NOVEMBER
NEWSLETTER
Welcome to our October Newsletter
At the end of September, the Musicians of the Alabama Symphony Orchestra embarked on a new venture. "Our Hearts Beat for Birmingham" was a series of free concerts performed in houses of worship across Birmingham and was presented as a gift of healing and harmony. By partnering with three other non-profit organizations in our area - the Jefferson County Memorial Project, Mitchell's Place, and Collat Jewish Family Services - the Musicians of the ASO were able to connect and engage with our community in a way we've desired for so long. Thank you to all who attended one of our performances or tuned in online! We plan to make this a long-standing tradition that will continue to tie the Musicians of the Alabama Symphony to the hearts of Birmingham.
RETURNING TO STAGE
At the beginning of October, the Alabama Symphony Orchestra returned to the Alys Stephens stage, in toto, for the first time in almost 18 months. It felt much, much longer. If performing Brahms’ magnificent Symphony No. 2 felt like a triumphant return to the musicians, that’s because, in a sense, it was. The ability to return to performing live music for a live audience encapsulated feelings that we’ve long taken for granted–but hopefully never will again. The fact that it was the opening of our 100th season made it especially sweet. Our second Masterworks program promises to be no less exciting.
With performances on November 12 and 13, the program opens with Glaze. Composed by Susan Botti and premiered by the ASO in 2017, Glaze holds new meaning for the musicians as it begs the question of why some objects are considered art and some aren’t.
In regards to Glaze, Botti writes: “Someone held the earth’s clay in hand, had a vision of the possibilities it contained or suggested, and transformed it into a thing of beauty…a vision of color and texture and light from a simple source.” While we continued making music throughout the last 18 months, the absence of a live audience turned it into something of an academic exercise–fulfilling in some ways, but lacking in the human connection we all crave as musicians. Can music truly be transformed into a thing of beauty if performed in a vacuum? Or is the presence of the audience what makes it art?
Moving from a piece premiered by the ASO to one never performed by the orchestra, we go to William Grant Still’s Suite for Violin and Orchestra. Still was not only the first African American composer to have a symphony performed by a leading orchestra, but he was also the first African American to conduct a major American orchestra. The Suite for Violin and Orchestra is loosely inspired by three statues created in the 1930s by three different African American artists. Each sculpture, remarkably different from the other, is stunningly portrayed in the style of music Still uses for the three movements of his Suite. If you haven’t already, we highly recommend you do some Googling before the concert. The statues are beautiful and profound, and can only heighten your appreciation of Still’s composition. Performed by the ASO’s long-standing concertmaster, Daniel Szasz, the Suite for Violin and Orchestra promises to be an exciting addition to the program. As musicians, we always look forward to seeing one of our own shine in the spotlight, and Daniel never disappoints.
As if those two pieces were not enough to satiate your musical palette, the evening will culminate with perhaps the most recognizable piece of classical music ever written – Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. There’s nothing to say about this masterpiece that hasn’t already been said, so we’ll leave you with this: the musicians LOVE it. And it shows. When critics talk about “electrifying performances” and “passionate interpretations,” this is the kind of piece they’re describing. If those first four notes don’t give you goosebumps, well, we’re doing it wrong.
The Musicians of the Alabama Symphony Orchestra hope to see you at the concert in November. If you’ve missed us half as much as we’ve missed you, we consider ourselves to be incredibly fortunate. See you soon!
CENTER STAGE
A Message for Our Audience
In lieu of a traditional interview that we usually present as a part of our Center Stage series, I have chosen to share some of my most central thoughts about a life in music, as seen through the lens of returning to live performances.
There are certain life experiences that become indelibly burned in our memories. For me replaying these is not like watching a movie, but there remains a magical sheen around a mental picture, and even more strongly, I can recall what I was feeling in that moment. Often these are life’s big moments: weddings, graduations, or the birth of a child. In our lives as musicians there are these milestones as well — opening night of our first week on the job, a concerto performance, a Carnegie Hall debut.
