Riemenschmackdown!

Well, it was really only a matter of time before this issue hit the local press, and here it is now, courtesy of the Star Tribune's fine rock critic, Chris Riemenschneider. Ever since our orchestra unveiled our much-scaled-back $40m renovation plan for Orchestra Hall, I've been waiting for someone in the media to point out that the Day of Music, our wildly popular 8-year-old event showcasing all sides of Minnesota's diverse local music scene, was canceled for lack of sponsorship just weeks before the renovation announce. Riemenschneider obliges, and further points out just how relatively small the cost of putting on the free daylong festival was compared with a $40m outlay for a lobby expansion.

Now, as commentators tend to do, Riemenschneider chose to oversimplify and distort some important stuff for the purposes of making his point. Just for instance, his decision to blithely dismiss our PR staff's assertion that the renovation money wouldn't have been available to fund the Day of Music (or anything else program-related, for that matter) is typical of the willful ignorance arts journalists tend to apply when writing about the business side of the cultural world. His bizarre claim that our entire week of annual (and free) July 4th concerts in towns like Excelsior and Hudson somehow don't count as free concerts played in the Twin Cities metro is also a head-scratcher.

But Riemenschneider's larger point about the importance of events like the Day of Music is unquestionably solid. Yes, the Day really wasn't particularly focused on classical music (though the orchestra's centerpiece concert has always been packed to the gills with a thrillingly diverse audience,) and you could make an argument that, in times as fiscally terrifying as these, we have no business putting on expensive shows that have little to do with our core mission. But the reality is that, in a city with the kind of music scene that Minneapolis/St. Paul proudly sports, no presenting organization can pretend that we don't have a responsibility to reach out to anyone and everyone who supports live music in our community.

Riemenschneider sums things up fairly, if pointedly:

"Let the rich philanthropists putting up most of the renovation money get their cushier seats; that's fine. But at least a small fraction of that money would be better spent on more free or inexpensive programming, as would a good chunk of whatever the state puts up (which has yet to be decided by the Legislature and presidential cand, er, governor)

"Without the Day of Music and events like it -- which bring in the young and diverse crowds sorely missing at Orchestra Hall -- those cushier seats might not have anybody in them in decades to come."

Or to put it another way, our orchestra garners the level of support it does not just because there's a large contingent of Beethoven fans in Minnesota. It's because Minnesotans support arts, culture, and music of all kinds at a level that puts most larger American cities to shame. And while we might be the biggest arts gorilla in town, our long-term fate is inextricably bound up with the health of that vital cultural scene that so many here have been supporting all their lives.

Let me be clear: I understand fully why the Day of Music got canceled this year, and I actually believe it was the right call. Corporate support for the event went from generous to nonexistent at the exact same moment that we (and every other orchestra in the US) were hit by a tsunami of financial woe. The #1 goal has to be to stop the bleeding and stabilize the organization, and that means some tough calls have to be made, and those calls are going to make some people upset.

But I hope that, when the dust finally clears and the economy stops shifting under our collective feet every few minutes, people like Chris Riemenschneider are still there to remind us that we owe one to Minnesota's music scene, and that it's time to pay up.