I say it partially with tongue in cheek but I actually mean it when I say adult White people are hard to educate because they tend to nurse a cultural (or should I be brave and bold and say racial) bias that simple logic cannot easily penetrate, which is why I am both astounded and pleased to find out that the Springfield Symphony Orchestra will be performing the “Audacity of Hope: Celebrating Martin Luther King Jr.” at Symphony Hall on January 14, 2023.
It is about time!
Don’t get me wrong. The bias that I refer to is a European bias…a White European bias that promotes the silly notion that the phrase “classical music” applies solely to European composers from the past…Bach, Beethoven, Vivaldi, and, of course, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Wilhelm Richard Wagner and many others who I have never taken the time to ponder with any level of seriousness because none of their music impressed me. And it still doesn’t.
Yet, I have good White friends with whom I have had long discussions about the music that so impresses them. One good friend gave me a Mozart disc because Mozart was his favorite. I listened to that disc off and on for a year. While on vacation, I visited a theatre in Prague in the Czech Republic and a three-story Mozart Museum in one of his early homes in an effort to get a better feel for the man and his music. It didn’t help.
My wife and I subscribed to a Springfield Symphony Orchestra package for several years in a row and we still do. I can’t speak for my wife but I really wanted to give this music a shot. I wanted to understand what made White people love it so much. And, if possible, learn to like it, which turned out to be unlikely because I couldn’t feel it. After one concert, I ran into another White friend who asked me, “Did you like it?” I was blunt. I told him, “I appreciated it, but I didn’t like it.”
I’ve had many discussions with the two White friends I mention herein about “classical music,” and with others including members of the Mass Humanities board that I served on for a brief period. There is no question in my mind that to all of these White folks, my attitude toward their classics was pure heresy, which didn’t bother me. I was getting too much pleasure out of shaking them up, trying, to no avail, to educate them about why their big city symphony orchestras (Springfield included) were going bankrupt.
I never expected them to get the message because, in my experience, adult White folks with power (no matter how much or how little) are too hard to educate. They’re stuck in their belief boxes that make them feel that they know the answers to everything and the rest of us are mere “barbarians.” It’s the same attitude that destroyed the Roman empire centuries ago and is bringing symphonies across the country to their knees because of their rigidity and failure to adjust to a changing demographic environment, which is why I am so pleased that Point of View – The African American Point of View – has been so instrumental in influencing the Springfield Symphony Orchestra to embrace the future.
And I give full credit to one of our more prolific writers, Magdalena Gómez, Springfield’s Poet Laureate, who will be making a spoken word presentation at the January 14th Springfield Symphony Hall concert, which will be led by Kevin Scott, an African American composer and conductor, a native New Yorker who Magdalena introduced to Springfield through an article in Point of View.
My measure of Magdalena Gómez has always been that she is a complex person, an artist to the core, a genuine, sharing person who reaches out to and promotes other artist with uncommon humility. She is a Point of View star and one of the few writers who has been given the liberty to use as much space and as many words as she chooses to write her column.
The editor and I made it a point of honor to be present several years ago when Mayor Domenic Sarno declared Magdalena Springfield’s Poet Laureate. She earned the honor many times over and we are proud to know that she has used our paper to help open the eyes of some difficult-to-educate White folks to possibilities in the world of artistic expression that might well guarantee the future survival of the Springfield Symphony Orchestra.
I use the word “might” with extreme caution. Some time back, the editor and I met with Paul Lambert, the new interim Executive Director of the Springfield Symphony Orchestra. It was a candid meeting that lasted long enough for me to conclude that he might be different, mostly because he seemed to know more about basketball than music. I saw that as a plus. It suggested to me that he might just loosen up the rigidity that was killing the Symphony.
But even so, my editor walked away impressed but I remained skeptical. Long before Lambert’s appointment, I had already communicated with another White friend on the Symphony board who wanted to know the name of the person in our article and how to contact him. I suggested to him that he should call Magdalena Gómez whose professional relationship with Kevin Scott might help in any future discussions. He dusted me off on that latter suggestion and told me he would contact Scott and I could call Magdalena, which I did not do and never would have done because I would have considered it an insult to her from me.
And my conclusion was that if this hard-to-educate adult White man didn’t understand the value of cementing such a connection, nothing I said would matter. And I let it go at that.
Of course, I was fully aware that the Symphony board was in full combat with the Symphony musicians and the board was not faring too well and that my White friend was mostly concerned with the board’s need to gain some traction since they had let their conductor go and that the popular conductor seemed to be in sympathy with the musicians and the musicians seemed to be about to start their own competing symphony. It was a mess! And may still be. I felt for my White friend, who is a fine person, but I felt no different about how hard it is to educate adult White people than when I walked out of the meeting with Paul Lambert.
