Pineapple Express

Our little one, Sarah, just returned from an eight day field and science trip in Maui, together with other Catharine Blaine 8^th graders. The first thing she said was that Hawaii is so different from what the tourist brochures lead us to believe. Just like her sister who went on the school’s very first trip five years ago, these youngsters were shown life in the islands as it really is. Of course they got plenty of exposure to the fantastic nature with its unique plants and animals, but they were also taught to see life from a native Hawaiian’s point of view; not always a pretty picture.

Yes, we eventually turned Hawaii into the 50^th State, but for a long time ran the territory with a plantation-owner mentality. Even at the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the islands hardly were thought of as American soil, just a good place for a military base. A lot of native Hawaiians are unhappy with the way things turned out, and an independence movement still exists. My eldest daughter Silja Talvi just published an article on the unbelievable fact that Hawaii sends a lot of its prison inmates to the mainland, often all the way to the rural, privately run prisons in the Eastern states. Just because it is a cheaper alternative to building in-state facilities, it makes it impossible for families to visit their fathers and mothers, or children. Thanks to the prison system’s deal with the telecoms, calling at 60 cents per minute is not a great option for these impoverished people either. What happened to the laws we are supposed to have against cruel and inhumane punishment? You can check Silja's story on Utne online which also has a link to the original publication, In These Times.

The Honolulu Symphony, seemingly forever on the brink of folding, just got a sizeable matching grant of 4 million from the state. This is not to say they are out of the woods yet and supposedly the scene-behind-the-scene is not all happy. Perhaps they could use someone with great skills in fundraising, who could also double as a conductor on the side: I doubt the artistic standards in Oahu are quite as high as in musical centers on the mainland. I could think of a few candidates, and Hawaii would make a nice place to retire. Of course, the demographics might present a problem: the islanders' love for Spam, for instance, of which obviously no kosher form exists.

For those not familiar with the West Coast, Pineapple Express refers to weather phenomena, a jet stream which brings unseasonably warm and moist air to the area from the former Sandwich Islands. It often means bad news to ski resorts as precipitation is in the form of rain, but can be a nice reminder of summer temperatures at least in the Puget Sound region during chilly winter months. A different kind of Pineapple Express, in the form of Hawaiian Airlines, brought our daughter back from the islands in no time, but having to wait almost an hour for luggage to arrive was more reminiscent of a stalled depression. Yet our daughter loves to travel, especially by plane, and would have been willing to go back as soon as her three full loads of laundry were clean and dry. Staying in the rustic conditions at Camp Maluhia was easy for her, as numerous summers by a Finnish lake had prepared her for far more primitive living arrangements.

Talking about primitive and the Finns, check out the stories in Helsingin Sanomat and BBC about the Finnish heavy metal monster band Lordi winning the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest just yesterday.

Thumbkin

Once in a while something really strange appears even on the classical music scene. Among the recent top candidates is the situation in Ottawa, Canada's capital. A wonderful violinist (-turned-conductor), Pinchas Zukerman, is having a hard time with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, of which he is the music director, for seemingly unusual reasons.

Although he had initially warmly welcomed the arrival of their associate concertmaster Olivier Thouin, a couple years later he had threatened to veto this violinist’s tenure. What could be the reason? He doesn’t like the way the Mr. Thouin holds his left thumb on the back of the fingerboard.

I must assume that the associate concertmaster held his thumb the very same way when he auditioned for the job, so it is difficult to imagine this to be the sole reason. If Pinky doesn’t like Thumbkin, does it also mean that Thumbkin doesn’t like Pinky? Where do Pointer, Tall Man and Ring Man stand in all this?

If you read the article in the Globe and Mail (it requires registration), you also learn that the actual concertmaster Walter Prystawski is retiring after this season, and that Mr. Zukerman has just returned from a self-imposed unpaid leave of several months. So, obviously something else is going on here, especially when you read a follow-up article, in which it is exposed that the orchestra members are required to sign a sweeping confidentiality agreement, not to talk to press or anyone else on the outside; a gag order in other words. There is a straight-to-the-point comment on the paper's website:

Stude Ham from Outremont, Canada writes: It's time for NACO to part company with Pinky. He's very clearly overstayed his welcome, and in truth, is not the world's greatest conductor. No organization should have to deal with this kind of prima donna behaviour from any of its contracted performers. It's that type of thing which severely hurt the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, almost crippled the Toronto Symphony, and did damage to many other orchestras around the world..

Is it possible that the conductor likes pretty young women and would prefer to be surrounded by them in the orchestra? After all, his present wife is the orchestra’s principal cellist. This would be perfectly understandable, and a sign of a healthy, youthful heterosexual male. It is confession time: during my decades in orchestras there have been numerous times when I have voted and spoken for such candidates myself. These young ladies probably got their jobs based on their Cuteness Factor, as others in the audition committee, and the conductor, who had the final say, felt the same way. Sorry guys, you don’t seem to be as much fun to be around with. Is this morally right? Of course not, and many of the people in question have proven to be disappointing professionally; even the cuteness disappears quickly. But it is part of human nature.

Mentioning which, check out the article in today’s New York Times, or the BBC News, on how humans and chimps probably interbred for a long time, producing hybrids. The theory and facts presented might be a bit difficult to swallow, even to the most hard-line evolutionists. Perhaps this explains why Igor Stravinsky once said, in an interview with the Observer: “My music is best understood by children and animals.”

Now I’m hungry for a banana.

