San Diego Spotlight : Musicians Ponder Decline of Interest in the Arts

New members of the San Diego Symphony bring a curious mixture of optimism about the orchestra’s musical possibilities and apprehension about the precarious state of performing arts organizations in the current cultural climate. Clarinetist Sheryl Renk and flutist James Walker, two San Francisco Bay Area musicians who joined the orchestra during the summer season, pondered these dualities over lunch after a summer pops rehearsal this week.

“The respect this orchestra has from other musicians is enormous,” Walker observed, “not only because of what they went through a few years ago, but also because of the quality of the musicians, especially the wind section.”

Walker, the San Diego Symphony’s new second-chair flutist, spent the last 10 years of his career playing with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, a post he left with few regrets.

“I also the played with the ballet orchestra,” Walker said. “I’m glad to get back on the stage, because pit work is very

demoralizing as a steady diet. You don’t get the respect for the work you do; people tend to forget you’re even there.”

Choosing to leave San Francisco to work in Southern California may be the cardinal Bay Area heresy, but not from Walker’s point of view.

“I’m not a San Francisco fanatic or booster,” Walker said. “The city doesn’t live up to its reputation musically, although it has a great cultural history. Certainly the San Francisco Symphony has come a long way. But I find a lot of the city is resting on its past.”

Renk, a free-lance musician who played several seasons with the San Francisco Symphony as acting principal clarinet, was elated to land another first clarinet position in California. Her husband plays with the Sacramento Symphony, and they plan to commute between the two cities during Renk’s year-long stint as the San Diego Symphony’s acting principal clarinet. (Incumbent first-chair clarinetist David Peck has taken a year’s leave of absence back in Houston.)

When Renk was not performing with the San Francisco Symphony, she played with a number of regional orchestras in Northern California, including the Modesto Symphony and the Sacramento Symphony.

“I’m concerned about the future of symphony orchestras in this country. Not the top 10, the big ones in the major cities, their place is secure. But for the rest, I think it is a sad situation. People are losing respect for the arts in general. Unlike Europe, our culture these days is MTV and going to rock concerts.”

“Everyone’s concentration span has gotten really short,” Walker interjected.

“I see this even in the TV commercials,” Renk said. “They’re not just a single scene, but a rapid succession of images. Maybe that explains why people can’t stand to sit through a two-hour concert. They squirm; they can’t stand the concentration. It’s disturbing.”

Neither Walker nor Renk claimed to have the panacea to the problem that dogs most symphony managers and board members. But they were quick to plug the symphony when an eavesdropping couple at an adjacent table asked them where they performed.

After inviting the couple to attend a symphony concert, Renk observed with a hopeful tone, “Maybe we’ve just added two new patrons. There’s really no excuse for this orchestra not to have a good future. We’re far enough from Los Angeles and the L.A. Philharmonic, and there’s nothing else below us.”

Renk compared San Diego’s comfortable distance from Los Angeles to Oakland’s fateful proximity to San Francisco, arguably one of the significant factors in the demise of the Oakland Symphony.

“The Oakland Symphony didn’t stand a chance when people could travel a mere 20 minutes to hear the San Francisco Symphony.”

Chamber Orchestra six-pack. Under the baton of music director Donald Barra, the San Diego Chamber Orchestra will open its six-concert 1991-92 season Oct. 28 with violinists Ani and Ida Kavafian. The noted sister duo will play Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante in E-flat Major. On Nov. 25, trumpeter Rolf Smedvig, a frequent guest with Barra’s orchestra, will be the orchestra’s featured soloist.

Violinist Robert McDuffie will solo in Bernstein’s “Serenades” on the Jan. 27 program, and San Diego civic organist Robert Plimpton will be featured in the Poulenc Organ Concerto and Howard Hanson’s Concerto for Organ, Strings, and Harp on Feb. 17. Dennis Michel and Peggy Michel will perform Vivaldi’s Concerto for Bassoon and Oboe in G Major in the March 23 concert, and the ubiquitous Gustavo Romero returns to solo in the May 4 concert. With the exception of the Feb. 17 concert, which will be given at St. James Episcopal Church, La Jolla, the San Diego Chamber Orchestra concerts will be performed in Sherwood Auditorium, La Jolla.

Running for the symphony. The San Diego Symphony’s annual Quarternote Classic benefit run returns to Balboa Park Sunday at 6:30 a.m. Both the 10K run and the 2-mile stride commence at 7:30 a.m. Orchestra members will serenade the participants en route, and the entire orchestra will play a concert at the organ pavilion at 9:30 a.m. Entry fee for all events is $18.