Back in the first part of 19th century Mendelssohn began to conduct in his 20's, and Liszt and Schumann in ther 30's. Major groups were run by 40 year olds. Since people died younger in those days, one did not have to spend as long schmoozing, making connections and so forth. Right now we have had a wide chasm of major posts open up. It is clear that the requirements that various factions have demanded for conductors - primarily that they be politically correct with regard to playing hackademic music and that they be able to raise dump trucks full of money - have narrowed the field below the number of posts available. Gone are the days when what mattered was conducting. Being a music director is much closer to being the satrap for a distant empire that cares more about the flag than the state of culture. Hence we will get some old men appointed, and a few young men who have seen more summers than Mozart, Schumann, or Chopin. There will be general rejoicing in how progressive we. Every age needs its illusions, ours is that our artistic establishment is one bit different from the artistic establishment of 1890. Because there is no hope that anyone like me would recieve such a post, or even have their envelop opened, this program for the reform of the Boston Symphony Orchestra is meant to please no one but myself. A symphony orchestra of the size of the BSO must be able to reach beyond any faction of music, it must be a center of activity. 1. A reorganisation of the concert season. Three new concert series would be created. The first would be a series devoted to Historically Informed Performance, it would use methods, instruments and idioms of the time period of the pieces, the concert program would be modelled on those of the time period - overtime be damned. When possible it would be done in the dress of the period as well. This series would cover from the baroque to the early 20th century. Specialists would be invited as soloists. The second would be an unmixed series devoted to teh avant-garde. Nothing more accessible than Scheonberg's Pierrot Luniare would be played. The first year would be anchored in a complete cycle of the Carter Concerti and Ives polyrhythmic work - highlighting the interconnections which show the development of thought from Ives to Carter. Also on the programs would be Varese, Stockhausen, Boulez, Cage, Ruggles and orchestrations of Nancarrow. The hardest of the hard core without any other works. Enough rehearsal time would be scheduled so that the results are not second cousin to a drunken sight reading party. A "beginners" concert series. The other concert series would be centered around more mainstream repertory. 2. Change in priorities. The music director would receive a salary of 200,000 dollars, and would take no other positions. The money otherwise spent on salaries and perks would go to commissions. These commissions would be premiered in two concert programs at the end of the year. I would personally knock their heads together until Micheal Strauss and Bradley Pennington buried their personal differences and agreed to prepare 2 *fully staged* opera productions per year. Reassertion of Boston's place as the premiere Russian/French tradition orchestra in the US. A complete survey of Debussy's music, Ravel's music and the associated composers of the turn of the century Franco-Iberian schools - Dukas, Bizet. Bring this forward to include Villa Lobos and Piazolla. A more agressive touring schedule. Form a private label to issue performances of the BSO from the archives, doing whatever it took to get the musician's union to agree to it. Make music videos specifically to promote the BSO An annual waltz/tango Ball. 3. Change Tanglewood (BSO's summer festival) Two new, and one old - A festival of young conductors. Condutors under the age of 30 would be invited to conduct programs at Tanglewood. A major cycle per year. Mahler symphonies the first year, Schostakovich the second. Return of the Beethoven festival. The contemporary music festival would play no work older than a decade. 4. Cross cultural works This would include joint ventures with the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and also theatre groups to present plays with the incidental music as written for them. Peer Gynt and Egmont come instantly to mind. Stirling S Newberry [log in to unmask]