Phoenix Symphony pausing performances, programs is devastating

Beth Maloney

Submitted photo/Act One

I do not pretend that the finances are simple, or that one donation will resolve the problem. I do believe this deserves an urgent, public response from business leaders, philanthropists, elected officials and Phoenix residents. We need to understand what it would take to bring the musicians back and support a future the organization can depend on.”

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OPINION — I’ve watched thousands of children walk into Symphony Hall over the years. Before they hear a single note, the students look up and take in the environment. It’s the chandeliers. Then they take in the sheer size of the building. Then the plush seats they settle into, sometimes looking around at their classmates as if to ask, “We get to sit here?”

Phoenix needs to understand what we’re losing.

As executive director of Act One, I have watched this happen again and again. Over the years, tens of thousands of students have entered that hall through our field trips. I wish everyone concerned in the future of the Phoenix Symphony could stand in the lobby with me and watch these eager students arrive.

The Symphony’s decision to suspend performances and programs is devastating. I feel it as a mother who has taken her daughter to the symphony since she was a baby. I feel it as a teacher, and I feel it deeply as the leader of an organization now facing the task of finding other field trips for thousands of Valley students who were supposed to experience that music, that magic, this season.

At Act One, we are committed to the mission, so we will work to find other opportunities for our students. But on a Symphony field trip, students hear musicians explain their instruments and talk about how they got to that professional stage. They learn about years of practice, auditions, setbacks and persistence. Many musicians trace their own beginnings to an early encounter with the arts. Sitting in those seats, our students get to meet people whose lives were changed by an experience much like the one they are having at that moment.

That matters, especially for children whose families cannot afford concert tickets or private music lessons. After all, you can't be what you can't see.

Our relationship with the Phoenix Symphony has helped Act One make those experiences possible. Through our field trips and Culture Pass program, students and families have had access to something that might otherwise have been out of reach. Losing that partnership hurts.

It will hurt arts patrons and the musicians of tomorrow.

I was recently privileged to attend a rehearsal for opening weekend of the Phoenix Symphony. Paolo Bortolameolli, internationally acclaimed conductor and the symphony’s new music director, was practically dancing at the podium. I could see him asking for something from a section of the orchestra, and then hear the musicians bring it to life exactly as he intended.

I have attended concerts for years. At that rehearsal, I understood more deeply what a talented conductor can do and the difference they can make. It was a master class in communication. I left excited about what was ahead.

Now, I keep thinking about the people on that stage.

Five married couples work at the symphony. That means five households are facing the loss of two incomes at once. Some musicians just moved to Phoenix for the season. They uprooted their lives, and in some cases their families, to make music in Phoenix.

These are our neighbors. They have rent and mortgages, groceries to buy and children to care for. They made a commitment to this community. We need to think about our commitment to them.

There are financial consequences beyond the orchestra, too. The symphony pays rent to perform at Symphony Hall. Its audiences spend money downtown. Its partnerships help other organizations serve people in the community. The effects of this suspension will reach well beyond canceled concerts. It will have a ripple effect impacting those who might not even think about art and culture experiences.

Phoenix is the fifth-largest city in the country. I find it so sad that a city of our size is facing the suspension of a symphony this good.

I do not pretend that the finances are simple, or that one donation will resolve the problem. I do believe this deserves an urgent, public response from business leaders, philanthropists, elected officials and Phoenix residents. We need to understand what it would take to bring the musicians back and support a future the organization can depend on.

I want my daughter to keep hearing this orchestra. I want the students arriving on school buses to have their turn.

Somewhere on one of those field trips is a child who has never heard an orchestra play live. That child deserves to walk into Symphony Hall, look up at the chandeliers, settle into a seat and hear what happens next.

Beth Maloney, 2014 Arizona Teacher of the Year, is executive director of Act One, a statewide nonprofit that provides meaningful arts experiences for students. Please submit comments at yourvalley.net/letters or email them to azopinions@iniusa.org. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our Civility Guidelines.