Conductor James DePreist to Provide “Breathing Room” for Pasadena Symphony
James DePreist is seen conducting the Oregon Symphony-Photo courtesy Oregon Symphony
Papering over an awkward situation, the Pasadena Symphony and POPS issued a press release last week announcing the naming of Maestro James DePreist as its Artistic Advisor. Not conductor or Artistic Director, mind you, but an “advisor” with the task of interfacing with the Pasadena Symphony Association Board of Directors to locate a permanent conductor to replace Jorge Mester who may have left in a huff or may have been fired by the Board, depending on whether you read quotes from Pasadena Symphony CEO, Paul Jan Zdunek or read from reports by Mester’s manager.
In their announcement the Association says DePreist’s responsibilities will be to serve as an artistic partner advising on matters regarding guest conductors, soloists and orchestra repertoire that, they say, “will best serve the Pasadena Symphony Association and its community as the Association takes the time it needs to identify its permanent artistic director.” The Association goes on to say that DePreist will counsel the group in its artistic direction—a self-appointed move from its role as a regional orchestra to a target as a “prominent artistic force in Southern California”. There is no explanation given as to how an orchestra mired in financial and artistic turmoil can achieve prominence in its market. The best hope would be for DePreist to bring with him the technique used in Oregon to attract the major donations (a couple of $1 million dollar gifts were given in his honor in Oregon) and the celebrity musicians now booked into the Portland, Oregon based Oregon Symphony.
It’s all about space, according CEO Zdunek. Zdunke is quoted as saying “Maestro DePreist’s appointment as Artistic Advisor allows the Association the breathing room necessary in finding the perfect artistic and philosophical fit for the orchestra, community and organization as it engages a roster of conductors from the incredible depth and breadth of talent that is out there on the national and international scene.” If the increasingly dowdy programs of the Pasadena Symphony are a clue, that fit will be challenged since DePreist was heralded in Oregon for his efforts to introduce contemporary music.
What DePreist is expected to do for the Pasadena Symphony may be embedded in his record in Oregon where he served as the Music Director and conductor of the Oregon Symphony from 1980 to 2003 and his highly touted career successes.
DePreist, 76, is highly regarded with a list of notable accolades with his conducting assignments with various orchestras around the world. Early in his career he was named assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic by Leonard Bernstein when only 30 years-old, and chosen by Antal Dorati to be Associate Conductor of the National Symphony in Washington. With 13 honorary doctorates and awards from around the world, he was named by the National Endowment for the Arts as recipient of the National Medal of Arts in 2005. As an educator he has served at the Aspen Music Festival, appeared at Tanglewood, and holds the position as Director of Conducting and Orchestra Studies at The Julliard School in New York.
In spite of the love-fest held upon DePreist’s elevation to Laureate Music Director from his 20 year stint with the Oregon Symphony (a bronze bust of him was installed at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall), all has not been rosy with the Oregon Symphony either financially or with its musicians.
Financial issues and labor difficulties have lasted for years. According to the Oregon Symphony Players Association website, during DePreist’s tenure a musician lockout occurred in the 1988-89 season. At that time, musicians, who are full-time with the orchestra, received salary or benefit increases each of the following three years, but the orchestra struck in 1996. That strike was successfully settled with temporary salary reductions in 2003. Those reductions were replaced in 2005 after DePreist’s departure. Since 2006 the orchestra’s size has been reduced, base pay is $45,924 and further increases of benefits delayed due to growing financial pressures. The season length was shortened, 12 string chairs are unfilled and pension contribution reduced.
The Pasadena Symphony has other dynamics than Oregon Symphony. For one, some, but not all, of its freelance musicians are highly compensated studio musicians, but just like any employee group, they fight heartily for pay and benefits. They generously performed without pay to show solidarity with the Pasadena Symphony and Mester when the financial crisis hit the orchestra in 2009, but were skittish about how other union musicians throughout Southern California would feel about their give-away.
Though Pasadena Symphony has an 86 year history, it is hardly in sync with the Oregon Symphony. That organization, now over 100 years old, has a distinguished list of guest conductors and guest artists that includes Aaron Copland, Arthur Fiedler, Otto Klemperer, Erich Leinsdorf, Dimitri Mitropoulos, Maurice Ravel, Miklos Rozsa and Igor Stravinsky. And its guest artist roster is highly impressive. This year, its first concert for the year, in October, a special event, is already sold out—but the guest artist is cellist Yo-Yo Ma. Other guest artists this season in Oregon will include violinists Joshua Bell (to be fair, Pasadena Symphony also had Bell as a guest violinist when he was 15 years-old), Leila Josefowitz and Hilary Hahn; pianists Jeffrey Kahane and Emanuel Ax; Canadian Brass and pianist Lang Lang. Pasadenans would welcome this level of mature artistry and perhaps DePreist will show how its done.
After DePreist left the directorship at Oregon Symphony in 2003, it took the Association there five years to settle on Carlos Kalman—and only after he had appeared with the orchestra during multiple seasons.
In the immediate future, as new Artistic Advisor, DePreist will open the 2010-2011 classical music season of the Pasadena Symphony at the Ambassador Auditorium as conductor in the previously announced program of Barber, Brahms and Rossini with violinist Anne Akiko Meyers as guest artist, a young audacious newcomer. It was previously announced that the final season’s concert on May 7, 2011 will be conducted by guest conductor Maximiano Valdes.
By Bill Peters
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