Painfully Yours

Dreams can be both wonderful and frustrating. Sometimes they seem just as real as this state of consciousness we call being awake. People often say that when the time comes, they would like to die in their sleep. Perhaps we want that other reality to continue. Who am I to say it doesn’t? Last night I had an unexpected visit with a conductor, the late Hans Vonk. I have played a number of concerts under him, and people couldn’t stop complaining about him having become cranky, compared to his earlier years. One time I remember him interrupting a concert because a small child in the audience was crying, and asking that the unhappy young listener be removed from the hall.

The last time I worked with him was in New York at the Mostly Mozart Festival. He was quite abrasive and many musicians were complaining backstage. I sensed that something wasn’t right and even more so after he came to talk to me for a long while in my dressing room. It was as if he wanted to tell me something but then decided not to. Mr. Vonk’s irritability didn’t bother me that much as I saw the great artist and musician behind the cranky front. It was a shock to read his obituary just a few years later and find out that he had suffered from ALS, Lou Gehrig ’s disease. He was only 63.

Musicians and audiences seem to have an unlimited amount of sympathy for victims of illnesses or accidents that are visible. There are polio victims that have had successful careers, in spite of the obvious obstacles they continually face. I have seen many a soloist show up with a leg in a cast, or a bandaged finger. Even orchestra members sometimes cash in on this sympathy factor and have themselves brought onto the stage in a wheelchair. While the pain and discomfort of a polio victim is easy to fathom, Mr. Vonk and numerous others suffering from chronic or terminal illnesses cannot have a label attached to their back: “I have Lou Gehrig’s”, “Burn Victim” or anything of the sort. Mr. Vonk was a Dutchman, and in Europe people are much more private about their health, or lack of. An obituary often states that the person died after a long illness, without ever going into details; quite the opposite of this country.

Today’s New York Times had a story about a mother with shingles and her daughter, a doctor. Although I didn't find it particularly well written, to be in the Science Times, it nevertheless brought attention to a rather common cause of hard-to-treat pain. I was only five when my first outbreak happened, and clearly remember the doctor coming to the house and saying that he had never seen shingles in such a young patient. That wasn’t particularly bad if my memory is correct, but a number of later episodes have been agonizing. The older the person is, the more likely shingles is to cause residual pain that won’t go away, turning into post-herpetic neuralgia. Even strongest opioids don’t always help, but thankfully there are new medicines that are of promise. Perhaps in my lifetime chronic pain will be no more an issue to cope with.

Which brings me to the point: if a person isn’t always all happy and jolly, or seems to have a short fuse, don’t rush to blame him or her for the behavior. Had I been in Mr. Vonk’s shoes, there would have been little to smile about. May he forgive us all for any ill thoughts we might have harbored, wherever his soul is, as we were just ignorant.

Hungry for Culture

Last month the Finnish Symphony Orchestra Association announced that during the previous year there had been a record number of listeners for the country’s orchestras, a total of over one million. Finland, whose population of 5.2 million is that of Minnesota and considerably smaller than the state of Washington, has 13 professional symphony orchestras, 1 opera orchestra, 8 professional chamber and semi-professional orchestras, and 7 other orchestras. No wonder the country is able to produce so many world class conductors, instrumentalists and singers (think of all those solo opportunities!), not to mention composers. A total of 96 premieres of Finnish works were performed, including 10 symphonies and concertos each. Since most of the halls are much smaller than in the U.S., all this translates to about 1,800 performances. Conductors rotate between orchestras, or go overseas, and audiences have a fresh face, other than that of a visitor, to meet every few years. Perhaps that fact is an important reason behind those impressive numbers. Even orchestra musicians seldom stay in one ensemble for the life span of their careers.

Yet even Finland suffers from financial problems. The National Opera, having moved to their new home in 1993, is suffering from them the most, as that art form is the least cost effective of all. The hall seats only about 1,300 which is considerably less than what one is accustomed to here. As they have a full time orchestra of their own and even the chorus members are salaried, the organization employs around 600 people. Expenses in the country are higher than ever since joining the European Union and it is hard to find additional funding for the arts. Traditionally the American style ‘rich pay for it and decide what is done, how and by whom’ doesn’t exist there. Music and other art forms are for the people, paid by the people in the form of taxes. The opera company has to tighten its belt and probably make its employees take unpaid leave for short periods of time. Not to worry: unemployment benefits will cover most of the loss.

Summer is almost here and so is the festival season in Finland. It seems like every town, no matter how small, is capable of creating one of these special events, which range from music to dance, theater to visual arts. The official Finland Festivals has 80 member events, ranging from one week to several. It is a large number when one remembers how short the summer season is: about two and half months. One thing the Finns have in common with Americans: in both countries people are willingly fooled to thinking they are getting something better than ordinary, just because the event is called a ‘festival’. I am not complaining, as whatever makes people happy, let it be so.

But not to put us down: we, too, have culture; no less than eight active varieties in Cascade Fresh Yougurt, according the Seattle company's web pages.

Babbitt's Feast

Happy belated 90^th Birthday, Milton Babbitt!

Not to everyone’s taste, this composer is nevertheless among the most important ones in America. Mr. Babbitt is also a very smart man, something not too common in this field. May he enjoy many more years filled with joy and good health!

