scurrilously threatened to \u201ctake a knee.\u201d)<\/p>\n

Only a veteran of American symphonic affairs could fully appreciate the South Dakota situation. Many orchestras are fractured by tensions between \u201clabor\u201d and \u201cmanagement.\u201d Wariness and indifference are pervasive. When the Pittsburgh Symphony went on strike in 2016, the picketing players were quick to differentiate themselves from the institution. That would be unthinkable in Sioux Falls.<\/p>\n

The crucial ingredient is the 57-year-old music director: Delta David Gier. A year into his tenure, he moved to Sioux Falls. He and his wife have raised their kids there. What he has achieved would have been unthinkable had he not decided to become a local resident. That many American music directors live off site is tolerated far more than it should be. Art museums aren\u2019t run by outsiders. Neither are theater companies.<\/p>\n

Gier\u2019s South Dakota programing is sophisticated. He emphasizes new and American works. Next season\u2019s Mahler 8 will complete a comprehensive South Dakota Mahler cycle. He does without guest conductors and brand-name soloists. His 14-year tenure shows what can happen, over time, when a music director with vision is manning the home front.<\/p>\n

The orchestra\u2019s signature initiative is the Lakota Music Project, which Gier initiated in 2009. It connects SDSO to six Indian reservations. The relationship is symbiotic; it builds trust and community. To date, SDSO has produced more than 30 side-by-side musical events juxtaposing two cultures and their practitioners.<\/p>\n

Two seasons ago, SDSO travelled to the Lake Traverse Indian Reservation to perform \u201cDvorak\u2019s America,\u201d exploring the influence of Longfellow\u2019s The Song of Hiawatha<\/em> on Dvorak\u2019s New World<\/em> Symphony. I reported the outcome in this space<\/a>. The mood on the bus was cheerful: business as usual. Many another orchestra would have resented that three-hour ride.<\/p>\n

Last week\u2019s \u201cCopland and Mexico\u201d was partly undertaken as an overture to Sioux Falls\u2019 Hispanic community. The Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe was a center of attention. So were two middle school classes that spent two months studying aspects of Mexican culture and history. The students\u2019 \u201cinfographics\u201d were displayed in the lobbies of the Washington Pavilion performing arts center. Six middle schoolers took part in pre-concert discussions with Gier. More than 500 newcomers to SDSO attended the festival concerts for free. The hall was packed with families.<\/p>\n

The contract SDSO has negotiated with its players promotes a degree of \u201cservice flexibility\u201d that could be controversial elsewhere. It maximizes opportunities to send musicians to schools, hospitals, health centers — and Indian reservations. The musicians feel well utilized. They interact as a family.<\/p>\n

Both \u201cDvorak and America\u201d and \u201cCopland and Mexico\u201d came to Sioux Falls via the NEH-funded Music Unwound<\/a> consortium that I am fortunate to direct. SDSO is the ideal recipient. Both prongs of Music Unwound \u2013 contextualized, cross-disciplinary programs, and linkage to institutions of education \u2013 are fully served.<\/p>\n

\u201cCopland and Mexico\u201d tells the story of Aaron Copland\u2019s 1930s Mexican epiphany. The examples of Diego Rivera and Carlos Chavez turned him into a populist \u2013 even, for a time, a political artist on the far left. We heard Copland\u2019s El Salon Mexico<\/em>. Mainly, however, the program introduced a lesser-known musical genius surpassing Copland: the mercurial, short-lived Revueltas. The main event was a film with live music: Redes<\/em> (1935), in which Paul Strand\u2019s hypnotic cinematography and Revueltas\u2019s volatile score mark one of the highest and most dialectical achievements in marrying music with the moving image.<\/p>\n

It was Gier\u2019s inspiration to rupture the concert with a surprise. Not only did \u201cInto the Streets, May First!\u201d interrupt the scripted narration; it was instantly followed by a re-enactment of Copland\u2019s testimony when in 1953 he was subpoenaed by Joe McCarthy and asked if he had ever been a Communist. Bob Wendland, playing Copland, stood in a solitary spotlight; McCarthy\u2019s voice of god was declaimed from on high. As with so many American artists and intellectuals, Copland\u2019s Depression-era politicization returned to haunt him during the Red Scare.<\/p>\n

The SDSO concerts incorporated vigorous 45-minute post-concert discussions. On Saturday night, an audience member asked how the musicians felt about accompanying a film. Mario Chiarello, one of three members of the double bass section who teaches music in Sioux Falls public schools, had joined the post-concert audience \u2013 and volunteered a response. He explained that Redes<\/em> was twice rehearsed without the film. With the addition of the film at the dress rehearsal, he said, a new dimension was attained. The musicians could not see the overhead screen, but an uncanny sensation swept the orchestra \u2013 a feeling of being empowered by \u201csomething bigger.\u201d<\/p>\n

That could stand as a metaphor for the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Setting aside PostClassical Ensemble, the guerilla DC chamber orchestra I co-founded fourteen years ago, the most exceptional American orchestra I know is the South Dakota Symphony. South Dakota\u2019s \u201cCopland and Mexico\u201d festival, which concluded last Sunday afternoon, had many highlights. The performance of Silvestre Revueltas\u2019s Sensemaya was lots better than the versions you can see […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"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_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-916","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2QLHN-eM","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=916"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":918,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916\/revisions\/918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}