Inglewood Philharmonic Seeks Broader Audience : Orchestra Asks: Is Anyone Listening?

The Inglewood Philharmonic is an orchestra in search of an audience.

“I like to say we’re trying to bring culture to a sports-oriented community,” said music director Leroy E. Hurte.

In a city where the Forum, Lakers, Kings and Hollywood Park are bigger names than Beethoven and Brahms, the Philharmonic usually plays to a few hundred people.

“We should be able to draw 2,000 people to a concert, but we’re getting 500,” said Hurte, who plans four or five concerts this season.

Unlike most orchestras, the Inglewood Philharmonic’s main problem is not money. It has several corporate sponsors and the city supports the orchestra to the tune of $5,000 a year.

“The leadership of the city is always proud we have a philharmonic for a city of our size,” said Norman Cravens, deputy city manager.

The Philharmonic, which sometimes plays for city functions, also is aided by the city with its advertising and publicity, although it is not an official city organization. Mayor Edward Vincent is honorary chairman of the orchestra’s advisory board.

To win audiences in Inglewood and neighboring communities, Hurte takes his orchestra to students every spring with a concert at Morningside or Inglewood high school.

“They’re exposed to Michael Jackson and they should be exposed to the other side of music,” he said.

He also programs works by black composers, in the belief that if residents of the predominantly minority community are going to be drawn to symphonic music, they have to realize that it--like blues, jazz and pop--is their music, too.

“We are educating people to the fact that it is a cultural thing, an enriching thing,” he said.

One of Hurte’s favorite black composers is the late William Grant Still, whom he knew.

“His music compares favorably with any other composer,” said Hurte. He said that Still’s best-known work is “Afro-American Symphony,” which was written in 1930 and has blues themes.

The Inglewood Philharmonic also has performed a cello concerto by James McCullough, a contemporary black composer whose music, Hurte said, is modern and challenging.

“I want to educate the audience to all types of music,” said Hurte, acknowledging that even some members of his board--accustomed to the more traditional works that dominate the orchestra’s program--did not much like the McCullough piece.

This year’s season, which Hurte said has a budget of $35,000 to $45,000, began with a black-tie 40th anniversary gala Sept. 27 at the Airport Park Hotel. The evening included a supper and was designed to romance potential donors, Hurte said. It already has produced some results, he said, with Rockwell International Corp. donating $500.

Date at Pavilion

The remainder of the season has some firm dates and a couple of tentative engagements, including one at the Los Angeles Music Center’s Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, where the orchestra played in 1985.

The annual Afro-American Heritage concert will be held Feb. 21 at the Inglewood High School auditorium--its home base--and the orchestra will present Handel’s “Messiah” on Easter Sunday at the First Church of God in Inglewood.

A concert is planned for May 28, co-sponsored by the Tamarind Avenue Seventh-day Adventist Church in Compton, where Hurte is choir director. It will be held at the church, or at the Music Center if a particular star--Hurte will not say who--is signed. There will be an additional concert this season if a major sponsor--again, Hurte will not say who--underwrites it.

Several people credit Hurte with keeping the Inglewood Philharmonic going. “He really tries,” said Councilwoman Ann Wilk, who recently ended eight years on the board. “I give him an A for effort.”

“He is good at speaking to people, getting support,” said Patrick Morgan, the orchestra’s co-concertmaster, the person who helps the conductor and tunes the orchestra before a concert.

Personal Fund Raising

Even though association board members are chosen for, among other things, their fund-raising skills, Hurte said he personally raises “about $15,000 or $20,000” through contacts with community organizations, such as the Rotary Club, and corporations.

“I call and I send letters,” Hurte said.

The present 65-member Inglewood Philharmonic, a predominantly minority amalgam made up partly of union professionals and partly of experienced amateurs, is the orchestra’s second incarnation.

The original orchestra was founded in 1948 by Ernest Gebert, a European conductor. Despite the pessimism of civic leaders, Gebert launched a 10-concert season and the orchestra flourished for two decades, drawing such guest soloists as soprano Marni Nixon and piccoloist Louise di Tullio and guest conductors including Mehli Mehta, John Green, Henri Temianka and Andre Previn, now music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra.