A funny memory relating to the composer came to my mind. Years ago I was playing a ‘contemporary’ music concert. Of course most of the pieces had been written long ago, but in the audience’s eyes, and even in most musicians’, it passed as ‘new’ music. One of the works, perhaps the thorniest to play, was by Milton Babbitt. There was only a small orchestra playing and many of the members were old-timers and had never been put in a spot like that. They were sweating and shaking under pressure, and I swear I could see bulges of Depends and Attends sticking out of their concert outfits during the performance, which actually went okay. It was quite amusing to observe, but better safe than sorry.

Obviously not meant for everyone, nor played by everyone, Mr. Babbitt’s compositions can be very enjoyable when well done. They call for a listener to have an active role, as the music is not meant to be wallpaper. He is a ‘Star Trek’ composer: his mission always was to boldly go where no one had gone before. How future generations will treat his creations remains to be seen, of course, but that is true with everyone.

This brings me to a wisdom I just read today, by G.K. Chesterton: “By a curious confusion, many modern critics have passed from the proposition that a masterpiece may be unpopular to the other proposition that unless it is unpopular it cannot be a masterpiece.” Well said, and worth thinking about.

The New York Times had a nice review on a concert honoring Mr. Babbitt’s birthday. It is worth reading.

Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers out there, especially the deserving ones!

Local Wisdom, Or Lack Of

Driving back to town today made me once again realize how nature has blessed this town, Seattle. I can’t think of too many other populated places as pleasing to the eye: water, evergreens, mountains, islands, you name it. Perhaps that is why it has also become a city where people like to keep things status quo. Just in today’s mail we got a car license renewal form, with $362 going to tax for a Monorail that will never be built. In another place people would be up in arms but not here. Politics are liberal here, but surprisingly little gets accomplished. Big money decides how things are done. One would think that planning a town would be up to the city council, but here a high-tech billionaire is able to erect huge buildings, and even a part of town, South Lake Union, on his own. People seem to think of this place as a giant retirement community: the same faces remain in important positions for a generation and nobody questions the wisdom in it. No fresh blood needed here: after all, why would we want to change anything? This was the case with the Monorail project, too. It was voted on time after time and finally rejected. It was such a waste of time and money, and we will be paying for nothing for a long time to come. Mass transit relies on the same crowded freeways and arterial streets as it has for decades. Perhaps the skyrocketing gasoline prices will force people to act. But it will take a long time to get the infrastructure in place for anything different. Right now it’s time to play the Monorail game again with the Alaskan Way Viaduct, the crumbling semi-freeway between downtown and the waterfront. How much easier it would be to have a strong leadership that would just decide how it is done, for better or for worse.

So, all is not as it should be in this seeming paradise. We do have a fabulous library system, though, and people are using its services. Reading is good and essential. We don’t all want to be like the 86% of college students who were not able to point out where key countries are located on the map of the Middle East. We are a country of ignorant people indeed. I took it always for granted that my daughters scored maximum points in reading and writing skills. How it amazes me that there are people in highly visible positions who cannot spell past elementary grade level, and whose reading skills are probably the same. How is it then that foreigners like me are able to write correctly, without the help of a computer spell check, in a language not our own?

My eldest daughter Silja, the journalist, was on the radio again last night, talking about the criminalization of immigrants who didn’t enter the country in a proper legal way. Many people just ask why these ‘illegals’ just didn’t apply for an immigration visa. If a person in the Philippines has to wait for 18 years, how long would the wait be for someone in Mexico? But we have this wonderful lottery system for green cards! True, and I know a few who have been lucky, but a Mexican does not qualify. No equal opportunity in this area either. We are seriously thinking of building a gigantic fence to keep our Southern border secure. But what about Canada in the North? Surely danger is lurking behind that border as well. I can visualize a ultra-conservative politician planning an electric fence across the Great Lakes. Why not put Enron in charge of it, or better yet Halliburton?!

This was online in the New York Times website today, in David Pogue’s ‘Circuits’. The topic was Microsoft’s new idea of a hybrid computer-PDA and the insider negative blogging about the topic. Someone wrote this:

I had dinner last night with some buddies who asked me precisely the same question--and suddenly, I had an answer. Suddenly, I knew *exactly* why nobody pulls the emergency brake on runaway trains like the UMPC.

In my younger days, I was a Broadway theater conductor. I worked on my share of flops. And I remembered a couple of times when *everyone* knew that we were on a sinking ship. Any one of us--cast, crew, orchestra--could have told the show's creators that we had a turkey on our hands.

But nobody did.

First, because we were employees; it'd be horribly presumptuous and rude to say something like that to our employers. Second, we needed the job as long as it lasted. Third--well, what if we were wrong? Shouldn't we trust our leaders to know what they're doing?

So: my sympathy to those on the Microsoft ship who knew that the UMPC was headed for an iceberg. And to their bosses: Um, maybe you should read some of those Microsoft blogs...

Never mind the Ultra-Mobile PC. There is a wisdom here to be applied to many things in life.

How Are We Doing?

Recently I got email from a smart media professional in Scandinavia. He had watched a documentary on the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, done for the local state television by a native reporter. The email states that parts of the facts presented made him feel sick. He compares the treatment of poor, blacks, prisoners and the elderly to that of Nazi Germany: these people don’t really have any rights and any excuse to get rid of them is acceptable. ‘The nation that believes it is the most powerful and free in the world cannot even begin to take care of the storm damage to one city. That is why it is losing in Iraq as well. If I lived for another twenty years, I would witness the near destruction of a nation of obese people, in which even capitalists have been disappointed. People’s buying power and creditworthiness have disappeared.’