I was unimpressed.
Fast forward to today: It appears that my editor was partially right and I was partially wrong. It is very possible that Paul Lambert may be the first White person connected to the Springfield Symphony Orchestra who finally “gets it.” The future of the Springfield Symphony Orchestra is not in “rigidity” but in “change.” Real change.
I will not presume to know who set it up, but I now know a meeting took place between Paul Lambert, Kevin Scott and Magdalena Gómez. I know Magdalena Gómez. And I can tell you with certainty that she didn’t hold her tongue. Take my word for it, Paul Lambert got an ear full just as I am certain that he listened and he heard from both Magdalena and Kevin Scott. I presume that Lambert was educated which is why we now have “Audacity of Hope: Celebrating Martin Luther King, Jr.” at Symphony Hall on January 14, 2022 directed by Kevin Scott with a Spoken Word with musical backup by none other than our own local jewel, Magdalena Gómez.
It could be a “one off” or it could be a beginning. We’ll see. One thing is certain. There will not be a successful Springfield Symphony Orchestra without the substantial participation of Black and Brown people and other people of color. And of this I can also assure you: We will not be attracted to “real” classical music by gimmicks such as the rock star programs that in the past, attracted Black audiences for the night but for no longer.
The attraction will come from an expansion of “their” definition of classical music to include more than White European music and White composers and White conductors and White board members and mostly all White audiences.
I was reminded by one of my White friends that Springfield once had a Black Symphony Orchestra leader. Well, it didn’t take me but a quick second to point out that everything about the symphony remained White except for the conductor who just happened to be Black. Most Black folks don’t even know he existed. And, in fact, for their artistic inclinations, he didn’t exist. And White folks didn’t intend for him to exist outside of their box.
Kevin Scott is a different genre. He’s Black to the core. And he has mastered the entire gamut of classical music including the Black masters, who have been historically ignored by White folks who control the money and the boards. And he is widely accomplished and well enough known to be heard for more than one Martin Luther King, Jr. birthday concert. So, the real test of Paul Lambert is what he does from here to assure that Scott and other Black masters are made permanent parts of the Springfield Symphony Orchestra. We are watching.
I give Paul Lambert credit for one thing above all. He inspired me with his article, that is the subject of our front-page, to write this article. I normally do not waste my time trying to convince “powerful” White people that they are misguided. In my experience, they are too zeroed into themselves. So, this article is primarily written to encourage Paul and other White folks like him to keep going. It’s looking good.
But we’re not yet convinced. Magdalena Gómez is a national treasure. She deserves more than fleeting respect. She should be a major and ongoing part of the Springfield Symphony Orchestra and its future. She should not be a short-term use for the benefit of a short-sighted growth strategy for White folks. Rather, she should be at the heart of the strategy for long-term growth and expansion that will assure the Springfield Symphony Orchestra’s long-term survival that can only come through legitimate diversification with which she is well-positioned to assist.
I can only repeat that White people are hard to educate. I told Paul Lambert at our earlier meeting how pleased I was that Andrew Cade was appointed to the Symphony board after he told me about a White member who had been appointed but said nothing about Andrew Cade. His failure to mention Andrew Cade during our conversation raised my suspicions about him. I had to wonder if he was just another White man trying to exploit what White folks perceive as divisions within the Black community or whether he was just forgetful or clever or unaware that Black folks do their homework too.
I happen to like Andrew Cade. He is an honest man who is committed to the arts and, more importantly, to his family and values that are more prevalent in the Black community than White folks tend to recognize. And he is strong. He is a strong Black man whose presence sometimes gets muffled by the fact that he is employed at the Urban League of Springfield in a significant role.
I have a different perspective on the Urban League than a lot of Black people who criticize it. It is doing exactly what it was established to do when it was enabled by the White business community many decades ago. It was never a civil rights organization in the deepest meaning of the words. It was meant as a bridge of sorts between the White business community and the Black community. It was not meant for change but for stability. And it is well financed and will continue to be well financed into the future and there is no local politician who can change that, White or Black.
And, from my observation, Andrew Cade is doing all he can in the best interests of the Black and Brown communities (and the White community) which is why I wondered why, in our meeting, Paul Lambert mentioned the new White board member and didn’t mention Andrew Cade until I brought him up. It made me suspicious.
All that to say that I’m watching the board. I’ve had it with White people dividing the Black community for their own benefit and to the detriment of the Black community.
I honestly don’t think that Paul Lambert fits into that category. I’ll continue to watch what he does. But, if Domenic Sarno is featured on stage with Kevin Scott and Magdalena Gómez as a political gambit, it will tell me everything I need to know about Paul Lambert and I will probably walk out. ■