Marin Alsop takes reins at Baltimore Symphony Orchestra

I've been looking forward to this for some time, following the story of the Bernstein protege and her ascendancy to the highest rank a woman conductor has achieved.

As director-designate Ms. Alsop reinvigorated the orchestra, institutionally and artistically. A born communicator and effective proselytizer for music, she has led a major community-outreach effort and taken the orchestra back into the recording business for the first time in a decade. A new Sony Classical release with Ms. Alsop conducting the violinist Joshua Bell and the Baltimore Symphony in John Corigliano’s “Red Violin” Concerto took the top spot on the Billboard classical chart in September. The Naxos label plans to release a three-disc set of Dvorak symphonies taken from live performances by Ms. Alsop and the orchestra.

Thanks to a $1 million grant, the Baltimore Symphony this season is offering all tickets to subscribers at $25 a concert. In a new venture, XM Satellite Radio is broadcasting eight Baltimore Symphony programs this season. Attendance, which had dipped to about 60 percent of capacity before Ms. Alsop’s appointment, is confidently expected to reach the high 70 percent range. Paul Meecham, the orchestra’s president and chief executive, has said Ms. Alsop was the impetus for the turnaround, proving that dynamic artistic leadership is the obvious answer to the troubles facing American orchestras.

I think it proves more than this. Something Youngstown has ignored--at its peril--is focusing on its city as the place where it does business. First, it recently appointed a music director based in L.A.!? Randall Craig Fleischer is flown in for work and then back home. For recent percussion auditions, he couldn't even be bothered to actually come to Youngstown; they were held in Cleveland! If an orchestra is to succeed, the music director must be an active part of the community, reaching out and making connections. The audience for the Youngstown Symphony isn't savvy enough, I fear, to know the difference between a good and a mediocre interpretation--or even performance--of, say, Brahms's First Symphony. What they need to see is someone young and dynamic who is making appearances and making a name in the community.

I believe that American orchestras won't really be successful until the organizations take a page out of the playbook of popular entertainment. It's about stars. And not just the maestro. The symphony should be promoting its players as individuals: talking about their appearances, promoting their individual ensembles. Chamber music is more portable and can happen all over town. When the people throughout the community see and hear these musicians and know they're part of the symphony, that can bring them to Powers/DeYor for the concerts. Not to mention the musicians need the exposure to supplement their paltry symphony salaries.

Finally, Ms. Alsop is doing what must be done in today's concert halls: playing music by living composers. Audiences need to be reminded that this stuff is relevant. Unfortunately, of the six Masterworks series concerts on the Youngstown Symphony's schedule this year, only half feature performances by living composers. Not nearly enough.