These are harsh words but give reason for serious evaluation. We cannot deny that New Orleans went through a horrendous time after being flooded. The well-to-do of course managed to get away, but the less fortunate were stuck in miserable conditions. A private hospital’s patients were evacuated, but those in a public one next door were left in their wheelchairs to die. When the mainly black and poor people were finally transferred to Houston and other locations, nobody really wanted them ever to return. What an opportunity to rebuild a new white New Orleans, with no poverty to be seen; a new Disney World on the Mississippi Delta!

Yesterday’s news mentioned the fact that infant mortality in the U.S. is among the highest in the Western world. If you measure it in the black population, it climbs to the level of developing countries. How can this be? This country spends an enormous amount of money on medical care but has little to show for it. Of course we must remember that the poor and even many members of the middle class don’t have any health insurance and thus cannot afford proper prenatal care. The lack of maternity leave also contributes to the death of infants. Best on the list were countries such as Japan, Finland and Norway. It is noteworthy to remember that at least in my home country delivering babies is a job for midwives: a doctor is only called in if there are serious complications. A year-long paid maternity leave is taken for granted; even fathers get some time off to be with their newborns.

Also in the news was an article which compared the health of American and British middle-aged white men. The U.K. is not known for stellar medical care, yet the average subject of the study was far healthier in the British Isles, in spite of less than a half the money spent on him, compared to his U.S. counterpart. We can all draw our own conclusions.

This country is at a crossroads. The cold war has returned, even if we don’t acknowledge it (Iran, North Korea, much of the Islamic world), and there is plenty of ‘warm’ war to go around. People are very unhappy with the present government. The Republicans haven’t been this unpopular in decades, yet the Democratic Party seems to lack focus and leadership, and hasn’t really come up with a theme, an idea, a read thread that would awaken voters and excite them at least a bit. How long do we have to wait for someone to have the courage to really demand health coverage for all? How about free, decent education? Isn’t there anything else we could try with the population that is addicted to drugs than to incarcerate them by the millions? To most people in Western Europe these ideas would be a given. People here like to think of themselves as good Christians, models for the rest of the globe. Have they totally forgotten that Jesus was a firm believer in socialism in his day? Everyone was to take care of their less fortunate, sick or elderly neighbors, brothers and sisters. Isn’t that the basic message in the Gospels?

Last week the New York Times had a story of our president leaving the White House to go shopping in a hardware store. He ended up buying dog toys there, chewing bones, paying around $8 in cash. This was supposed to illustrate how even he was contributing to the economy. My question is this: how much did the store lose in sales since it presumably had to be emptied of other customers for security reasons? Also, it wouldn’t cross my mind to go to a hardware store for my pet needs. I guess I’m not leadership material.

Delta No More

Traveling by air has become unpleasant enough for everyone after 9/11, with long lines at the security checkpoints, no food and minimal space. We musicians face an additional hurdle with our instruments. The larger-than-normal-carry-on violin (or viola) case may not fit exactly within the strict rules of measurements given by individual airlines, but I have yet to come across a situation where a little explanation didn't help. That is until this morning when my wife tried to board a Delta Airlines flight to the East Coast at Seattle-Tacoma. The supervisor must have had something stuck someplace, as he was as rude and as inflexible as can be and wouldn't let my wife on board. This brainless man insisted that she take her very valuable violin out of the case, put it in her bag and store it in an overhead compartment! She called me hysterically from the airport, but I was driving our little one to school and couldn't offer any other advice than to try to buy a ticket for the violin. This is what she ended up doing, but missed her flight and will arrive in her destination after midnight.

I have seldom flown without having to carry a violin with me. I can count with one hand any incidents regarding the extra carry-on, the case. One time SAS let me fly to Copenhagen with no questions asked, but gave me trouble on the short hop from there to Helsinki. After a minute-long argument I was allowed to board, and the same has been the situation all over. Just last week my wife flew Northwest Airlines to Michigan and back, with the same setup, and was treated very cordially by everyone. Even smaller prop planes have never presented a problem. No wonder she was in tears and upset by the treatment at the Delta counter this morning. At least the personnel in Delta's club room was sympathetic with her.

A lot of us have to fly with musical instrument because our work, or school, demands it. What is a violinist to do if he/she is denied boarding because of the instruments he/she wants to keep with him or her? At the rate checked luggage gets mishandled, misplaced and even totally lost, only a complete fool would let the airline be in charge of a violin case. Who would take financial responsibility for a loss of the fiddle or damage to it? What are we supposed to be playing on if something bad happens, even a delay? I know that the American Federation of Musicians has issued letters with the blessing of the federal authorities regarding this issue, but at the end, it is up to the individual airline and the person, in this case the moron, at the gate to do as they please.

Luckily we have a choice to fly on whatever airline we prefer. In our case it won't be Delta any more (although I must admit this was the first time that they have given either of us this kind of trouble). This was an award ticket worth 50,000 miles; the problem is what to do the with remaining 350,000 frequent flier miles with them. I better decide quickly as the airline itself has been very close to having shut its operations down for good. One would think that Delta Airlines would try extra hard to win back the trust of their customers, but that obviously wasn't the case this morning at SeaTac. I wrote a complaint to the company in an email; it will be interesting to read what they reply.

I guess there is truth in the saying that if we were meant to fly, we would have been given wings.

