Arts Who Cares About the Music?
What exactly does Mayor Greg Nickels consider to be 23-year Seattle Symphony music director Gerard Schwarz’s chief contribution to “artistic achievement throughout the city”?
The overwhelming vote of no confidence he received from his musicians in a survey made public July 14, six days before the Mayor’s Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs announced Schwarz would receive one of the city’s 2006 arts awards?
The way critics and players say the orchestra performs better with guest conductors than Schwarz?
How almost nobody cheered when Schwarz’s contract was renewed for another three years this spring, including the experienced orchestra executive director, who promptly resigned?
The way the other orchestras of the West Coast—Los Angeles, San Francisco, and even Oregon—have left the Seattle Symphony in the artistic dust?
How Schwarz’s programming utterly lacks conviction or vision about where classical music is going?
How Seattle Symphony’s Made in America festival of the last two years—its “risk-taking” experiment in “new” music—was so conservative that it was hardly worth doing at all?
So much to choose from. The awards ceremony will be Sept 1. Don’t miss your chance to salute this artist without whom our city’s classical music leadership would not be the disappointment it is.
Ouch...