league of american orchestras
Vision 2020: Martin Majkut
Rogue Valley Symphony's energetic conductor: music education in the schools is the key to getting people into concert halls
By: David Bates
Published January 12, 2020, in CULTURE, MUSIC, NW, OREGON, VISION 2020
Conductor Martin Majkut divides his time between the East and West Coasts. He's in his third season as musical director for the Queens Symphony Orchestra in New York. Fortunately for Oregonians, his West Coast life is rooted in Southern Oregon, where he has spent nearly a decade as conductor for the Rogue Valley Symphony.
VISION 2020: TWENTY VIEWS ON OREGON ARTS
Born in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia), Majkut graduated from the State Conservatory and served as assistant conductor of the Slovak Philharmonic while earning his Ph.D. in conducting at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava. He came to the United States as a Fulbright Scholar in 2003 and earned a DMA, his second doctorate, in 2008, at the University of Arizona.
He's been with the Rogue Valley Symphony since 2010, during which time the symphony marked its 50th anniversary.
Martin Majkut conducts symphony orchestras on both coasts. For its size and location, he says, Southern Oregon has a surprisingly vibrant art scene. Photo by: Christopher Briscoe
I know you split your time between two symphonies on two coasts, but I'm wondering if you could briefly characterize the general state of artistic and cultural life in the Medford area. What's going on there? What should the rest of Oregon know?
I jokingly maintain that Rogue Valley has "more arts than it deserves." What I mean is that for its size and its location, the arts scene is surprisingly vibrant, with a number of organizations producing good quality work. Lots of it, however, is driven by the retirees, who come by and large from the Bay Area. They move to Rogue Valley for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and discover other local institutions, which they are happy to support, as arts have been part of their lifestyle in their previous life. The local arts boards consist mainly of people who were not born in the area. As much as we strive to enrich everyone's life, deep down it is still a rural area and arts are an import.
Oregon Symphony's diversity deficit
Orchestra's 2018-19 classical programming fails to reflect its hometown's inclusive values
By: Oregon ArtsWatch
Published September 21, 2018, in FEATURED, MUSIC
by DAMIEN GETER
The Oregon Symphony opens its 2018-19 Classical Series Sunday with a musically diverse program and a glittering star — Renee Fleming. As varied as the concert selections are, though, they all have one thing in common: they were all written by white people. In fact, in the orchestra's entire main classical subscription series this season, only one composer of color, out of about 46, is programmed – Unsuk Chin's Violin Concerto.
This is not a phenomenon happening only with the Oregon Symphony, or only among Oregon orchestras. African American composer Evan Williams noted that he considers himself among the lucky after landing a commission with the Cincinnati Symphony. That piece, however, was not recorded — and was performed only on a children's concert.
Composer Evan Williams
"There isn't a lot of music by black composers being played, and often when it is, it's in February [for black history month]." Williams says, "It feels like an afterthought." Unfortunately, no one in the League of American Orchestras, the member organization that supports the nation's symphony orchestras, or the Oregon Symphony keeps track of the statistics surrounding programming composers of color.
Narrow Expectations
Granted, other special concerts feature a variety of performers and composers of color targeted toward a very specific audience, like gospel Christmas. "The classical subscription series makes up less than half of our total programming," says Natasha Kautsky, vice president of marketing and strategic engagement for the Oregon Symphony. "Through a wide variety of musical offerings, we target virtually every demographic across economic and social groups. While other larger orchestras may have a majority of classical concerts, our mix is much more diverse."
Carlos Kalmar led the Oregon Symphony's season-ending concerts.
But those "special" concerts are not led by the music director, meaning the regular patrons of the Oregon Symphony are not exposed to the music of this under-represented group of composers in its regular, sixteen week classical subscription series — the largest source of revenue for the orchestra, which plays for a mainly white demographic. Orchestra decision makers, like any business operators, work to keep their customers, or in this case, audience happy. And that audience has been trained by many decades of demographically narrow programming to expect a certain product. Continuously programming mostly music from the popular Viennese composers and other 18th and 19th century Europeans has resulted in an audience that wants more Beethoven, and Brahms. That also means, in Portland, Tchaikovsky is sure to make an appearance each season. But not composers of color.