Of CPF and Conducting

A few weeks back a colleague called me, laughing about a story in a daily. The article had described what a concertmaster’s requirements are: not only are they expected to rehearse the orchestra, or at least the strings (although it was unclear when and how this would be possible), they also had to be auditioned with their drinking skills, at social gatherings. This is what I call CPF, the Cocktail Party Factor. Juilliard and other schools, take notice: perhaps you better hire an experienced bartender to give classes in meaningless chit-chat. It is unclear if this brown-nosing ability also produces a dark sound of the same color, another requirement. It is unlikely to boost one’s intelligence, however, also needed. Granted, I don't drink, but in other areas I might be overqualified: after all, the London Times once claimed that I had 'an impressive depth of sonority', and my IQ was the highest the tester had ever measured.

Since it has been made public as to what a concertmaster should be like, I take this opportunity to describe a good conductor. One of my readers recently emailed me with the question and I promised to reply in this blog.

Many orchestra conductors falsely believe that a big ego and basic, rudimentary musical skills are all that is necessary. You can fool some of the people some of the time, but not all the people all of the time. An ideal conductor is also a performing artist, a practicing instrumentalist of top caliber. Although thorough knowledge of string instruments is mandatory, one doesn’t have to be a soloist in that field. There are many ways to gain the necessary know-how; however, having one’s children play at Suzuki level is not enough. There are pianists who have made great conductors, same with composers, although to a lesser extent. In both these cases the individuals have a great ear for harmony and colors. Wind and brass players often suffer from the fact that they would like the orchestra to sound as if all the listeners sat in their respective sections.

Personality is number one on my list. Conductor/orchestra relationship is like a marriage. Recently ‘falling in love’ and the ‘honeymoon period’ have been scientifically explained very well. Excess amounts of serotonin, dopamine and other neurotransmitters stop working after about a year in a relationship. Since in an orchestra setup musicians don’t have to see their regular conductor daily, this period may be extended. Having guest conductors could be compared to love affairs: they can be wonderful or disastrous, but luckily they don’t last forever, and later it is nice to meet an old flame again when a guest maestro reappears. In a long-term marriage a hormone, oxytocin, takes over to sustain the relationship. Often life becomes routine, though, and so does the orchestra’s playing. Audience, and in most cases, the musicians as well, long for excitement and the cycle ought to start over.

Mental health is an important issue in any artist’s life. Creativity and madness often go hand in hand. In an orchestra this is very evident, especially when you factor in the frustration of a musician not being able to express the artist in him/herself, just having to follow someone else’s ideas. A good conductor, just like a good teacher, should be thoroughly schooled in psychology, to the point that he/she could actually be a practicing professional in that field. Being kind, nice, understanding and yet demanding is not an easy combination. CPF should be a very minor factor for conductors as well. Granted, money needs to be raised, but wouldn’t it be nice if that part of the business could be left for people specialized in that field? Too many great conductors refuse posts as Music Directors in our country, just because of the CPF portion of the job.

As I recently wrote, fear and inspiration can produce similar results in a short run. But if you are in a musician’s shoes, I don’t think too many would choose the fear over niceness, kindness and inspiration. Time for rehearsing is increasingly limited and a conductor has to be able to maximize it. It is amazing how people can often exceed their limitations and perform miracles: sometimes even the first concert of many in a row turns out to be decent, although it has a resemblance to instant art: just add water and mix. If I had to attend a concert as a listener, I would probably choose the last one in the series, although some musicians may falsely believe that they don’t have to try as hard as on previous occasions, and end up not giving their best. Sometimes a rush of adrenaline is great, but most often musicians try to counter it with the use of beta-blockers, alcohol or other drugs.

The person, who inspired me to write this, sounds like a very insightful person, and talks about his desire to treat musicians with great understanding and ‘utmost respect’. I didn’t know such wonderful people still existed, although I have crossed paths with a few, such as the late Hermann Michael. I want to wish all the best to such a conductor, as an orchestra will be blessed to have a human being like that at their helm.

Another Loss

Death of the Northwest Chamber Orchestra didn't only only harm its musicians, it also hurt the audience. They no longer have an opportunity to see and hear the genius of Ralf Gothóni, nor the orchestra's longtime principal conductor Joseph Silverstein. Mr. Silverstein is one of the icons on the American music scene: a fabulous violinist, chamber musician and equally at ease on the podium. I will never forget listening to a performance of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto on the radio years ago. The playing was absolutely phenomenal, full of old-school beauty and totally faultless technique. I was almost shocked when the soloist was announced. I knew that Mr. Silverstein played well, based on his reputation and recordings of orchestral solos, but this was absolutely world class. By this I don't mean to use that term as one often hears these days (superlatives come cheap at least in this town) but in the real sense of the word. Later I, of course, heard him play live many times and every time absolutely immaculately. I have never heard better or more beautiful Mozart on this continent; the phrasing is just as it should be and overall playing without peer. Although he is still active as a violinist and chamber musician, he is also teaching in Philadelphia and Boston. I hope the students at Curtis and the New England Conservatory understand how lucky they are if they get to study with him.

Mr. Silverstein has a long conducting career as well. While concertmaster in Boston for 22 years, he was also their assistant conductor and later became the Music Director of the Utah Symphony in Salt Lake City for 15 years. Rumors were then that the job almost went to another conductor, but the Mormon leadership had problems with the candidate's lifestyle. At the end they got the better deal, I'm sure, and the orchestra developed into a fine group. I would like to say 'world class' again but that expression is so misused that it has lost its meaning.