Returning to our stage last weekend, with our full orchestral complement and a live audience will be one of these moments that will forever stay with me. Taking part in weaving Brahms’s masterful lines together with my colleagues, and hearing a top-notch soloist perform with us were certainly both deeply impactful, but the most emotional moment for me was something unexpected. On both Friday and Saturday nights, the audience spontaneously stood and applauded for us before we started playing. It was a beautiful expression of support and appreciation, and it speaks to this symbiotic relationship we have as ensemble and audience. Upon reflection, it serves as a powerful reminder that the hardship and trauma of the past year is collective as well as individual.
In kind, life’s most challenging moments can also cement themselves in our memories. The big picture of an individual’s life, the life of an organization, the history of a city or country will reveal peaks and valleys. Undeniably, Covid-19 has ushered in a time in the valley for the musicians of the Alabama Symphony Orchestra. Finding our way back to the stage has been marked by cancelled concerts, a web of safety precautions and restrictions, a reimagining of the way we present our craft, and significant financial sacrifice. As we all well know by now, community gatherings were one of the first pandemic fatalities — to finally get them back in some form is a huge win, and with them comes hope for our future. Just as the world at large is in need of healing, we too are in need of restoration, and to receive such a welcome and hungry response from you, our audience, is a first step in that direction.
This humble act of gratitude from our community is abstract and impossible to quantify, and it strikes me that what we do as musicians is the same. When we feel pressured to justify our worth through regional economic impact statistics, or sheer numbers of children we reach through our educational concerts (both of which are in fact significant), we reduce the meaning of what we provide to that of a commodity, and quite frankly, what an orchestra provides is much more than this one comparatively small idea. It stands in contrast to our mission statement for example, which is “changing lives through music.” This idea is so altruistic and grand that at times it can be easy to wonder what exactly this means, and if we are accomplishing this goal.
Recently, I had the pleasure of reading a transcript of the address made to the parents and Freshman students at Boston Conservatory, given by Karl Paulnack, concert pianist and director of the music division at the school. In it, he gives the most compelling case for how music can change lives that I have ever come across. He begins by recalling the wisdom of the ancient Greeks:
“The first people to understand how music really works were the ancient Greeks. And this is going to fascinate you; the Greeks said that music and astronomy were two sides of the same coin. Astronomy was seen as the study of relationships between observable, permanent, external objects, and music was seen as the study of relationships between invisible, internal, hidden objects. Music has a way of finding the big, invisible moving pieces inside our hearts and souls and helping us figure out the position of things inside us.”
He goes on from there to list examples of collective traumas, such as life in a concentration camp, or post-9/11 New York, in which humans have gone to great lengths to find ways to compose, perform, or simply sing together as a salve for their shared pain and suffering. He goes on to conclude that music is more than a kind of soul-medicine, but fundamental to human survival in the most bleak of circumstances. This abstract description of moving pieces inside ourselves brings to mind how we speak of any kind of art that has an emotional impact on us — we often speak of how “moved” we were by the experience. Funny how we never really stop to think about what exactly was moved, or how that part of us shifted, but nonetheless the feeling of being internally rearranged is intensely real. This may be a personal leap only, but these tend to be the moments I feel the most alive, and when I am most in touch with my own humanity. Perhaps that is why they often qualify for the indelible memory status I spoke of earlier.
Every concert attendance may not be that for you, or me for that matter. But one thing is certain, if you aren’t there for it, you will never know! As we proceed with our 100 year anniversary season, we endeavor to play our part in our mission statement with renewed zeal and passion. We wholeheartedly invite you to come on this journey with us, and pave the way for the next 100 years of live symphonic music in our great city of Birmingham.
Kathleen has been the Principal Clarinetist of the Alabama Symphony Orchestra since 2006. In addition to performing and teaching, she enjoys hiking, reading, and drawing in her spare time. She is married to Ryan Beach, Principal Trumpet of the ASO, and they live in Bluff Park with their two children.