Some in Inglewood remember the old orchestra, including Wilk, a resident since 1950. She said it was a solid part of the community: “A lot of the top Inglewood people were involved on the board.”

Struggling Group

However, William Goedike, who was Inglewood’s mayor between 1963 and 1971, recalled that the orchestra always had to work hard to stay afloat.

“It did well for a couple of years and then it struggled,” he said. “There was constant fund raising and it never sold out.”

Wilk and Hurte both said that when whites began leaving Inglewood, support and money for the orchestra went with them. “It just could not hold together,” Wilk said.

In the 1960s and ‘70s, Inglewood changed from a predominantly white city to one in which minorities were the majority. In 1960, 96.1% of the population was white, according to the U. S. Census Bureau. By 1970, the white population had declined to 76.8%, and 10 years later whites were 20.8% of the population.

The orchestra played its last concert in 1969, remaining silent until Hurte’s first appearance at the podium in 1981.

‘Sign of the Times’

Goedike said the orchestra’s demise involved not only Inglewood’s ethnic change but the general social unrest of the 1960s, a period when public support for the arts declined in many cities. “It was a sign of the times,” he said.

In 1972, people who remembered the old Philharmonic decided to try to get it going again and asked Hurte to do the job. During the 1960s, the Oklahoma-born Hurte, whose musical background includes training at USC and the Juilliard School of Music, had conducted the Angel City Symphony of Los Angeles.

It was nine years before he took up his baton in front of the new orchestra. It took that much time, he said, to build a new board, get volunteers and find enough money to get things going again.

Northrop Corp. was a major supporter, putting up $8,000. Arco helped with $3,000 and Pacific Telephone was another supporter.

That first Inglewood Philharmonic concert in 12 years drew a cautious review from Times music reviewer Daniel Cariaga on Oct. 27, 1981.

Nervous But Respectable

“It is too early, of course, to predict what level of achievement the reorganized ensemble will eventually find,” he wrote. But, he said, “it began its new life nervously but respectably.”

Nearly four years later, The Times reviewed another Inglewood Philharmonic concert--with William Warfield as vocal soloist--which reviewer Chris Pasles called uneven, ranging from well-rehearsed to sprawling and barely cohesive.

Hurte said the orchestra’s quality has improved as it has been able to change from a pick-up group of players who come in for individual concerts to one with a core of principal musicians who play together for an entire season.

Some players give the orchestra high marks for its performances but say that lack of rehearsal time--budget constraints limit members to five hours in two sessions--can detract from a polished performance. This is particularly true with new or difficult music.

“It’s kind of tough sometimes,” said Luline Dotson, a violinist with the orchestra for three years. “Three (rehearsals) would be a good number.” That extra rehearsal, she said, would be a time to “polish, working out the minor bugs.”

Mark of Professionalism

She said the orchestra tries to work out passages “where there are glaring errors.” But sometimes pieces have been played in concert without a rehearsal: “The musicians don’t fall apart. They’re professionals.”

Jack Schoengarth, a cellist with the orchestra who has played with the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, said the Inglewood Philharmonic is “above average for a community-type orchestra,” but he, too, said there are not enough rehearsals.

“The musicianship runs all the way from freshly out of college people to people who are connected with major orchestras, including the Pacific Symphony, Glendale (and) Pasadena (symphonies),” he said.

Some of the musicians characterize Hurte as a traditional conductor who has a rapport with his players.

“He is very much in earnest, very conscientious,” said Constance Kelly, who has been first cellist since 1981.

Traditional Interpretations

Co-concertmaster Morgan said Hurte’s interpretations of standard works are “very traditional” and said the conductor handles new music well.

“He takes more time with it because it is new,” Morgan said. “He is good at shaping the interpretation of new music because he really tries to do exactly what the composer wants.”

Dotson said Hurte is “one of the nicest” conductors she has worked with. “I don’t sweat bullets when I go to rehearsal,” she said. “It can be enjoyable and also challenging.”

While it may be difficult to draw large audiences, Morgan says the people who do come are very receptive: “They give us standing ovations.”