To the list and to Bcc. I realize this is not about Iraq but it is about jobs. I decided to share it with the you for any comment you might want to submit. Everything is helpful.
Ray Evans Harrell ----- Original Message ----- EPILOGUE: To the company, A final note on this week past the premier concert. Thank you all again. If any of you wish to perform the songs or Ned Rorem on programs, recitals, etc. and would like to be included under the umbrella of the American Masters Arts Festival, just let us know. We would be happy to advertise you in the Festival buzz that will be going out throughout the season. You have proven your quality and we would be happy to sponsor or help you in any way we can. We will also have an occasional slot on a recital for some special Rorem song or songs that are rarely performed. They will be recorded so it could be a plus. Any way in which we can help any of you with your careers, putting your talent forward, etc. don't hesitate to ask. There have been many hand written notes from agents and performers that I simply do not have time to type into the data base yet. I'm working next week for the entire week with a Wotan from Vienna who has concerts to prepare and so I'm strapped for time. He's purchased the entire week. I also have to get down to work on the Florentine Symposium. We have the greatest Board of Advisors and an amazing management team to work with them on the problems of the arts in America. The demands on my meager mind with these experts are considerable so I can't keep up with some of the informational activities that I would like. Stephanie is in Knoxville for the week and doing office work via phone and internet. Should you wonder who the Board is, check out the last page of the program from Monday night. I'm sure you will be amazed as am I. We all want this to succeed. We have retained Susan L. Schulman as the publicity manager for the company for the rest of the season. We were beyond thrilled with her work on the concert. Following is a smattering of the e-mails that we have received. Some have been more than one so I only put in one. It will take some time for us to build momentum for Chamber Opera and American vocal music but this is the start. Note that some of the people from around the country have been following it as well as a publisher in the UK. Harvests begin with seeds. For those who believe that this is not the beginning consider that there were over 60,000 chamber opera houses in America in 1900. (estimate based on 1,300 documented houses in Iowa) Today there are less than 1,300 opera houses nationwide. (Opera America 2001) America graduated 6,952 singers in 1996 (Peterson Professional Guide to Performing Arts Programs) for less than 400 productions (Opera America 1996) and that is not counting the singers already in the marketplace. We will not rest until America has a Chamber Opera Center in every city of 100,000 or more in the US. A center with two "state of the art" theaters, a school and with an "in house repertory ensemble" and orchestra. Sound like a dream? It already exists in the nation's mega-churches in the cities. The opera facilities will be generic, uniform (like a virtuoso instrument) and able to share production software through common information software all across the nation. Their ensembles will be able to make a living, have families and minister to the artistic needs of their communities thus re-creating the original American artistic ideal that Charles Ives claimed was a "paradise" compared to the present "non-paradise." Still far fetched? Consider this, the UK has doubled their operatic output and opera houses over the past forty years while America has one more major house than they did when I was in high school in the 1950s. (Largely America has what Europe calls "Festival Houses" rather than full time work) Fifty percent of the opera houses of the UK are chamber opera local establis hments as I am advocating here. To a small island nation or to another nation the size of two Wisconsins (Germany) America is an artistic wasteland. As the British director who shared these statistics with me called it "a desert." That is unacceptable and we plan to change it. Audience testing: MCORE has for several years, with a couple of pop stars, used audience research to draw up our theories and test our assumptions. It works, we had a "hit" in the UK two years ago and another on the way this year. As for the Ned Rorem premier concert we deliberately invited the audience from all classes, ethnicities and segments in the society to this concert. Since the concert we have been polling each group. The conclusion? This is not art for the elite but art for all. The simple fact is that the maids, building workers and laborers with their children who came were as thrilled by Ned Rorem and the performance as the intelligentsia of the society. Both were given their tickets by invitation. (We also saved tickets for the buying public as well and they too responded by purchasing the expensive tickets that would bring them to meet this great composer.) After the concert they stood around for two hours in a terribly hot reception area where the air conditioning was malfunctioning just to be with, talk to and get their picture taken with America's greatest composer of vocal music. Not bad! The one cogent fact is that the intelligentsia can buy their tickets while the average working people cannot. That is why complex art is only supported by the wealthy. Its not that people like my parents and friends on the Indian reservation, don't want good music. They have it in their churches and they come to public concerts by the thousands, but they cannot afford the expensive tickets and their children don't get the exposure to great art as a result. I would add that I don't go to the elite activities much either for the very same reason. I put my money into our own productions and my own art like the October 27 concert. I don't have the money to spend paying the high prices that are demanded these days for tickets to art that belongs to and should develop the society for all of us! So I am committed to changing this. Just as MCORE's Gypsy Carmen at LaMama opened doors to different view of a despised minority and our Flamenco opera company proved that singers could and should act and dance, rather than resembling "giant battleships passing in the night", so will we return classical arts to the people from which I came. From the environment that gave America, Maria Tallchief, Moscelyn Larkin, Yvonne Chouteau, Rosella Hightower, Tsianina the Metropolitan Opera's Shanewis in the 1920s and today Louis Ballard the international composer known all over Europe but hardly known in America. (or by his colleagues although recently Ballard was given an entire concert of his music at the Beethoven Halle in Bonn) Or Burl Lane the great bassoonist in the Chicago Symphony and Mickey Mantle. All