I got a very nice letter of recommendation from Mr. Silverstein, something I truly treasure. In it he states: "I have been familiar with the playing of Ilkka Talvi for many years. The discography of [...] is a fine showcase of his playing and leadership. His background is a veritable "who's who" of the 20th century as it includes studies with Ivan Galamian, Jascha Heifetz, Ricardo Odnoposoff, and other prestigious teachers. I would characterize his playing as technically brilliant and stylistically elegant. In the many performances and recordings of his that I have heard there has never been an instance when I felt that there was a lapse of good taste."

Getting such compliments from a true master musician means a lot to me, to the point that I almost blush.

Fear or Inspiration?

In raising a family, education, relationships and the workplace, there are two main ways of achieving results: either through fear or inspiration. Of the two, fear is the easier route. Your children learn not to do something because they are afraid of being punished. A student studies hard because of the fear of making mistakes, or having the teacher get mad at him. In many relationships, including marriage, one of the partners accepts the submissive role, and does what the other one demands, in order not to be rejected, or in many cases, assaulted. In the workplace, a boss can make his subordinates work hard, out of fear of being fired, demoted or humiliated. This can work to a point but at a price: children who leave home are not likely to return home often, a student ends up hating the subject and the teacher, the abused spouse finally gets the courage to leave, and the stressed worker obviously is constantly looking for another job opportunity.

The inspirational route, without the fear factor, is far more demanding. Your child has the option of doing something that he or she knows is right or wrong. A student with an inspiring teacher will look forward to his/her classes and lessons, even when there might not have been time to prepare adequately every time. In a relationship people want to be with each other because it is inspiring. Yes, it works even in a marriage long-term. And it is possible to be excited to go to work when one knows that his or her effort is appreciated by the boss and coworkers as well.

Being a source of inspiration is not easy. One has to be loving, caring and understanding beyond the 'norm' and constantly make an effort. One has to be open to admit his own faults, yet show an enthusiastic desire to achieve a higher level in whatever the subject is. A child looks at the parent for an example, a student at the teacher for the same. A partner in a relationship may not always do the right thing to please the other, and everyone has their moods and weaknesses, yet knowing that one is always accepted as he or she is, means, without exception, harmony and lack of fear. At work one gives his best and utmost when the effort is genuinely appreciated, not just expected.

A smile goes a long way. I don’t mean the typical empty ‘look at my teeth’ smile most of us have been taught to show, but the often very subtle expression of acceptance, praise and even gratitude one can sense. Showing one’s teeth is a sign of hostility in our cousins the great apes, and I don’t think we would use that as a sign of lovability if we hadn’t been taught it as ‘proper’ behavior. Interestingly, new rules for the passports in EU countries require that person not show his or her teeth in the photo. Of course, whatever form the smile takes, even if it is invisible, it is usually easy for the recipient to understand. One can even smile with his/her eyes alone! All those years when I worked in orchestras, I can remember those conductors who in concerts made their musicians feel joyful and at ease, in spite of being very demanding in rehearsals, rightfully so, given the short preparation time. When a musician senses such approval instead of being faced with almost hateful glances, as if in 'you are making me look bad', not an uncommon approach, he or she tries differently: not just to play correctly but to play with the same kind inspiration the maestro has shown. Making one feel that we are in this together makes a world of difference! The same is true with teaching an instrument: mistakes don’t really matter, as the student knows where they happen, and the professor’s reinforcing the positive can produce miracles. Even criticism can be constructive and to be learned from, not just destructive as often is the case. None of us is perfect, and it is the teacher’s duty to point out where improvement is needed.

Granted, results can be achieved with both methods, but at the end you have a child, spouse, friend or a worker who is either burned out or happy with life. Having experienced both, I know what I would choose; pulling over on a narrow street to let another car through makes one feel a lot better than an episode of road rage.

Uncle Milton Once More

There were at least two wonderful and interesting obituaries of Milton Katims on the other side of the Atlantic, in the Guardian and the Telegraph. Both are worth reading and they talk about Milton's peaks and pitfalls in Seattle. A person may no longer be with us, but his words and music still live.

Here is a copy of a letter Milton wrote a year ago and wanted it published. Somehow it had accidentally disappeared from my blog. In the letter Milton explicitly defines the role of a concertmaster which may appear quite different from what one reads in the dailies. Milton was a musician and string player par excellence, and as such he surely knew what he was talking about.


May 6, 2005

Dear Margie & Ilka,

During the very early period of your problems with the [...] there was a good deal of newspaper coverage which I read with understandable interest. One particular aspect caught my attention, a point of view with which I disagree in no uncertain terms. I’m referring to the description of a concertmaster’s vital role as builder and molder of an orchestra’s character.

I thoroughly disagree! The concertmaster, in my opinion, plays an important, but secondary role. It is the conductor who wields the power and bears full responsibility for the shape and sound of an orchestra. It [is] the conductor’s musical concepts and his/her ability to translate those mental images so clearly into semaphoric signals with the baton that the members of the orchestra understand and produce the desired effect.

The concertmaster helps by providing a standard of string playing excellence, is capable of appearing as soloist with the orchestra, illustrating and clarifying where needed the conductor’s idea of a phrase, suggesting appropriate bowings, and with the help of the first oboe making sure that the orchestra is tunes before the conductor walks on-stage. Etc. Etc. Etc..

In my estimation you (Ilka) do fulfill the above description of the responsibilities of concertmaster of a first rate symphony orchestra. If I were the music director of such a group I would engage you. More — I cannot say.

