Life goes on somehow

As a new season is soon to be upon us, I am reflecting on this year 2010 and remembering the great personalities that have left us, people that meant a great deal to me and the music world in general.

Ernest Fleischmann died in June. He was one of the true giants of our classical music business. He has been eulogized by some of the best music chroniclers of our time. When I first came to Orange County, I received an angry phone call from him threatening to sue the Philharmonic Society if we persisted in using that name in L.A. Times advertising because it confused his LA Philharmonic patrons. We had recently changed our name from the Orange County Philharmonic Society to the Philharmonic Society of Orange County (Philharmonic Society for short). I responded saying that being sued by the LA Philharmonic over this would be the greatest piece of publicity imaginable for us. No matter how high the attorney fees, they would never surpass that amount we would have to pay a public relations firm to achieve the same amount of notoriety. He laughed and we became fast friends from that time forward.

Music critic Alan Rich was a one of a kind. When we would occasionally stick our neck out, he was there for us. Sometimes, he stood alone with us. He was a passionate writer, not always happy with what he heard in the concert hall.

A number of years ago, Mitch Miller and I had a huge squabble over the number of pops concerts he was to conduct the Rochester Philharmonic for which I was president. He was about to turn 80 at the time, and I was looking to the future at a time when I thought he might be ending his career. What a miscalculation! He just passed away, a year short of his 100^th birthday.

I was very saddened to learn of the death of Joan Murray in Chattanooga, Tennessee. She was president of the Symphony and Opera Association when I was in my first stint there as an executive director. Joan was absolutely the most committed volunteer that I have yet to encounter. She was involved in everything and taught me a great deal from our hundreds of conversations.

Life goes on somehow. The music will never stop as long as we can all pick up the fallen harnesses left by these magnificent people and trudge onward. They did the same for us.