At the Philharmonic Society’s opening concert on October 27 we are honoring the volunteers of the Society’s Philharmonic Committees. These wonderful people raise the money, organize and implement the 1,400 or so youth programs we present each season. They have been doing this a long time. The kids who attend our concerts for fifth graders now are the grandkids of the children that attended our first fifth grade programs more than 50 years ago. It takes a while to build a culture. In the grand scheme of things, we are only just getting started. Many years ago, I was representing management in union musician negotiations at the Fort Worth Symphony. One of the musicians argued that we should be like the Boston Symphony and pay the players accordingly. I reflected on this and responded that while that was a noble idea, it takes a while to build a culture. When the Boston Symphony was founded in 1881, Fort Worth was a wild west town filled with gunslingers, card sharps and shady ladies, and at the point the city of Boston was already over 250 years old, Bach had not even been born yet. Like I said, it takes time to build a culture. It also takes obsessive passion and tremendous patience. Our volunteers have those traits and have a lot of fun keeping the tradition alive and growing. Bravissimo to them all!!! Check us out in 200 years!
I am from Fort Worth/Dallas area. Here is what I grew up with (don’t tell me I don’t know culture) This is from Billy Bob’s Texas, the largest honkytonk in the world:
There was an occasion when the Fort Worth Symphony played Copland’s Rodeo at Billy Bob’s Texas. It was a tough crowd – 125 bartenders and about as many fights among the 5,000 partially drunk regulars. You could almost hear us.
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