With admiration

[Milton]

Milton Katims

Information Highway?

Americans are notoriously unaware of the rest of the world. Especially if one lives away from the coastline, news about anything outside of the country's borders seem unimportant. Yes, we talk about Iraq, Afganistan and now Iran, and we know that just about everything in a Wal-Mart comes from China. Our electronics are from Japan which also designs our favorite automobiles. Yet put Joe Shmo in front of a globe or a standard map and he will have difficulties in identifying these places without studying names of countries and cities carefully.

Time has come for this nation to take responsibility for the global mess we have helped to create. The warming climate is affecting us as well as others; the bird flu will reach us in no time. Gasoline is climbing in price but do we even know where the crude oil is coming from? That geography, ecology and world affairs are not taught in schools early on is inexcusable. Most of the news we read or watch seem centered in the U.S., and often only serve the interest of our government and politicians, plus, of course, big business.

Since the school system will not be changed overnight, what can we do to educate ourselves? By carefully selecting our sources of information is a good start. You cannot expect to learn the truth by watching Fox News, and even CNN no longer offers an unbiased view. Personally I turn to the internet and read what people in different countries think. We do get the New York Times, which is a pretty good newspaper, even if its tainted articles helped us to get into the frenzy of invading Iraq. Actually, I prefer that paper's and other publications' joint production the International Herald Tribune, which thankfully is available on the web. I used to get the print edition of the Christian Science Monitor but now subscribe to their online PDF version. This publication is probably the most neutral and best informed paper available in this country. It is rather small in size, so obviously it cannot cover many topics. They put out a marvelous email newsletter in which one can read opinions from leading papers of the world. The Los Angeles Times is also on my list: it has come a long way from the provincial paper it was when I first started reading it in the late sixties. The Guardian's newsletter gets read every day and I also try to read the Times from London. Perhaps my favorite news source is the BBC which has numerous sites serving different populations, such as Mundo for the Latin world (great for brushing up your Spanish!). Obviously I also carefully read Finland's leading daily, Helsingin Sanomat, for which I pay an online subscription. They also present news in English, although those understandably are centered around Finnish events.

For many years I was a loyal reader of the Economist which produces some wonderful and insightful articles. However, during Bill Clinton's troubled times, the magazine openly stated that he should resign. Since I felt it wasn't the publication's business to try to decide who would be in charge in the White House, I canceled my subscription. Too many other leaders, whether politicians or in other civic positions, not to mention in the business world, have had their own Monicas, and yet their authority hasn't been questioned, even if it should have. The Clintons were subjected to a witch hunt from the very beginning, something the Republican party should not be proud of. The Economist should have had the integrity to stay out of it all.

Journalism is close to my heart because so many relatives have been involved in it: my father, brother and eldest daughter in the immediate family. Each one of them have obeyed the highest principals and never written or broadcast propaganda to serve as mouthpieces of a few. Silja, my daughter, just won her second national PASS award in the magazine category. Last year she shared it with The New York and Los Angeles Times Magazines; this year she didn't have to.

Of course, every journalist has an editor whose duties are to check the facts and truthfulness of content before the story goes to print. This is to protect both the publication and the people the paper is writing about, and also the reader by providing the most reliable information possible. It is obvious that some publications want to have a slant to a story and some editors simply don't always do their job. Just re-read a case (scroll down to June 22, 2005) involving yours truly from a year ago. Some star journalists in even the top papers have been fabricating stories, such as was the case in the scandal with Jayson Blair and the New York Times. As Slate put it: "What can you say about a trusted professional who makes stuff up and publishes it as fact?" As readers, we have a right to expect to see the truth on the printed page of a paper we pay for. It is a sad fact that public's trust in the media has diminished year after year. Reader's Digest shouldn't have become Reader's Indigestion.

Long live hyperlinks! ¡Vivan los enlaces!

Blessing

Now that I'm back to teaching more than just a couple of students, as was the case when I simply didn't have the time or energy, I really enjoy the different ethnicities and cultures my students come from. Not only are the students themselves interesting, but getting to know their parents, often first generation immigrants to this country, is a wonderful opportunity to learn about the world. Since I was little, one of my main interests has been geography and all the different peoples of the globe. My collection of world atlases is probably better than that of any library, plus these days there are wonderful online mapping tools. Reading about ethnic groups is not the same as coming face to face and interacting with them. I hate to stereotype, but at least in this case the immigrants are usually better educated and more knowledgeable about the world than an average American. It gives me great pleasure to learn about their history, languages, customs and so on, and I tend to spend a good deal of time doing my 'homework', researching through my library and the web.

This country is a wonderful mix of people, although there has always been a lot of pressure to assimilate. Obviously, a grown man or woman is not going to be able to do that to the same extent as a child. Parents wanted their children to fit in, gave them American names and didn't want to pass on their native language. This was especially true in the earlier part of the 20th century. "John" would certainly not have been a choice for a son's name in the Pale: here it became very popular as it didn't carry the same label attached to it as 'Mordechai'. Often parents and their children grew so much apart that they couldn't even verbally communicate with each other well enough to remain close. Recently much of this has changed, and especially Latinos and people from different parts of Asia are proud of their heritage, and make sure their children have a tie to the old homeland. I personally could have done better: out of my four daughters only the eldest speaks Finnish completely fluently, the second one fairly well, but the two youngest only know words and phrases. At least they have visited in their second homeland often, and know the customs and understand the special qualities their people have.