of them from one little corner of NE Oklahoma and not from the elite but from the common people who love art, music, dance and who consider it the property of all Americans. This may seem like bragging about my home state, but I could have made the same case for the fine musicians fromTennessee just from members of our own cast on Monday night! Our cast was not chosen from NYCity elites but was chosen by audition competition and was from all over the Eastern seaboard. But there WERE a lot from Tennessee. Art belongs to all Americans and if the best secular American art is available to the public and marketed, as well as other fine products, people will choose quality over the shallow. Ultimately people look for value and meaning in life. Monday night they found it in the music and in your performances of Ned Rorem. Anyone who does not understand that we all desire quality and a quality life, has never gone near the ghetto or an Indian reservation. I have done both and know all of these worlds. MCORE is committed to bringing quality secular artistic products to the people of America at prices that they can all afford and for the greater good of the future of American culture. Following are just a few of the comments by people who have enjoyed that product and others who share the same taste and goals. Enjoy. And read those reviews. You did that! Ray Evans Harrell PS: Anyone who would like to remain on the company e-mail list for audition updates, activities and general conversation about chamber opera, recitals and American music in particular should simply let us know at [EMAIL PROTECTED] and we will put you on the MCORE newsletter list. REH Dear Ray: Yes, the concert was spectacular. Fortunately for us that made up for all of the usual travel problems---we had very bump flights in both directions, but we survived!!!!! I sometimes think that if you and Stephanie could be cloned about 500 times that is about all that would be needed to establish the Network. I wonder if you have a really good microbiologist on your Board..... Back to the concert. I think it had to be the most rewarding night of Ned Rorem's life. Also it was a great surprise to hear from Albee. He is nothing like I had imagined. He almost sounded like I imagine myself to sound!!!!!.... I hope when I am a few years older I will be as sprightly as Ned and Albee. Florentine Symposium Member World expert in complexity and Interactive Management. Flew in from Florida for the concert. Congratulations to all of you and thanks for a very special evening -- it was an honor and a delight to be there. And nothing will ever equal the experience of seeing Ned's face as he heard his music so beautifully performed, and his joy at the audience's reception of it. Bravissimi! Florentine Symposium Member Biographer, Critic, Editor and singer in one of the cities finest church choirs. Ray, Thanks for sharing your brilliant letter with me. Although I'm not sophisticated enough to 'get' Rorem's music on my own, if you taught me, I'd surely enjoy him. The man sounds like a true hero. Someday someone will say the same about you. (if it hasn't already happened) Best to Stephanie. Florentine Symposium member who was out of the country. Retired Wall Street Banker and now spends his time flying around the world working on humanitarian issues. ray--a quick note from shanghai, whee I am at the moment, to tell you that you scored atriumpyh--what a great show, what fabulous singers, what amazing music! congratulations, and thank you Florentine Symposium member Author and Editor of the one of the Nation's most prestigious Business Reviews. Thank you so much for inviting me and my son. We enjoyed it so very much. We don't get an opportunity to see this very often. The music was beautiful. Houseworker NYCity Congratulations, Ray. Excellent! Kudos to you and Stephanie and everyone at MCORE. Glad to see this, finally. I've been holding my breath all week. MCORE supporter and Chamber Opera fan in Seattle What an exciting event - I knew it HAD to be wonderful! It's not where you're from that counts, it's what you do with what you are given and you have obviously done VERY well! I know you must be very pleased. If a person "from a reservation school" can make good, maybe there's hope for a young dancer, a budding Bio-Informaticist, and a talented artist (my 3 kiddos!) from Lubbock, TX! I am so happy for your success!! Congratulations! MCORE supporter and Chamber Opera fan in Lubbock, Texas Hello Ray, Just a note to thank you for allowing me to attend your wonderful Ned Rorem program last evening at Merkin. Very well thought out and representative of Ned's vocal output. The performers and performances were quite fine and including the wonderful tributes, added immensely........(business talk excluded) The Stan Tucker Vocal Ensemble was quite good. Certainly on the level of Gregg Smith with his wonderful ensemble. ........... Again, congratulations to you and all involved. Recording company CEO Hi-- Congrats to you all -- last night was a triumph for all concerned. I hope you are all pleased......... Again, congratulations to all of you. New York publicist Ray and Stephanie, Congratulations on a very successful evening..... It is so nice when the artists you admire live up to your expectations with their grace and talent. opera singer Dear Ray, I hope you are very pleased with last night's performance. It was delightful. - a real sampling of Rorem's oeuvre by wonderful singers. All my guests had a superb time. Rorem output is amazing, as are you for planning such a wonderful tribute..... Best and thanks, Florentine Symposium Member Author and arts specialist, writer for the NEA Congratulations! International Economist, Canada Moderator Futurework List on the Internet Well done! Publisher Handlo Music United Kingdom Ray, Mucho congrats on the reviews to you, Stephanie and the company !!!!! Florentine Symposium Member Former Comptroller for the world's largest foundation Hi Ray, Congratulations on your theatrical presentation. Noticed you have an upcoming concert with the EOS Orchestra. I am truly envious that you have access to these venues. I have the EOS orchestra's Telarc recording of Aaron Copland's "Celluloid Copland." I have collected filmmusic since I was 12 years old. Again, congratulations! All the best. With respect, Futurework list on the internet Ray, Add our congratulations to the list. Darryl downloaded the article so that we can send it to you two years from now--when you get worried about funding for the next project. Futurework list on the internet Ned Rorem called and expressed his deepest appreciation and feelings for both the performance and the performers. He asked me to convey his feelings and his thanks for everyone's efforts in the cause of American vocal music. REH _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://scribe.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
