“ ‘You cannot become great if you’re not willing to sacrifice,’ Maya Angelou told the audience at Music Hall here on Friday evening, an hour before she took the stage as the narrator in Copland’s stirring ‘Lincoln Portrait,’ ” writes Zachary Woolfe in Sunday’s (11/10) New York Times. “It was a sentiment that had particular resonance for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, which had invited Ms. Angelou to take part in the French conductor Louis Langrée’s inaugural concerts as the venerable ensemble’s 13th music director…. This is certainly an organization that has known greatness since its founding in 1895.… But the orchestra has also come to know sacrifice.… Trey Devey, who became the orchestra’s president early in 2009, finessed a 15 percent across-the-board budget cut, including wage concessions. This discreet move toward stability persuaded Louise Dieterle Nippert, a Procter & Gamble heiress, to create an $85 million fund that essentially pays for the Cincinnati Opera and Cincinnati Ballet … to hire the orchestra as their house band.… Mr. Langrée has thrown himself into life with the orchestra; buying a home in the city, as he has, is no longer a guarantee for globe-trotting music directors.… His next program, featuring Mozart and Tchaikovsky is part of the orchestra’s One City, One Symphony initiative, a series of listening parties and outreach by the players and staff.”
Posted November 11, 2013