What usually sets an immigrant student apart from an American is their work ethic and desire to learn and learn well. As classical music and playing the violin may not be part of their background, being at ease with our Western music can be in some ways be more difficult to them, but most of them overcome this in no time. As a teacher I feel more challenged but I simply love that. I just wish I could learn about their music and culture as much as they learn about ours. I'm doing my best and have always enjoyed listening to songs and other works from all over. Since early on, I was a short wave radio buff, and I would spend hours listening to faraway exotic radio stations. These days it is easy as you can hear them on a web stream, as clearly as your local stations.

This country has not always treated its immigrants, legal or illegal, very well. The Chinese were singled out for a long time: they couldn't become citizens or own property, although we had brought them here to build railroads as they were willing to work under conditions our own people wouldn't. The last couple of weeks have seen massive demonstrations against proposed legislation that would make criminals out of people here without legal documents. Yet, like the railroad builders, they work the jobs we wouldn't touch. Without them our economy would completely collapse, and it isn't doing so well at this point anyhow. People from the Middle East are treated with suspicion, even when they have been born here, and anyone dark-skinned is lumped easily in the same category. Many stories are simply heartbreaking, but it is not easy to find them in the media. If you have the time, read this article by my journalist daughter Silja, who has dedicated her life to writing about social injustice.

Our differences are our greatest blessing.

For the People, by the People

As the budgets of many arts organizations have increased year after year, more and more of them have had to either scale back operations or cease to exist. In the current climate of rising health and education costs, questionable future of pensions, Social Security and Medicare, the typical age group of potential donors is far more weary than a decade ago. Even the truly wealthy have their limits, and as I have written before, they would rather see their names on a building than be listed as donors for operating costs in a program book. If a landmark institution like the Metropolitan Opera has to tighten its belt, everyone else is in the same boat. Who can blame people for wanting to be careful in this restless world of ours? A ticket to hear an opera performance or a concert given by a major orchestra is expensive enough, especially if there is more than one person attending; thus the thought of having to give extra help to the organization to stay afloat may not sit well with many of us.

Every once in a while I end up going to hear a community orchestra, sometimes out of curiosity, having been asked to attend, or having a friend or family member playing as soloist. In an earlier blog entry (March 26, 2006) I divided orchestras into different categories, based on their importance, but left this important group of musicians purposely out of the story. Like their full-time professional counterparts, community orchestras can vary from excellent to awful. Most of them do fill their function rather well though. This last week I was pleasantly surprised by a local group which performed admirably. To most people in the near-capacity audience there would have been no difference between this orchestra and a professional one. Better yet: this was music for the people, by the people, performed by their family members, friends or neighbors. I paid close attention to the musicians. It seemed to me that all of them were truly enjoying their music-making, and they wanted to show their audience what they were able to accomplish. This was not playing by snobs, for the snobs: the unpaid musicians must really love what they do to give up so much of their time for this cause. Ticket prices were cheap, so an entire family could easily afford to come to listen; the percentage of young audience members was high. Four or five different live concerts a year is plenty enough for most friends of orchestral music. If they want more, it is all too easy to put on a cd or listen to a classical music on FM, cable, satellite or internet station. It would be difficult to explain to that audience why millions should be spent on something they get for practically free.

Of course I have a biased view in this matter. After all, I was playing in such an orchestra before my 6th birthday, as my father was the conductor. We had some excellent concerts as many of the principals came from the country's leading orchestras, such as the Helsinki Philharmonic and the Finnish Radio Orchestra, for the dress rehearsals and concerts, and the group itself had some amazingly talented instrumentalists, who had gone to other fields, as was the norm those days. Everyone got along famously, which in that one-company town meant people at the very top and your ordinary lowly workers. Music was what they had in common, and in that situation they were equals. Well, my native country changed, got rich, and soon such idealistic organizations were history. After my father retired from conducting his beloved orchestra, they folded in a couple years. Nothing nice and wonderful seems to last forever.

Obviously a ballet company cannot expect to find capable dancers in their community for free, and Wagnerian opera singers are not that common, either. Instrumentalists are plentiful, however, as so many excellent musicians have either switched careers or gone to a non-musical field to start with, knowing well what an unpleasantly difficult field being a professional musician is. If we encouraged these community orchestras and gave then more of our support, perhaps we wouldn't need all these regional expensive orchestras in every city and town. How about having up to ten truly great symphony orchestras in the entire country, and they would spend most of their time touring all over? It certainly would be more interesting to the listeners than seeing the same faces and hearing the very same music-making year after year, sometimes with no change for decades. Certainly an enormous amount of money would be saved, and some of it could be spent on bringing in interesting chamber music ensembles and recitalists. Isn't it a fact that many listeners go to an orchestra concert just to hear the soloist and then leave the hall before the Bruckner? Somewhere I remember seeing a string teacher show up with his more advanced students whenever there was a well-known fiddler playing a concerto, and carefully writing down bowings and even fingerings. After intermission they were never to be seen. Certainly this was a less expensive and more convenient an approach than taking lessons from the artist, or going to his/her masterclass. Had there been a video dvd of the piece by the same artist, the teacher and the students would have stayed home. I am in no way condemning this pedagogue's action: what better way to learn than to see with your own eyes and hear with your own ears. Great playing is worth a million words. I just don't think an entire program should have been put together by the orchestra just for this reason. This might have been a cheap lesson for these listeners in question, but at a great expense for a lot of others.